The End

I've built a new website. It's really much better, and it's hosted by wordpress.

The address: www.janevashti.wordpress.com

So take a look and subscribe if you should so choose!

For now, I leave you with a parting gift:

Crikey: Day 9

A special thanks to Spoose for her fine contribution to this article. A stand up gal, and an sensational single parent!

It ran fourth in the daily email kids - which is French for nice one!

4. 'Race to the bottom': why our poorest pay the most tax

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes:

Australia’s poorest pay the highest effective marginal tax rates, leading to long-term work disincentives for welfare recipients, according to a brief released by The Australia Institute this week. The document, Removing poverty traps in the tax-transfer system, will be submitted to the federal government in the lead-up to a new tax summit to be held by mid-2011, revisiting the Henry Tax Review. The review highlighted the anomaly, as did the incoming government brief ("red book") handed to finance minister Penny Wong when she assumed the portfolio after the election. According the brief, there’s a whacking great list of benefits that taper simultaneously when someone receiving benefits re-enters the workforce. This can lead to an effective tax rate of up to 100% for some, which translates to absolutely no financial benefit in re-entering the workforce. Welfare Rights Centre director Maree O’Halloran says the system is stacked against low-income families in particular. "In the worst cases, an individual can face five different payments all tapering at once: Family Tax Benefit A, Family Tax Benefit B, Youth Allowance, Child Care Benefit, Public Housing. It’s like a house of cards, with the deck stacked against low-income families, unemployed people and secondary earners, usually women working casually," she told Crikey. A senior policy adviser at the Australian Council of Social Services, Peter Davidson, says if the structure tax system was changed, it would encourage more people on benefits to work: "The structure should be changed and extra work related expenses should be reduced. Income tests for Newstart Allowance should be reduced, and that overlapping of tapers should be removed." Single parent Susan Brown recently re-entered the workforce, and says she could never have afforded to work before her two girls reached school age. "I used to get $630 a fortnight now I get about $300 on top of which I have to pay for child care. If the girls weren’t in school, childcare would cost about $120 a day," she said. One of the most prominent poverty traps shown in the brief is that faced by public housing tenants, whose rent increases incrementally with their income. But O’Halloran says the disincentive to work starts long before welfare recipients actually take up tenancy. "The workforce disincentives embedded in our public housing policies require urgent attention. If you’ve been on a waiting list for public housing for years you become very fearful about jeopardising your place in the long queue," she said. And policy manager at the Community Housing Federation of Australia Eddy Bourke told Crikey the problem is compounded by a chronic shortage of accommodation: "There’s a race to the bottom, when the state is only able to allocate housing to the very most vulnerable people in the community. People just won’t work if they think their chances of getting a place will be affected." Catholic Social Services CEO Frank Quinlan says the problems created by the complicated tax-transfer system are not new, but that the report certainly highlights the stark disparity in effective tax rates faced by people on low incomes. This figure, first published in the Henry Review, shows the level of tax paid by welfare recipients as they enter the workforce. It’s based on the yearly private income of single income couple with two children. Source: Treasury, Australia’s future tax syxtem consultation paper, Chart 4.5, p.94 This graph shows the effective tax rate for a family earning $30,000-$40,000 per year is over 90% when tapering benefits and income tax are accounted for. This compares with the 35% paid by a family earning $70,000 per year. In response to the figures, the brief states: "It is relevant to ask why such an arbitrary pattern of effective marginal tax rates in the welfare system is tolerated when it is surely within the wit of policy makers to design system that claws back welfare entitlements and extracts tax in a smooth and consistent manner." The brief echoes changes to the interaction between the tax system and the welfare system called for by Treasury. Quinlan says while basic human dignity is being called for, there is also an economic imperative at stake. "Purely from an economic point of view it makes sense to improve the standard of living for Australia’s poorest people, and help them into the workforce, rather than deterring them from entering it," he said. But you could have read it first here...

Crikey: Day 7

Jane Vashti Ryan gets a scoop!

4. Our black health gap: less spent on primary aboriginal health

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes:

Spending on primary health care for indigenous Australians is significantly less per person than for the rest of the population, despite an 11-year gap in life expectancy. The Australian Medical Association says the new data shows mainstream primary health services are failing indigenous Australians, with services not delivering adequate care or value for money. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, commissioned by the federal government and released last Friday, shows primary health care spending for indigenous Australians is $327 per person in 2006-07 (the latest figures available), compared with $563 for non-indigenous Australians. It also shows spending on hospital care for indigenous Australians being treated for preventable diseases such as kidney and heart disease is as much as seven times higher that of non-indigenous Australians. AMA president Dr Andrew Pesce says the figures don’t come as a surprise. He told Crikey: "You would think there is equal access to these services for everybody and theoretically there is. But because of the lack of early access and health literacy in indigenous communities, you only see intervention when there is a crisis. "There’s a gap in service delivery that needs to be closed in order to close the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non indigenous people that currently stands at about 11 years." And the problem isn’t specific to remote communities. Dr Steve Hambleton, the AMA's Queensland-based vice president, says 75% of indigenous Australians live in regional and metro areas, yet they are failing to access primary health care services. Recently speaking to an urban GP, Hambleton said the GP super clinic planned for that area should be an Aboriginal medical service. The GP said there are no Aboriginal people there, therefore it would be unnecessary. “There are 4500 indigenous people living in that area, they just don’t go to the doctor," Dr Hambleton said. "For too long this issue has been under the carpet, but it’s out there, it’s obvious and we need to do something about it." A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Ageing says the numbers reflect the policy of the previous government, and that Labor has put in place new policies to target these problems: "New funding arrangements under the Indigenous Chronic Disease Package provides substantial additional funding to the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health and mainstream health sectors." The spokesperson also said non-admitted hospital health care for indigenous Australians was 2.2 times higher than non-indigenous people, suggesting not all primary health care delivery is included in the new numbers (read the complete departmental response to Crikey here). But policy manager at the Aboriginal Medical Service Alliance NT, Chips Mackinolty, says the most worrying figures show the level of spending for end-stage kidney disease. "The most startling figures are on renal disease where it’s absolutely clear that the greatest cost is in end-stage renal dialysis; 45% of total hospital spending for indigenous Australians goes to renal disease each year, usually dialysis," he told Crikey. Mackinolty said kidney disease is one of the most expensive conditions to treat in its end stages: "Dialysis and transplants go off the charts in terms of cost. The most cost-effective thing to do would be to put money in primary health care instead of hospitals." But mainstream primary health care services are failing to deliver the right care, according to Dr Hambleton: "Mainstream general practices are pretty scary places for many Aborigines, but when you see an Aboriginal person at the desk, that discomfort is alleviated. Every GP can improve the way they interact with indigenous clients, but the biggest bang for buck will come from community-controlled organisations." More Aboriginal community-controlled health services are on the agenda for medical groups, but the problem won’t be fixed with health service improvements alone, says Mackinolty. “Improvements in primary health care will only improve these numbers by about 30%. The other 70% comes down to social determinants of health -- things like employment, housing and education,” he said.

Crikey: Day 6

Today sees a new player on the scene of the Murray Darling Basin debate... An irrigation consultant who says half the water used for irrigation in Australia is going down the gurgler...

10. Farmers will survive, with more than a pinch of salt

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes:

Could changing irrigation methods in Australia save water, the agricultural sector and ultimately the Murray Darling Basin? “It can go a bloody long way towards it,” irrigation consultant Jeremy Cape told Crikey today. Only 30% of irrigators actually use an objective scheduling method to find out when to apply water. What does that mean? According to Cape, it means that while the debate rages over sustainable cuts to irrigation entitlements for farmers on the Murray Darling Basin, only about half of the irrigated water in Australia is used by Australia’s agricultural plants. The rest is down the gurgler. The alternative on offer is a standardised, water-efficient drip irrigation system, which allows the farmer to measure, within 5%, the amount of water being used. While the loss of water through wastage is contributing to the overall ill-health of the river system, it’s also causing massive hikes in salinity which isn’t just bad for the river system, and has serious repercussions for irrigators and dry-land farmers as well. Wentworth Group environmental engineer Tim Stubbs says water that drains below the root zone and into underground water tables draws the water -- and a lot of salt -- to the surface. "Australia’s landscape has a lot of salt in it. Because of damming and catchments we’re not getting flood planes and carbon moving, and we’re then getting massive build-ups of salt levels which makes the water salty," he explained. “Up in Queensland around the Burdekin catchment they’ve been irrigating for 20 years now, and they’re really starting to see the effects of salinity. Sugar cane production levels are dropping." Cane, who has worked in the irrigation sector for over 20 years, reckons the proposed water entitlement cuts could be easily met by farmers, and salinity levels could be much better managed if more efficient methods of irrigation were supported by the government. “In 1990 we had about 40 people employed in water usage efficiency by the NSW Department Agriculture. Now there are less than five. The support for extension staff who are working to support irrigators has virtually disappeared in the public sector,” he said. “There used to be a rural Water Use Efficiency in Queensland and this program no longer exists. It is possible to change methods of irrigation, meet those targets and maintain the health of the agriculture sector all at the same time.” Sean Hoobin is the fresh water policy manager from the World Wildlife Fund and agrees the cuts proposed must be met if the process is going to carry any real environmental weight. "There’s been a range of cuts recommended, and the ones being looked at by the government aren’t going to do the job. If we're going to do this we may as well do it properly," he said.

Crikey week two:

Bring it on.

That's false bravado by the way, although I do wear a red helmet most places...

Crikey: Day 5 Part II

20. Wine producers rue our dollar, and will students stay away?

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes:

As Australian Institute of Export director Peter Mace put it: "It’s not bloody good." The Australian dollar peaked at 99.2 US cents overnight, the highest it has been since the dollar was floated in 1983. And while Australian travellers are cheering, exporters and educators are bracing for significant fallout. Mace says the wine industry, the education sector and the manufacturing sector will all suffer if this hike is here to stay. "The Australian wine industry has little room to move on pricing with competition now coming from South America and South Africa, and manufacturing will suffer too. We’re a high-cost production country." But the real doozie, according to Mace, will be the fallout for the education sector, one of Australia’s biggest export industries: "With the rising dollar, foreign students have to make the call on whether to come to Australia or look else where." International student housing group International House director Elissa Jans is worried about the ramifications. "Last time the dollar peaked, we had feedback from overseas clients saying the rising value of the dollar really was a serious deterrent," she said. "Students are looking for a bargain when they come and study. Normally they look at the UK or the US but they come here because it’s cheap. When the dollar rises this high they might as well stay at home." Chief economist at the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Roger Donnelly agrees certain industries will be adversely affected, but points out that rising currency value is a response to a potentially overheating economy. "It’s a safety valve for inflation and the RBA would have to be taking sterner action if we had inflation," he said. The dollar has been boosted by strong unemployment figures and a weakening American dollar, but the threat of an international currency war looms large with fears that major economies are engaging in a "race to the bottom" in a bid to boost export growth. But you could have read it here first...

Crikey: Day 5

The Murray Darling Basin Plan will be released today. After covering the issue for yesterday's edition of Crikey, I wrote a post for Crikey environmental blog Rooted, covering the history, background and players involved in the battle for water.

The raging Murray-Darling debate: an overview

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes: The debate over how to allocate water from the Murray Darling Basin is raging once again.

The official Murray Darling Basin Plan is due to be released this afternoon and if you sit quietly and listen, you’ll hear environmentalists and farmers battling it out in Canberra, and on the banks of that vital river system.

Details of the plan were leaked yesterday, pointing to a big reduction in water entitlements for farmers, a fact which has drawn the ire of regional Australia in a spectacular fashion.

But what are the facts around these proposals? Is it a case of environmentalists making unrealistic demands at the expense of Australia’s all-important agricultural industry or are farmers just struggling to grasp the realities (and the environmental fall-out) of a century of irrigation?

Before the consultation process begins, here’s a quick overview of the facts, figures and key players in the war being waged for the Murray Darling Basin.

The Background

The Murray Darling Basin sits across four states — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It covers 14% of Australia — over a million square kilometres — generates $9 billion per year for the Australian economy and feeds 20 million people.

So that’s the good bit.

But in the last 100 years irrigation of the Murray Darling Basin has increased by 500%, which isn’t proving to be the most sustainable of methods. A combination of agricultural planting and irrigation has led to increased salinity, soil erosion, wide-spread blue-green algae blooms and reduced numbers in native wildlife.

The Players

The government:

When the Water Act 2007 came along, so did the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), which plays a central role in this story. The MDBA was given:

“…the functions and powers, including enforcement powers, needed to ensure that Basin water resources are managed in an integrated and sustainable way. The MDBA will oversee water planning considering the Basin as a whole, rather than state by state, for the first time.”

The primary task given to the MDBA was to create a Murray Darling Basin Plan, a plan that would unite pragmatism, good sense, scientific nous and a listening ear, in order to work out a solution to the problems facing the Basin and the farmers living off it.

Leaked details of the plan suggest the government will be calling for a reduction in irrigation of up to 37%. And not everyone is happy.

Farmers:

The Australian Farmers Federation (AFF) came out swinging in response to the leaked figures yesterday. CEO Ben Fargher told Crikey:

“We want to make sure that the numbers are a draft and that the consultation process is genuine because there’s absolutely no way these numbers can be final.”

And AFF President David Crombie said in a statement yesterday:

“Neither the MDBA nor the federal government has articulated a clear vision for the Basin – specifically, the social, economic and environmental outcomes the Basin Plan is seeking to achieve.

“For farmers, the Basin Plan isn’t an ‘agriculture versus the environment’ debate. It requires balanced considerations – between farm production, environmental needs and local community impacts.”

Cotton farmer Michael Eagan has also weighed in on the debate. His family has farmed the land around Warren in NSW since the early 1800s and he relies heavily on irrigation to turn a profit.

“It all comes down to stranded assets. If we can’t utilise the land we’ve developed for irrigation we’ll lose out,” he said.

“The direct human cost of reducing irrigation on farms is about one man for every thousand mega liters. Then there’s the multiplied effect of what isn’t produced – work in packing sheds and cotton gins.”

Environmentalists:

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s healthy rivers campaigner Dr Arlene Harriss-Buchan reckons reducing irrigation levels is the best way to restore balance. She told Crikey:

“In less than a century, water extraction from the Basin’s rivers has increased by 500 per cent. This is unsustainable and is driving an ecological crisis.”

The AFC are looking forward to a robust debate and extensive community consultations.

Pollies:

Minister for Water Tony Burke:

“…it is not a final plan, it’s a guide to a draft of the plan…”

Shadow Minister for Water Barnaby Joyce:

“Well, you won’t have an irrigation community if some of these numbers that are being bandied around at the moment go forward.”

Greens spokesperson on the Murray Darling Basin Senator Sarah Hanson-Young

“We’ve known for years that the system has been over-allocated, now it’s time to get the balance right.”

 But you could have read it here first...

Crikey: Day 4

And so, another day. Couple a media briefs and a coffee run. But, hark! A story what needs fetching!

I even spoke to a cotton farmer from Warren today...

4. Farmers anxious over Murray Darling water cuts
Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes:
Farmers in the Murray Darling Basin are sweating over the prospect of big cuts in water entitlements by as much as 37%. The details were leaked from the guide to the Murray Darling Basin plan, which will be officially released tomorrow by the Murray Darling Basin Authority. The release of the plan will signal the beginning of a detailed consultation process, but the community is already deeply divided over the issue. Australian Farmers’ Federation CEO Ben Fargher says a reduction in water entitlements of 27%-37% would be completely unsustainable for farming communities. "We’re concerned about these numbers. Those levels would have a devastating affect on the whole regional community. We’re really worried we’re not going to see balance," he told Crikey. "We want to make sure that the numbers are a draft and that the consultation process is genuine because there’s absolutely no way these numbers can be final." The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has taken a strong stance in favour of the proposed changes. ACF’s Healthy Rivers campaigner Dr Arlene Harris-Buchan says irrigation of the basin has increased by 500% in the past century. "We need to restore the balance between irrigation and the environment by putting more water back into the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin," she said, calling for the plan to address the river’s long-term health and include sustainable diversion limits. "All interested parties will have the opportunity to comment, improve, consolidate and add to the information underpinning the plan. This will be the time for making the proposal as good as it can be," she said. Cotton farmer Michael Egan has worked the land around Warren in NSW for 30 years. He's concerned about the proposed limits and says the flow-on effects cannot be underestimated. "The direct human cost of reducing irrigation on farms is about one man for every thousand mega litres," he told Crikey. "Then there’s the multiplied effect of what isn’t produced -- work in packing sheds and cotton gins." Egan says most farms are mortgaged, and there will be a direct correlation between financial loss and further irrigation limitations. "They’ve gone way too far towards the environment. The federal government’s already bought one or two thousand gigalitres, and we’re down to 18% limits on irrigation," he said. "With the drought just broken, we’re only just getting runs on the board this year, and now we’ve got this to deal with." You could have read it here first though...

Crikey: Day 3 Part II

In addition to publishing a news article on the welfare reform debat currently raging in Australia, Crikey also had a taste of Jane for one of their many blogs today.

Back in a Bit is a travel blog with contributors from all over the world. I wrote a yarn about a gal and her dog heading to Sorrento for a day trip...

A really-long-popping-out-for-a-beer trip

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes: I like to pop out for a quiet beer every now and then. Sometimes I head down to my local in the Dandenong Ranges (quietly nestled over Melbourne). Other times, I like to head further afield.

Some would call this a really-long-popping-out-for-a-beer trip. I call it a day trip, or: My Favourite Kind of Trip. No packing and no planning required. All you need for an excellent day trip is a spare eight hours. A dog and a long, dusty road also tend to add to the overall effect.

On Sunday, I took a day trip to Sorrento. Sorrento, for those of you unlucky enough not to already know, is a peachy little town, hanging just off the bum of the Mornington Peninsula.

Think sandstone, sunshine, seaside and (to ruin a perfectly good alliteration) bloody sensational fish and chips.

Directions: If you’re in Melbourne, you head out of town in a south-easterly direction, and just keep driving until your car starts to get wet.

Sunday (for those of you who support Collingwood, and didn’t get to see it) was the first real spring day of 2010. Think the smell of grass clippings, the sound of contented urban wildlife (no, not the neighbour’s kids) and bacon and eggs on the barbie.

I hopped up and knew at once that this was the perfect day for a really-long-popping-out-for-a-beer trip. So I scooped up my newly minted best-ever 1970s rock-ballads play list, grabbed the dog and a bottle of Cottee’s Coola cordial and jumped in the car. Windows went down, Creedence Clearwater crooned and we were off.

One of the things I love best about driving on the freeway is making friends with fellow travellers along the way. A wave here, a smile there, and the old freak out the kids in the back seat with ELO dance moves trick add greatly to my day trip enjoyment.

Once I arrived in Sorrento, that sleepy little nook, I headed straight for the newsagency, which sports not only a staggering number of romance novels, but also one of the gloomiest sales assistants I’ve yet to encounter (she was gloomy last year too).

I suppose catering to mountains of on-holidays bastards is not the best way to improve one’s countenance, though how she can be so consistently grumpy when surrounded by so many texts discussing throbbing members and swollen areolas I’ll never understand.

With a “Cheerio!” I tucked my weekend papers under my arm and set off for a coffee and a rollie at the famed Continental Hotel Restaurant, where the coffee is revolting, but the views are astounding. As you sit waiting for the charred remains of a soggy coffee bean to sip on, even the most melancholy coffee snob will find their thoughts turning to the benefits of a seaside existence as they gaze at the Sorrento pier snaking out into the ocean behind a row of pencil pines.

Next, it was down to the beach with one extremely happy pooch. Harry is my dog’s name. He’s a schnauzer-poodle cross who I refer to as a Poozer, though he is more universally called a Schnoodle. He has hair. Not fur. He’s like a leggy three-year old child who cannot ride a tricycle, and his passion for being near – but not in – the water is unparalleled.

As we approached the ocean, and my toes hit the sand, Harry looked at me, and I at him. Surrounded by day-tripping families and other much more cosmopolitan pooches than he, he was unwilling to venture into the water. His masculinity is somewhat compromised by a soaking, in fact, he comes to more closely resemble a rodent than a canine in no time. So we settled into little bum-nestled grooves in the hot sand and drank Cottee’s Coola while I read the business section, and Harry did the Sudoku.

Ah.
Perfect.

I was even wearing a red polka dot scarf in my hair.

We pushed on to the pub after soaking up sun and broadsheets for a couple of hours, for a hearty meal of fish and chips and a pint of larger and as I wiped my face with the back of hand and gave Harry the last of my chips I thought to myself – “By jeepers I love a good day trip. Hail the first day of Spring. And bring me another beer!”

You could have read it here first though...

Crikey: Day 3

Success!

Today heralds the dawn of a new, less sick, not-so-in-trouble-all-the-time era. 

While I was knocked back by Triple J program Hack yesterday (in conjunction with a smack down from a certain conservative columnist and falling in poop while I was walking my dog), I was today published in Crikey. (Right after I fetched the coffee.)

10. Call off the razor gang and fix the safety net: welfare groups

Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan writes:

Treasury’s brief to the incoming government calls for broad-scale welfare reform, among other cost-cutting measures. But welfare groups say the reforms outlined in the so-called Red Book are ineffective and risk discriminating against some of the most marginal people in the community. National Director of Uniting Care Australia, Susan Helyar, says it’s time to break away from welfare reform orthodoxy and deliver adequate payments and effective services if government is serious about reducing individual reliance on welfare and increasing overall labour force participation. "There has been no substantial change in the level of unemployment in the last 15 years and this is because we’re using the wrong approach to welfare changes,” she said. The Red Book -- prepared by Treasury for the incoming government -- does call for an increase in payment rates to people receiving Newstart Allowance and student benefits, but says these increases should be offset by tightened eligibility criteria for the disability support pension. Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie points to several other government-funded schemes that are plagued by inadequacies and perverse incentives, highlighting the distinction between tax incentives and welfare payments. “On the expenditure side, there are a number of schemes which are poorly targeted, including the health insurance rebate, the Medicare safety net scheme, and the childcare tax rebate. These schemes disproportionately benefit higher income earners. They also generate inflation in service costs, which in turn disadvantages low and middle income earners," she told Crikey. ACOSS is also alarmed by the Department’s call to encourage a “user pays” approach to health and aged care delivery in order to reduce costs. “This seems to us to be the wrong approach,” Dr Goldie said. “Australians should expect governments to provide or fund essential services such as these. But they will only be able to do so if more public revenue is available or less is wastefully spent in other areas.” Finance has also called for a reduction in the tax rate paid by individuals on welfare payments transitioning to work, a point both ACOSS and UCA are in agreement on. The report notes: "Low income families face particularly high effective marginal tax rates (EMRT), yet they are the ones who would benefit most from an increased participation through higher incomes, lifetime earning and, most importantly, breaking the cycle of inter-generational disadvantage." Pointing to the Jeff Halmer Pension Review published in 1998, Susan Helyar has called on a similarly broad and in-depth inquiry into the welfare system. “We haven’t seen that level of comprehension in this debate. The debate going on at the moment is narrow, shallow and not representative of the real problems,” she said. “We want to reduce the disparity in payments and increase incentives for people to work, but this problem won’t be fixed by bashing people over the head with a financial stick.”

Crikey: Day 2

Who knows how these things happen... They just do!

The sum total of my day:

It came on last night, so I alerted Crikey to the fact that after one day as an intern, I would, alas, have to cry off of my second. Maybe I'm allergic?

This is not to say that I did no work. A lot can be achieved from under a doona with a sleeping mask over your face. You know the old saying... Yes, that one.

So tomorrow when I return, somewhat Abashed-and-Sniffly, I shall, it is hoped, have a yarn to serve with caffeine, rather than just an Arnott's digestive biscuit.

Crikey: Day 1

Jane when she left the house this morning...

Jane when she got home...

 It comes down to public transport more than anything. An hour in, an hour out and all in the wake of that dreadful anomaly: daylight savings.

I was pleased to arrive on time, albeit wearing most of my camomile tea, and picking tobacco from my teeth. Welcomed, I was put to the task of fetching coffee, and that's when I knew without doubt that I really AM an intern. 

Media briefs carefully compiled (yes reader, newspapers are becomming extinct) I trotted off to RMIT where I was lucky enough to miss the first half hour of a lecture kindly delivered by that conniseur of modern thought: Andrew Bolt.

Chased a story, ate a sushi roll, did a fantastic interview with Susan Helyar from Uniting Care Australia, and formulated a plan to take over the world.

Plan currently on hold and does not involve any kind of coffee or fetching or coffee fetching.

I just hope I don't finish tomorrow looking like Amanda Vanstone...

Concentration:

I know it seems that all I've posted in the past month are pictures of orangutans wearing jumpers (for prospective employers) and Geelong Cats fans crying.

But this has been a month filled with school work, school work, a job application, pictures of animals posted on social networking sites and school work.

Luckily I begin my internship at Crikey on Monday.

For now, I  reach new lows:

Crikey intern. Catalyst editor. Hack cat?

Look out Crikey! Come October 4 I'll be fetching coffees and diggin' up scoops.

And RMIT student union magazine Catalyst will have three new editors next year, one of whom will in fact be me.

Agenda: New multi-media website, and a new couch for the office.

Also. If you are reading my blog because you work at the ABC and happened to read my application for the Hack Cross Media Reporter position advertised, thank you.

Here is a token of my gratitude:

I think we'd get along is all I'm saying...

Geelong fans are a rowdy lot...

Until we lose...

Cashing in on the Cattery.

Finals season is here. I'll be at the 'G on Friday, ready for a big win...

ABC Radio Australia: Y Space

I am a regular guest on

"Y Space"

It's a delightful segment on ye olde ABC Radio Australia Today and bares no reference to chromosomes. Each week a coupla young cats get together and chew the fat on youth issues in Australia for an international audience. We also do a live cross to a hip-to-it radio station in Malaysia to compare notes with Double D and Roundhead - super-duper DJs from down town K.L. - ZING!

This week: Alcohol. The Salvation Army released a report into alcohol consumption in Australia and the findings were alarming (if somewhat predictable).

1 in 3 Australian youngsters drink just to get drunk on a regular basis

7 per cent of Australians sometimes drink to feel 'normal'

Obviously I am lucky in having realised early that I won't ever be particularly normal, no matter how many bevvies I neck on a Saturday night.

Here's the chat that unfolded around this, and a few other issues. I may or may not have mentioned old mate Voltaire in relation to ratus-bagus Hicksville Pastor Terry Jones of Koran-burning fame. But I guess you'll just have to have a listen for confirmation...

You gots to click through to this one...

Crocodile for tea.

Old mate Steve Sunk is a famous top end bush tucker chef - as well as a good sort. While I was in Darwin I headed down to Bagot Community aged care home, where he was cooking up a feed for about three-hundred of Darwin's senior citizens.

Among their number were Des, the gray-nomad who had his mobile home stolen and had to live long grass for six months, and Susie, a central Australian indigenous woman with a story for every occasion, a leopard print caftan and some of the best horn-rimmed sun-glasses I've seen in a long time.

I ambled down and talked election politics over crocodile, squeaking duck, wallaby, roo and sweet native yams. This went to air on ABC Local Radio Darwin on August 19.

Dinner with the Family Lee

While I was in Darwin I was lucky enough to fall in with the Lee family - a Larakia family spanning four generations.

Mary Lee was evacuated when Darwin was bombed in 1942 and went on to have 9 kids. Among those kids: Ian, who was a a Senate candidate in the seat of Solomon in this year's election, and Bilawara who is politically passionate and works as a marriage celebrant.

Bilawara also had several kids, one of whom is Dean - father of six gorgeous ratbags under 14. He was widowed when his youngest child was nine weeks old.

They let me join in for their regular family feed on Wednesday last week, so I roamed about with a recording device in between helping with the washing up and stuffing my face with tacos. Here's what they had to say about the election, the candidates and the current state of affairs for the nation's Top End indigenous people. It was aired on the ABC last week...

Picture: Larrakia Nation Art Centre fabrics

To BMX or not to BMX.

The first major funding announcement made by both the Country Liberal Party and the Labor Party in the seat of Solomon were for a BMX track upgrade. The only problem was that no-one I spoke to rode BMX or even knew anyone who did.

I had a chat to some high school kids in Palmerston to find out what they thought of all the hoo-ha, and to be honest, they were more insightful and interesting than a lot of 'tax-paying, working families' I got to hang about with. Plus they liked my sunglasses.

Turkeys sometimes gobble.

Well, I have returned to the deep south after an election campaign filled with midgie-bites, banal funding announcements, crack-pot candidates, crocodiles and the eventual victory of one Natasha Griggs.

I thought I'd share with you the profile the ABC ran just before the election. I interviewed Griggs in her chook shed.

Damien Hale copped a bit of a belting in the seat of Solomon. He held the seat on 197 votes for one term and lost it on Saturday after a 2.7 per cent swing away from Labor. Before the election I caught up with him on the side of the Stuart highway at 7am, where he sat and waved at commuters every morning for the duration of the campaign.

You should really listen to this. Old Mate had to refer to a tattoo on his boob to remember his parliamentary number.

Picture: The front page of the NT News - the only newspaper in the Northern Territory. This was the front page three days out from a federal election...

Solomania...

In the last week I’ve seen a Federal politician refer to a tattoo just above his nipple to remember his parliamentary number. I’ve been told by a Federal candidate in her chook shed that ‘sometimes the kids call Mister Turkey Mister Gobble because he gobbles a lot.’ And I’ve listened to the One Nation candidate make a concluding comment at a community forum: ‘So, yeah, I guess I’m for like progress.’

Welcome to Darwin and the seat of Solomon where between midgie bites and funding announcements it’s been a tumultuous election campaign so far.

Labor incumbent Damien Hale’s promise of a massive $1.5 million for a local BMX track upgrade was met with the kind of grit and tenacity you’d expect from a hardened Territorian foe. Country Liberal Party candidate Natasha Griggs announced days later that the CLP would not only match the Labor BMX commitment, but go one better. If the CLP is elected in the seat of Solomon, she said she will secure a recently-decommissioned Caribou transport aircraft for Darwin's Aviation Museum: There was dancing in the streets.

Affordable housing and infrastructure have figured prominently throughout the campaign. Griggs has said she will excise 395 homes from defence land and make them available to the general public if elected, while Hale has promised 1200 new ‘affordable’ homes.

But most constituents are angry at the parochial dribble of policy announcements that have characterised the campaign here. Ask anyone who they think will win, and the most common response is ‘I couldn’t give a tinker’s cuss.’

Actually, they say ‘I couldn’t give a tinker’s cuss and I don’t BMX.’

Given the level of public engagement, the Territory’s only newspaper hasn’t done much to stimulate debate.

Just last week the News Limited owned NT News was slapped on the wrist by Media Watch for publishing a ‘recent’ photograph of a – you guessed it – gigantic crocodile, which was actually taken about 15 years ago. Unfortunately the crocodile died before the reporter could ask it how it intended to vote in 1996.

They have also introduced a weekly two-page Andrew Bolt spread – with no answering column from anybody holding even mildly divergent views. I know it’s a hard act to balance opinion during an election campaign, but we all know Bolt doesn’t just tip the scales; he breaks them – even if he’s holding onto the towel rack.

The lack of diversity in both policy and in publication in the seat of Solomon is a serious problem, given the diversity of its constituents. Over 10 per cent of its voters are indigenous Australians, compared with a national average of 2.3 per cent, yet no policies have been announced addressing the Intervention. There is a chronic housing shortage, but the focus is on affordable housing, not homelessness. And huge emphasis has been placed on ‘law and order’ even though policing is the prerogative of the state, unless you live at the airport.

Brief inquiry in many electorates will inform you that most voters feel like this election means the choice between a poop sandwich and poop on toast. I foresee many of them rather than gracefully casting their vote, exhibiting more of a chucking or tossing action, and this will certainly be the case in Solomon.

Yet while this may be, I can faithfully report that taxi driver wisdom has Labor ahead in this electorate. He might be tossed there, but footy-coach-come-Labor-Lad Damien Hale will probably spend another term as the most ejected member of Parliament.

A budget throw back...

Can't leave out a trip to Canberra.

This is the radio report I filed for Melbourne's Student Youth Network after the federal budget this year.

Joe Hockey, Heather Riddout, Claire Martin, Steve Fielding and plenty more Happy House on the Hill characters talking about what the budget meant for Australian kids.

Panorama Wednesday May 12

It's a Hack Attack!

Hack on Triple J jumped on board the Jane Train this week after The Age published that old opinion piece on Tuesday.

Tuesday, John Barrington was asking around on the youth vote, youth issues and where young people sit on the campaign radar.

Friday arvo saw a panel discussion on the youth vote coming up to the federal election. Get Up's Communications Director Sam, presenter Kate O'Toole, talk back callers and your's truly batted back and forth on Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, the 2010 election, and I may have suggested that Facebook was going to 'devour it's own face' in response to a caller who said Facebook would devour itself... You'll have to listen to find out for sure though.

Now that the election has been called I'll be heading to Darwin to cover it in the marginal seat of Solomon for Local ABC Radio. You never know where else I might pop up though... Keep an eye on Crikey.

The Age gets a piece a me...

Too many of our youth are doing it tough in the "lucky country".

Fewer than 3000 asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat last year. Compare this with the fact that about 44,000 young Australians are homeless.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has made major policy changes in the areas of asylum seekers, the mining tax since she deposed Kevin Rudd, and is set to handle climate change. Why has she ignored domestic social policy? Her motivation is clear: as Lenore Taylor put it in The Sydney Morning Herald last week: ''tough on boats, easy on votes''.

Given that Gillard began her political career as president of the Australian Union of Students in 1983, cut her teeth in unions and has also been federal minister for social inclusion and for education, the new Prime Minister should have a much greater focus on the issues facing disadvantaged young Australians.

And this Labor government is well aware of the many shortfalls in services available to underprivileged young people in Australia. In fact, it buried a report on the issue last year.
YouTHINK: Your Say was yet another of many reports commissioned by Kevin Rudd. Conducted by the Salvation Army, the consultation process was national, and involved more than 1000 young Australians deemed disadvantaged and at-risk.

When the report was finalised, the Salvos were forced to sit on the findings for eight months. It was only in the week after the federal budget was handed down that they were allowed to post the report on their website.

No government representative would comment on the report when it was made public on May 17, or in the days afterwards.

Youth housing, Centrelink services and last year's COAG ''earn or learn'' compact with Young Australians were the main focus of the report. The findings were alarming, and are compounded by research subsequently conducted by Mission Australia and headspace youth health services, which show a steady increase in substance abuse and mental health problems in disadvantaged young Australians.

Most participants in the YouTHINK: Your Say report had been homeless at one time or another. One young bloke who took part in the Western Australian consultation said: "Can't get a house without a stable job; can't get a job without an address."

The Ken Henry tax review, the National Union of Students, the Australian Council of Social Service, the Salvation Army and the National Welfare Rights Network have all called for at least a minor increase in rental assistance this year, yet no action has been taken.

The Compact with Young Australians was implemented after it was endorsed at the COAG meeting in April last year, and included a national youth participation requirement: earn or learn.

There are no provisions for people affected by learning difficulties or poor mental or physical health. Children in caring roles are also overlooked.

A young woman who participated in a Canberra consultation said: "It's hard to find work when there is pressure on teenagers to look after mum and dad."

Non-government organisations such as Mission Australia, St Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army provide mentoring and education programs to tackle the challenges faced by young people with learning and behavioural disorders or caring responsibilities in gaining access to Centrelink payments. The government has yet to take this step.

''Customer'' responses to Centrelink services were also a focus of the report.
Most participants called for a change so that youth workers delivered youth services at Centrelink: "We can relate to them, we trust them, we know them, they know us and they know how we live."

Far from heeding calls for greater access to youth services, the Rudd government cut Centrelink staff as part of the last federal budget; it falls to Prime Minister Gillard to act on the chronic gaps in youth services.

The spirit of one-upmanship prevails in election-year politics and battle lines are strong - but they are not true to the real needs or interests of all voters.

If National Union of Students president Carla Drakeford has her sums right, 70 per cent of students voted Labor at the last election - and they don't like being ignored.

Gillard has a hard task ahead of her in maintaining this strong student and youth voting base.
Her government will need to listen to their views and heed their advice - especially when it was specifically asked for.

Jane Ryan studies journalism at RMIT.

But you could have seen it first here.

ABC Darwin gets a piece-a-me.

Dogs don't mind abseiling.

Thrity-six metres off the side of a Darwin Esplanade hotel? No worries.

Earlier today Australian Defence Force commanders and soldiers were undergoing adventure training, and their trusty four-legged friends were along for the ride.

The focus of adventure training is to build courage, determination and confidence according to Corporal Joseph Abbey. In this case, it involves lowering one’s self to the ground face first, from a great height, with a dog hanging from a harness between your legs.

‘It’s just a training course to put guys out of their comfort zones, see what coping mechanisms they use,’ he said.

If you’re worried about the dogs, don’t be. It’s the soldiers who balk.

Corporal John Cannon is the Explosion Detection Dog senior handler in the First Combat Engineer Regiment. He’s done three tours of duty in Afghanistan since 2005 and says the dogs don’t mind it a bit.

‘The dog’s in a harness, and he’s attached to my harness so he’s actually hanging beneath my legs. Initially they used to be a little bit frightened and try to wriggle out, but now they just sort of relax and dangle out of the harness.’

But while these dogs are a man’s best friend, Corporal Cannon points out they are combat tools first and foremost.

‘I tell the people on the dog handlers course, if you’ve joined military dogs to work with dogs, maybe you shouldn’t be here, maybe you should be in the circus... Even though we work with dogs, the bottom line is, we’re engineers, we search for Improvised Explosive Devices, and that’s our bread and butter.’

So don’t try to lower Fido off the shed after reading this. Rule of thumb: If they can’t sniff out a bomb at a few kilometres, they probably won’t like it.

You could have seen it here first...

Death by Desk

I have no words left. Just let me rest here a while longer?

Abetz and the ABC

Liberal Senator Eric Abetz hates the ABC, and to be fair it seems to be substantially reciprocated.

Coalition and conservative parliamentarians have always been uncomfortable with our national broadcaster, and his week Abetz used a senate estimates committee hearing to interrogate ABC Managing Director Mark Scott over the number of interruptions made by Tony Jones while he was interviewing different politicians on his news program Lateline.

‘Senator Abetz claimed that Jones interrupted Mr Hockey 20 times but did not interrupt Mr Swan at all,’ The Age reported.

‘Jones uttered 42 per cent of the words in Mr Hockey’s interview, he said, compared with 29 per cent when interrogating Mr Swan.’

But this fateful and largely un-winnable battle has been raging since, well, for ever!

Take for instance this Eric-takes-on-the-national-broadcaster-for-being-unfair-upset in 2008, which also came to bear on Tony Jones and that little show we all know and love: Q and A.

In yet another estimates committee Abetz said:

‘”The test surely is that the ABC provide a balanced audience, because the cheering, the support, the commentary out of the audience can potentially be off-putting for some people that are part of the panel.”

A couple of Abetz supporters rallied in this chat room, to support his claim that small-l liberal audience members were over represented at Q and A live screenings, yet none of them seem to have offered to go on the show themselves… Perhaps there is a dearth of people who actually share Abetz’ views on things like climate change and ABC bias, rather than a lack of exposure for them?

Yet another example of coalition opposition to the ABC came this week, the day after Abetz was using hearing time to whinge about the lack of web-space offered to climate change denier Bob Carter by ABC online opinion site The Drum – and this time it was fellow Liberal senator Mathias Cormann waving the why-can’t-everyone-just-be-like-Fox-News-flag.

He was up in arms over the ABC’s use of the Twitter hash-tag #Budgies while tweeting about Tony Abbot during question time during the week.

Communications Minister Steven Conroy was quick to reply to this falsely indignant complaint with the sally:

“Well, it could have been #Lycra. I mean, that would have been appropriate.”

As I dare say it would have, since he sold a pair of those ill-fated Speedos for charity not long ago, and seems to make a vastly disproportionate number of policy announcements in them, too.

Kids, let’s face it. Not only does the coalition whinge about government policy initiatives without offering alternatives, they also whinge about the ABC without delivering a message that anyone would want to hear.

Can’t wait to see what Eric’s next complaint will be… The ABC said my nose is big?

Sure I'll talk to you... If you got clout.

'You'll get what you're given!' my dad used to say to me. I never knew how right he was until our nation's leaders started pulling the same line on me.

I work for the Student Youth Network in Melbourne. Young people broadcasting for young people. This is great, and we all love getting on the blower, chasing a story and looking for sources.

The problem is: politicians don't want to talk to SYN.

What I can't, for the life of me, figure out, is WHY NOT?

I have a lovely phone manner and excellent personal hygiene. I don't bite, and the questions I ask are not to bump-my by-line-up-the-ladder type questions - I ask them because SYN listeners have a right to be addressed directly by those who seek to (and sometimes sort of do) govern, on issues that affect them in their every day life (like budget spending).

'Why does mental health funding account for only six per cent of the health budget this year, SIR?'

'Why does tertiary education spending account for less than two per cent of the federal budget, SIR?'

'Why do people on Youth Allowance receive only half of the old aged pension and live below the OECD poverty line, SIR?

Nient! Nein! Nil! Nothing.

Even a major outlet like Crikey have a hard time getting a nibble on these issues sometimes.

Here's my theory: forgive me for coming on strong here, but put simply - Australian statesmen and women don't give a flying junk about issues that solely affect young people.

'Damn little blighters!' (I can hear them right now). 'Why won't they just vote for us and bugger off?'

Well lad, 70 per cent of us did last time around, but frankly, Lindsay Tanner's chances aren't looking too crash hot this year, and I think it's because people are starting to twig.

The two major parties have had the run of this joint for just about long enough, and when you've got Krudd (phonetically strange choice for a Twitter name?) doing calisthenics on major election promises, and Abbot acknowledging that he sometimes lies in public sort of, and NO ONE from ANY youth media outlet can get a word out of them or their cronies AT ALL, it seems highly unlikely that the young voters will have kind things in store for them on polling day.

Ignore us your own risk you lot on the hill. Sooner or later those chickens will come home to roost.