Tuesday 12 November 2024

The government has now admitted

that it will not be possible to introduce "age verification" measures for some but not all. They are still pushing ahead with attempts to bring in a social media ban for everyone under the age of sixteen but the wider agenda, surveillance of everyone, is now becoming evident.

Years ago now there was an attempt to introduce a nationwide "identity card". It failed. It failed rightly because it went too far. We already have "Medicare" cards and they do the same sort of job. We also have an electoral system which requires people to be on the electoral roll. The few people who are not are  either non-citizens, of criminal intent or perhaps illiterate. The problem is not so large that those groups cannot be dealt with in ways other than a national identity card.

I have said nothing on social media which is likely to land me in prison. I have said nothing which is likely to make me subject to defamation. I have criticised of course, particularly with respect to some of our politicians but I have never said anything which is remotely like what has on occasion been said to me outside social media. 

It is very likely this is also true of the vast majority of people, including under sixteen year old young people. We are using a sledgehammer to try and eradicate a problem which is not going to go away. 

I would be less concerned by the potential impact of the legislation if we did not have the "other" bill in front of parliament as well. This morning it seems that one of the more respected constitutional law professors in this country is expressing concern. Professor Twomey is suggesting that bringing in "misinformation/disinformation" laws and doing it ineffectively will result in "large scale censorship".  I would go a step further and say the proposed law would not need to do it "ineffectively". It will simply do it. What we see, hear and say will be censored. It will be censored because someone will always have an opportunity to say, "This is wrong. Remove it." 

I see this legislation as dangerous and unworkable. It could actually lead to an "underground" of misinformation and disinformation but without the healthy debate which marks a more democratic society. 

Put both bills together and the question is going to be, "How do we teach young people to read the information they are given in ways which encourage them to think about it critically and question what they are reading?" If they cannot do that then we will also severely reduce their capacity to think creatively. That does not bode well for our future.  

Monday 11 November 2024

Blame my brain?

My brain is not working too well right now. Yes, I am under some stress. 

My BIL has just sent through a very long list of things which need to be done before we hand the house over for sale...and I still have nowhere to go. Even with somewhere to go it would be stressful but...  

S... is an engineer by profession. Life for him is about attention to detail, accurate measurements, spread sheets and flow charts. He is happiest when dealing with these things. He admits to having "no imagination", has not read anything other than a textbook except when compelled to do so at school and does not understand creative activities.  He is also loyal towards and protective of my sister. Because he wants what is best for her he has also been willing to put in many hours sorting out "the shed" aka as the Senior Cat's "workshop". I am genuinely grateful for that. 

He has also overseen the cleaning of the white tiled roof. Someone he knew came in and did it over the weekend. K...worked steadily and efficiently and it cost us about a tenth of the price of a commercial firm. All I needed to do was add in the sandwiches and the bottles of fizzy stuff. 

My cousin T... and his partner came yesterday and took away yet more books. We also had cake because we had not been able to properly celebrate T...'s birthday. (Middle Cat is still in hospital but I am a little less worried than I was as at least a range of issues has now been ruled out.)

But, I need sleep. I need lots of sleep. I thought of all this as I handed over the Korean language copy of Nicola Morgan's book, "Blame my brain". I gave it to a Korean girl I know. She lives across the road from this house. This morning I saw her briefly and she told me the book is, "Really interesting. It is properly interesting, not just school interesting. I like it."

This is good. Perhaps it will be easier to make decisions about what to keep and what to throw out if I keep reminding myself of the pleasure that book is giving someone. 

Sunday 10 November 2024

Losing a child before you die

is an appalling thing for any parent to go through. I watched C... go through it with the Whirlwind. I miss her every day but it is much worse for him. He is not the same person now. His cousin, with whom he now shares a house in the nation's capital, tells me C... is very quiet. He goes to work and is still doing an excellent job there but he rarely socialises. "It's a quiet cup of coffee with someone sort of socialising," his cousin told me. C... was never one for parties.

And yesterday other friends lost their daughter to motor neurone disease.  It is less than two years since she was diagnosed. It moved rapidly and viciously. Yesterday R... took her own life under this state's assisted dying laws. She had reached the point where each breath was an effort and she felt she could not carry on.

In making that decision I am sure R... made it with her family in mind as well. It has been a very, very difficult journey for them all. 

It is also going to be hard on the theatre community here. R... was heavily involved for many years. Even after her diagnosis she kept working as long as possible, perhaps even longer than she really should have but she had things she still wanted to do.

 Her father has a strong religious faith. Her mother has none. They have managed to live with this state of affairs for many years. I wonder what will happen now. Will R..'s death change that? I doubt it but it is another issue for them to face.

On Friday evening someone was stabbed to death on the notorious party strip in our CBD. He was a young man. His father is a policeman. How does his father go on doing his job? I wonder about these things and wish I could help such people but know I cannot. I do not understand.

Yesterday someone came to clean the white tile roof of this house. It is one of the many things that need to be done before the house is sold. I gave him sandwiches for his lunch and he told me they were like his mother used to make. (No, nothing fancy just plain old cheese for one and egg for the other.) He is only about thirty but no longer has a mother. He handed his plate back and then he said shyly, "I miss her doing that." 

Yes, we miss our parents when they go. We can miss them desperately but how much harder is it for a parent when they lose a child?  

Saturday 9 November 2024

Being bullied at school

is something most of us have experienced I suppose. Perhaps most people, if honest, would say they did some bullying as well.

I did not bully anyone that I am aware of. The simple reason for that was that I was, for the most part, "the teacher's kid".  I would not have dared to consciously bully anyone. If I had done so and word had reached either of my parents I would have been severely punished, more severely than other children. 

Other children knew that of course and many took advantage of it. If I said anything about my hair ribbons being ripped out or my plaits being dipped in ink (they could be back then) or being told to hand over my piece of fruit at lunchtime I was not supported. I was simply told to "stop telling tales" or "I am sure nobody would do that" or "you must have done something to deserve it". There was no sympathy. I was told to "toughen up" and told not to be a "crybaby". 

The examples I have given were often the least of my worries but I do not think my parents thought the problems were serious. They most certainly were not serious enough for them to intervene. Other children could nicely judge just how far they could go at any given time. I just retreated into books instead.

It was much the same for my brother. If he had been more interested in playing "footy" it might have been different. He read and made things.

We almost never had other children over to play or go to their places to play. I can remember the actual occasions on which this happened because they were so few.  My brother was trying to recall one recently and having trouble. We both remember having Sunday lunch at a nearby children's home when our parents needed to visit our mother's aunt. The aunt was in what I now know to be a violent marriage and we children were being shielded from that information. C...and her five children moved in with us after that. They stayed until the then "Housing Trust" found a house for them. It took some months. C.. was also a teacher but no more sympathetic than our parents when it came to bullying.

We coped of course. We had to cope. I have no doubt that there were children who were bullied far more badly than we were but we were bullied. We were also expected to handle it ourselves. If it had reached the level of serious violence the adults would have intervened. They intervened in school yard fist fights and stone throwing was a very serious offence which resulted in canings for the boys and ruler slaps for the girls.

I wonder if bullying is worse now or whether there is more awareness. Is the emphasis on it in schools a good thing? Is it easier to do it using social media? (I suspect it is.) And, this is a serious question, is it more serious now because children lack the negotiation skills we had to learn in order to play with each other?

I would be interested to know that.

Friday 8 November 2024

Why not make parents more

responsible for their child's behaviour on social media?

I really do not see the proposed "social media ban" for those under the age of sixteen as working. It seems to be some sort of fantasy solution the government wants to use as the easy way out of a much more complex problem.  Teens will simply find a way around it. Sixteen year olds are going to ensure that their younger mates have access to the very sort of information this legislation is trying to prevent them from accessing.

The comments about "this is what parents want" and similar remarks raise questions about why parents have given their children access to social media if they now want it banned. It also raises questions about why they believe social media companies should be held responsible for the behaviour of young people who should be in the care and control of their parents. Social media companies are not there "in loco parentis" as the Latin goes. Similarly teachers should only be in that position when they are in contact with students. They need to be aware of it when they are preparing teaching materials but they are not there to "bring up the kids" outside school hours.

It seems to me we are too ready to try and pass what should be our responsibilities on to other people. The government seems to believe it is right to require social media platforms to be responsible for the behaviour of young people. Why? 

I see it as the responsibility of parents in the first instance. School can come in with behavioural expectations as well but the primary responsibility should be with the parents of each and every child.

Along with the proposed misinformation/disinformation bill currently before our federal parliament this bill is going to severely restrict the capacity of young people to act and interact in a world which is now highly dependent on such things. It is going to give the government of the day a much greater capacity to ensure that only the information they want young people to have is accessible to them. It is wide open to abuse.

So far we are the only country in the "free" world which is attempting to restrict access to social media. Yes, there are other countries which would like to do the same thing but they have held back for technical reasons as well as social reasons. Will they now try to get everyone to "verify" their age? The claim that such information will be safe and secure is nonsense - and they know it.  

Thursday 7 November 2024

Oh America!

Oh America, what have you done?

I tried very hard not to look at the news yesterday. I had a feeling that the election result in America was not going to be the one most Downunderites were hoping for. It wasn't.

It is selfish of us I know but the result there is not good news for us. It will almost certainly mean big changes to the way we do business. It will mean changes to the way we do business with not just America but with other countries as well.  It will mean changes in defence arrangements and foreign affairs as well. 

Perhaps we will wake up and realise how closely allied to America we are? I doubt it. 

Then there is the problem of having a Prime Minister who has said that the next President of the United States "scares the s... out of me". Yes, our current PM is a wimp. No, he will not stand up to the man who will once again be so powerful. Our Ambassador in Washington has made his feelings clear too. Will he survive? His departure would be no loss but who will replace him? 

It would help to have an election here now because, one way or another, it would tell America, "Yes, we have had an election too and this is the way we want to go." 

We do not have those huge election rallies here. We don't have all the crowds being encouraged to shout. Our elections are not nearly as sedate as they once were but they are still reasonably quiet and, compared with some places, civilised affairs.  Still, things are changing and not for the better.

Several days ago there was a news item about a head of government department not displaying our national flag for  reasons I still do not understand. It was something to do with upsetting some group or other. Yes, this was about our national flag. I know it is not to everyone's liking but it is actually a very good representation of who and what we are. There are also some very strict rules and regulations about how and when it should be displayed. I happen to believe those things are important. I believe it is important because the flag is a reflection of us, of our past and of our future.  We need to stand around it and look in all directions. We don't need to change because not everyone is happy only if there is good reason to change. If someone is not looking our way we need to tap them on the shoulder and say, "Hello. We are open to friendship and business. Are you?" 

I want the answer to be "yes" - but we might need to work harder at it. 

Wednesday 6 November 2024

Fee free TAFE?

It is very clear we now have an election coming up in Downunder. It must be held by late September 2025.In reality it will probably be held in around May - after the present government has fudged the budget figures in its favour.

Like everything else a government does policies are made with the idea of clinging to power. Those policies may not be the best thing for the economy but their popularity is what will count.

It is most definitely with that in mind that the government is now saying there will be 100,000 extra places at TAFE and they will be "fee free".  This will not happen and it most certainly will not be free but the government can say it is the case.

It will not happen because the fine print suggests that only some courses will be free - those where there is a high demand for workers. These will be in the childcare and aged care sectors and the building trade. 

I do not know enough about the building courses to comment on their value but some builders have been complaining about what is taught. It seems they are facing the same sort of problem as employers in other areas. 

Childcare and aged care courses are often described as "mickey mouse" or "very low value".  I have seen the course outlines and have to agree. They teach very little. It would seem they are there more to try and show that someone has "done a course". These courses and courses like "food service" courses have been used over and over again to try and get work shy people into work. These are the courses which are often never quite completed so that the certificate is never acquired even at Level 1. Going on to Level 2 or Level 3 is not something they even want to contemplate. If you fail to complete the course and remain unemployed you never had to repay the fees. 

The fees are not as high as university fees and, so far, there has been no apparent pressure to "pass" a failing student in the way there often is at university level. It is unlikely this will ever happen.

But should those courses really be "fee free"? If they are then will some courses at TAFE be fee free and others not? Will the government really pay for courses in fashion, floristry, photography and the like? Will they pay for courses in recreation and sport? I suspect there will be limits imposed. There will need to be. 

If I lived close to a TAFE college and there was a course of interest to me would I be permitted to do it fee free even if I had no intention of working in that field? No, of course not. Restrictions will have to be imposed.

And what of the plan to cut other student debt by 20%. The government really has not thought that one through. I paid to go to university and so did many other people of my generation. I paid even more as an "oversea" student in another country. My nephews and their parents paid for their courses up front rather than have a debt burden later. It called for careful economising for years. There is no suggestion that they will be reimbursed now but students who chose to accumulate a debt will now have their debt cut by 20%. Is that really "fair". Those who paid up front were not wealthy and often worked harder to be sure of passing because they had already paid for it.  That 20% cut is now going to be spread out over taxpayers instead. 

It seems the government has not really thought this through - or at least past the next election.