Australia on Nick Perkins Archive

People shouldn’t have to die to get here

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:34:06 +1000

I’m feeling a little conflicted. I firstly want to state that I’m not an expert on the question of refugees, asylum seekers or ‘boat people’. If I get something wrong, please point it out to me.

I hate the fact that people risk their lives to travel in boats that are rarely seaworthy, are overcrowded, with little food or water and a shambles of a crew to come to Australia to apply for asylum or refugee status. More often than not, people die trying to get here.

Remove the headless fatties from our media

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:39:37 +1000

It is high time that mainstream media around the world stopped using headless fatty shots with every article or video piece about fat people. I think there are a few reasons why they do this.

They know that if they asked people, they would say no.
If they have faces, it makes it harder to use them in generalised negative news pieces
If the fatty looks happy or really well dressed, they don’t suit a doom and gloom story
They won’t get sued for humiliating someone if you can’t identify them by their face

Yet when that person sees this footage of them being used in this way, it can cause pain and anguish become compare. It also dehumanises fat people and gives people power to pick on and attack fat people.

Hung like a parliament

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:18:23 +1000

Two weeks after the election and we still don’t know who will be the next Prime Minister of Australia. We’ve had the Green’s Adam Bandt and independent Andrew Wilkie side with Labor, giving them a 74-73 lead in the race for power. However there are three independents left to make up their minds. So what happens if they split and we end up with 75-75?

I can see a few things that could happen. The first thing that happens in a new parliament is that the speaker is elected. The independents would have agreed to vote with the government on supply and confidence votes, but they could still go against them when voting for the speaker. If a speaker is elected, then the side where the speaker comes from will be down one person, as the speaker only votes in the case of a tie. If there is a tie when voting for the speaker, there is no casting vote so they would have to try another candidate. This is the point that we may find that no speaker can be elected, and therefore parliament is borked and new elections required.

Election 2010: Be Informed – know how preferences work

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:49:37 +1000

I am so sick and tired of hearing stuff like “If you vote for <insert party here> they are giving their preferences to <insert major party here>. So that’s a vote for <prime ministerial candidate here>!” I’m not sure if I can make this any clearer, but:

NO IT ’S NOT

Let’s cover voting basics. In the House of Representatives, you number each box from 1 to n, where n is the number of candidates on the ballot.

Stand up for your rights on Polling Day

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:10:00 +1000

It’s one day before the Federal Election here in Australia. I’d forgotten what that means until I saw a tweet just a second ago.

Tweet by @ben_hr

Whilst most politicians have been spending the last five weeks worrying about hitting a snag throughout the campaign, it’s Saturday when the focus is really on the snags. And the onions and tomato sauce. Don’t forget the lamingtons, other baked treats and even perhaps some jams or drinks. Polling day is a big money spinner for school Parents and Citizens (P&C) Associations across this big land of ours.

Flashback: National Broadband Network – a quick summary

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:16:44 +1000

In the first of a number of ‘flashbacks’ to my old blog, here is something that is quite topical. Back in April 2009, I wrote on the Federal Government’s plans for a National Broadband network. Quite relevant given the current debate over the Opposition’s plans being announced today.

The Federal Government has announced the winner of the National Broadband Network tender process. Nobody wins! Yay! I’m sure you’re thinking WTF? right about now, so lets get into some of the details.

The future of the Internet in Australia

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:06:34 +1000

Today we have finally seen the plan of the Liberal/National Coalition for Australia’s future when it comes to Internet connectivity. Today we have seen what the Liberal and National Party plan to do in order to take Australia into the Internet future. That is, move back into the past.

The Coalition has announced that Australians will have access to at least wireless with a peak speed of 12mbps. They also propose that the current Hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) network will bring 100mbps speeds to the major centres of Australia. They will also spend money to upgrade exchanges to provide more people with access to ADSL 2+ speaks.