Saturday, January 26, 2013
Peoples Republic of Canberra the Cocaine Capital of Australia
This article will explain why you can never get any sense out of a Public SERVANT Now REMEMBER why you pay taxes sweat in summer freeze in winter and turn your lights off at night.
Coked up in Canberra
Myles Peterson
The Daily Telegraph
January 26, 2013 12:00AM
CANBERRA '13: Stop the Coke. Nothing epitomises the current state of Canberra's economy better than a pair of cocaine-addled public servants spouting unwanted, acronym-laden rants at anyone unfortunate enough to fall within hearing range.
This is not a bad-taste Chaser joke. It is a real and regular occurrence, repeated across Canberra's bars and clubs on any given weekend.
This year, Canberra's local government will sacrifice a mountain of public cash (both local and federal) on the altar of celebrating itself. Hired spinmeisters have already labelled the expenditure a necessary, no, inspired act designed to bring a sense of pride in the nation's capital to all Australians.
When it first came into being, the Australian federal government employed 40,000 public servants, three-quarters of them postal workers. Since then the rise of Canberra's working-rich executive class has been arrow swift.
Today, the federal government boasts a quarter of a million employees, augmented by tens of thousands of public servants who report to the Australian Capital Territory government directly. Chances are, statistically speaking, most of them earn more than you do.
The Australian public service is graded in paramilitary fashion, complete with enlisted and officer ranks. But unlike the army, there are no longer any privates.
While the entry-level position of administrative service officer grade one (ASO1) still exists on paper, operationally, there are none. ASO4 represents the starting point for the majority of newly-minted public servants.
In the absence of junior positions, ASO levels 4 to 6 perform the role of worker bee, average salary $60,000 to $80,000. They keep the records, file the files, stamp the stamps and carry out orders handed down by the executive.
Above the ASO corporals and sergeants sit the executive classes, the "officers" who make up one quarter of the entire federal public service. One particular band, executive level one, or EL1, recently multiplied like a virus. An EL1 commands a salary of at least $100,000 (excluding incentives, allowances for parking, technology, travel, living away from home and the many, many junkets).
Between 2001 and 2011 the number of EL1s grew by more than 100 per cent - an epidemic of highly paid bureaucrats for whom million-dollar homes, a coastal holiday house and the odd cocaine binge are well within their price range. Thanks to the EL1 scourge, low-paid Canberrans suffer just as much as the public purse in a city labelled the 12th most expensive in the world in 2012 by Eurocost International.
EL1 bloat and the laissez-faire attitude to spending taxpayer dollars that underpins it has warped the entire Canberran economy. Utility prices are obscene. Housing prices worse.
Cashing in on the torrents of taxpayer cash flowing on to Canberra's gold-paved streets, local retailers and supermarkets charge prices found only in South Yarra and Vaucluse. Low-paid Canberrans have been steadily priced out of the city. Students cannot afford to rent anywhere, often taking drastic measures just to put a roof over their head. Many visiting undergraduates flee long before completing first year.
Savvy former public servants have taken the exploitation to absurd, some would argue corrupt, levels. Government-owned land is selectively released to cartels of ex-bureaucrats, who then make out like bandits on-selling postage stamp-sized blocks to Canberra's housing-desperate underclasses.
Panels, the only way to bid for a government contract, are stacked with insiders, making it impossible for outsiders to even put in a bid, no matter the competitiveness of the tender.
Canberra's elite regularly host opera events for themselves in a $100 million artificial forest, doomed to burn should the firestorm of 2003 - which cleared the site in the first place - ever return.
Dependant on government advertising for much of its revenue, local media rarely draws attention to these problems, themselves addicted to the public purse as a last remaining source of revenue.
Cocaine busts in Canberra have been spiralling upwards. Late last year, kilos of the stuff was discovered within just 1km of Parliament House. If frequent police and Customs claims that only 1 to 2 per cent of the illicit drug trade is uncovered are to be believed, hundreds of kilos, with a street value gauged in the millions, are potentially wandering the capital's streets looking for cashed-up buyers.
Canberra is a beautiful city. Hectares of manicured lawns and small forests surrounded by august and occasionally gaudy architecture. Life expectancy is world-first. Warped by the executive bubble, average incomes soar higher than any other city in Australia.
But that beauty disguises a dirty secret. Canberra rides a wave of federal money with only the not-so-focused eyes of our federal politicians to keep it in check. Canberra will never go bankrupt. It obeys no economic rules bar those loosely and ineffectively imposed upon it. Failure is measured in charts and spin and the quiet, oft unreported tones of a minister dumping an initiative, program or entire department, not commercial failure and bankruptcy.
Whichever coalition seizes government at this year's federal election, Liberals and Nationals or Labor and Greens, they would perform the Australian taxpayer, and many of the people and small businesses of Canberra, a great service by conducting a root-and-branch review of the country's public service.
Stopping the rorts, stopping the scams, stopping the EL1 scourge would benefit every Australian except those currently benefiting. And for pity's sake, Ms Gillard, Mr Abbott, whoever should prevail, please: Stop the coke.
Myles Peterson is a Canberra-based writer. Twitter: @MylesPeterson
Coked up in Canberra
Myles Peterson
The Daily Telegraph
January 26, 2013 12:00AM
CANBERRA '13: Stop the Coke. Nothing epitomises the current state of Canberra's economy better than a pair of cocaine-addled public servants spouting unwanted, acronym-laden rants at anyone unfortunate enough to fall within hearing range.
This is not a bad-taste Chaser joke. It is a real and regular occurrence, repeated across Canberra's bars and clubs on any given weekend.
This year, Canberra's local government will sacrifice a mountain of public cash (both local and federal) on the altar of celebrating itself. Hired spinmeisters have already labelled the expenditure a necessary, no, inspired act designed to bring a sense of pride in the nation's capital to all Australians.
When it first came into being, the Australian federal government employed 40,000 public servants, three-quarters of them postal workers. Since then the rise of Canberra's working-rich executive class has been arrow swift.
Today, the federal government boasts a quarter of a million employees, augmented by tens of thousands of public servants who report to the Australian Capital Territory government directly. Chances are, statistically speaking, most of them earn more than you do.
The Australian public service is graded in paramilitary fashion, complete with enlisted and officer ranks. But unlike the army, there are no longer any privates.
While the entry-level position of administrative service officer grade one (ASO1) still exists on paper, operationally, there are none. ASO4 represents the starting point for the majority of newly-minted public servants.
In the absence of junior positions, ASO levels 4 to 6 perform the role of worker bee, average salary $60,000 to $80,000. They keep the records, file the files, stamp the stamps and carry out orders handed down by the executive.
Above the ASO corporals and sergeants sit the executive classes, the "officers" who make up one quarter of the entire federal public service. One particular band, executive level one, or EL1, recently multiplied like a virus. An EL1 commands a salary of at least $100,000 (excluding incentives, allowances for parking, technology, travel, living away from home and the many, many junkets).
Between 2001 and 2011 the number of EL1s grew by more than 100 per cent - an epidemic of highly paid bureaucrats for whom million-dollar homes, a coastal holiday house and the odd cocaine binge are well within their price range. Thanks to the EL1 scourge, low-paid Canberrans suffer just as much as the public purse in a city labelled the 12th most expensive in the world in 2012 by Eurocost International.
EL1 bloat and the laissez-faire attitude to spending taxpayer dollars that underpins it has warped the entire Canberran economy. Utility prices are obscene. Housing prices worse.
Cashing in on the torrents of taxpayer cash flowing on to Canberra's gold-paved streets, local retailers and supermarkets charge prices found only in South Yarra and Vaucluse. Low-paid Canberrans have been steadily priced out of the city. Students cannot afford to rent anywhere, often taking drastic measures just to put a roof over their head. Many visiting undergraduates flee long before completing first year.
Savvy former public servants have taken the exploitation to absurd, some would argue corrupt, levels. Government-owned land is selectively released to cartels of ex-bureaucrats, who then make out like bandits on-selling postage stamp-sized blocks to Canberra's housing-desperate underclasses.
Panels, the only way to bid for a government contract, are stacked with insiders, making it impossible for outsiders to even put in a bid, no matter the competitiveness of the tender.
Canberra's elite regularly host opera events for themselves in a $100 million artificial forest, doomed to burn should the firestorm of 2003 - which cleared the site in the first place - ever return.
Dependant on government advertising for much of its revenue, local media rarely draws attention to these problems, themselves addicted to the public purse as a last remaining source of revenue.
Cocaine busts in Canberra have been spiralling upwards. Late last year, kilos of the stuff was discovered within just 1km of Parliament House. If frequent police and Customs claims that only 1 to 2 per cent of the illicit drug trade is uncovered are to be believed, hundreds of kilos, with a street value gauged in the millions, are potentially wandering the capital's streets looking for cashed-up buyers.
Canberra is a beautiful city. Hectares of manicured lawns and small forests surrounded by august and occasionally gaudy architecture. Life expectancy is world-first. Warped by the executive bubble, average incomes soar higher than any other city in Australia.
But that beauty disguises a dirty secret. Canberra rides a wave of federal money with only the not-so-focused eyes of our federal politicians to keep it in check. Canberra will never go bankrupt. It obeys no economic rules bar those loosely and ineffectively imposed upon it. Failure is measured in charts and spin and the quiet, oft unreported tones of a minister dumping an initiative, program or entire department, not commercial failure and bankruptcy.
Whichever coalition seizes government at this year's federal election, Liberals and Nationals or Labor and Greens, they would perform the Australian taxpayer, and many of the people and small businesses of Canberra, a great service by conducting a root-and-branch review of the country's public service.
Stopping the rorts, stopping the scams, stopping the EL1 scourge would benefit every Australian except those currently benefiting. And for pity's sake, Ms Gillard, Mr Abbott, whoever should prevail, please: Stop the coke.
Myles Peterson is a Canberra-based writer. Twitter: @MylesPeterson
Egypt, Black America's "New Jesus" Hussein Obama's Arab Spring or just another streaming pile of Muslim Terrorist SHIT?
Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller proven RIGHT again
SIGN IN TAHRIR SQUARE: 'OBAMA YOU JERK, MUSLIM BROTHERHOODS ARE KILLING THE EGYPTIANS'...
"Read the rest of the sign. Will the media cover this? Never. Are they culpable? You bet they are. They are shamelessly carrying water for jihadists and a President who is advancing the most brutal, bloody and extreme ideology on the face of the earth."
Liam Knight : What Great Australia Day News this is
Hang in there Mate!!!!!
Liam's smile best tonic for heartbroken family
CLEMENTINE CUNEO, POLICE REPORTER
The Daily Telegraph
January 26, 2013 12:00AM
As doctors removed the breathing tubes from the critically ill teen's throat on Thursday to see if he could breathe unassisted, Liam's older brother Shane cracked a joke to lighten the mood.
"I said: 'Liam, it's my birthday in a few days, what are you buying me?'," Shane said yesterday.
Liam's response was the greatest gift of all to an anxious family who have maintained an around-the-clock vigil at his bedside since he suffered horrific injuries at a party almost a fortnight ago.
"He just looked up and gave this enormous smile. It was amazing," Shane said. "It was the first time I recognised Liam again since it all happened."
One of Liam's other brothers, Kyle, captured the milestone on his iPhone.
Doctors have told the Knight family that Liam, 17, is still in a serious condition and has a long road to recovery ahead of him.
But Liam's smile was just the tonic the people closest to him needed.
"There really hasn't been anything too positive until then, so it was pretty exciting," Shane said.
"Mum said she felt like it was Christmas. He's gone from his death bed to looking up and smiling at us."
I thought this kid was history, so good to see he is on the way back
When Liam was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital late on January 11, doctors told his family things were not good. He had been hit in the head with a metal bar, allegedly thrown by a gatecrasher at an 18th birthday party in Forestville, on Sydney's northern
beaches.The rusted metal bar that had pierced his skull not only caused severe damage to his brain, but also a serious infection.
"When I saw him that night in hospital with all the tubes, I thought he'd never recover," Shane said.
"We were pretty much told to prepare for the worst, but you never want to think that, you want to remain hopeful, and we did.
"We've been told we won't know exactly what damage has been done for a while, until he tries to do things like talk or walk."
While his family remained at Liam's bedside, the local community has been rallying behind him.
A barbecue fundraiser will be held today from 11am at Woolworths, Frenchs Forest, with all proceeds going towards Liam's ongoing care.
Liam worked there part-time and his mother Mary and one of his brothers are also employees. "They are very much part of the Woolworths family and Liam's colleagues at the Frenchs Forest store were very keen to do something to help out," a Woolworths
spokeswoman said.A 16-year-old male from North Ryde has been charged over the incident.
23 JAN 13 @
Liam support day at St Pius X college
AROUND 100 well-wishers gathered to write get-well messages for attack victim Liam from St Pius X College.
17 JAN 13 @
North Ryde youth accused of hurling metal pole at party denied bail
A North Ryde boy accused of hurling a metal pole like a javelin at another youth appeared in court yesterday.
16 JAN 13 @
Boy charged with spearing Sydney teen denied bail
A boy charged with spearing a 17-year-old with a metal rod during a birthday party was denied bail yesterday.
16 JAN 13 @
St Pius X College sends prayers and messages for Liam Knight
THE ST Pius X College school community is offering its prayers and writing messages in a special book
16 JAN 13 @
Call for witnesses to attack on Liam Knight
POLICE are calling for witnesses to come forward following an attack by gatecrashers on the weekend.