Balanced Justice?

As I understand it, the essence of Australian constitutional government is, in part, that elected governments don't stick their snouts into the administration of justice and, administrators of justice, in turn, don't busy themselves in affairs of state (unless matters concerning breaches of established law are referred to their jurisdiction for determination).

The Newman government apparently has a different understanding of that arrangement?

B.B.Qs?

Just a little bit of silliness. Triggered by a leaflet which landed in our letter-box this week, touting all the attractions of an up-coming school fete in our area.

Keep yer shirt on!

Within the last 12months or so, a form of auxiliary uniformed protective force has been set up by the state government to provide largely after-dark security for urban transport (particularly trains and otherwise un-manned stations) and sometimes, public buildings.They are known as Protective Services Officers (P.S.O.s) and up to recently, have been uniformed in a very similar kit to sworn Victoria Police Officers, except that their shirts are white whereas 'real' police wear a light blue number.

Earlier this year, Police management set in train the first uniform overhaul in 30 odd years. Proper sworn officers are gradually being issued with a new dark-blue uniform similar to those worn by a number of forces in the United States. Apparently, PSOs had expected the same issue (perhaps, because they are administered by the police organization?)

Whatever, a leaked internal police document has revealed today that the PSOs will remain in different uniform attire to ensure the general public can readily distinguish them from regular (sworn) officers. Initial reaction from the PSOs and their union representatives (who happen to also represent the 'real' cops) has been 'shirty' to say the least.

Governing in a cloud?

When the going gets tough, the tougher it gets to get going. In the case of Mr. Rabbit ... simple solution.

Practice obscurantism.

'Out'lawry?

Camshaft Newbroom ... only law west of the Reef? Now that he's gotten up the noses of the judiciary as well as the criminal elements ... I guess there's no way left for the little man except to press on regardless?



I saw a report the other day to the effect that he wants as many as possible 'bikie' villains incarcerated before the new laws are almost inevitably presented by some agency for adjudication by the High court. And, if the High court should annul the whole box and dice? Does he think the illegally gaoled people will remain in prison because they were dealt with under stop-gap legislation? Dream on.



Sorry, but IMO this is just another example of why nobody in the body politic can be trusted with dictatorial power even when it is granted through the ballot box.

As for the premier's attempt to villify the judiciary for allegedly abetting crime in Queensland through unwarranted leniency ... perhaps he needs reminding that accidental enemies can be later made friends. Made enemies will never become accidental friends!

'Friendly' SPYING?

Europeans generally and, Angela Merkel the German Chancellor (P.M.) in particular, are rightfully maddened to learn that the U.S. National Security Agency has been eaves-dropping on their private telephone conversations. U.S. President Obama has given an interim apology and ordered the NSA to stop spying on 'friends' ... not because they have been ordered to, but presumably, just because they can.

And, our American brethren feign to wonder why much of the world hates their guts?!

New suburb?

Don't know about other states, but the question of access to/from Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport has been a hot topic in these parts over the past week. Though a dedicated rail service serving the airport was part of the original plans for it's inauguration in 1970 ... it still doesn't exist today after being in and out of the political dialog umpteen times over the past 4 decades, whilst dwelling mostly in the 'too hard basket'.

Road access from the CBD is solely available via the laughingly named Tullamarine 'freeway'. Firstly, the 'free' part of the title only remained literal until the mid-90s when it was sold to the private sector and, of course, promptly became a toll-way. Secondly, its main role as an airport access was virtually wiped-out when some genius decided it would be a great idea to feed another 'freeway' into it about half-way between the CBD and airport! Ever since, it has become an embarrassing car-park during morning and afternoon peak traffic times.

Speaking of car-parks, because of the lack of any worth-while public transport alternatives, the car-parks at the airport itself have become monsterous, both in size and tariffs, whilst producing a cash-cow for the owners of the airport since its privatization ...also during the 90s. This week it was noted in the media that the car-parks are already bigger than some urban areas which warrant their own post-code!

As one who spent 20 years of my working life employed at Tulla ... it seems to me that the whole facility is dedicated to coining money from the car-park operation ... with the actual need to accommodate airlines and their travelling customers, merely an annoyance wholly incidental to the main endeavour!

ADF powder burns?

No sooner had the infamous video sex mis-behaviour case been finally dealt with, than another 'hot' skirmish breaks out over possible departmental involvement in outbreak of a real fire in N.S.W.

Who'd want to be a PR person for the ADF?!

The Good, the bad and, the ugly DEBT?

Apparently, only debt accumulated under stewardship other than their own is considered BAD by incumbent administrations. Now that the new outfit are in the driving seat, we learn that accommodation must be made for debt generated whilst they determine targets for the inevitable Slash and Burn which must occur in their quest for a buget in surplus.

One presumes this will be GOOD debt? The fact that the 'debt ceiling' will have to be advanced to a new level of half a trillion dollars (500billion) for any time at all, makes it very difficult for me to convince my boggled mind that any of the accumulated 'we owe yous' can be represented as GOOD!

What do you think? After all ... as tax-payers, the element of national debt generated by government (as distinct from private borrowers)... is actually YOUR debt the politicians are talking about in their glib, 'we know what we're doing' fashion.

DIRECT ACTION!? Waiting ... waiting ...

In opposition, the policy was 'get rid of the toxic Carbon Tax! We have a cheaper and more effective alternative in 'Direct Action' with which to challenge climate change.'

OK. The electorate bought that proposal and, the now government's first order of business appears to remain 'get rid of the wicked carbon tax'. In fact, almost a month and a half after their election success, that is apparently the only annunciated course of action they have on the agenda?

What happened to DIRECT ACTION? Not evident yet in any sense of the phrase!

The Camp 'n' Jack show ... ep.3

Now I'm envisaging someone modelling the newly proposed Pink-Tops to be worn exclusively by 'Bikie' prisoners in their isolated facility.

Is this really happening? Have I arrived in cartoon heaven? Or, is this being deliberately written as a comedy version of the old TV staple Law and Order?

Telecommunications stuff cont'd/...

In last week's archival delve, I mentioned my reluctance to be categorized as a 'Graphic designer', because I was not formally trained in that branch of art. Prior to 2000, the Telecommunications Journal of Australia was a +/- 80 page tome published on glossy A4 stock with full-colour cover and some use of colour spot art throughout. However, any sign of 'graphic design' was virtually non-existent. The cover comprised the mast-head in heavy black typeface on a white background  above a black-bordered 175 x 210mm rectangle intended to contain a full-colour illustrative lead to the main theme of the mag. edition.

Below are some examples of my first-ever attempts at graphic illustration (as distinct from cartoons). Also for the first time, I began playing with display type-faces which had dwealt un-used on my computer(s) since I originally ventured into their use in 1995.

 

Sunday ... a day of rest?

For many of us I guess ... but, not the 'Firies' or people in N.S.W. desperately threatened by both bush-fires and un-helpful weather predictions.

On yer Bike!?

Having a dictatorial sized majority in parliament was always going to be a giant test for the Camshaft Newbroom putsch. Will hubris spoil the boy? Judging from recent events involving the bikie community ... yes it will!

I'm sure most rational people would applaud strong action to bring allegedly criminal elements of rebel 'bikie gangs' to book. But, if you get carried away with your apparent power base and go too far with the punitive stuff, the whole box and dice might very quickly blow-up in your own face. I think the Q. government has un-necessarily gone past that point with the legislation they are readying to ram thru' their grossly imbalanced parliament. The 'outlawing' bit will probably pass muster if the High Court is invoked to adjudge the legality of the legislation ... but, I doubt the mandatory sentencing for elements of criminal intent, which normally would NOT attract such punishment, will survive the test. The vow to enforce virtual solitary confinement for 23 hours of every day served, also looks to me to have a snow-flake's hope in hell of passing any level of judicial scrutiny. Finally, the proposed establishment of a special prison for bikies shows elements of human and fiscal insanity in my view ... and should not survive the judgement of any rational person, let alone the High court bench.

Pull your head in Camshaft ... before you get it figuratively pulled-off!

International outsourcing?

A couple of days ago the CEO of Telstra implied that  the planned 'off-shoring' of many hundreds of Australian jobs in the near future is largely meeting a growing trend among customers toward a preference for dealing with the company 'on-line', rather than in traditional face to face encounters. In terms of personnel (if not telephony?), of course out-sourcing is obviously cheaper than the home-grown product ... but what the hell does it have to do with 'on-line'? I've always understood that term to mean via the internet ... not telephones.

Be that as it may ... despite undoubted product knowledge, exemplary courtesy, and/or diligence of personnel, my own experience with internationally out-sourced customer service is that the whole deck of cards collapses on the almost universal lack of ability on the part of the company's agent to articulate their message in clear and concise English. It is embarrassing for both me and the informant to repetitively have to ask for a repeat of what they have just delivered as a slurred, heavily accented or simply grammatically-mangled message intended either to resolve a product problem or sell me something new! I would rather forgo 'whizz-bang deal offerings' from a company enamoured of the off-shore solution, in favour of a competitor who maintains customer service access that is readily understandable in any two-way conversation ... even if the relative cost benefits are less.

I fail to grasp the efficacy of any sales/service system which actually manages to annoy current or potential customers rather than satisfy their needs in a satisfatorily comfortable manner!

NB. This post was intended for Friday 18/10/13 ... but, delayed due to unplanned distractions!

The 'mad monk' surfaces.

A load of letters to the editor in today's press critical of Mr.Rabbit's fall into use of ecclesiastical rhetoric in prescibing what he thinks should be the the Labor opposition's attitude to repeal of the Carbon Tax. Checking back, I did notice he used 'sin'.'repent' and 'contrition' in his lecturing diatribe.

Apparently, his undertaking to keep religion out of politics was just another 'non-core' promise, made in different circumstances?

Belated post?

This confection was originally drawn on 21/12/2012 but, was not published at the time because another hosting web-site 'crashed'. As far as I can recall, it hasn't appeared subsequently.

Sooo... slightly adjusted, I've rung it in today to cover the fact that, for once, I was otherwise engaged for much of the day and, left it too late to scan the current media for anything on which to make a contemporary comment.

Fire-water?

This morning, I saw a report on SKY news about a Brisbane suburban Aquarium catching fire, requiring emergency evacuation of patrons from the attraction.

An AQUARIUM on fire?! What next?

The unexpected PUPpeteer?

Well... I suppose Clive expected something like the developing July senate situation ... but who else (in their right mind)?

Telecommunications stuff

From 1998 to 2007 I contributed a lot of work to a Telecommunications industry quarterly magazine based in Melbourne. I provided cartoons, cover layouts/ illustrations and, despite my protesting that I was not a qualified graphic designer, once or twice assisted the editorial management by re-designing op/ed pages to accommodate new featured writers. The relationship was mutually beneficial since it honed my knowledge of press layout and production, whilst giving me a valuable insight into the rapidly developing telecommunications industry (eg, the mobile revolution was in train at the time) ... and, the jargon associated with it. In return, I was able to contribute to their understanding of the publishing industry by sometimes acting as a go-between in negotiations between the magazine editorial staff (all senior telecoms personnel and/or industry academics) and the graphic arts studio who were originally responsible for the basic magazine design.

It was fun. I particularly appreciated the fact that they were very prompt in payment for services rendered.

Here are a couple of examples of the stuff I was doing for them. The cover was from the middle of 2004. The uderlying 'swirls' design and mast-head were down to the pro-design studio. The rest including cartoon illo and story leads text and layout were my handiwork. The cartoon was a standard feature of each issue ... this one appeared in the Autumn 2006 issue.

Memory training.

Very interesting program on ABCTV during the week had Todd Sampson (Gruen Planet) beginning a course of tests to improve the 'plasticity' of his brain. Whilst some of the tasks looked a bit daunting for someone of my vintage, I'd like to have the opportunity to have a go at them if they were (are?) available somewhere on the 'net.

Meanwhile. looking forward to the next two episodes.

The High life.

The planning controversy mentioned yesterday has a lot to do with proliferation of Hi-rise residential projects and, in particular, the way they tend to overshadow more traditional forms of housing.

My difficulty with them is that I'm latently acrophobic. I don't really like visiting acquintances who choose to live in the giant complexes springing up south of the river in down-town Melbourne (and probably elsewhere in OZ)... let alone exist in such an environment myself. I know young people working for CBD-based businesses find such accommodations pretty 'swish' and convenient abodes. But, taking a longer view, what about their suitability for children? Though play-ground facilities are probably taken into account by developers(?) what a joy it would be to have to descend something like 30 or 40 floors just to let a kid enjoy a turn on the swings! Similarly, having to ride up the same distance to your haven of rest after a long and stressful day at work can't be all that much fun either?

Ah well ... everyone to his/her own poison.

'Go to' Guy?

Matthew Guy, the Victorian state government Minister for Planning has floated a new and controversial 'Melbourne Plan' which radically changes the proposed urban boundaries of greater Melbourne, de-regulates hi-rise developments in current 'heritage' areas and, envisages development of numerous regional towns as new industrial and population centres. This follows their 2010 tearing-up of a decades old master urban development plan originally devised by a previous Liberal government and, religiously adhered to by all succeeding administrations regardless of political bent.

The immediate reaction of planning academics has been couched in terms like fraudulent, hoax, developer-driven, irrelevant, vacuous etc. so, how it fares being implemented in the coming state election year is conjectural at best.

Hay-ride?

Way back in the nineteenth century, Keilor was in all likelihood a 'one-horse town'. Since we arrived here in 1972, it has been a 'one service-station town'.

The current semi-national fuel shortage (as a result of authorities grounding (?) most of the road tanker fleet normally delivering petrol to urban BP and Shell servos) has apparently impacted only sporadically around greater Melbourne thus far ... but, this afternoon I noticed long queues of vehicles waiting to get fuel at our local outlet, where a number of pumps had appeared to have run dry.

Our one stop fuel shop is, naturally, a Shell outlet.
Another example of big business having all its eggs in one basket!

Ho hum!

Mis-use of tax-payer funds?

All of a sudden, federal politicians feel the need to come clean on their shonky use of tax-payer money to fund 'jollies' which bear very thin relationship to legitimate parliamentary expense claims. Could it be that Fairfax papers have shone a bright light on past shenanigans?

Whatever, opposition 'worthies' are pledging to help our new prime miniature to implement clearer parameters for raiding the public till in future. One of them added " ... it is imperative that we take effective corrective action without undue delay, if we are to maintain public faith in the integrity of their political representatives." (or, words to that effect).

Sorry comrade ... that bird has long since flown the coop!

Pre-historic creatures at large in U.S. congress?

U.S. Government services remain paralysed because a splinter group of Republican party die-hard whackos continue to hold their nation to ransom in the interests of their own particularly neanderthal beliefs about public health support. I read this week that the rest of the moderate members of their party refer to this mob as the 'Taliban' because of their extremist political beliefs.

There are many more moderate republicans than so-called 'Tea-party' faction members in congress ... so, one wonders why that section of the party don't vote along with Democrats to at least get government funding released before the nation's financial system goes into 'crash' mode with its dismal ramifications for the rest of the world as well as the U.S.?

Because they're politicians!?

Caricature

Harking back once again to earlier times in my cartooning career, one of the main planks in my contract work was caricaturing travel industry notables to accompany a featured 'cover story' in every issue of TravelWeek. I had always been interested in caricature, honing my observation and interpretation skills by doodling family members, relatives, friends and work colleagues over many years prior to dipping my toe into the professional pond.

More on the technical adventures in a future post. Meanwhile, today's examples are from the period in which the newspaper became a glossy colour news-magazine (c1993) and, my comic hand-drawn portraits retained a cartoony outlined look rather than a painterly manner of humorous depiction which gradually took over until the late 90's when ink on paper succumbed to the beginning of computer processing of artwork. The size of reproduction varied depending on the graphic designer's layout of each article. However, the original artwork was always on a light art-board with the image occupying a space of 210 x 280mms.

With the pool of subjects covering all of Australia and some international personalities, it was very rare for me to be called upon to 'do' the same person more than once. However, I noticed recently that Bob Annells, whom I recall was a well-known Victorian tourism nabob, did draw (pun intended) the short-straw more than once.

Dr. NO is a YES man?

Apparently the latterly leader of the federal opposition has learned a new word.

I guess any new white collar job almost always includes an associated vocabulary learning curve to overcome?

Footy hang-over?

Our local football club is usually a power-house of the Essendon and district league premier division ... but, this year finished the season in seventh place on a ladder of 10 teams. No sooner had the season ended, than portable high fencing was brought in to surround the city oval before heavy earth-moving equipment moved in to start excavating the entire playing surface to a depth of approximately a metre.

No reason for the work has been announced by either club or municipality. Of course, we hope it is merely a refurbishment of the playing surface, which I can't recall having been done during our 40+ years in the district. But, I can't help myself from considering the possibilty that it may be a knee-jerk reaction to a less than an appropriate effort during the late season ...?

 

Corporate ethics?

This week, Iraq figured in two lead stories in The Age. Not because of the internecine urban terrorism and mayhem which ensued from the second Gulf war ... but, separate allegations of gross unethical conduct on the part of two different Australian corporate entities engaged in business dealings with that blighted nation.

Although innocent until proven guilty, does anyone still believe that big corporations are hindered by the slightest skerrick of decency, when they see an illicit opportunity they think they can get away with? If so, dream on!

Not Abe's cuppa, I bet!

Upon hearing that political shenanigans in the US congress had succeeded in shutting down many federally financed operations due to an equivalent of our parliament failing to pass 'supply' ... I wondered what Abraham Lincoln would think of the situation were he still with us. I figured to express my comic view of his supposed reaction by depicting his voice emanating from a representation of his memorial building in Washington DC. Just google 'Lincoln Memorial' and a squillion views of the structure should materialize immediately ... I thought.

In fact ... initially nothing except a disclaimer across the screen ... "The U.S. National Park Service regrets many of its services (including this web-site) are unavailable due to a government shut-down ...". Well, if ever confirmation of a news report was needed, that had to be it!

However ... undaunted, I soon found a reference pic or two, courtesy of Wikki.
I reckon old Abe would be extra annoyed to find the problem has been invoked thru' the super-egos of a 'wanker' element in what was once his own party?!

The wind bloweth!

About 11pm last night, a forecast wind storm hit us here in Keilor. I learned today that winds measured at up to 140kph ravaged Tullamarine AP all night and, as we are on the same plateau, it's logical that we were receiving the same medicine. Around midnight as I was on my way to bed, a loud crashing sound was discernable from outside above the howl of the wind. I immediately thought 'Oh oh! tree down?'... but couldn't see anything untoward with exterior lights on in the area from whence the crash seemed to emanate.

It took some time to fall asleep because of the racket outside but, eventually fatigue did the job. The wind was still moderately strong when I surfaced again at 6.30am. A quick recce of the property revealed that a large branch from a neighbour's eucalypt had fallen onto and damaged the dividing fence and smaller perimeter trees on our side, but narrowly missed decking and house. Phew!
 Neighbour also lucky as an even larger bough had fallen across his driveway on the opposite side to us. It must've weighed-in at several hundred-weight in the 'old money' ... and, just missed his car.

TV news thru' the day has highlighted much property damage resulting from what the Met. bureau is describing as a record wind-storm for this neck of the woods. I spent all of this morning with the bloke next door (who, fortuitously owns a chain-saw) cutting up rubble tree-parts and trying to restore some order to the jungle of plant growth that my wife has nurtured around our hacienda over many years. Not too far from us a car was demolished under a falling tree ... one of many in the greater Melbourne area. Seeing the local casualty this arvo prompted today's cartoon.

It's an ill-wind that blows nobody any good. Ho-hum.