My mum has been working hard over the last three years to organise a community garden in her local community. The official opening was today and Natalie and I went down to check it out. Natalie has even put together a video of our trip (and also a review of some new pens she recently bought). You can check out her other videos on YouTube as well.
It’s a space to allow people who don’t have the space, or who enjoy community company, to get together and grow their own veggies. There are around 40 plots of 3 meters x 3 meters which is plenty of space to grow enough veggies for yourself and to have some left to spare. There are even raised beds for the physically disabled to allow them to enjoy the fun in the sun.
I’m very proud of my mum and what she has achieved. She even had the audacity to ask for more money for more beds (as seen in the video). My mum is awesome. They estimated that over 300 people attended this afternoon’s opening. That’s amazing to be honest. Maybe it was due to her becoming a media tart in the last few days.
Lets hope we can get some stuff like this in our local area soon. I’d love a garden bed to get into a grow some veggies of our own!
I work for the Queensland Public Service. It isn’t something I would normally bring up on my blog — I don’t like to bring attention to career as a public servant. My views on this blog are mine and have very little to do with my job, other than everything in my life shaping my opinions.
Many of the fine folk who work in the Queensland public sector could be earning a lot more money working in the private sector. A big mix of skills and experience that these people have allows the public service to provide services to Queensland that no private company could. Many departments can’t be profit making – would you expect child safety officers to try and turn a profit? Can you imagine a business surviving long on that business model?
The government pays well and has good employment conditions, but there is a cost as well. Public sector staff work many long hours, and at upper levels with no overtime entitlements. Costs are kept to a minimum at every opportunity in order to provide front line services.
“But you get hours and hours of paid flex time?” I hear people scream. Flex time, or ADOs as they are often called, are hours that you have to work before you can take them off. So you might be required to work a 37.25 hour week, but you work 42 hours. That adds up and eventually you might be lucky to get a day off.
Then again, you might not. Many can’t take a day off as there would be no one else to do their job. Don’t think that flex time just accrues forever either. There is almost always a limit where you lose your hours if you don’t take them. And many workers either feel a duty to not take them or just can’t find the time/get the approval to do so.
This is just in the ‘regular’ public service where you aren’t dealing with front line services. Think about all the child safety officers, housing officers, nurses, teachers and police officers who work long hours for less than they could earn elsewhere.
There will always be those in any workforce who use and abuse systems and entitlements. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that the public sector isn’t full of lazy workers who do little more than drink from the golden goblet and head off at 3pm each day.
Giving workers 2.5% increases in pay each year is an insult. This is LESS than inflation. Add in the expected increases in fuel, electricity and other life essentials and it’s clear to see that it isn’t fair. It’s tough at the moment to keep good workers and this step is going to be another reason for those who are dedicated and stay for the betterment of the state or the clients they serve to pack up and get a better paying job in the private sector.
(Disclaimer: I am a Queensland public servant, but these are my views and not those of my employer, or of my pet llama.)
So after a brilliant attempt at blogging properly over the last couple of days, I’ve managed to delete the last three posts. One was only a very lame April Fools Day post, so that isn’t anything to worry about. Unfortunately I deleted my posts on the new Bikie Gang laws that Queensland is set to introduce, and my post regarding the public service. Perhaps the deletion of these will serve to be a blessing and not a curse.
You see I’m starting to realise that being objective is good in a business sense and when you are dealing with the facts and only the facts. But I’m not like that 24 hours as day, 7 days a week. I have a life filled with love and passion – something that’s been new to me over the last few years. Perhaps I should spend more time talking about me and what I think about the world than rehashing whatever is in the papers.
It’s fair to say that I really enjoyed writing those posts and I do find joy in writing about the world and rehashing whatever is in the papers. I also love heading to events and talking about what has happened and providing first hand reports. Ah, so much to choose from.
I’m sure somewhere along the line I was talking about…Ah yes! The deleted blog posts. Always keep a copy of your blog posts offline. You just never know when you might need to get back an old post from yesteryear. Or even yesterday.
Oh, and here is the prank video again – because I can.
(Thanks to definatalie for salvaging this post for me after my earlier error.
Also I should note that CentreLink have come to the party. – Nicholas)
Public servants need to keep in mind something very important. They are there to serve the public. Not as a lesser class or in servitude, but provide a service to the public. So why do we hear so many disastrous reports about the public sector? Public servants can be very behind the times.
There is currently a report in Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail regarding the wife of a comatose man. He is unlikely to ever regain consciousness and will remain in his bed for the rest of his days. He hit is head on his honeymoon! How much more sob story can you get? Really, it is an unfortunately thing.
I’m just concerned with the advice provided by the Australian Public Service, namely CentreLink. As a public servant myself I realise that they would have been following process, and that is all that they ‘can’ do. They can only follow the rules and do as they have always done.
Actually, they don’t have to. I mean it.
Why not try and give better service to the client. Stop seeing members of the public as burden. They are why we are in the public service. In this case, more compassion could have been shown. Why not give Mrs Dodd some attention and assistance!
Perhaps her husband isn’t eligible for the full pension. Nothing will change that, other than an overrule from the Minisiter. I can see that forthcoming soon due to the publicity.
My issue with this is why did nothing get done about this sooner? Why is it that it takes the media’s interaction to have any change of heart? There should be processes to allow Ministers to be advised of such cases so that they can have the chance to intervene. It shouldn’t be a hole in the service plugged by the media.
The public should be given the best service possible by the public service. No ifs and no buts.
(Thanks to definatalie for salvaging this blog post that I accidentally deleted – Nicholas)
Newly elected Premier Anna Bligh has come out fighting today in an attempt to crack down on the evil scourge of Australia, the Bikie Gangs! Reports of her announcement should ring alarm bells for any ordinary Queenslander with news that the new laws will strike “to the heart of the right of association.” This should worry you deeply.
“Why”? I hear you ask? “Won’t this just affect the criminal bikie gangs and not little ol’ me?” Wrong!
You’ve never heard of scope creep, have you?
Scope creep is where you have laws in place for one thing but through small changes in laws they morph into something else. Look at the internet censorship laws as a case in point. The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 brought into law that any content held overseas that was either Restricted Content or X18+ was prohibited (note: not illegal). Anything R18+ was fine – the ACMA could not add these sites to any blacklist.
Thanks to the Communications Legislation Amendment (Content Services) Act 2007, R18+ content now falls into this ‘prohibited’ category. Did you hear Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy running around mentioning that during the election? No. Did they even mention it during the Senate Committee inquiry/report for the bill? No. What about in the Explanatory Notes? No! (Graham 2009)
So what is to stop similar things happening with the new Bikie Gang laws? I don’t imagine Anna Bligh as a tyrant but what if someone else gets in who is? We have a unicameral legislature – that means we don’t have an upper house to play the important role of checking what happens in the lower house. We have just one legislature and what they pass is law. (Well, the Governor’s accent is needed, but that’s not really a problem if you can select your own Governor).
We need to crack down on the crimes that these Bikie Gangs are committing, not on stopping groups from congregating. So perhaps I could get into power and add the CWA to the list? If in a powerful enough position, any premier could do such a preposterous thing so easily with these laws in place.
That is far fetched, but lets extend it to terror groups. Should we ban groups of Muslim men from gathering together? What about Christian men who are considered a threat? Could we see political groups or other hardcore political groups sidelined through these laws? All it takes is another ‘crisis’ and we have the need to modify the legislation oh so slightly.
Once passed, it’s harder to get them off the books. We must stand up now – our rights are on the line. Together as a state and say NO to restricting our right to associate. You cannot nanny us, Anna Bligh and the ALP.
