Tuesday 27 January 2015

The Equality of Citizenship. - The AIM Network

The Equality of Citizenship.

January 28, 2015
Written by:
John Kelly
Leave a reply

During the period between WW2 and the 1970s most
western governments established employment as a right of citizenship.
They declared that a properly regulated redistribution of wealth was
necessary in a free market system and that an enlightened society
required some form of income protection that would be based on a just
wage system.

In Australia and elsewhere, the war years had proved that full
employment could be maintained with the proper use of deficit budgets.
As a consequence, the post war macroeconomic policy of the Labor Chifley
years and some of the Liberal Menzies era continued with that approach.

To achieve this, both governments embarked upon an economic expansion
program involving the public and private sectors, where the number of
job vacancies always exceeded the available workforce. The labour market
was then serviced by a carefully controlled immigration program, most
of which was sourced from Great Britain and Europe.

This highly successful growth blueprint continued until the early
1970s proving that full employment was not only sustainable but a
foundation stone of our national wealth. Thus a commitment to a truly
egalitarian society was established and underpinned by a belief in the
equality of citizenship.

The
one sector of the community that objected to this equality was the
capitalist class comprised mainly of industry bosses who, over time,
realised that the growth of their wealth was compromised by the high
rate of demand that came from full employment. They subscribed to the
theory that with a permanent pool of unemployed workers they could
regain control of supply and therefore, maximise their profits.

So they pressured the Menzies government into applying credit
restrictions that would slacken employment growth effectively wresting
control of supply from the consumer back to them. The evidence of this
in Australia, was the credit crunch of the early 1960s and the cleverly
orchestrated debates that surfaced over trade union power.

Subsequent inflationary pressures followed this paradigm shift and
were compounded by the Vietnam War and the OPEC oil price rises in the
mid-1970s. This created more reasons for western governments to
introduce further contractionary economic policies effectively braking
the nexus between full employment and demand. This in turn, ultimately
led to the dominance of supply side economics, which is what we have
today.

The
rest, as they say, is history. The Reagan years, gave birth to an
unregulated finance and banking system; a free for all where the wealth
of the world became concentrated with, and maintained by, those who
controlled the supply of money to the world, the bankers. They became
the real force behind the captains of industry.

Over the next three decades governments were influenced and
manipulated by the wealthy to stay out of their domain. They cited debt
as the great anathema. Governments were taught by industry that
government debt was bad; that debt threatened supply and had to be
controlled. The Government foolishly agreed.

Thus, free from government involvement, greed became the motivator of
financial success in the private sector, particularly banking and all
areas of society were effectively reduced to a pecking order, accepting
whatever they were offered from a vertical and grossly unequal supply
side, macroeconomic system.

None of this is fanciful or conspiratorial invention. This is what
actually happened. If nothing else, what these events demonstrate, is
that very little in this world happens by accident.

If we as Australians are ever to regain equality of citizenship, we
must re-discover the principle of demand side economics which is
predicated on the assumption that the captains of industry make what we
need, what we want and what we use to enhance the quality of our lives.

In
this scenario, production is limited only by demand. On the assumption
that everyone will demand something, production will need to keep up
with demand thus requiring a greater level of participation from the
available workforce. The outcome will be near to full employment and
greater equality for all.

The only downside is that the captains of industry will face greater
competition and lose control of production volumes, while the banks will
lose control of the money supply. Both will be faced therefore, with
making less profit.

So the question arises, which of these two macroeconomic systems is best for the consumer; for you and me?

Our present government like its predecessor and all the way back to
the Fraser government have been captives of supply side macroeconomic
management. During that time there has always been a pool of unemployed,
effectively a wasted wealth of potential workforce participation.

Modern macroeconomic theory advocates a return to demand side
economics, a return to the days of near full employment, full production
and by design, limited social welfare and a higher Gross Domestic
Product.

This does not mean raping the planet of its resources for a growing
population; quite the reverse. Demand side economics is consumer driven
such that if the consumer demands more environmentally friendly products
and more sources of renewable energy then that is what industry will
produce.

But to achieve this, the consumer has to be properly informed.

What we have at the moment is a conspiracy of denial. Denial of a
planet suffering from the plunder of finite resources, a denial
orchestrated by the captains of industry with a complicit government
that has no appetite for supporting renewables.

Present and future governments cannot be relied upon to lead in this
matter, hostage as they are to the captains of industry and their
masters.

If we want a better world for our grandchildren, debt is not the
problem. The captains of industry are the problem, specifically their
unwillingness to change to something more sustainable and longer
lasting.

This
means change must come from the consumer. Demand side economics will
restore the equality of citizenship. Supply side cannot. Therefore we
need to ask ourselves, what is it that we want?

As long as we allow the captains of industry to dictate the terms of
supply we will never be in control of our own destiny and Australia Day
celebrations will remain a hollow occasion, regardless of all the hoopla
that accompanies them.

Tony Abbott Changes Liberal Foreign Policy

In "Rossleigh"

Let's not forget the poor miners . . .

In "Politics"

People ‘cost too much’: the Abbott Government and Neoliberalism

In "Politics"

Friday 7 November 2014

Black Armbands and White Blindfolds - The Truth About Australia Day

Black Armbands and White Blindfolds – The Truth About Australia Day

By Nick Kenny

“White man came across the sea, he
bought us pain and misery, he killed our tribes, he killed our creed, he
took our game for his own need” – Iron Maiden, “Run to the Hills”

Australia Day has become a day that divides. Two loud voices shouting
across a great divide, one representing the “black armband” view, the
other, the “white blindfold”. The former see it as a day of mourning, a
shameful exercise in arrogant nationalism at the expense of aboriginals.
“Invasion Day”, it is said, ought to be the moniker for the day the
evil white man set foot on this island and set about doing his evils
deeds. Blind to the reality of history, they have isolated our own
experience as some horrible aberration, a millstone of shame forever
upon our necks. The latter, by contrast, deny the history books, seeing
Australian settlement as a morally triumphant day, the first step in an unblemished and proud history to be celebrated with reckless abandon. The truth, as always, lies in the grey area between.

Let’s call a spade a spade – white settlement was an invasion.
Whitefellas came, took the blackfellas’ land, wreaking havoc and
spreading disease as they did so. This is a fact denied only by a
handful of die-hard revisionists.

However, it is also a fact held in unjust contempt by many modern
aboriginals and guilt-ridden apologists. Take a quick glance at history,
and you’d be hard pressed to find a corner of the globe that hasn’t had
something similar happen – it was the primal nature of humanity until
the twentieth century.

Never before in human history have we had the binding international
peace treaties, human rights conventions we have today, nor the general
inclination to avoid war, colonial conquest, and imperialist violence.
The entire narrative of human civilisation, up until very recently, has
been that “might is right” – one either conquers and grows, or perishes
at the hands of those who do.

Australian settlement occurred at the pinnacle of the imperial
European age, when empires clamoured for colonial conquests, with the
ultimate goal of global domination. The biggest threats to our European
forebears were their own neighbours, frantically building empires of
their own and warring amongst one other incessantly. The alternative to
building an empire of their own was to perish at the hands of whoever
else beat them to it.

We would do well to remember that one year after Arthur Phillip set
foot on Australian soil, the French overthrew their monarch, and set off
a chain of events that would lead directly to Napoleon Bonaparte, a
decimated European continent at the hands of the French imperialists,
with the tiny British isles desperately clamouring to mount a defense.
This was, quite bluntly, the dog-eat-dog world of the eighteenth
century.

Were it not the British who conquered aboriginal land for their
crown, then without a doubt it would have been the French, the Spanish,
the Portuguese, or the Dutch. This was the reality of the age in which
we were settled. It was grim, it is nothing to reflect upon with any
sense of pride, but it was the unavoidable nature of the world at the
time.

Finally, an inconvenient truth ignored by the apologists is the fact
that we have brought a great deal to aboriginal life. The myth of the
“traditional” way of life, being some peaceful and prosperous Garden of
Eden, has no substance in fact. Our health services, housing, and social
welfare have all been bulwarks against the unforgiving life in the
Australian bush. Life expectancy has improved dramatically, infant
mortality has plummeted, and life overall is a more comfortable and
stable existence.

This may or may not be an ideal substitute – no one wants their
entire culture overhauled and replaced – but the balance sheet of rights
and wrongs now sits well in our favour. Moreover, we did not introduce
violence – tribal warfare was prevalent here long before Britain even
existed as a political entity.

It is the height of arrogance to judge the brutality of the past
through the enlightened lens of modern values and institutions. Rather
than anguish over the violence that has governed our existence on this
planet since the dawn of time, we ought to be proud of our ability to
transcend it. Enjoy Australia Day – I know I will.

Sunday 12 October 2014

One in seven Australians living below the poverty line, survey reveals

Acoss chief says findings ‘deeply disturbing’ and the 2014 federal budget is likely to push poverty rates even higher

Michael Safi
theguardian.com,
Sunday 12 October 2014 14.18 AEST
Jump to comments (296)

Elderly woman — The elderly are among those most likely to be living in poverty.
Photograph: Daniel Karmann/DPA/Corbis

Four in 10 Australians who rely on social welfare payments – and
nearly half of people on the disability support pension – are living
below the poverty line, according to a major new report.

The research, published by the Australian Council of Social Services
(Acoss), found that more than 2.5 million – or one in seven –
Australians were living in poverty in 2012, a slight increase on the
same survey two years earlier.

Nearly 18% of children live beneath the poverty line, one-third of them in sole-parent families, Acoss found.

The governor general, Peter Cosgrove, said the report revealed the
problem of poverty in Australia to be “insidious and all-encompassing”.

“It deprives [the poor] of their freedom and assaults their dignity.
As a nation we can’t allow it to continue,” he told the launch of
Anti-Poverty Week in Sydney.

The chief executive of Acoss, Dr Cassandra Goldie, said the findings
were “deeply disturbing and highlight the need for a national plan to
tackle the scourge of poverty which diminishes us all in one of the
wealthiest countries in the world”.

Single adults on less than $400 per week, and families with two
children on less than $841 each week, were deemed as living below the
poverty line.

More than half of Australians on the Newstart Allowance, 48% of
disability pensioners and 15% of aged pensioners struggle to meet basic
living costs, the report says.

“This finding brings into focus the sheer inadequacy of these
allowance payments which fall well below the poverty line,” Goldie said.

The maximum payment for a single person on Newstart is $303 per week,
nearly 25% less than what is required to stay out of poverty.

Goldie said the 2014 federal budget – particularly its proposal to
index pension payments only according to consumer price index, rather
than to the more generous average weekly earnings rate – “is likely to
result in higher poverty rates over time”.

Women, children, the elderly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people, migrants from non-English speaking countries and people with a
disability were all most likely to be living in poverty.

“These overall findings are a wake-up call for us as a community and
shine a spotlight on the current policy direction of federal
government,” Goldie said.

New analysis released on Friday
of the government’s budget found the impact of deep cuts to government
spending “falls most heavily on low and middle-income families with
children”.

Fifteen of the 16 hardest-hit electorates were held by Labor,
including Jason Clare’s western Sydney seat of Blaxland, where
households would be $990 worse off each year.

The seats held by Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Joe Hockey and Julie
Bishop were all largely unscathed by the harsh budget. Voters in
Turnbull’s inner-Sydney city of Wentworth would lose less than $70 in
2017, the analysis found.

Hockey told ABC television on Sunday that “variations” in the way budget measures were felt were inevitable.

“We’re reducing government expenditure, and government expenditure is
going to be less in higher-income areas than it will be in areas that
have a lower income,” he said.

But he disputed the “stereotype” that the budget hit working-class
Labor voters while sparing Liberal electorates, pointing out that the
Coalition held a number of low-income seats, and some of the country’s
wealthier electorates voted Labor.

“Frankly the stereotype is easy to create but its not necessarily right,” he said.

Saturday 27 September 2014

Australians band together to show support for Muslim community

Date: September 28, 2014

45 reading now

Natalie O'Brien

#WISH: Non-Muslim women have donned hijabs in solidarity with the Muslim community. Photo: Facebook

Two Muslim men who have experienced the rising tension in the
community since the terrorism threat level was raised said it is
affecting everyone, from their wives and children to the elderly.

Steve and Adam from south-west Sydney said they "can feel the
tension in the air when you take your kids to the park" and there is
also a visibly increased presence of the authorities which was making
people feel uneasy.

In the past week, there have been a string of
incidents involving Muslim women being verbally abused in the street,
cars being vandalised and mosques and religious buildings sprayed with
graffiti. Muslim community members have said they feel they are the ones
being terrorised.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested and charged with being
armed with intent to commit an indictable offence after allegedly
entering the Al-Faisal school in Minto armed with a knife and asking if
it was a "Muslim School".

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Steve and Adam have said some of the community have responded
by taking off the veil, trimming their beards or just staying at home
and not going out.

"People on both sides are afraid," said Steve.

But men had a message for the rest of the community to "stay calm" and don't react.

They said the Muslim community had been through this before, and it would pass.

"We don't want something like the Cronulla riots to happen again.

"We just hope that it goes back to how it was before. We
don't want anything to implode, we love this country, we just want to
live in this great country," they said.

Their comments come as Australians have banded together to
demonstrate their support for the Muslim community by organising
solidarity marches, setting up social media accounts and donning the
hijab in public.

Thousands of people have joined efforts to promote social
harmony, including a social media campaign called Women in Solidarity
with Hijabis (WISH).

The campaign, which was started by a non-Muslim woman named
Ruth who put on a hijab and posted her photo online, took off last week
and within three days the Facebook page had more than 7000 likes.

Muslim women commenting on the page were grateful for the
gesture saying it was appreciated especially given that women wearing
the hijab are bearing the brunt of public anti-Muslim sentiment.

In other initiatives a new Facebook page called
Australian Non Muslims supporting Muslims, which began last week,
already has almost 6000 members. The organisers said the "Islamophobia
and discrimination encountered every day by Muslims living in Australia
is unacceptable".

Sally Balkan, a Buddhist, is co-ordinating a solidarity march
to take place in each state early next month where people from
different faiths and backgrounds can march in support of the Muslim
community.

"We refuse to hate each other," she told Fairfax Media.

Community Relations Commission chief executive Hakan Harman
said people "need to stand by each other, speak out against hate and
violence and report any incidents of harassment, intimidation or
vilification".

Mr Harman said the actions of a few dangerous individuals
should not prevent people from treating each other with respect and
humanity.

His comments come as 250 mosques around the country delivered a united message through their Imams.

Organised by the Australian National Imams Council, the
message to the congregations was that the "protection of human life is
one of the five basic rights in Islam and as a Muslim we have a duty to
protect humanity".

ANIC general manager Samir Bennegadi said the sermons
denounced the so-called fatwa from overseas targeting Australia, saying
it has no religious authority and reiterating that the horrors conducted
overseas in the name of religion are crimes against humanity and sins against God.

Friday 26 September 2014

Common People, Common Dreams // Walk Together 2014

Fairness. Safety. Belonging. Peace. Opportunity. Justice. Freedom from fear. Equality. Hope.

Thursday 18 September 2014

PLEASE PROTECT PUBLIC HOUSING
SIGN THIS PETITION AGAINST NEWMAN PLAN TO PRIVATISE IT

Click on this link to sign it
https://www.change.org/p/defend-public-housing-and-stop-newman-s-housing-2020-plan-we-recognize-that-social-housing-is-a-right-and-call-on-the-newman-government-to-immediately-revoke-implementation-of-the-housing-2020-strategy

Sunday 27 July 2014

'Middle-Out' Economics - » The Australian Independent Media Network

‘Middle-Out’ Economics

July 27, 2014
Written by:
Victoria Rollison
9 Replies

Here it is. Here is the wealth inequality narrative progressives have been searching for. Yesterday I wrote about rich wankers and a couple of helpful commenters contributed the following two articles on the subject of wealth inequality:

‘Middle-Out’ Economics: Why the Right’s Supply-Side Dogma Is Wrong

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

Both articles are written and co-written by Nick Hanauer
– a member of the 0.01% wealthiest people in the world thanks to his
foresight in investing early in Amazon. Hanauer is arguing for a
progressive narrative to replace the right’s reliance on ‘trickle down
economics’. I would suggest reading both articles, as I really believe
Hanauer is spot on. Hanuaer’s 2012 TED talk is also worth watching.

I am currently studying political narrative and framing and through
this research, I have become interested in George Lakoff’s work in
trying to convince the US Democrats to be smarter about the language
they use to argue against Republican and Tea Party policies which widen
the gap between rich and poor. Policies like tax breaks for the rich,
using the incorrect excuse that the rich are job creators. And policies
that aim to make the government smaller and more ineffective in stemming
capitalist greed. Hanauer argues that there is no empirical evidence
that tax breaks for the rich create jobs. He also argues that the best
way to reduce the size of government is to reduce welfare payments by
expanding the size of the middle class. Someone needs to show Joe Hockey
this suggestion. People don’t want to be on welfare and would
support a government who supports them to be trained and prepared for
meaningful, well paid work. This is simple, yet powerful stuff.

The crux of Hanauer’s narrative is that middle class spending creates
demand in the economy and in turn, creates jobs. As Hanauer explains,
from his own experience as a member of the ultra-rich American
community, he might earn 3,000 times more than the average worker, but
there is no way he consumes, or buys, 3,000 times more than the average
worker. His excess money goes into his own savings and investments,
which help him to get even richer, widening the gap between his wealth
and everyone else’s. Hardly any of Hanauer’s wealth influences the
wealth of the middle-class in his community and contributes to job
creation. As he simply says, if Walmart employees can’t afford to be
Walmart consumers, who is going to ensure the long term
sustainability of Walmart’s business model? His arguments are not social
ones, although of course they do affect social policies. His arguments
are economic. The loss of America’s middle class means the loss of their
consumer base.

Here are Hanauer’s suggestions as to how ‘Middle-Out’ economics can become a thing as published in The Atlantic:

First, relentlessly frame the choice as a choice.
It’s trickle-down and middle-out economics. Not “top-down.” Not “the
old ways that got us into this mess.” Trickle-down vs. middle-out. If we
don’t have the courage to name our alternative, and repeat it
relentlessly, we haven’t given people a clear choice. We will never
displace trickle-down ideas if we don’t provide a clear, concise, and
compelling alternative. Neither term has inherent force; it’s only in
the contrast that we win.
Second, propagate the one pivotal meme at the heart of this entire effort:
that rich businesspeople don’t create jobs; middle-class customers do.
To put it another way, the right’s claim that rich businesspeople are
job creators is the critical vulnerability deep in the heart of the
Death Star; if we can target our ammunition to obliterate that single
claim, the entire Death Star of right-wing ideology will implode and
disintegrate. Why? Because without that claim, there is no way for the
trickle-down camp to justify the absurd preferential treatment in the
tax code and the regulatory regime for the rich and for large
corporations. Without that claim, trickle-down economics reduces nakedly
to a rent-seeking, self-serving agenda by the very rich to extract
wealth from the poor and middle class. In short, we need to pick a fight
with the right about the origins of prosperity in a capitalist society.
Middle-out economics will prevail.
Third, make every economic issue an example of middle-out economics. The
Ryan budget fails not because it is unfair or heartless or draconian.
It fails because it perpetuates trickle-down thinking and cripples the
ability of the middle class to generate national prosperity. Entitlement
reform is not about the virtue or vice of running deficits. It is about
whether we create enough security for middle-class consumers and
workers to participate in the economy. The Affordable Care Act is not
about the byzantine bureaucracy of health-care delivery. It’s about
whether the middle class can dedicate its purchasing power to productive
economic activity instead. And so on with sequestration, fiscal
stimulus, and tax reform.
Fourth, recommit to capitalism — in a truer and more effective form.
Middle-out economic policies aren’t just good because they benefit the
middle class or the poor in the near term. They are great for the United
States as a whole in the long term because they drive prosperity for
all, including the rich. Our agenda is to make capitalism be all it can
be for all of us.
Fifth, take this case to the people in the form of story. The
argument we make here is a conceptual one. But the delivery device for
that argument has to be narrative. Perhaps unfortunately, the last 30
years provide a very simple narrative arc — the tale we told at the very
start of this article. That kind of storytelling must become second
nature to progressives. Indeed, on all these fronts, progressives need
dozens of complementary and simultaneous efforts to turn middle-out
economics and the job-creator meme into products — media stories,
policies, bumper stickers, viral videos, school curricula.

The fifth point is the one that most interests me and my study into
political communication and narrative. The left need a new narrative.
And ‘Middle-Out’ provides this narrative. As I have previously written,
wealth inequality needs to be at the heart of the left’s new narrative.
Hanauer’s suggestions provide the left with a way to make this happen.

John Oliver’s recent segment about wealth inequality
was both hilarious and depressing. It revealed to me that President
Obama knows that he needs a wealth inequality narrative, but so far
hasn’t been able to find one. Oliver quotes from this article
which explains that when Obama’s historian, Robert Dallek, asked the
President during a round table discussion what his administration needed
help with, Obama’s response was:

“What you could do for me is to help me find a way to
discuss the issue of inequality in our society without being accused of
class warfare.”

I believe Hanauer is offering a possible solution to Obama’s problem.
Coupled with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s ‘You did not build this on your
own’, the Hanauer ‘middle-out not trickle-down’ narrative adds another
layer of concrete to this concept. The genius of Hanauer’s argument is
that you can’t be accused of class warfare when the advice you are
giving helps every class. Every class benefits from a strong,
productive, wealthy-enough-to-consume middle class. ‘Middle Out’
economics is the narrative Obama, and all progressives, have been
searching for. Is the Australian Labor Party listening?

Wednesday 16 July 2014

Melbourne teenage mathlete wins gold for second time at International Mathematical Olympiad - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Melbourne teenage mathlete wins gold for second time at International Mathematical Olympiad

By Loretta Florance

Updated
6 hours 53 minutes ago

Photo:
Maths genius Alex Gunning on stage after his perfect score at the
2014 International Mathematical Olympiad in Cape Town, South Africa. (Supplied: Australian Mathematics Trust)

Map:
Melbourne 3000

A Melbourne student has achieved a perfect score at
the International Mathematical Olympiad in South Africa, winning a gold
medal for the second year in a row.

Seventeen-year-old maths
genius Alex Gunning, who is in year 11 at Glen Waverley Secondary
College, was one of more than 500 contestants from 103 countries, all
under 20, competing at the prestigious event in Cape Town.

The event consisted of two four-and-a-half-hour exams, each with three questions.

Alex was one of only three students to achieve the perfect score and win a gold medal.

Australian Mathematics Trust supporter Adam Spencer said Alex's results were a "once-in-a-generation achievement" and a "triumph of great genius but also real application".

"Imagine
how complex and difficult these questions are that the best young
mathematicians in the world get 90 minutes each and for the most
difficult question on each paper - and they're worth seven marks each -
the most popular score is a zero, a one or a two," Mr Spencer said.

"What Alex has done, six questions, seven out of seven on each, 42 out of 42 is an incredible achievement."

Alex said while the questions were not particularly difficult to understand, they were "really, really hard to solve".

"The
reason why we have four-and-a-half hours for them is that there's no
set way to approach these questions ... you have no idea how to do them
when you first see them," he told 774 ABC Melbourne.

Hours of study needed to compete in olympiad

Alex's mother Hannah Cooper said getting accepted to compete in the competition required hours of studying and testing.

"There's
160 hours of gruelling testing, that's not counting any preparation -
that's 160 hours of testing to pass to actually get into it, so the rest
of the time they are relaxing and reading around the subject," Ms
Cooper said.

'A triumph of great genius'

Alex Gunning and Adam Spencer talk to James Carlton on ABC Radio National.

"It is terribly hard work. The travel and the
preparation is very gruelling and you worry that they're going to be
strong enough, but they really enjoy it, it's great peer engagement.

"We're not fanatics on study ... but it is demanding to do it all."

On
an international level, it was extremely rare for a student to win two
gold medals at the event and Alex was the first Australian to do so.

When we do maths at school it's just the same thing over and
over again, and that's why we think maths is boring, but the IMO and
Olympiads ... aren't like that.

Alex Gunning

He said he enjoyed the challenge of the international competition.

"When
we do maths at school it's just the same thing over and over again, and
that's why we think maths is boring, but the IMO and Olympiads ...
aren't like that, and that's why people are interested in them," Alex
said.

The assistant principal at Glen Waverley Secondary College,
Sandra Erickson, said the school was "absolutely thrilled" with Alex's
success.

Ms Erickson said the school had challenged Alex through enhancement programs and by organising a mentor from Monash University.

"We
have many high performing students ... if they're sitting in class just
doing the same work as everyone else they obviously would get bored,
but by challenging them through advancement they stay with their own
year level, but within maths they are pushed," she said.

"It helps their social skills as well as encouraging their ability and their particular areas of talent."

Alex said he hoped his gold medal-winning success would lead him to bigger and brighter things.

"I'm
quite pleased with the result obviously, and a lot of people seem to be
quite proud of me, it's also apparently quite good for your career to
have these things on your resume ... so I'm quite happy with that as
well."

Topics:
mathematics,
science-and-technology,
mathematics-education,
subjects,
education,
melbourne-3000,
glen-waverley-3150,
south-africa

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Henry Jones is a top Senior South Australian

By ANTHONY CAGGIANO

Nov. 14, 2013, 7:51 a.m.

A BIG CATCH: Henry Jones has been recognised at the South Australian of the Year Awards for his work to save the Lower Lakes and Coorong.

CLAYTON BAY - Henry Jones is known in the Lower Lakes for his fine fishing skills and he has just now reeled in one of his biggest catches.

The retired Clayton Bay resident was named a finalist in the South Australia Senior Australian of the Year Award 2013 for his work in water conservation.

The awards were announced at a special dinner in Adelaide on Tuesday, November 12.

Scientist and environmental leader Dr Barbara Hardy AO won the award and Professor Malcolm R Haskard of Humbug Scrub, and Sister Patricia Sealey of Enfield were fellow finalists.

Henry said he was “humbled” and “felt very honoured” to be a finalist.

“The three other finalists were very worthy,” he said.

Henry has no idea who nominated him.

“But when I find out, I’m going to kill them,” he said.

Henry is most proud of helping shape a world first environmental management plan for a whole of fishery in the Lakes and Coorong.

This included looking after fish stocks, banning undersize catching, and finding ways to increase the fish population.

This was achieved during his time as president of the Southern Fishermen’s Association.

“We let mulloway get to a bigger size and allowed fish to live another year so they could spawn,” he said.

He also helped the local fishing community to achieve a Marine Stewardship Council Certification for sustainable fishing practices.

“I was involved in this 20 or 30 years ago, and to see the young fisherman coming through and carry the flag, it’s really great,” he said.

As a resident of Clayton Bay since 1961 and a fourth generation fisherman, the Lower Lakes have been close to his heart.

Working on the River Murray and helping bring the lakes back to life has been one of his most rewarding projects.

He was a member of the Murray-Darling Basin Community Committee. There, he advised the Murray-Darling Basin Authority about the lakes’ situation, which would in turn help inform what should be included in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“Seeing the river die before my eyes, then slowly get water back and see it come back to life has been the biggest (project),” Henry said.

Over time, Henry has captained CFS units, established boat clubs, built community halls and sat on the Strathalbyn-Milang council for 10 years.

But he knows a champion team is better than a team of champions.

“Every job I’ve done, there has been people there that have helped me,” he said.

Henry credits his wife of 51 years, Gloria, as the biggest support.

“She’s been behind everything I’ve done,” he said.

“Fifty per cent of the credit goes to her.”

Gloria said she was “very proud” of her husband.

“He’s taken on the lot during this life; I think he’s done very well,” she said.

RELATED COVERAGE

Felicity-ann Lewis named South Australian of the Year: Former Yankalilla woman and current Local Government Association president Felicity-ann Lewis has been bestowed with a top award for her contributions to the state.

THE AUSSIE BATTLER : FOR EQUALITY AND FAIR SOCIETY

Tuesday 27 January 2015