The following IDEAS (500 words maximum on each of 10 topics) were formally submitted to the Australia 2020 Summit process by Dr Gideon Polya on Thursday 28 February 2008. For detailed and DOCUMENTED discussion of related matters see earlier postings on this blog.
TOPIC 1: Future Directions for the Australian Economy - Education, skills, training, innovation and productivity
1. High quality, maximum access, minimum cost, de-regulated Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) (involving detailed electronic provision of lecture notes, syllabus, teaching materials etc) can deliver teaching and learning off campus equivalent to that being delivered on-campus.
2. Professionally active retired academic teachers and researchers as well as industry graduate professionals are a valuable teaching resource.
3. Student “unions” and student services wrecked by the neo-con Bush-ite Coalition Government should be urgently restored.
4. The career path for outstanding young Australian academic scientists should be improved – it is very tough in terms of uncertainty and low remuneration in comparison with young people going into law and commerce.
5. Fund universities – stop the “dollar driven” rather than quality- and excellence-driven academic decision-making.
6. Student HECS fees should be abolished – tertiary education should be FREE.
7. A minimal Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) scenario would be simple Federal or State Government fiat ordering their academics to formally examine students on courses provided free from 63-Nobel-Laureate US MIT.
8. At the very least an efficient crash course on higher education teaching should be given to all tertiary level teachers.
9. Active encouragement should be given to parental and family participation in child education from a very early stage.
10. Urgently correct socio-economic status-determined educational resources in State education on a needs basis.
11. Accredited Remote Learning (ARL), with parent, aide and other participation in equitable, high technology, de-regulated, intelligently-streamed, disabled- and disadvantaged–responsive, competency-assessing and accrediting secondary education.
12. NO taxpayer funding of false, dangerous and anti-social instruction of children (e.g. teaching of Creationism, Intelligent Design, Biblical Literalism, anti-safe-sex instruction, homophobia, anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and historical lies of omission amounting to racist holocaust-denial).
13. Greatly improved basic public understanding about science and scientific method – the spin-based and climate sceptic Bush-ite Coalition era must NEVER be repeated.
14. A major public education campaign is needed on the major nuclear, greenhouse and poverty threats facing humanity, the Climate Emergency facing Australia and the World and the need for Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency requiring NEGATIVE CO2 emissions to bring atmospheric CO2 back to a safe and sustainable 300-350 ppm as recommended by outstanding US climate scientist Dr James Hansen of NASA..
15. There should be greatly increased funding for pure research – Australian pure science researchers have been struggling for 2 decades.
16. Political interference through non-expert, political cancelling of Australian Research Council grant awards should be immediately stopped.
17. There must be urgent implementation of scientific rational risk management principles in society successively involving (a) data, (b) science (critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic change (current Bush-ite converse: lies, spin and counterproductive “blame and shame” ).
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TOPIC 2: Economic Infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of our cities
1. Climate emergency and peak oil means renewables, electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, expanded public rail transport, and cessation of fossil fuel burning and highway building.
2. Just as we now have legislated mandatory efficient ENERGY USAGE (e.g. with long life energy-saving lights) so we need mandated efficient ENERGY PROVISION.
3. Building highways and fossil fuel power stations should stop – but sensible rail systems should expand in concert with intelligent re-design of our cities.
4. Urgent need for the expert estimation of the “true cost” of major economic components such as coal-fired power stations and cars .
5. There is an urgent need for the expert estimation of the “true value” of public assets .
6. Save wild nature - sustainable use of wild nature is economically compelling (Balmford et al).
7. Continued economic growth with NEGATIVE CO2 emissions means sole renewable energy use, re-foresting and restoring carbon to the soil.
8. In relation to the “true cost” of coal-fired electricity ALL renewables (including the latest photovoltaic technologies) are cheaper – and accordingly there must be massive investment in renewable energy.
9. Atmospheric CO2 must be kept to below 450 ppm in order to save the 63,000 jobs and $7 billion pa from the Great Barrier Reef.
10. The urgent need for a Declaration of Climate Emergency, Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency would have a transformative role in relation to economic infrastructure.
11. Change to “needs” rather than “desires” in our economy .
12. Economic efficiency must be the goal rather than economic expansion per se .
13. Implementation of Concentrated Urban goals should mean a more concentrated and efficient economic infrastructure.
14. There will be hugely expensive re-positioning of economic infrastructure unless the World declares a state of climate emergency.
15. There will necessarily be major changes to our economic infrastructure when Australia declares a Climate State of Emergency.
16. Massive changes to water-related infrastructure are urgently needed.
17. Internet speed is woeful in Australia and should be urgently brought up to North American standards.
18. Reject a 2-tier, rich versus poor Internet access.
19. US spying via the Echelon system and through inbuilt PC systems should be urgently addressed.
20. Government-independent, public access, ABC-style daily newspaper/magazine.
21. Taxpayer-funded blogging and public access commentary to maximize citizen participation in Australian democracy; National Web-based newspaper is urgently needed – Mainstream media are criminally woeful.
22. The Internet can be intelligently used to save hundreds of millions of dollars spent on Government health, security, electoral and other advertising.
23. Radical redesign for more concentrated urban living for transport, convenience, socialization and environmental and agricultural impact reasons.
24. Huge losses in our coastal cities unless the World declares a state of climate emergency .
25. Concentrated Urban renewal models e.g. the traditional circular model or a linear, rapid-transit-linked model.
26. The huge Indigenous and non-Indigenous homelessness in Australia is an outrage and should be addressed immediately.
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TOPIC 3: Population, sustainability, climate change and water
1. Australia's population is much too great (as evidenced by the enormous environmental impact and flora and fauna extinctions) – public education and action is urgently needed.
2. Exploit the Indigenous Australian sustainability culture for the benefit of the Land and ALL its People.
3. Water is needed for citizen consumption, agriculture, industry and the environment and there must be a New Deal to meet these needs.
4. Enough is enough – there should be COMPLETE CESSATION of flora and fauna extinction in Australia and that means national and global action to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to about 350 ppm (10% BELOW the current atmospheric CO2 concentration of 385 ppm).
5. Urgent action on CO2 pollution is needed NOW in the light of our arrival already at key “tipping points” for mass extinctions and massive ecosystem destruction (see top US scientist Dr James Hansen)..
6. Stringent duty of care at all government levels is needed to avoid irreversible damage through storm surge and sea level inundation AND to avoid litigation.
7. The 85% fossil-fuel-based electricity production is a disgrace – cost-effective and cost-competitive renewable technologies can and must be implemented NOW .
8. Antarctic sea ice loss, Great Barrier Reef loss, elevated Indian Ocean temperature, intensifying Southern Australian drought and cessation of Southern Ocean absorption of CO2 - must be reversed NOW.
9. Constant rate of increase of Australian CO2 pollution and fossil fuel exports impervious to scientist and IPCC warnings over decades – urgent action is needed NOW.
10. According to top scientists (Dr Hansen, Professor Lovelock FRS) we need “negative CO2 emissions” NOW.
11. Act on Climate Genocide NOW by observing the CAAAA protocol involving Cessation and reversal of CO2 pollution, Acknowledgment of the ongoing crime, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again to anyone” (Lovelock: over 6 billion will perish this century).
12. Act NOW to avoid looming International Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands over Australia’s Climate Criminal, Climate Genocide policies.
13. “Waiting for Garnaut” should CEASE – an urgent need is for ACTION and public education about the Climate Emergency.
14. Act against irresponsible media reportage re Climate Emergency and Climate Genocide.
15. Australia is the World’s worst developed country for “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution”.
16. “60% decrease by 2050” actually means that Australia’ s TOTAL annual per capita CO2 pollution will INCREASE over the next 4 decades.
17. Fully renewable energy, comprehensive public transport, demise of the private car, and cessation of urban sprawl and highway building.
18. Use annual $10 billion pa fossil fuel subsidies to build wind farms at $2 per watt for 50 Gigawatt 100% renewable wind energy in 10 years.
19. Stop deforestation both at home (Tasmania, pulp) and abroad.
20. Further extinctions and ecocides are INTOLERABLE and what is left of wild nature must be used sustainably.
21. Australia and the World need an immediate Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency, a State of Emergency to stop run-away climate change.
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TOPIC 4: Future directions for rural industries and rural communities
1. Agriculture is vital for security-relevant Australian production of food for Australians – that means conservation of such farming communities but should no longer permit export of scarce water through water-costly rural exports.
2. After 2 centuries of abuse there needs to be a new culture of correct valuation of National land, freshwater and marine resources – they ultimately belong to the Nation and must be used sustainably whether “privately owned” or “leased”.
3. There is need for preservation of a “Henry Lawson” “cultural” dimension of rural communities involved in the historical and continuing, global British Imperialist Australian Aboriginal Genocide– but there is ALSO need to preserve a major, unique, globally-significant Indigenous Australian culture of Sustainability and Respect for Land.
4. Global warming-linked drought is set to increase in the Southern part of Australia and there should be urgent research into the novel, valuable, arid zone crops to grow - my huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds. A pharmacological reference guide to sites of action and biological effects" (Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, London and New York, 2003) is an example of a database (now being exploited by top UK researchers) that can be used to select valuable, novel arid zone crops.
5. Massive changes to water-related infrastructure are urgently needed as Indian Ocean warming forces more drought on Southern Australia through southerly shifts in water-bearing wind patterns .
6. There is urgent need for massive re-afforestation which also means rural re-juvenation through such activity.
7. Major new industries in the outback will be soil carbon sequestration, solar energy capture, wind, wave and geothermal power with a consequent massive restructuring and de novo building of rural communities.
8. Need for a major “black earth” initiative for soil recovery through return of pyrolytically charred biomass as a major mechanism of soil carbon sequestration – plus re-afforestation, de-salinization etc .
9. Long-term views of how we live (Circular Concentrated Urban or Linear models) could mean rapid rail connection of many rural and indeed remote rural communities as an investment for the present and the future.
10. In collaboration with Indigenous Communities there needs to be a new kind of National stewardship of all of Australia – recognition of the sanctity of the Land, flora, fauna, water bodies, air and cultural sites.
11. Duty of care means accepting top, expert climate science advice that we have reached a tipping point ALREADY at 385 ppm carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere (All Arctic summer ice may be gone in several years) and acting urgently as advised by Dr James Hansen of NASA to reduce atmospheric CO2 to a safe and sustainable 300-350 ppm CO2 ASAP i.e. a policy of NEGATIVE CO2 EMISSIONS.
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TOPIC 5: A long-term national health strategy
1. Appalling Aboriginal health situation should be addressed immediately and with the same urgency as for round-the-world solo sailors who deliberately place themselves in danger (90,000 Indigenous Australians died avoidably in the 11 years of the Coaltion Government; current Indigenous population 0.5 million).
2. The trend to a more privatized, Americanized system of health care should be resisted – there should be first class health care for all Australians whether rich, poor, White or Indigenous .
3. Many ethically, expertly and professionally applied flexible options can decrease the costs, increase accessibility and throughput of the health system.
4. Deregulation of universities and Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) could increase the number of people doing theory-only parts of medical, paramedical and medical science degree courses.
5. Deregulation of universities and technological innovations to assist teaching and learning should enable major expansion of medical and paramedical student numbers in the theory only parts of such courses.
6. Students with tertiary entrance scores of 95% are presently blocked from studying studying medicine, dentistry or physiotherapy but should be enabled (e.g. by ARL and innovative "practical" teaching) to do such courses.
7. No Australians should have to wait in pain for months before treatment readily available to people with private medical and dental insurance.
8. On consulting an excellent GP, immediate concerns were the urgency of addressing Aboriginal health and of discouraging smoking .
9. There should be greater support for hospital risk management and related “training” systems for reducing avoidable deaths in hospitals.
10. About 72% of all deaths in people below the age of 75 in Australia are considered to be avoidable and the Indigenous rate of deaths from avoidable causes is almost four times the rate for the non-Indigenous population – this should be urgently addressed.
11. Major medical problems in Australia due to obesity, smoking and alcohol – need greater preventive campaigns and free behaviour change assistance for all people at risk.
12. Australia with bi-partisan support is complicit in the US Occupation of Afghanistan that restored the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 5% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007 and hence was linked to 0.6 million global post-2001 opiate drug-related deaths (about 2,000 in Australia).
13. While the “Little Children are Sacred” Report stated that “it is not possible to accurately estimate the extent of child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory” it presented evidence that one third of Australian females experienced childhood sexual abuse – this and related abuses should be urgently addressed Nation-wide.
14. Efficient models for immediately bringing decent primary health care to Indigenous Australian communities can serve as models for general delivery of very efficient primary health care to ALL.
15. Subject to expert and ethical regulation and inspection there are novel uses of the Internet for remote diagnosis, mass screening and for primary diagnosis to increase the efficiency of medical services.
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TOPIC 6: Strengthening communities and supporting working families
1. There should be workplace flexibility and humane philosophy to allow and encourage family time.
2. There should be active encouragement of part-time paid or volunteer work for mature, retired people who are keen to continuing to contribute their expertise e.g. I retired from my laboratory and academic teaching several years ago but am extremely active in part-time university practical and theory teaching, other tertiary institutional teaching, giving courses to the University of the Third Age (U3A), researching, writing, painting, cartoons, humanitarian advocacy, climate change activism, making submissions to Government, journalism and publishing.
3. Volunteer work should be promoted and facilitated through increased accessibility of public infrastructure such as educational institution resources.
4. Novel solutions can be found for the mounting mortgage crisis for over-committed families e.g. renting rooms, cooperative food purchases, financial advice and cost-recovery tiding-over emergency assistance .
5. Community participation can be encouraged through use of local school infrastructure for courses, sport, and special interest groups.
6. Off-campus Accredited Remote Learning (ARL), and its on-campus equivalent of the “auditing” (with provision of detailed teaching materials) of university courses, potentially enable maximum access, minimum cost access to top quality teaching and learning in every theory-only lecture course being delivered at our universities for initial education, re-training and life-long learning.
7. Life-long learning, voluntarism and retirement socialization and activism are all promoted by the University of the Third Age (U3A) - this can be assisted by further pro bono publico access to public infrastructure e.g. halls, lecture theatres.
8. The mounting Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency has generated Climate Action Groups around the Nation who are trying to save their Children, Grandchildren, Australia and indeed the Planet – they can be assisted, by access to publicly-owned infrastructure.
9. Charitable, bottom-up activism to help the disadvantaged should be supported in various ways such as tax deductibility and access to public resources.
10. Novel ways of assisting and promoting charitable, sporting, humanitarian, life-long learning, volunteer and other community groups e.g. paid time off for volunteer firemen, increased community access to public infrastructure.
11. De-regulation of education should permit sensible, anti-bureaucratic and free accreditation for linguistic, sporting, technical, cultural and other competencies both for children and adults for individual and community benefit.
12. Community togetherness can be encouraged by access to public infrastructure and public education .
13. Street democracy and togetherness can be also encouraged by encouragement of “street meetings”.
14. General e-mail linkage in Australia and community and street e-mail linkage provide powerful mechanisms for non-intrusive community interaction.
15. Public meeting- and e-mail-based community participation provides a new from of community life that gets back to traditional rural and traditional urban Australian values.
16. We and our neighbors have an annual street garden party and this should be popularized nation-wide.
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TOPIC 7: Options for the future of Indigenous Australia
1. Indigenous health funding should be urgently doubled as recommended 4 years ago by medical experts to meet peculiar needs and to stop the horrendous Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 excess deaths annually out of 0.5 million).
2. Apology to Indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generations is the first step – re the on-going Aboriginal Genocide there should be a comprehensive Cessation, Acknowledgment, Apology, Amends and Assertion of “Never Again”.
3. Urgent steps should be taken with intimate Indigenous consultation to stop the current irreversible Indigenous ethnocide.
4. Australia should sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights .
5. Australia should urgently rescind the race-specific (i.e. racist) legislative suspension of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act in relation to Northern Territory Indigenous Australians .
6. Overall taxpayer-funded Indigenous Australian employment should be the SAME as for White Australians .
7. All social services (health, education, emergency, welfare, security, legal etc) should be provided to Indigenous Australian communities at the same or indeed greater level as appropriate .
8. Qualitative versus flawed quantitative “market economics” considerations indicate many imaginative options for Indigenous Australian employment in urgently needed areas e.g. primary health care, security, child welfare, education, coastal security, eco-tourism and language, environment and cultural protection.
9. There needs to be a radical change of White Australian attitudes towards an active nurturing and evolution of Indigenous Australian cultures .
10. With Australia and the World facing a Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency – with White Australia a major culprit - there is a crucial, major role for Indigenous Australian cultures of environmental sustainability and respect for Nature .
11. Indigenous Australia must be creatively and crucially involved in renewal and restoration of Land and Wild Nature in Australia.
12. The current imperative of the Climate Emergency means that there must be major rural programs for re-afforestation, soil carbon renewal through pyrolytic biomass charcoal addition and soil carbon-enhancing fallow – these should crucially involve Indigenous Communities.
13. General Internet and e-mail connection in Australia should be of enormous value to Indigenous Australians –in terms of communication with Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and people overseas .
14. Imaginative new social relationships should be built between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian individuals, families, communities and organizations (and facilitated by e-mail connections).
15. Imaginative primary health care arrangements for Indigenous Australians can assist and inform similar initiatives for non-Indigenous Australians.
16. Urgently needed creative initiatives in Aboriginal housing can inform similar initiatives urgently needed for homeless non-Indigenous Australians .
17. Urgently needed educational initiatives for Indigenous child and adult literacy can inform similar initiatives for promoting teaching and learning in presently severely disadvantaged non-Indigenous Australian communities.
18. Restoration of forests and ecosystems after 220 years of European destruction is crucial for Australia and must involve Indigenous Australians.
19. Indigenous Australian adult literacy is a major imperative should be urgently addressed.
20. Addressing Indigenous needs requires a fundamental change of non-Indigenous attitude to Humanity, Nature and to themselves .
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TOPIC 8: Towards a creative Australia: the future of the arts, film and design
1. An Australian writer and academic (Tasmanian Oxford Don Peter Conrad) once observed that man needs, food, shelter and also FICTION to interface with a hostile world - at a time when top UK and US climate scientists are demanding not zero CO2 emissions but NEGATIVE CO2 emissions to save our Planet, investment in the arts, film and design is thoroughly warranted.
2. Australian mainstream media, politician and academic ignoring of horrendous excess deaths in Occupied Iraq, Occupied Afghanistan and Indigenous Australian communities indicates that Australia and the other Murdochracies are spiritually SICK and require a moral rejuvenation that can come from the Arts rather than from morally-compromised, holocaust-complicit, holocaust-ignoring organized religion.
3. The independence of the ABC should be enhanced through rigorous and critical public inspection of Government-appointed Board members, election of staff representatives, election of public representatives and Web-based Rational Risk Management feedback systems .
4. Rational Risk Management requires mandatory honest reportage. Freedom of speech is vital and defamation laws should be amended because constraints on timely, truthful reportage is a REAL threat to national and societal security and the national interest .
5. Holocaust ignoring and Genocide Ignoring is shamefully entrenched in Australian culture – the Great Australian Silence in the Land of Lies, Slies (spin-based untruths) and Flies - but in the interests of Free Speech and untrammelled scholarly research Australia needs “no penalty genocide-denial criminalization” – the only punishment would be the public humiliation of the judicially proven holocaust denial.
6. Greater use of school and university infrastructure for community Arts activities and for displaying community Art.
7. Television (especially pap TV) is dumbing down and indeed manipulating and brainwashing both children and adults – there needs to be better children’s TV, better TV in general, promotion of books and reading and public education on this very serious matter (e.g. see Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason").
8. Greater appreciation of Quality, Truth and Beauty (man-made and natural) in a post-Bush-ite Coalition society ( Thus John Keats:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. ) 9. Encouragement of greater actual formal social and educational recognition of competencies.
10. There should be much greater financial support for critical, iconic cultural assets (museums, art galleries, orchestras, ballet, theatre, Indigenous culture).
11. Around the country there are thousands of dedicated artists whose work could - with some public imagination - enrich our public life pro bono publico. As an example, "words having failed", I paint huge, colourful paintings for Peace, East-West Amity and for Respect for Woman and for Mother and Child - I am exhibiting many of these huge works around the world via the Web e.g. simply "Google" the title words to see "Manhattan Madonna", "Sydney Madonna", "Melbourne Madonna", "Rosanna Madonna", "Jerusalem Madonna", "Alhambra Pollock", "Isfahan Matisse", "Truelove", "Deep Mind", "Scheherazade", "Apocalypse Now", "Bundoora Arabesque" and "Terra" painting.
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TOPIC 9: The future of Australian governance: open government (including the role of the media), the structure of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens
1. Australia’s involvement in the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide and Climate Genocide - see "Body Count" (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007) - is only possible because of Mainstream media, politician and academic LYING and decent taxpayers must demand punitive FEEDBACK from Government e.g. loss of radio licences, TV licences etc.
2. Outstanding Jewish American investor and philanthropist George Soros has called for the “de-Nazification” of Bush America and the same process should be urgently applied to genocide-complicit and genocide-denying Bush-ite and neo-Bush-ite White Australia.
3. Australia urgently needs a Web-based Newspaper equivalent of the ABC that would involve expert academic, industrial and scientist correspondents and with public participation as citizen journalists and for open public commentary.
4. The Academies (such as the Academy of Science and the Academy of Humanities) should involve themselves actively in public policy through Reports by expert sub-committees.
5. As happened in post-Apartheid South Africa, Australia needs a Truth Commission to enable exposure and reconciliation with the guilty who would have immunity from prosecution and indeed would only be punished if they refused to cooperate and tell the truth.
6. As recommended by Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter there should be war crimes trials for Australian and other US Alliance politicians and officials involved in the Iraqi Genocide (1.5-2 million post-invasion excess deaths) and the Afghan Genocide (3-6 million post-invasion excess deaths).
7. Public access question time – a Government-independent but State-sponsored interactive Web-site in which questions can be asked of public officials and the replies posted.
8. We require a dramatic increase in free speech in the public interest through softening of the defamation laws and the removal of corporate “SLAPP writs” against free speech.
9. A Bill of Rights is urgently needed in this country especially re basic liberties, racism, free speech.
10. Rational Risk Management in our dangerous world crucially requires information and effective free speech – commercial in confidence in relation to taxpayer-funded projects, 30 year confidentiality rules for Government and other information-denying mechanisms need to be circumscribed.
11. There must be much greater respect for Scientists, Scientific Institutions and bodies and eminent and collective scientific opinion and scholars in Australia .
12. The idea of a Republic is supported by most Australians – however a Republic Declaration should not enable us to escape our continuing remorseless association with past and continuing British atrocities.
13. Australia should support a Global Parliament as suggested by Professor George Monbiot and involving per capita representation; it should also support India (1.1 billion people) being a major member of the UN Security Council.
14. There should be a respected, Government-funded but Government-independent body which can make informed, expert public pronouncement on major public falsehoods and related misdeeds.
15. There should be a public mechanism independent of Government and the lying, racist Mainstream media to ask questions of the “how much” and “how many kind”.
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TOPIC 10: Australia's future in the region and the world
1. Security comes from being NICE to people and doing business with them – Australia should cease diplomatic, legislative and military support for UK, US and Israeli state terrorism (Indigenous excess deaths in post-1950 US Asian wars now total 24 million).
2. The racism, xenophobia, anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Australia should be reversed by public policy and education.
3. As with post-1945 Germany, Australia should adopt a CAAAA (C4A) protocol in relation to its nearly 60 years in post-1950 US Asian wars – Cessation of the killing, Acknowledgment of the crimes, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again to anyone”.
4. Mandatory societal Rational Risk Management requiring (a) unfettered information , (b) science and (c) rational systemic change to minimize risk.
5. Deregulation of education, Accredited Remote Learning, competency assessments, off-campus skilling, participation of parents, professionals and retired teachers, community involvement, industry-involvement, Rational Risk management-enhanced systemic improvement, free speech, Web-empowerment, free top quality education at all levels.
6. Indigenous Australians must be given a “fair go” and recognized as a crucial cultural resource component in Australia addressing the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency.
7. Stop fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution and rapidly become a world leader in exploitation of solar energy through concentrated solar, photovoltaics, wind power and wave power.
8. Rescind draconian human rights-abusing legislation and have a Bill of Rights.
9. The greatest terrorism threat to Australia comes from Bush-ite US and Racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (25,000 Australian citizens bombed and shelled in Lebanon in 2006) – policies of collaboration must be REVERSED.
10. Terminate the American Alliance in the light of the US Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Climate Genocide and horrendous post-war crimes in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
11. The major acute threats to Australia and to the world are nuclear, greenhouse and poverty threats - with the US the major perpetrator.
12. Public discussion in Australia must be urgently concerned with “how much” and “how many” in relation to key areas of national integrity.
13. A general scientific Rational Risk Management culture is vital for the future security and prosperity of Australia.
14. Analysis of global avoidable mortality reveals the major causes as violence, deprivation, disease and LYING – need zero tolerance for racism, violence and lying.
15. Need open access, ethical, non-racist, humanitarian, ABC-style alternative to the generally racist, lying, holocaust ignoring Mainstream media.
16. An Australian Truth Commission is vital with immunity from prosecution for people revealing the Truth with Remorse.
17. Zero tolerance for racism and also for public lying since it is racist lying by commission and omission that permit such atrocities and history ignored yields history repeated .
18. Current Australian culture of genocide commission, genocide denial, holocaust commission and holocaust denial, indicates urgent need NOW for no-penalty genocide denial criminalization.
19. URGENT - a Global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to a safe and sustainable level of 300-350 ppm.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Australia 2020 Summit - 255 IDEAS
Australia 2020 Summit – 255 IDEAS for Australia’s Future by Dr Gideon Polya
Introduction
The newly elected Rudd Labor Government of Australia (hurrah!) has announced that it will convene an Australia 2020
“The Rudd Government will convene an Australia 2020
The Summit will bring together some of the best and brightest brains from across the country to tackle the long term challenges confronting Australia’s future –challenges which require long-term responses from the nation beyond the usual three year electoral cycle.
To do this, the Government will bring together 1000 leading Australians to the national Parliament to debate and develop long-term options for the nation across 10 critical areas:
1. Future directions for the Australian economy – including education, skills, training, science and innovation as part of the nation’s productivity agenda
2. Economic infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of our cities
3. Population, sustainability, climate change, and water
4. Future directions for rural industries and rural communities
5. A long-term national health strategy – including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population
6. Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion
7. Options for the future of indigenous
8. Towards a creative Australia: the future of the arts, film and design
9. The future of Australian governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens
10.
Participants will be selected by a 10 member non-government Steering Committee. The
I have briefly outlined below a large number of useful ideas for
1. Dr Gideon Polya background
Dr Gideon Polya is a Melbourne-born and Melbourne-based agnostic Humanist, parent, grandparent, biological scientist, writer, lecturer, humanitarian advocate and artist. He has published some 130 works in a 4 decade academic scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis,
Dr Gideon Polya writes extensively around the world at the science-society interface and in particular about avoidable mortality and major threats to humanity (e.g. see his writings on MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya , Sulekha: http://gideon.sulekha.com/ and Newsvine: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/ ). While he has little voice in the Australian Murdochracy (but certainly not for lack of detailed submissions to Government, Parliament and Media), he occasionally penetrates the Mainstream Media Wall of Silence, notably through the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) e.g. see his contribution “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (a compendium of essays by 28 variously prominent Australians edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ).
Dr Gideon Polya has been associated with tertiary education as a student, teacher and researcher for nearly 50 years (1961-2008) and has been involved in teaching university courses in the period 1972-2008 (thus in the last year he gave a second year Agricultural Science Biochemistry course, theory and practical, at a top university and also presented courses for the University of the Third Age).
As amplified below, one can address reality QUANTITATIVELY with numbers, statistics, reason and science but QUALITATIVE approaches - e.g. through Art - are possible. Words having evidently failed ( 16 million people die avoidably each year, 9.5 million being under-5 year old infants due to un-acknowledged, un-addressed and increasing global avoidable mortality) he has painted and exhibited huge paintings for Peace and Respect for Mother and Child (please feel free to use these images with attribution for the cause of Humanity and please send the links to everyone you can): Deep Mind: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17895/42/ ; Genes and Memes: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18122/42/ (both of these relating to Mind and Humanism), Apocalypse Now (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17652/42/ ), Jerusalem Madonna (Muslim, Renaissance Italian, Byzantine Orthodox, aboriginal, abstract expressionist fusion): http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17194/42/ , Manhattan Madonna ( a memorial for 9/11) : http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10766/26/ , Rosanna Madonna: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/16627/42/ , Scheherazade (for Women’s Rights) : http://mwcnews.net/content/view/16294/42 / , Sydney Madonna (for Mother and Child and Indigenous Rights) : http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10865/26/ , Truelove: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11031/254/ , Melbourne Madonna: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13950/26/ , Qana (inspired by Pablo Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece “Guernica”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9547/26/ , Isfahan Matisse: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/14417/26/ , Alhambra Pollock: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/14082/42/ , Terra: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ and Bundoora Arabesque: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15960/42/ .
2. Science and Rational Risk Management (RRM) methodologies are required
Rational Risk Management (RRM) (that has been particularly successful in aviation, heavy industry and defence) successively involves (a) obtaining and reporting accurate data, (b) scientific analysis (science involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic changes to minimize risk.
RRM is applicable to all kinds of situations but is typically perverted (the illegal US,
3. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are applicable to reality and societal problems
a. Some years ago an Australian attacked Michelangelo’s
How do we qualitatively and quantitatively measure the cost and respond to Australians complicit in (b) the irreversible destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and (c) mass infanticide in the Occupied Iraqi and
b. Anthropogenic Global Warming is substantially due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) which is currently 383 ppm and increasing at 2.5 ppm annually. Above 450 ppm the world’s coral reefs and the Australian Great Barrier Reef are unsustainable due to ocean acidification. Australia is among the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluters and if you include its world #1 coal exports is the developed country with the highest fossil fuel-derived annual per capita CO2 pollution.(5 times that of the World and China, 40 times that of India, 160 times that of Bangladesh). Further, committed Rudd Labor policies mean 50% increased annual per capita CO2 pollution by 2050 (see:
http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/2008/01/rudd-australia-report-card-2-climate.html ).
Australia can approach this destruction of a common public (and indeed World Heritage) asset by valuing it (i) qualitatively as a priceless ecosystem of unique organism; (ii) in terms of “market economic value” ($7 billion pa and 63,000 jobs from tourism according to access economics: http://www.alp.org.au/media/0607/msloo260.php ); and (iii) its “true economic value” in terms of tourism, national and international fisheries and sustainable use.
c. UNICEF data (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ) inform us that each year 0.5 million Occupied Iraqi and Occupied Afghan under-5 year old infants perish – one every minute, 90% avoidably and largely due to gross Occupier violation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of war which unequivocally demands that an Occupier preserves the life and health of its Conquered subjects “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm .
The cost and culpability can be assessed (i) qualitatively by considering every child as unique and priceless, International Law and the unwritten injunction “thou shalt not kill children”; (ii) quantitatively by assessing the “market value” of an infant life e.g. working life x annual world GDP/world population = 50 years x $55 trillion per year /6.5 billion persons = $0.4 million per person (2003 value); and (iii) quantitatively by considering what top Australian law firm Slater and Gordon could secure for each of the estimated up to 8 million bereaved Iraqi parents (1990-2008 Iraqi under-5 infant deaths now totalling 4 million; see “US mass infanticide. 4 million reasons why Hillary Clinton is unfit to rule”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19275/42/ )
4. Avoidable mortality (excess death) is fundamental to assessing social and global policies
We can assess the success or otherwise of social policies by all kinds of measures (per capita income, wealth and even measures of “happiness”). However for those who believe that “all men are created equal and have an unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” the most fundamental measure is avoidable mortality (avoidable death, excess. mortality, excess death, deaths that should not have happened). Avoidable mortality is defined as the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently run country with the same demographics (e.g. same birth rate and age distribution) (see: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).
Careful, exhaustive analysis of UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) over several years leads to the following horrifying estimates: 1950-2005 excess deaths have totalled 1.3 billion (the World), 1.2 billion (the non-European world) and 0.6 billion (the Muslim world). These estimates are consonant with independent estimates of 0.88 billion 1950-2005 under-5 infant deaths (the World), 0.85 billion (the non-European World) and 0.4 billion (the Muslim World).
The stunningly crystal clear reality is that excess mortality is inversely proportional to Imperialism (invading and violently occupying other countries) and directly proportional to Being Occupied. Thus 1950-2005 excess mortality is 9.8 million in Overseas Europe (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel) and 19.7 million (Western Europe), these groupings containing nearly all the recent-historically imperialist countries, but inexorably rises with Being Occupied (to a maximum of 300 million for non-Arab Africa (no imperialism in the last few centuries except for tribal or neighbour conflicts and US-backed Ethiopian and Apartheid South African invasion of neighboring countries).
The RATIO of 1950-2005 excess deaths to the 2005 population expressed as a percentage (%) for the major regions of the world, from "good outcome" to "worst outcome": Overseas Europe (2.7%), Western Europe (5.0%), Eastern Europe (7.6%), Latin America and Caribbean (9.4%), East Asia (10.9%), Central Asia Iran and Turkey (20.7%), Arab North Africa and Middle East (23.0%), South East Asian (25.1%), Pacific islands (27.3%), South Asia (31.9%), and Non-Arab Africa (43.2%).
What SHOULD BE of acute interest to Australians is the involvement of
Contrary to the imperialist spin of the mainstream of Australian media, politicians and academics, the worst culprits are the “nice countries”, the USA, the major West European former colonial powers, US-backed Israel and what is now Russia (see: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ) .
Also KNOWINGLY kept well-hidden has been the continuing Aboriginal Genocide – excess deaths 9,000 annually and 90,000 excess deaths over the 11 years of the previous Bush-ite Coalition Government (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15140/42/ and National Indigenous Times, ”The Awful Truth”, Issue 131, June 14, 2007: http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=11555) .
As outlined later in this analysis White Australia is still actively engaged in holocaust commission and denial and genocide commission and denial – all of these being utterly repugnant and evil activities. Further, the SUSTAINED (and hence intentional) nature of this involvement must be taken into account when considering the core definition of Genocide according to the UN Genocide Convention (see http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ) as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
5. Acute Nuclear, Greenhouse and Poverty threats facing Spaceship Earth and threat-complicit
According to Dr John Holdren, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s biggest general scientific organization, the three most serious threats facing the world as (i) Nuclear weapons, (ii) anthropogenic global warming and (iii) poverty (see: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-19-03.asp , http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0216am_holdren_address.shtml , and “US nuclear, greenhouse and poverty threats. “Apocalypse Now” painting”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17652/42/ ).
Unfortunately, cowardly, irresponsible and politically correct racist (PC racist)
Nuclear threats -
Greenhouse threats - rational approaches to save the Planet are resolutely opposed by racist, greedy Bush America (the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluter) and neo-Bush-ite Australia (the world’s big country with the worst annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution and the world’s biggest coal exporter). Thus “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person (2004 data) is 19.2 (for
Poverty threats - Australia has about 54 times the annual per capita income of Bangladesh but is acutely threatening wretchedly poor Muslim countries through global warming and support for anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic US global violence. 16 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease. However according to Professor Lovelock FRS unaddressed anthropogenic global warming Australia being a major climate criminal threatening the world with Climate genocide) is set to acutely impact 6-9 billion people this century and over 6 billion may perish (see: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock and http://royalsociety.org/news.asp?id=7226 ).
6. Australian Silence, holocaust commission, holocaust denial and post-holocaust CAAAA (C4A) - silence kills and silence is complicity
Together with a famous Nobel Laureate from Harvard (Professor Amartya Sen), a top medical historian from the Wellcome Institute, University College, London (Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya) and others, I was recently part of a 2008 UK BBC radio program series called “The things we forgot to remember” and specifically that program concerned with an immense man-made holocaust in WW2 that has been effectively deleted from history and general public perception in the English-speaking world (including Australia). The 1943-1945 man-made WW2 Bengal Famine was the result of sustained, remorseless British policy (4 million deaths; 6-7 million deaths in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Orissa; associated with large-scale civilian and military sexual abuse of starving women and girls; speculated and indeed authoritatively asserted to have been a deliberate, sustained “scorched earth” WW2 strategic policy” to inhibit possible Japanese invasion of British-ruled India) (see: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ); and Mason, C. (2000), A Short History of
How is possible that a 6-7 million victim WW2 Holocaust bigger than the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million victims) can be removed from public perception in a prosperous, well-educated, liberal democracy such as Australia? The short answer is that
Thus unknown to White Australians through Mainstream media, politician and academic LYING, White Australia is presently involved in an on-going Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 avoidable deaths annually; 90,000 avoidable deaths in the 11 years of the Coalition Government; one of Australia’ top academic and clinical diabetologists has recently predicted disappearance of Indigenous Australians this century in the absence of requisite urgent action: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20745401-5003426,00.html ); “annual death rate” 2.2% for Indigenous Australians; 2.4% for Northern Territory Indigenous Australians and 2.5% for Australian sheep: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15140/42/ ); an Iraqi Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 1.5-2 million; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.6 million; 4.5 million refugees); an Afghan Genocide ( post-invasion excess deaths 3-6 million; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 2.3 million; refugees 4 million) (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya071007.htm ) ; and Climate Genocide (Australia is one of the most egregiously Climate Criminal countries (see: http://green-blog.org/2007/12/14/climate-criminal-bali-wrecker-rudd-australia-faces-world-sanctions/ ) ; global warming exacerbates global avoidable mortality that totals 16 million annually, of whom 9.5 million are avoidable under-5 year old infant deaths) (see: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ ) .
In 1945 ordinary Germans could say that “they didn’t know” about the holocaust . In 2008 ordinary Australians can assert much the same ignorance due to sustained, racist Mainstream media, politician, bureaucrat and academic LYING by omission.
Post-1945 Germans adopted a post-holocaust protocol that can be summarized by the acronym CAAAA (C4A) - Cessation, Acknowledgment of the Crime, Apology, Amends and Assertion “Never Again to Anyone”. Unfortunately in relation to the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide and Climate Genocide politically correct racist (PC racist) climate criminal and war criminal White Australian has done NONE of CAAAA (C4A).
The continuing global avoidable mortality holocaust on Spaceship Earth is due primarily to violence, deprivation, disease and LYING. Fundamentally the Great Australian Silence of holocaust denial, ecocide denial, ethnocide denial and genocide denial must END.
The acute threats facing
With this general background, a further 250 detailed, expertly informed and specific IDEAS for Australia 2020 are succinctly outlined below with brief evidentiary comments (noting that from a fiscal perspective most of these suggestions involve better use of EXISTING resources).
1. Future directions for the Australian economy – including education, skills, training, science and innovation as part of the nation’s productivity agenda
a. University education
i. High quality, maximum access, minimum cost, de-regulated Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) can deliver teaching and learning off campus equivalent to that being delivered on-campus (63-Nobel-Laureate MIT offers its teaching materials free on the Web: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/HowTo/index.htm ; such high quality, low cost Distance Learning is found all around the world, most notably in Germany, South Africa and China; in Australia, for many courses half the students do not attend lectures after the first weeks so that they can earn money for living and fees; for detailed analyses of global ARL and a high quality system designed for Australia see: http://accreditedremotelearning.blogspot.com/ ).
ii. Professionally active retired academic teachers and researchers as well as industry graduate professionals can be a valuable teaching resource for cash-strapped universities (medical schools heavily involve people involved in clinical, research AND teaching activities; there are excellent industry co-option examples in, for example, Germany and Australia; in 2006 I gave the equivalent of a full-time academic non-research theory and practical course annual teaching load to second year science students at a top university for 10% of the money and in 5% of the time, obtained a 96% pass rate, a bell-shaped normal distribution of results and excellent feedback and greatly enjoyed a bureaucracy-free teaching and learning experience).
iii. Student “unions” and student services wrecked by the neo-con Bush-ite Coalition Government should be urgently restored (advice as a priority item received from a top Vice Chancellor).
iv. Students must ideally be taught by research-informed academics but there are big differences in the quality research activity of academics (a continuing legacy from the Dawkinization of tertiary education) – this should be addressed in a humane and helpful way (e.g. teaching-only academics; Accredited Remote Learning options; some way of lightening the load on academics, especially scientific researchers) (there are big parity and life-style differences in the system e.g. from a 35 hour week to 7 days a week work).
v. Problems of “dumbing down”standards for weaker students and some Overseas students with poor English comprehension should be honestly and helpfully addressed (lesser universities take in weaker students and there is a strong pressure to pass Overseas students who pay so much for the privilege).
vi. Life-long learning, Accredited Remote Learning, competency accreditation, the University of the Third Age, non-enrolled student “auditing” of courses, after-hours use of university lecture theatres for community activist and professional groups can ALL make use of under-utilized university infrastructure resources and retired academics keen to continue teaching (since retiring from a senior university post several years ago I have been heavily involved in teaching at a non-university tertiary institution, at a top university and for the University of the Third Age).
vii. The career path for outstanding young Australian academic scientists should be improved – it is very tough in terms of uncertainty and low remuneration in comparison with young people going into law and commerce (this is counterproductive and shabby treatment of our best, brightest and most committed).
viii. The squeeze put on Australian Universities by the egregiously dishonest and anti-intellectual Coalition Government must be reversed – it had the additional damaging effect of making academic decision-making “dollar driven” rather than quality- and excellence-driven (this created an extremely discouraging and demoralizing environment for academics working for very long hours in an increasingly uncertain and threatening environment).
ix. Mentoring of students (Australian and Overseas) by professional industry graduates or retired academics would be useful for the students and for the social rejuvenation of post-Coalition universities (such mentoring has indeed commenced at one university to my knowledge).
x. Student HECS fees should be abolished – tertiary education should be FREE (it is essentially free in many German states; Australia needs a complement of research-informed experts for health, security and industrial productivity reasons – but why should 17-21 year olds have to pay for it and for the associated academic research? Australian householder contribution to tertiary education is similar to that for the
xi. As a way of cheaply de-regulating tertiary education, ALL tertiary institution courses should be publicly defined by Web-available syllabus details (available textbook and page reference details) with publicly available detailed lecture notes, worked past exam and tutorial questions and other teaching and learning aids to permit ANYONE to attempt these theory-only courses off-campus at minimal cost by Accredited Remote Learning ($10 per course to cover examination costs versus $100,000 for attending a medical school as a fee-paying student; this is in effect what happens ANYWAY for many courses NOW – the students turn up in the first week to collect lecture notes or Web download details and then go off-campus to work to pay for HECS [student fees] and living expenses).
xii. Well-designed public websites should be set up (by Government, unions or parents) to permit parents, students and teachers to publicly comment on the tertiary education system (e.g. this submission would be posted and indexed with a searching device).
xiii. An eminent, experienced and competent Independent Inspector General with a small but expert technical staff should be appointed to critically inspect every one of Australia’s state and private universities and TAFE institutions (by detailed questionnaire and site visits), to publicly report via a website and to make urgent recommendations; although I am a very busy person, I would volunteer to do the job knowing that my Reports about a variously shocking disparities would be PUBLIC ).
xiv. A defamation action-protected public website should be set up to identify FALSE instruction in books, journals, newspapers or Web-available teaching and learning materials (e.g. easily identifiable history books ignoring huge genocides such as the Irish famine (1 million dead, 1 million exiled) or the World War 2 Bengal Famine(6-7 million Bengal region deaths: (see: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) .
xv. Further to proposal xiv, books, magazines, newspapers and other publications in university libraries (and indeed all libraries) found to be falsely instructing by lying by omission and commission should be identified with a yellow decal carrying the offending page references (this would be a powerful step against media, politician, bureaucrat and academic lying by omission that, for example, has made Australia complicit EACH DAY in roughly 1 avoidable under-5 infant death every minute in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories as revealed by UNICEF data: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ).
xvi. For the benefit of tertiary education students and the public there should be ZERO Government licensing or purchase of electronic, media or any other publications involved in false instruction and especially of those involved in holocaust denial and genocide denial (zero taxpayer support for LYING; this is the REVERSE of what the previous Coalition Government and well-known Pressure groups attempted to do a year or so ago in relation to a Victorian school politics textbook that they wanted to BAN because it truthfully mentioned US and Israeli state terrorism as well as Muslim-origin non-state terrorism – 8 million excess deaths associated with Bush wars over 7 years versus 7,000 Muslim-origin non-state terrorist murders over 40 years, this including Israelis and ignoring former Italian president Francesco Cossiga’s recent public assertion that the US CIA and Israeli Mossad did 9/11: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18569/26/ ).
XVII. A minimal Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) scenario would be simple Federal or State Government fiat ordering their academics to formally examine students on courses provided free from 63-Nobel-Laureate US MIT (the cost of such accrediting examination would be about $10 as compared to annual HECS fees of the order of $10,000 and full fees up to the order of about $100,000).
XVIII. In addition to (or as part of ) an ARL system one can envisage rapid mechanisms of formal accreditation of native language speakers for their language skills (and indeed others for other competencies) (e.g. by way of example, brief oral examinations are used in universities to establish the bona fides of very good students who have missed out on formal examinations for some good reason and where it is deemed impractical to go to the trouble of formal written examination).
XIX. To minimize personal problems due to tensions in cash-strapped universities an independent Federal Universities Ombudsman should be appointed (see past Senate Inquiries into Australian Universities to gauge the nature of such distracting and stressful impositions).
XX. Federal funding should be completely withheld from tertiary institutions giving blatantly false instruction (e.g. teaching untestable Creationism or Intelligent Design theories rather than testable and hence scientific Evolution in biology courses).
XXI. At the very least efficient crash course on higher education teaching should be given to all tertiary level teachers (I finally graduated with a postgraduate qualification in tertiary level teaching after 32 years of academic teaching; I believe that only a minority of academics would have such formal teaching qualifications).
XXII. Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) options should be offered world-wide at cost to permit large-scale, high quality teaching and learning off-shore (akin the US MIT system but allowing for efficient, low cost accrediting examination; many overseas students have a poor comprehension of SPOKEN as opposed to written English; this sort of system is based upon the idea that education should be free and that our universities exist to TEACH rather than as exploitative, money-driven, commercial, profit-driven organizations).
XXIII. Use of volunteer or modestly remunerated retired or employed teachers, academics, researchers and industry professionals for tutoring Accredited Remote Learning students (or indeed for other mentoring and assistance e.g. for Overseas Students) (this would for example use the huge untapped resource of the skills of retired graduates as well as of working graduates happy to do their bit for higher education).
XXIV. As urged by the Association for the Public University, there must be a radical departure from the debased “bean counting” perversion of administration-gone-mad education – Education should be free (see: http://www.publicuni.org/ ; see “Crisis in our Universities”, nation-wide broadcast transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s347931.htm ).
XXV. Universities should be about teaching, research and professional service to the community – Governments must urgently support universities to perform these functions (here are some comments made a few years ago by a very distinguished academic, Professor John Scott, a former vice-chancellor of La Trobe University: “The prime roles of a university are threefold: to teach, to conduct research and to provide service, including constructive criticism, to the community … The teaching role has been severely threatened … Fundamental research is now difficult to conduct … critical comments by university staff have been censored … It is time that governments recognised that universities are not just an expensive luxury, but a highly important part of our national activity.”; see: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s347931.htm )
b. Secondary education
i. Active encouragement should be given of parental and family participation in child education from an early stage (reading, books, culture, homework, motivation, mentoring, tutoring; Mark Latham’s “a book for every child”).
ii. The “us and them” socio-economic status-determined educational resources and State education outcomes is a national disgrace and should be urgently corrected on a needs basis (very few students from “safe” Labor seats get to the top universities).
iii. While the Bush-ites and neo-Bush-ites ignore the urgent needs of under-resourced state education system students they are happy to lavish money on already well-endowed private schools to the point where headmasters of such top private schools have protested the inequity – urgent action is needed to correct this (all children should have a basic fair go when it comes to health, education and opportunity).
iv. Intelligent de-regulation and increased access to top quality University courses at minimal expense (e.g. off-campus and on- or off-campus Accredited Remote Learning, see a.i above) should enable a humane decrease in the “pressure cooker” on gifted students, more “joy” in learning and greater access to courses of their choice for talented students (surely a well-rounded and intelligent student with a Tertiary Entrance Score of 95 on a scale of 0-100 should be quite capable of being a competent doctor, physiotherapist , dentist or lawyer?)
v. Accredited Remote Learning, competency accreditation, ethnic group language and culture studies, non-enrolled student “auditing” of university courses, and after-hours use of theatres for “extra-curricular courses” can all expand secondary education options (greater utilizing of existing resources).
vi. Ways of driving the tight education dollar further would include greater use of part-time teacher’s aides and use of volunteer retired teachers and professionals wanting to participate in a limited or after-hours fashion (I recently participated in such an event at a top boys’ school).
vii. The “PC for every student” idea does not appear very sensible, practical or equitable and should be more efficiently transmuted to ensure excellent interactive electronic teaching aids and excellent Internet access at school (how will poor families pay for $60 monthly internet access cost when just the latest 0.25% interest rate hike will add $40 per month to average mortgage repayments?; a top girls’ private school does not let the girls take their PCs home for security reasons; a top private boys’ school has one third of its PCs “down” for repairs at any one time) .
viii. Multi-streaming within schools (e.g. slow and fast learners, technical versus academic subjects) should be intelligently supported (students should not be deprived of useful technical training or denied teaching appropriate to their level and abilities).
ix. Accredited Remote Learning and other after-hours learning should be encouraged and competencies (technical skills, languages) recognized (I did several such learning options at high school – it was highly beneficial and enjoyable).
x. All Australian children should be guaranteed access to all major senior school courses to enable post-secondary education options (Accredited Remote Learning options and inter-school teaching can help meet this need).
xi. Reported high truancy and reported lack of any teachers for some days each week in remote Indigenous communities is intolerable and should be addressed immediately (see item #7, options for the future of Indigenous Australians).
xii. There should be separation of church and state – while the state should help parents sending children to private schools it should NOT fund religious teaching (brain-washing) by chaplains (the thin edge of the wedge argument says that this intrusion will lead us down the American path to a fundamentalist nightmare of widespread intellectual abuse of children and ignorant, primitive, superstitious religious right perversion of public policy).
xiii. There should be Government supervision and action in relation to false, dangerous and anti-social instruction of children (e.g. teaching of Creationism, Intelligent Design, Biblical Literalism, anti-safe-sex instruction, homophobia, anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and historical lies of omission) (this sort of abuse is rampant in increasingly Americanized religious right Australia).
xiv. There should NO taxpayer funding of false, dangerous and anti-social instruction of children (e.g. teaching of Creationism, Intelligent Design, Biblical Literalism, anti-safe-sex instruction, homophobia, anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and historical lies of omission amounting to racist holocaust-denial) (this sort of anti-social intellectual child abuse is rampant in Australia).
xv. Teaching and curricula should be left to expert teachers and Bush-ites, neo-Bush-ite and Partisan Pressure groups should not be able to dictate the syllabus (in 2007 the Bush-ite Federal Coalition, the State Opposition and several pressure groups wanted to ban a useful politics text book because in discussing terrorism it mentioned US and Israeli state terrorism as well as non-state terrorism - yet 7,000 Western civilians have been murdered by Muslim-origin non-state terrorists over the last 40 years (including Israelis and assuming no US or Israeli complicity in the 9/11 atrocity as asserted by eminent former Italian President Francesco Cossiga: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18569/26/ ) versus post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories that now total 0.3 million, 1.5-2 million and 3-6 million, respectively: http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/ ).
xvi. As a way of cheaply de-regulating secondary education, all final year courses in all states should be defined by publicly Web-available syllabus details (available textbook and page reference details) with publicly available worked past exam questions and other teaching and learning aids to permit ANYONE to attempt these courses off-campus at minimal cost by Accredited Remote Learning ($10 per course to cover examination costs versus $20,000 for attending a top private school).
xvii. Well-designed public websites should be set up (by Government, unions or parents) to permit parents, students and teachers to publicly comment on the system (e.g. THIS submission would be posted and indexed with a searching device).
xviii. An eminent, experienced and competent Independent Inspector General with a small but expert technical staff should be appointed to critically inspect every one of Australia’s state and private schools (by detailed questionnaire and site visits), to publicly report via a website and to make urgent recommendations ( although I am a very busy person I would volunteer to do the job knowing that my Reports about a variously shocking disparities would be PUBLIC ).
xix. A defamation action-protected public website should be set up to identify FALSE instruction in books, journals, newspapers or Web-available teaching and learning materials in our schools (e.g. easily identifiable history books ignoring huge genocides such as the Irish famine (1 million dead, 1 million exiled – yet ignored by my English History text by a famous Cambridge Professor) or the World War 2 Bengal Famine (6-7 million Bengal region deaths but rubbed out of most history books; see: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ).
xx. Further to proposal xix, books and other publications in school libraries (and indeed all libraries) found to be falsely instructing by lying by omission and commission should be identified with a yellow decal carrying the offending page references (this would be a powerful step against media, politician and academic lying by omission that, for example, has made Australia complicit in roughly 1 avoidable under-5 infant death every minute in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories as revealed by UNICEF data: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ).
xxi. For the benefit of secondary education students and the public there should be ZERO Government licensing or purchase of electronic, media or any other publications involved in false instruction and especially of those involved in holocaust denial and genocide denial (zero taxpayer support for LYING; this is the REVERSE of what the previous Coalition Government and well-known Pressure groups attempted to do a year or so ago in relation to a Victorian school politics textbook that they wanted to BAN because it truthfully mentioned US and Israeli state terrorism as well as 1,000 times LESS murderous Muslim-origin non-state terrorism).
xxii. Their variously uninformed, cowardly or evil Parents WON’T so CHILDREN should set up organizations dedicated to exposing the physical abuse, sexual abuse, intellectual abuse of Australian children, the Climate Emergency and the active and passive mass murder of our Occupied Asian subjects (an intellectual equivalent of the medieval Children’s Crusade but with peaceful, Web-savvy, documented exposure of lies and crimes against Children and the Planet).
xxiii. There should be encouragement and support for the extremely cheap but high quality options of accredited or non-accredited life-long learning and re-training via on-campus course “auditing”, post-graduate top-ups, off-campus Accredited Remote Learning and the University of the Third Age (U3A) ( I have been variously involved in such initiatives).
xxiv. As urged by the Association for the Public University, there must be a radical departure from the debased “bean counting” perversion of administration-gone-mad education and artificially high-cost education – Education should be free (see: http://www.publicuni.org/ ; see “Crisis in our Universities”, nation-wide broadcast transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s347931.htm ).
XXV. Volunteer or modestly-remunerated mentoring and tutoring involving retired or working professionals or otherwise specifically competent people would be a very useful adjunct to the present system (it would be a useful way of exploiting a huge untapped community skills resource and promoting voluntarism and community participation).
XXVI. Careful and competent identification and removal of deficiencies and abuses through rational risk management (a key part of this would be reportage as outlined below).
XXVII. Rational risk management requires basic information and reportage -confidential electronic or “complaints box” reportage on the education system is vital for improvement ( I am aware of a top private school that has such a “box” for teachers; such an electronic or other “complaints box” should be available for parents, students and indeed all citizens e.g. as in this present blog exercise but formalized and advertised).
XXVIII. Child abuse and in particular child sexual abuse is a huge problem in Australia but the problems of child unwillingness to report (and hence of no access to counselling) can be very simply overcome by formalized and advertised anonymous and confidential electronic reportage (the child could then opt for electronic counselling and as confidence grows for direct medical or psychologist counselling; the “Little Children are Sacred” Report” There is no doubt from the shocking anecdotal accounts in the Report that from a QUALITATIVE perspective Aboriginal Child Sexual Abuse is occurring and must be urgently stopped. However the Report (p57) states that “it is not possible to accurately estimate the extent of child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory” and the only QUANTITATIVE estimate offered in the Report is that “70% of all female Aboriginal prisoners in New South Wales jails had suffered sexual abuse as Children” (Report, p5).
Importantly, the Report refers to studies in
XXIX. There should be efficient, rapid and sensible formally accreditation of competencies in languages and other skills (e.g. a simple interview or written translation exercise will quickly establish language skills).
XXX. There should be mechanisms for zero tolerance for truancy and Government-imposed truancy and applying to ALL Australians – thus the outrageous non-supply of teachers to remote Indigenous Australian communities should be dealt with IMMEDIATELY (thus the following report describes an INTOLERABLE situation of deliberate Government neglect of Indigenous children: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/22/2097736.htm ).
XXXI. Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) is applicable to disabled as well as geographically isolated students (there is no technical reason why disabled or geographically or economically disadvantaged students should have to suffer any detriment to their education, including the socialization part f education).
XXXII. There must be urgent support for remedial teaching (including involving parental inputs and other community resources and options) (ALL children must be given the best; modulated streaming and special classes would permit socialization without holding other students back; expert after hours electronic teaching and learning under parental supervision could expedite remedial teaching).
XXXIII. There should be efficient, rapid and competent training of parents, mentors and teaching aides (e.g. by booklets, by DVDs, after-hours sessions at schools etc) (to enhance the quality of their participation in child teaching and learning).
XXXIV. There should be compulsory team sports in all schools just as there typically is in good private schools (this would be physically healthy for children in a country with major weight problems).
XXXV. There should be a compulsory non-sport additional activity in all schools (e.g. debating, drama, music, chess etc) just as there typically is good private schools (this would encourage socialization, healthy competition and the mind).
c. Science and innovation
i. There is an urgent need for improved basic public understanding about science as involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses (many mistakenly believe that it Science is about getting data to prove something but actually it is anti-science “spin” that is about selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position) (the outrageous dishonesty of the previous Government and its sustained, unsubstantiated bald denial of the overwhelming international scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change demands crucial public education on Popperian scientific method).
ii. The public needs instruction on allowable conclusions and arguments in science e.g. that you can’t prove a negative as in Bush-ite Australian claims that “there was no evidence that the children were not thrown overboard” or that “Saddam did not have Weapons of Mass destruction” - the horrible intellectual abuse of the Bush-ite Coalition era must be reversed by a public education campaign (this would not be PC gone mad; rather, it is like the current campaigns saying that “no means no”).
iii. There needs to be a public education campaign on the major nuclear, greenhouse and poverty threats facing humanity and the Climate Emergency facing Australia and the World (see “Climate Code Red – a case for a Sustainability Emergency”: http://www.climatecodered.net/ and “Climate Emergency, Sustainability Emergency: http://green-blog.org/2008/01/21/climate-emergency-and-sustainability-emergency-part-1/ ; we have had years of “terrorism” hype propaganda yet we have been recently told by Professor Francesco Cossiga, former 7-year president of Italy and long-time intelligence intimate that the US CIA and Israeli Mossad did 9/11 to further US and Zionist hegemony and that major Western intelligence agencies are well aware of this: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18569/26/ ).
iv. There should be greatly increased funding for pure research – Australian pure science researcher s have been struggling for 2 decades (
v. Political interference through non-expert, political cancelling of Australian Research Council grant awards should be stopped (this was a disgraceful intervention by the disgraceful, neo-con, Bush-ite Coalition Government).
vi. Sensitive changes should be made to widen the recipient base for pure research grants – there is a perception that such funding is being heavily directed to established, well-networked, professorially-headed groups (personal comment from a top young academic scientist; the Matthew Effect in Science – “to him who hath so shall he receive” has been known and commented upon to my knowledge from the 1960s).
vii. Some excellent and outstanding researchers are still missing out on decent funding and this should be rectified by some “special mechanism” ( I recently attended a Public Lecture given by an outstanding Australian scientist who had been awarded an important national prize but had operated with very tight funding to make his important discoveries).
viii. The career path for outstanding young Australian research scientists in universities, research institutes, hospitals and industry should be improved – it is very tough in terms of uncertainty and low remuneration in comparison with young people going into law and commerce (this is counterproductive and shabby treatment of our best, brightest and most committed).
ix. The Coalition crippling of renewables research and development should be reversed – as one of the biggest solar collector landmass countries we should lead the world in this area (instead, major solar energy, concentrated solar and wind power engineering researchers and developers have been driven off-shore).
x. As global warming-linked drought grips Australia there should be research into the novel, valuable, arid zone crops to grow (in 2003 I published a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003: http://www.amazon.com/Biochemical-Targets-Plant-Bioactive-Compounds/dp/0415308291 ; I was encouraged to leave a 4 decade scientific career when my proposals to use this huge enterprise to create a huge data base to determine the most valuable arid zone crops for Australia were rejected – however my work is being exploited brilliantly by a top UK pharmaceutical research group).
xi. Australian scientists are intimidated by Government and media lying, outright intimidation (CSIRO, universities, other institutions, industry), Government appointee veto of research grants – this ugly abuse threatens Australia’s security and well-being and should be STOPPED (some years ago an Australian science magazine Australasian Science e-mailed 500 Australian scientists to ask if they had ever made public interest statements – only 1 replied, Bryan Gaensler, the brilliant astrophysicist and Young Australian of the Year, in the affirmative; after receiving the forwarded request from a colleague I too responded; the outcome was a ConScience column in which Australian scientists including myself and Dr Gaensler spoke out from positions of expertise about many matters).
xii. The Australian Academy of Science (and the other eminent Academies) should urgently set up authoritative specialist committees to issue expert reports to counter Mainstream media, politician and bureaucrat lying by commission and omission (e.g. over matters such as (a) the profound incorrectness of statements such as “there is no evidence that children were not thrown overboard” to (b) the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide and (c) the Climate Emergency).
XIII. Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency is vital for the survival of Australia and the biosphere and is a clear imperative from the latest climate science evidence on Arctic ice loss ( in general Australia should respond urgently to vital scientific information) (see “Climate Sustainability Emergency. Negative CO2 emissions needed now to save Planet: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42/ ; comments by the top US climate change expert, NASA’s Dr James Hansen who declares that the appropriate response to this present situation of actual massive ecosystem damage (and with evident initiation of other likely non-linear global warming related events, notably Greenland and West Antrarctic ice sheet and tundra melting) is no longer the Bali-style “finite CO2 emission reduction targets”) or even “zero emissions” but must be an urgent global policy of “negative CO2 emissions”. This will involve cessation of coal power, and other fossil fuel burning, rapid expansion of renewable energy provision and mechanisms to REDUCE existing atmospheric CO2 from 385 ppm to a “safe”, sustainability-consistent 300-350 ppm (e.g. re-forestation, sulphate aerosols and return of carbon to the soil with pyrolytic biomass charring) (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm ).
According to Dr James Hansen, in calling for an immediate cessation of coal power: “If disintegration of these ice sheets passes their tipping points, dynamical collapse could proceed out of our control. If it melts completely,
XIV. There must be better mechanisms for public scientific education to improve public scientific literacy ( e.g. web-based “ABC-style newspaper with well-written articles by top scientists and other scholarly experts; public lectures; U3A; ARL; promulgation of the findings of expert Academy reports).
XV. There must be involvement of the public in preserving what is left of wild nature – indeed the reverse of the corrupt existing process of giving licences to private interests to irreversibly destroy priceless public assets e.g. species, ecosystems, forests, reefs etc) (see my Prefatory Comments, item #3 about the quantitative and the qualitative).
XVI. There must be urgent science-based valuation of public assets (water, land, underground, air, forest and other biological resources) (as opposed to the current dishonest, corrupt Government theft of these assets on behalf of private interests – there would be no question of the corruption and consequences if Governments gave away paintings from our national and state galleries to their “friends” at nominal pepper-corn prices ).
XVII. There must be urgent implementation of scientific rational risk management principles in society (and exposure of media, politicians and public servants obfuscating such processes by dishonesty and spin).
XVIII. There must be urgent counselling and (if necessary) side-lining of public servants violating acceptable scientific and risk management methodologies (e.g. in relation to security, resource valuation and environmental matters).
XIX. Much greater involvement of the public and especially children in scientific processes (e.g. participation in conservation, re-afforestation, archaeological and biological population programs) (with the added advantages of increased scientific literacy, voluntarism, community involvement and civilized values – see section #7 in relation to Australia using Indigenous Australian cultural values of love of Land and Sustainability).
XX. There must be a fundamental change of culture from corrupt Tammany Hall and socially dominant “Secret Men’s Business” of the Pacmen (Prosperous Anglo-Celtic Men) who corruptly run Australia to that of Popperian scientific analysis involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses (i.e. truth and reason in conduct of public life – time is running out and the threats to ourselves, our children and grandchildren are acute).
2. Economic infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of our cities
a. Economic infrastructure
i. We have arrived at peak oil and mass transport now requires electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles and expanded public rail transport (see “General Motor CEO: Oil has peaked”: http://www.energybulletin.net/39096.html ).
ii. Economic and energy efficiency strongly urge demise of the private car and replacement by the hydrogen minibus, hydrogen maxibus and linked rail transport (see: Martin Mahy, “Hydrogen Minibuses” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007; pp250-256): http://dymocks.com.au/ProductDetails/ProductDetail.aspx?R=9780733320057 ).
iii. Just as we now have legislated mandatory efficient ENERGY USAGE (e.g. with long life energy-saving lights) so we need mandated efficient ENERGY PROVISION (the “true cost” of coal-based electricity is about twice that of wind-power: http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/2008/01/rudd-australia-report-card-2-climate.html ; the coal and uranium should be kept in the ground )
iv. Back of the envelope, way to go - using Australia’s annual $10 billion pa fossil fuel subsidies to build wind farms at $2 per watt would replace our current 50 billion watts of 85% coal-based electricity capacity with 100% renewable wind energy in 10 years (of course in reality there would be a sensible “mix” of renewable technologies for efficiency and base-load ).
v. Building highways and fossil fuel power stations should stop – but sensible rail systems should expand in concert with intelligent re-design of our cities (see below under “Future of our cities”).
vi. There is an urgent need for the expert estimation of the “true cost” of major economic components such as coal-fired power stations and cars (thus cars kills about 0.4 million people annually; the Canadian Ontario Ministry of Energy has found that the “true cost” of coal-fired power generation, taking a [possibly 10-fold under-estimated] environmental impact and thumna morbidity and mortality cost into account was 5 times the “market cost’ i.e.18 Cc/kWh as compared to 3-4 Ac/kWh: ).
vii. There is an urgent need for the expert estimation of the “true value” public assets (water, air, land and - in a crude minimal sense - our priceless flora, fauna, and human life) – in the absence of such valuation the Government privatization of public assets is theft of public property (see “Economic reasons for preserving wild nature”: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/5583/950).
viii. What remains of wild nature in and around Australia must be SAVED - Balmford et al in Science have shown that sustainable use of wild nature can yield a 50% greater economic return and that the benefit:cost ratio of an effective global program for the conservation of remaining wild nature is at least 100:1 (see “Economic reasons for preserving wild nature”: http://www.scienceonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/5583/950 ).
ix. Greenhouse gas pollution (mainly CO2) is directly proportional to GDP – if we are to continue economic growth with NEGATIVE CO2 emissions (as advocated by top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen of NASA) then we MUST cease fossil fuel burning, use renewable energy, re-forest and restore carbon to the soil (see item #3).
x. In relation to the “true cost” of coal-fired electricity ALL renewables (including the latest photovoltaic technologies) are cheaper – and accordingly there must be massive investment in renewable energy (see: http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2398&CategoryID=213 ).
xi. As indicated in the Introduction, qualitatively there must be CESSATION of ANY extinctions of flora, fauna and ecosystems (ecocide) but, for example, from a narrow economic perspective atmospheric CO2 must also be kept to below 450 ppm in order to save the 63,000 jobs and $7 billion pa from the Great Barrier Reef (see: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2007/2115399.htm ).
xii. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” cannot be simply reduced to dollars –and there should be public discussion of Alternatives to the current pyramidal, hierarchical rat-race model (thus Cuba with about 30 times lower annual per capita income has the same “annual under-5 infant death rate” – 0.17% - as the US; see “How Bush killed 100,000 American infants”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/7102/26/ ).
XIII. The urgent need for a Declaration of Climate Emergency, Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency would have a transformative role in relation to economic infrastructure (e.g. rapid conversion to renewable energy provision and further mechanisms to reduce atmospheric CO2 to 300-350 ppm from the present 385 ppm ) (see the latest positions of America’s outstanding climate scientist Dr James Hansen: : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm and http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/james-hansen/20080124.html; see also: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya110208.htm , http://green-blog.org/2008/02/15/declare-climate-state-of-emergency-australian-climate-movement-convergence/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42/ , http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html ) .
XIV. There needs to be a major public discussion about balancing “needs” versus “desires” in our economy (for a very useful conservative discussion see Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason”).
XV. The appalling Third World situation of many Indigenous Australians must be immediately reversed – but the rapid, minimum cost solutions will point the way to more efficient economic solutions to maximizing physiological and psychological happiness in Australia as a whole (see section #7 below).
XVI. Economic efficiency must be the goal rather than economic expansion per se (see “needs” versus “desires’, part #XIV).
XVII. Implementation of Concentrated Urban goals should mean a more concentrated and efficient economic infrastructure (see Part #c below).
XVIII. There will be hugely expensive re-positioning of economic infrastructure unless the World declares a state of climate emergency (e.g. America’s top climate scientist Dr James Hansen says there will be a 6 metre rise in sea level this century if the presently rapidly melting Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets go completely: http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/james-hansen/20080124.html ).
XIX. There will necessarily be major changes to our economic infrastructure when Australia declares a Climate State of Emergency (e.g. rail rather than road, renewable energy and zero fossil fuel usage: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya110208.htm , http://green-blog.org/2008/02/15/declare-climate-state-of-emergency-australian-climate-movement-convergence/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42/ ).
XX. Massive changes to water-related infrastructure are urgently needed (e.g. pipes rather than channels for long-distance water carriage; expansion of enclosed hydroponic farming)
b. Digital economy
i. Internet speed is woeful in
ii. The idea of a 2-tier, rich versus poor Internet access should be strongly opposed following the example of former US Vice President Al Gore and associates (for discussion see Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason”).
iii. Any general censorship of the web should be strongly opposed as an insidious attack on free speech and free communication – this perversion is already widespread throughout the world (see: http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/maps/ ; http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1510450.htm ; http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/internet_censorship_under_fire_537224 ).
iv. US spying on electronic data transmission and communications via the Echelon system and through inbuilt PC systems should be urgently addressed by the Australian Government not just in relation to personal privacy but also for legitimate Australian commercial in confidence (see Chapter 21, “Eavesdropping on the Planet” in William Blum’s “Rogue Nation”; failure to act is tantamount to effective treason – knowingly permitting dishonest covert actions of a foreign power against one’s own citizens and companies).
v. As outlined in the Introduction, Rational Risk Management is crucial for national safety, security and progress – the uncensored Internet can overcome the racist lying and spin of corrupt and unethical corporate Mainstream media (see Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason” ).
VI. Mainstream media have grossly failed Australia which has become a woefully ignorant and morally unresponsive Murdochracy – an authoritative, expertly-informed, Government-independent, public access, ABC-style Web-based newspaper is urgently needed (e.g. who should we believe? – the Victorian State Government estimates an 0.8 metre sea level rise in the next century: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/the-high-price-of-sea-views/2008/02/15/1202760604418.html whereas America’s top climate scientist Dr James Hansen says 6 metres this century if the rapidly melting Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets go completely: http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/james-hansen/20080124.html ).
VII. Active encouragement of general Internet access and e-mail access for everyone would encourage social discourse, community interchange, education and limit the malignant influence of lying, racist, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media ( thus Mainstream media, politicians and academics will not report that 0.5 million under-5 year old infants perish each year in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories, 90% avoidably and due to US Alliance, including Australia, war crimes – but the awful truth is only several mouse-clicks away from the UNICEF website: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ).
VIII. The Internet can be used for Government-independent but taxpayer-funded blogging and public access commentary to maximize citizen participation in Australian democracy (as opposed to the current citizen exclusion in the Australian Murdochracy).
IX. The Internet can be intelligently used the save hundreds of millions of dollars spent on Government health, security, electoral and other information (obviously all media need to be used for some purposes e.g. anti-smoking campaigns).
X. The Internet can be used in other ways to maximize and informed and participatory citizenry, especially if major constraints on free speech are removed (as in America) and corporate SLAPP writs are constrained (as in the USA) (this indeed creates an exciting prospect for a much better informed and involved citizenry; see: http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/SLAPPS.html ).
c. Future of our cities
i. With massive environmental damage already to
ii. Australian cities are too large in area and there must be radical redesign for more concentrated urban living for transport, convenience, socialization and environmental and agricultural impact reasons (as in European cities).
iii. Peak oil has arrived and cars have a huge environmental and human impact – public transport should be safe, encompassing, energy-efficient and free (see: Martin Mahy, “Hydrogen Minibuses” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007; pp250-256): http://dymocks.com.au/ProductDetails/ProductDetail.aspx?R=9780733320057 ).
iv. Roof garden technologies, allotments, common parks and wide, wild nature reserves (as in
v.
vi. Concentrated Urban provides for much healthier, cheaper and interesting social organization and should be actively promoted for social, economic and overall national interest reasons (Concentrated Urban is akin to the sort of life currently available to people living in the heart of our major cities).
VII. There will be hugely expensive losses of major parts of our coastal cities unless the World declares a state of climate emergency (e.g. America’s top climate scientist Dr James Hansen says there will be a 6 metre rise in sea level this century if the presently rapidly melting Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets go completely: http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/james-hansen/20080124.html ).
VIII. Various models can be contemplated for Concentrated Urban renewal e.g. the traditional circular model or a linear, rapid-transit-linked model (the latter would be less destructive of valuable agricultural land).
IX. The huge homelessness in
X. The woeful Aboriginal housing situation should be addressed immediately with very cheap but very well-designed housing (imaginative solutions to health, education, housing and security in urban, country and remote community living can be addressed by well-designed cheap housing and rail links as an investment for now and the future; linear urban model for rail-linked communities).
3. Population, sustainability, climate change, and water
i. Australia’s population is too great already as assessed from the enormous environmental impact and flora and fauna extinctions – public education and action are urgently required in this area (Australia is a world leader in greenhouse gas pollution, land destruction, flora and fauna extinctions and ecocide; see “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/; http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ).
ii. Indigenous Australians have a tremendous cultural contribution to make in relation to sustainability – White Australia should seize this opportunity for collaboration (largely ignored for over 2 centuries) for the benefit of the land and ALL its People (the Indigenous culture involved sustainable use but was supplanted by a highly destructive non-Indigenous, non-sustainable culture that has brought Australia and the world to disastrous tipping points; see Diamond, J. (1997), Guns, Germs and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies (
iii. Water is needed for citizen consumption, agriculture, industry and the environment and there must be a New Deal to meet these needs (thus profligate citizen and agricultural uses should be urgently controlled. While financial return/megalitre of water for vegetables can be $1,000/ML as compared to $100,000/ML for an expensive car, we must have food – but the world’s driest continent should NOT be exporting water).
iv. Enough is enough – there should be CESSATION of flora and fauna extinction in Australia and that means national and global action to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to about 350 ppm (10% BELOW the current atmospheric CO2 concentration of 383 ppm) (see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ).
v. Urgent action on CO2 pollution is needed NOW in the light of our arrival already at key “tipping points” for mass extinctions and massive ecosystem destruction ( QUOTE: “Based on climate model studies and the history of the Earth the authors conclude that additional global warming of about 1°C (1.8°F) or more, above global temperature in 2000, is likely to be
vi. Stringent duty of care must be observed by local, state and federal Governments in relation to coastal assets – to avoid irreversible damage through storm surge and sea level inundation AND to avoid litigation (see NASA’s Dr James Hansen “Huge sea level rises are coming unless we act now”, New scientist: http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19526141.600 ).
vii. The 85% fossil-fuel-based electricity production in
viii. Possible Antarctic sea ice loss comparable to that already in the Arctic, impending total loss of the Great Barrier Reef, elevated Indian Ocean temperature (2 degree rise in 40 years), predicted intensifying Southern Australian drought (due to Indian Ocean warming) and cessation of Southern Ocean absorption of CO2 all represent acute “mine canary” warnings in the Australian region alone that we have gone too far – and must do everything we can to reverse the CO2 pollution of the atmosphere (see: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071212-AP-arctic-melt.html ; http://www.csiro.au/news/ClimateChangeSignalDetected.html; http://info.anu.edu.au/ovc/media/Media_Releases/_2007/_January/_180107_coral_drought.asp ; http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1926488.htm ; http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2007/2115399.htm ).
ix. Examination of US Energy Information Administration data over the last quarter century shows a constant rate of increase of Australian CO2 pollution and fossil fuel exports that has been impervious to increasingly forceful and alarmed scientist and IPCC warnings over this period – “waiting for Garnaut” for a year is NOT an option for the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluter, Australia (see “Climate Emergency, Sustainability Emergency”, submission of Dr Gideon Polya to the Garnaut Climate Change Review: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ).
x. The Climate Emergency means that the Bali-wrecking Australian Government (US and Canada) position of “no 2020 targets” is an insult to Humanity demanding immediate retraction when according to top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen and top UK climate scientist Professor James Lovelock FRS we need “negative CO2 emissions” NOW (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm ; Lovelock, J. (2006), The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity (Allen Lane, London); http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ; http://green-blog.org/2007/12/14/climate-criminal-bali-wrecker-rudd-australia-faces-world-sanctions/ ).
xi. Australia must act urgently on Climate Genocide NOW by observing the post-Holocaust protocol of C4A (CAAAA) involving Cessation and reversal of CO2 pollution, Acknowledgment of the ongoing crime, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again to anyone” (see “Climate Emergency, Sustainability Emergency”: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ; Article 2, UN Genocide Convention, “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” : http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ; 25 years of sustained, deliberate, remorseless, unrestrained Australian CO2 pollution that IS CONTINUING, see “Rudd Australia Report Card #2. Climate criminal
xii. Australia must act urgently and comprehensively to avoid International Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands over its Climate Criminal policies that are contributing to a mounting Climate Genocide (see: “Climate criminal, Bali-wrecker Rudd Australia faces World sanctions”: http://green-blog.org/2007/12/14/climate-criminal-bali-wrecker-rudd-australia-faces-world-sanctions/ ).
xiii. “Waiting for Garnaut” should CEASE – there is an urgent need for ACTION and updated public education about the Climate Emergency (the “waiting for Garnaut” approach is a complete denial of the horrendous emergency ACTUALITY: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ; the science and technology has been well reviewed internationally (see the 2007 IPCC Reports: http://www.ipcc.ch/ and a recent review of renewable scenarios: http://www.martinot.info/Martinot_et_al_AR32_prepub.pdf ) as indeed has the economics of climate change via the Stern Report (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review ).
xiv. The Government should legitimately act against racist, irresponsible, genocide-ignoring electronic and print media not reporting ethically about the Climate Emergency and Climate Genocide by removal of licences and taxpayer-funding purchase for Government schools and other bodies (this how they would act if such media engaged in denial of the Jewish Holocaust that involved the murder of 6 million Jews in the period 1941-1945 – yet Professor James Lovelock FRS estimates acute damage to 6-9 billion people and over 6 billion deaths this century: and ALREADY 16 million people die avoidably each year due to deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock ).
xv. Rational Risk Management instructs that Australia must urgently face up to the harsh reality of its World leading criminal status as the World’s worst developed country for “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” (2004 data from the US Energy Information Administration reveal that “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person is 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 9.9 (Japan), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh): http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/2008/01/rudd-australia-report-card-2-climate.html ).
xvi. Australia must urgently recognize that the Rudd Labor Government election commitments actually mean that Australia’ s annual per capita CO2 pollution will INCREASE over the next 4 decades (The Rudd Labor commitment to “20% renewables by 2020”, “”60% reduction on 2000 greenhouse gas pollution by 2050” and no constraint on fossil fuel extraction for export ACTUALLY means (based on US Energy Information Administration data, assuming current constant coal, gas and CO2 pollution growth rates, constant population and including Australia’s fossil fuel EXPORTS) “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 emission in tonnes per person per year” of 43 (2007), 56 (2020) and 65 (2050): http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/2008/01/rudd-australia-report-card-2-climate.html ).
xvii. There must be urgent changes to infrastructure and energy provision – there must be a rapid shift to high efficiency, low cost, zero CO2 polluting renewable technologies (such as wind, concentrated solar, non-silicon thin-film photovoltaics, balloon- and sliver- based silicon photovoltaics, wind power, wave power and geothermal) , fully renewable-energy-run, comprehensive public transport, demise of the private car, and cessation of urban sprawl and highway building (for details see Item #2, Economic infrastructure; see “Renewables – how they stack up”: http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2398&CategoryID=213 ; see key articles by Dr Mark Diesendorf (A sustainable Energy Futrure for Australia), Professor John Deevers (The Innamincka Hot Fractured Rock Project) and Martin Mahy (Hydrogen Minibuses) in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (a compendium of essays by 28 variously prominent Australians edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ).
xviii. Apropos of urgent changes being required, using Australia’s annual $10 billion pa fossil fuel subsidies to build wind farms at $2 per watt would replace our current 50 billion watts of 85% coal-based electricity capacity with 100% renewable wind energy in 10 years (of course in reality there would be a sensible “mix” of renewable technologies for efficiency and base-load but the example demonstrates the climate criminal incompetence of successive Australian Governments).
xix. Deforestation contributes about 15-20% to increased net global greenhouse gas production annually and should be countered urgently by Australia both at home and abroad (According to Sir Nicholas Stern: "For $10-15bn (£4.8-7.2bn) per year, a programme could be constructed that could stop up to half the deforestation” (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/30/climatechange.carbonemissions ).
xx. The fundamental qualitative position that is backed by quantitative estimates of “total economic value” is that further extinctions and ecocides are intolerable and what is left of wild nature must be used sustainably (It has been estimated by Balmford et al in the prestigious scientific journal Science (see “Economic reasons for preserving wild nature”: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/5583/950 ) that for a variety of “biomes” (ecological systems) the total economic value (TEV) is about 50% greater when the resource is used sustainably as opposed to destructive conversion. Further, these scientists have found that the economic benefit from preserving what is left of wild nature is OVER 100 TIMES greater than the cost of preservation).
XXI. Australia and the World must make an immediate Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency, a State of Emergency to prevent catastrophic run-away climate change (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya110208.htm , http://green-blog.org/2008/02/15/declare-climate-state-of-emergency-australian-climate-movement-convergence/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42/ ).
XXII. There must be a fundamental shift in public attitude to Government disposal of grossly under-valued public resources to selfish and corrupt private hands (there must be a new transparency in order to save
XXIII. Massive changes to water-related infrastructure are urgently needed as Indian Ocean warming forces more drought on
XXIV. Australia should join with other countries in applying Green tariffs, Sanctions, Boycotts and Sanctions against climate criminal countries involved in Climate Genocide (unfortunately Australia is currently on a per capita basis the worst developed country in this respect; see “Australian Genocide – Oz ignores Aboriginal, Ira2i, Afghan & Climate Genocides”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12578/42/ ).
XXV. In addition to a Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and urgent actions toward NEGATIVE CO2 emissions,
4. Future directions for rural industries and rural communities
i. Agriculture is vital for security-relevant Australian production of food for Australians – that means conservation of such farming communities but should no longer permit Australian export of scarce water through water-costly rural exports (e.g. of rice, cotton).
ii. After 2 centuries of flagrant colonial abuse there needs to be a new culture of correct valuation of National land, freshwater and marine resources – they ultimately belong to the Nation and must be used sustainably whether “privately owned” or “leased” (e.g. for the increased total economic value due to sustainable use see Balmford et al “Economic reasons for preserving wild nature”: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/5583/950 ).
iii. Australia must recognize in practice that there is some demand for preservation of a “Henry Lawson” “cultural” dimension of rural communities involved in the historical and continuing, global British Imperialist Australian Aboriginal Genocide, Australian Indigenous Ethnocide and Australian Ecocide – but ALSO that there is a major, unique, globally-significant Indigenous Australian culture of Sustainability and Land that must be preserved (see Chalk, F. & Jonassohn, K. (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies (
Diamond, J. (1997), Guns, Germs and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies (
iv. Global warming-linked drought is set to increase in the Southern part of Australia and there should be urgent research into the novel, valuable, arid zone crops to grow (thus in 2003 I published a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003: http://www.amazon.com/Biochemical-Targets-Plant-Bioactive-Compounds/dp/0415308291 ; my proposals for using this huge enterprise to create a huge data base to determine the most valuable arid zone crops for Australia were rejected. My huge book is currently being brilliantly exploited by a top pharmaceutical research group in the
V. Massive changes to water-related infrastructure are urgently needed as Indian Ocean warming forces more drought on
VI. The need for massive re-afforestation means rural re-juvenation through such activity (according America’s top climate expert to Dr James Hansen we need to REDUCE atmospheric CO2 from the current 385 ppm to 300-350 ppm with re-afforestation a major mechanism: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm ).
VII. Major new industries in the outback will be solar energy capture, wind, wave and geothermal power with a consequent massive restructuring and de novo building of rural communities (the Climate Emergency demands immediate massive conversion to renewable energy sources: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42/ ).
VIII. In addition to other mechanisms of land renewal (re-afforestation and de-salinization), there must be a major “black earth” initiative for soil recovery through return of pyrolytically charred biomass as a major mechanism of soil carbon sequestration (see: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/267751/charred_biomass_could_act_as_carbon.html ).
IX. Long-term views of how we live (circular Concentrated Urban or linear models) could mean rapid rail connection of many rural and indeed remote rural communities as an investment for the present and the future (see also section #7 re Indigenous Australians).
X. In collaboration with Indigenous Communities there needs to be a new kind of National stewardship of all of Australia – recognition of the sanctity of the Land, flora, fauna, water bodies, air and cultural sites (Australia will cease to be merely a mine to be scraped out, waterways to be drained, forests to be clear-felled or land to be cleared and cropped – this conduct would not be tolerated in contemporary Britain and should not be tolerated in either the coastal or remote inland parts of Australia).
5. A long-term national health strategy – including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population
i. Aboriginal health situation is extremely bad and should be addressed immediately and with the same urgency and expense routinely expended by Australia on round-the-world solo sailors who deliberately place themselves in
ii. The trend under the callous, Bush-ite, neo-cons to a more privatized, Americanized system of health care should be resisted – there should be first class health care for all Australians whether rich, poor, White or Indigenous (hospitals under under-funded by $1.1 billion annually, equivalent to 300,000 admissions: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21956809-662,00.html ).
iii. Many ethically, expertly and professionally applied flexible options can decrease the costs, increase accessibility and throughput of the health system (e.g. use of nursing aides, community health workers, nurse help lines, increased paramedic, nurse and pharmacist functions, visiting nurses, home visits, generic pharmaceuticals, psychiatric and elderly care facilities for urgently needed care and to free up hospital beds, videoconferencing and other electronic communications for remote diagnosis etc).
iv. Deregulation of universities and Accredited Remote Learning could increase the number of people doing theory-only parts of medical, paramedical and medical science degree courses (and hence increase the potential number of fully and appropriately trained medicine-related personnel; see: http://accreditedremotelearning.blogspot.com/ ).
v. Deregulation of universities and technological innovations to assist teaching and learning should enable major expansion of medical and paramedical student numbers in the theory only parts of such courses (imaginative technological and industrial solutions could surely be found for the practical aspects).
vi. It is difficult to believe that students with tertiary entrance scores of 95% are unable to study medicine, dentistry or physiotherapy and become excellent professionals (indeed the present “paying for places” means that the System admits to this possibility).
vii. Dental services are vital for the elderly in particular and no Australians should have to wait in pain for months before treatment readily available to people with private medical and dental insurance (with such insurance I get seen the next day).
viii. Consulting an excellent doctor about this Australia 2020 area of concern elicited the comments that medicine is complex and that many things could be done to improve the system but the things that sprang to mind immediately were the urgency of addressing Aboriginal health and of discouraging smoking (9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably each year: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15140/42/ ; Thomson, N., Burns, J., Burrow, S & Kirov, E. (2004), Overview of indigenous health 2004. Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin; 4(4): Reviews); and about 20,000 Australians due each year from smoking-related causes).
ix. There should be greater support for hospital risk management and related “training” systems for reducing avoidable deaths in hospitals (about 18,000 people die annually from avoidable “adverse events” in Australian hospitals: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2002/469313.htm ).
x. About 72% of all deaths in people below the age of 75 in Australia are considered to be avoidable and the Indigenous rate of deaths from avoidable causes is almost four times the rate for the non-Indigenous population – this should be urgently addressed (see: http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/news/Statistics_released_on_avoidable_deaths_in_Australia ).
xi. With major medical problems in Australia due to obesity, smoking and alcohol there need to be even greater preventive campaigns and expert free behaviour change assistance for all people at risk (such interventions would be cost effective; of the order of about 20,000 people die each year in Australia from obesity-related disease and smoking-related disease; extrapolating from US findings about 5,000 people die each year in Australia from alcohol-related causes: http://www.virtualcancercentre.com/news.asp?artid=2857 ).
xii. Australia with bi-partisan support is complicit in the US Occupation of Afghanistan that restored the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 5% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007 and hence was linked to the approximately 0.6 million global post-21001 opiate drug-related deaths (see UNODC World Drug Report 2007: http://www.unodc.org/ ; about 300 Australians die from opiate drug-related causes each year).
xiii. While (contrary to media and politician assertions and implications) the “Little Children are Sacred” Report stated that “it is not possible to accurately estimate the extent of child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory” it presented evidence that one third of Australian females experienced childhood sexual abuse – this and related abuses should be urgently addressed Nation-wide (see: Dunne, M.P., Purdie, D.M., Cook, M.D., Boyle, F.M. & Najman, J.M.(2003), Is child sexual abuse declining? Evidence from a population-based survey of men and women in
XIV. Efficient models for immediately bringoing decent primary health care to Indigenous Australian communities can serve as models for general delivery of very efficient primary health care (obligatory altruism to Indigenous Australians may have huge benefits for non-Indigenous Australians).
XV. Subject to expert and ethical regulation and inspection there are novel uses of the Internet for mass screening and for primary diagnosis to increase the efficiency of medical services (e.g. sophisticated electronic diagnosis and mass ophthalmological eye screening with retinal images transmitted by e-mail for central ophthalmologist specialist analysis and diagnosis).
6. Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion
i. There should be workplace flexibility and humane philosophy to allow and encourage family time (Australians very long hours e.g. a full-time employed academic working 7 days a week in the workplace on a long-term basis over several years to meet deadlines).
ii. There should be active encouragement of part-time paid or volunteer work for mature, retired people who are keen to continuing to contribute their expertise (e.g. since becoming “semi-retired” as a scientist and teacher at the end of 2003 I have been extremely busy in modestly paid part-time delivery of tertiary education level science courses in the non-university sector and in the university sector and in unpaid delivery of a variety of courses for the University of the Third Age; I have also been actively involved in a huge amount of unpaid anti-racism, pro-peace, pro-humanity and pro-Environment activism throughout the world and local community activism, this involving writing and editing books, writing thousands of articles and letters and creating pro-Peace, pro-Humanity, pro-Planet Art; and most excitingly now involved in negotiating installation of huge pro-Humanity paintings for public buildings and institutions, pro bono publico of course).
iii. Volunteer work by variously working, non-working, and non-retired people should be promoted and facilitated through increased accessibility of public infrastructure such as educational institution resources (I have left full-time employment and my laboratory but do a lot of unpaid humanitarian advocacy and deliver lecture courses to the University of the Third Age and have many friends and acquaintances actively involved in such voluntary work).
iv. Feasible solutions can be found for the mounting mortgage crisis for over-committed families e.g. renting rooms, cooperative food purchases, financial advice and cost-recovery tiding over emergency assistance (e.g. some of my friends without mortgages rent rooms).
v. Community participation can be encouraged through use of local school infrastructure for courses, sport, and special interest groups (e.g. for diabetics, weight watchers, green activists etc for lectures, exhibitions, plays and concerts).
vi. Off-campus Accredited Remote Learning (ARL), and its on-campus equivalent of the “auditing” (with provision of detailed teaching materials) of university courses, potentially enable maximum access, minimum cost access to top quality teaching and learning in every theory-only lecture course being delivered at our universities for re-training, for lifelong learning and for retirement pleasure (see: http://accreditedremotelearning.blogspot.com/ ).
vii. Life-long learning, voluntarism and retirement socialization and activism are all promoted by the University of the Third Age (U3A) which in turn could be assisted by further pro bono publico access to public infrastructure such as public institutional lecture theatres (indeed our local U3A does variously have low cost or free access to such resources).
viii. The mounting Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency has generated Climate Action Groups around the Nation who are trying to save their Children, Grandchildren, Australia and indeed the Planet – they can be assisted, for example, through various access to publicly-owned infrastructure ( our local climate action group has benefited from such local access).
ix. Charitable, bottom-up activism to help the disadvantaged should be supported in various ways such as tax deductibility and access to public resources (indeed my family financially supports some remarkable, self-less carers for disadvantaged Australians).
x. Further imaginative ways of assisting and promoting charitable, sporting, humanitarian, life-long learning, volunteer and other community groups can be envisaged e.g. from paid time off for volunteer firemen to increased access to public infrastructure for community groups (many possibilities can be envisaged).
xi. De-regulation of education should permit sensible, anti-bureaucratic and free accreditation for linguistic, sporting, technical, cultural and other competencies both for children and adults for individual and community benefit (e.g. see Accredited Remote Learning: http://accreditedremotelearning.blogspot.com/).
xii. Community togetherness can be encouraged by access to public infrastructure and public education (e.g. at one very busy level my family is involved in community voluntarism and at a simpler level are involved in organizing and hosting an “annual street garden party”).
XIII. Street democracy and togetherness can be also encouraged by encouragement of “street meetings” (e.g. to discuss common local or indeed general concerns).
XIV. General e-mail linkage in
XV. Public meeting- and e-mail-based community participation provides a new from of community life that gets back to traditional rural and traditional urban Australian values (a more village-style life in reality that can encompass the elderly, disabled and infirm).
7. Options for the future of indigenous
i. Indigenous health funding should be urgently doubled as recommended 4 years ago by medical experts to meet peculiar needs and to stop the horrendous Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 avoidable deaths annually; 90,000 avoidable deaths in the 11 years of the Coalition Government; Indigenous infant mortality over 3 times greater than that for White Australia; one of Australia’s top academic and clinical diabetologists has recently predicted disappearance of Indigenous Australians this century in the absence of requisite urgent action: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20745401-5003426,00.html ; “annual death rate” 2.2% for Indigenous Australians; 2.4% for Northern Territory Indigenous Australians and 2.5% for Australian sheep; horrendous health problems: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15140/42/ and National Indigenous Times, ”The Awful Truth”, Issue 131, June 14, 2007: http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=11555 ; non-compliance would be continuing racist genocide commission).
ii. Apology to Indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generations is just the first step – in relation to the on-going Aboriginal Genocide there should be a comprehensive Cessation, Acknowledgment, Apology, Amends and Assertion of “Never Again” ( CAAAA, C4A as suggested also in relation to the Iraqi Genocide and other genocides in which Australia is currently complicit; see: “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (a compendium of essays by 28 variously prominent Australians edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ; non-compliance would be racist genocide commission and genocide denial; see “Stolen Generations. Australian Aboriginal Genocide”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20242/42/ ).
iii. Urgent steps should be taken with intimate Indigenous consultation to stop the current irreversible Indigenous ethnocide (in the late 18th century there were between 350 and 750 distinct Aboriginal social groupings, and a similar number of languages or dialects. Now fewer than 200 indigenous languages remain and all except roughly 20 are highly en
iv. Australia should sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights (Australia helped block UN General Assembly Declaration on Indigenous Rights in 2006: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/693/36003 ; Australia (and New Zealand, Canada and th e US) opposed the successful UN General Assembly Declaration on Indigenous Rights in 2006: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ixWgtCGxM1ZSp0cA7qDku9h87pRA ; non-compliance would be racism).
v. Australia should urgently rescind the race-specific (i.e. racist) legislative suspension of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act in relation to Northern Territory Indigenous Australians (see comments by the Australian Human rights Commission: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/08/2000137.htm ; non-compliance would be racism).
vi. Overall taxpayer-funded Indigenous Australian employment should be the same as for White Australians (this would address unemployment, horrendous poverty, deprivation and deprivation-related disease; non-compliance would be racism).
vii. All social services (health, education, emergency, welfare, security, legal etc) should be provided to Indigenous Australian communities at the same or indeed greater level as appropriate (this equitable step would urgently address the Aboriginal Genocide and related social issues; non-compliance would be racism).
viii. Qualitative versus morally and intellectually flawed quantitative “market economics” considerations indicate many imaginative options for Indigenous Australian employment in urgently needed areas e.g. primary health care, security, child welfare, education, coastal security, eco-tourism and language, environment and cultural protection (in a world suffering anthropogenic global warming, a Climate Emergency, loss of biodiversity, genocide, ethnocide and ecocide, Indigenous employment in these socially important areas would be vastly more useful than “conventional” GDP-enhancing – and hence global warming enhancing – employment).
ix. There needs to be a radical change of White Australian attitudes towards an active nurturing and evolution of Indigenous Australian cultures (this is of major importance; non-compliance would be ugly, unimaginative racism).
x. With Australia and the World facing a Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency – with White Australia a major culprit - there is a crucial, major role for Indigenous Australian cultures of environmental sustainability and respect for Nature (Gadarene, White Australian extinction of our unique flora and fauna must cease as must its climate criminal lead in Climate Genocide and Terracide).
XI. Indigenous
XII. The current imperative of the Climate Emergency means that there must be major rural programs for re-afforestation, soil carbon renewal through pyrolytic biomass charcoal addition and soil carbon-enhancing fallow – these should crucially involve Indigenous Communities (as for example the profitable, carbon pollution-reducing burning off scheme in the Northern Territory).
XIII. General Internet and e-mail connection in Australia should be of enormous value to Indigenous Australians –in terms of communication with Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and people overseas (vital for rapid amelioration of the conditions of Indigenous Australians).
XIV. Imaginative new social relationships should be built between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian individuals, families. Communities and organizations (and facilitated by e-mail connections) (e.g. “family” sponsorship, “adoption” and connections; “sister” community relationships; “tribal” association for non-Indigenous Australians; south Australian initiative for sponsoring Indigenous medical students).
XV. Imaginative primary health care arrangements for Indigenous Australians can assist and inform similar initiatives for non-Indigenous Australians (e.g. Web-based diagnosis and advice, nursing- aides, nurse-based initiatives, literacy, preventive medicine).
XVI. Urgently needed creative initiatives in Aboriginal housing can inform similar initiatives urgently needed for homeless non-Indigenous Australians (e.g. minimum cost South African housing; community economies of scale).
XVII. Urgently needed educational initiatives for Indigenous child and adult literacy can inform similar initiatives for promoting teaching and learning in presently grossly under-supported disadvantaged non-Indigenous Australian communities (nothing is being done because whatever is done has to be done “properly” – imaginative technological solutions can evade this racially and socially discriminatory cop-out).
XVIII. Restoration of forests and ecosystems after 220 years of European destruction is crucial for Australia and must involve Indigenous Australians (re-afforestation is crucial for the requisite reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a sustainable 300-350 ppm).
XIX. Indigenous Australian adult literacy is a major imperative should be urgently addressed (maternal literacy is crucial for dissemination of preventive medical advice).
XX. Addressing the urgent concerns of the Indigenous Australians requires a fundamental change of non-Indigenous attitude to Humanity, Nature and to themselves (a major cultural change is required and no doubt can be spurred on by the historic “Sorry” declaration).
8. Towards a creative Australia: the future of the arts, film and design
i. An Australian writer and academic once observed that man needs, food, shelter and also FICTION to interface with a hostile world - at a time when top UK and US climate scientists are demanding not zero CO2 emissions but NEGATIVE emissions, investment in the arts, film and design is thoroughly warranted ( if the recent revelations of former 7-year Italian president Francesco Cossiga in a top Italian newspaper are correct and the US CIA and Israeli Mossad did 9/11 (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18569/26/ ) then the $20 billion Australia has spent on “terrorism” and the billions it has spent on illegal and genocidal wars would have been better spent on arts, film and design rather than on “fiction” from a Bush Administration that has told 935 lies about Iraq since 9/11: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23098129-401,00.html ).
ii. Australian mainstream media, politician and academic ignoring of horrendous excess deaths in Occupied Iraq, Occupied Afghanistan and Indigenous Australian communities indicates that Australia and the other Murdochracies are spiritually sick and require a moral rejuvenation that can come from the Arts rather than from morally-compromised, holocaust-complicit, holocaust-ignoring organized religion (Google the phrase “thou shalt not kill children” and you will find that the #1 author is not the Holy Father the Pope nor the Archbishop of Canterbury nor even the marvellous Reverend Tim Costello – it is an agnostic humanist scientist from Melbourne, Dr Gideon Polya: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19454/42/ ).
iii. The independence of the ABC should be enhanced through rigorous and critical public inspection of Government-appointed Board members, election of staff representatives, election of public representatives and Web-based Rational Risk Management feedback systems (the Coalition perversion of ABC independence was an outrage).
iv. Rational Risk Management requires mandatory honest reportage. Freedom of speech is vital and defamation laws should be amended because constraints on timely, truthful reportage is a REAL threat to national and societal security and the national interest (a Bill of Rights would also be useful; see part #9).
v. Holocaust ignoring and Genocide Ignoring is shamefully entrenched in Australian culture – the Great Australian Silence in the Land of Lies, Slies and Flies - but in the interests of Free Speech and untrammelled scholarly research Australia needs “no penalty genocide-denial criminalization” – the only punishment would be the public humiliation of the judicially proven holocaust denial (see “Genocide Denial. No penalty criminalization required now”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12483/26/ ).
vi. Greater use of school and university infrastructure for community Arts activities and for displaying community Art (a very useful, community-enhancing use of public infrastructure).
vii. Television (especially pap TV) is dumbing down and indeed manipulating and brainwashing both children and adults – there needs to be better children’s TV, better TV in general, promotion of books and reading and public education on this very serious matter (for Al Gore’s serious concerns see his “The Assault on Reason).
VIII. Greater appreciation of Quality, Truth and Beauty (man-made and natural) in a post-Bush-ite Coalition society ( Thus John Keats:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. )
IX. Encouragement of greater actual formal social and educational recognition of competencies (e.g. languages, singing,
X. There should be much greater support for critical, iconic cultural assets (museums, art galleries, orchestras, ballet, theatre) (what is
9. The future of Australian governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens
i. Australia’s involvement in the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide and Climate Genocide is only possible because of Mainstream media, politician and academic LYING and decent taxpayers demand FEEDBACK from Government e.g. loss of radio licences, TV licences and Government business for genocide denial, holocaust denial and support for war criminal holocausts and genocides (Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to lie with impunity).
ii. Outstanding Jewish American investor, philanthropist, author, activist, Holocaust hero and Holocaust survivor George Soros has called for the “de-Nazification”of Bush America and the same process should be urgently applied to genocide-complicit and genocide-denying Bush-ite and neo-Bush-ite White Australia (eminent scholars and writers who decry “Iraqi Holocaust” and/or an “Iraqi Genocide” include Dr Mark Weisbrot (President of Just Foreign policy: http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/68568/ ), Dr Paul Craig Roberts (eminent US writer, academic, editor and Father of Reaganomics: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10162007.html ), and John Pilger (outstanding, award-winning Australian-UK writer and journalist: http://www.newstatesman.com/200711150033); see “George Soros - Bush America needs de-Nazification”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12714/26/ ).
iii. Australia urgently needs a Web-based Newspaper equivalent of the ABC Radio and Television that would involve expert academic, industrial and scientist correspondents and with public participation as citizen journalists and open public commentary (the racist, lying, holocaust-ignoring mainstream media have turned Australia into a war-mongering, war criminal, climate criminal Murdochracy; models could be the ethical and humanitarian Canada-based MWC News: http://www.mwcnews.net/ ;the more conservative but critically open access US Newsvine: http://www.newsvine.com/ ; Indian Sulekha: http://www.sulekha.com/ and Countercurrents: http://www.countercurrents.org/ ; this can be set up by Governments in a hands-off way or better still by individuals or organizations such as teachers, the Academies or the ACTU; the bottom line would be truth, reason and the public interest).
iv. After a dozen years of egregiously worsening neo-con, Bush-ite falsehood, Australia needs its Academies (such as the Academy of Science and the Academy of Humanities) to involve themselves actively in public policy through Reports by expert sub-committees (this is vital for Australia’s transition from a Land of Lies, Flies and Slies [spin-based untruths] and a xenophobic Murdochracy to being a civilized, informed, humane country capable of resolutely dealing with the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency).
v. As happened in post-Apartheid South Africa, Australia needs a Truth Commission to enable exposure and reconciliation with the liars, mass murderers, traitors and war criminals who would have immunity from prosecution and indeed would only be punished if they refused to cooperate and tell the truth (e.g. public servants who knew about the Australian Wheat Board scandal that killed an upper estimate of 21,000 under-5 year old Iraqi infants: http://www.newsvine.com/awb ; who lied by omission or commission over the non-existent Iraqi Weapons of mass destruction or the non-existent Children overboard; who lied over Australia’s complicity in the American rendition and torture of Australian citizens etc etc).
vi. As recommended by Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter there should be war crimes trials for Australian and other US Alliance politicians and officials involved in the Iraqi Genocide (1.5-2 million excess deaths) and the Afghan Genocide (3-6 million excess deaths) (Harold Pinter observed in relation to Iraq with assessments of 0.1 million post-invasion deaths at the time (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm ) : “How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice.” MY comment: Eight million? More than enough, I would have thought”; I have indeed sent several detailed formal complaints (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/3087/247/ ) to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who has recently declared his willingness to investigate Bush and Blair provided that the complaint came from a relevant country: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/18/nirq118.xml ).
VII. Public access question time – like the (ideal) ABC, a Government-independent but State-sponsored interactive Web-site in which questions can be asked of public officials and the replies posted (this would dramatically increase accountability).
VIII. We require a dramatic increase in free speech in the public interest through softening of the defamation laws and the removal of corporate “SLAPP writs” against free speech (“SLAPP writs” are relatively unsuccessful in USA: http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/SLAPPS.html ).
IX. A Bill of Rights is urgently needed in this country (e.g. the outrageous race-specific suspension of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act in relation to Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory would not have been possible if Australia had had a satisfactory Bill of Rights).
X. Rational Risk Management in our
XI. There must be much greater respect for Scientists, Scientific Institutions and bodies and eminent and collective scientific opinion and scholars in Australia (money should not be able to buy truth in the Australian Murdochracy; it was an outrage that should never be repeated that Australia’s world leading climate change scientists could be simply gagged or brow-beaten by bald political denial for so many years.).
XII. While the idea of a Republic is supported by most Australians it is countered by concerns over traditional links, security enhancement through such links and the attractiveness of a non-appointed, figure-head head of State – however a Republic Declaration should not enable us to escape our continuing remorseless association with past and continuing British atrocities (excess deaths in British ruled India totalled 1.5 billion; 1990-2005 excess deaths in countries for which Britain was a major occupier totalled 727 million: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; we are still involved with “Great” Britain in the Oraqi Genocide and afghan Genocide, involving post-invasion excess deaths of 1.5-2 million and 3-6 million, respectively; see “State Terrorism. Genes and Memes” painting and the New Barbarism”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18122/42/ ; just because our lying, holocaust-denying media won’t report these crimes will not make them go away and merely compounds Australia’s culpability i.e. Holocaust Denial as well as Holocaust Commission, genocide Commission as well as Genocide Denial).
XIII. Australia should support a Global Parliament as suggested by Professor George Monbiot and involving per capita representation; it should also support India (1.1 billion people) being a major member of the UN Security Council ( it should support a hole host of other things as well e.g. freedom for the 4 million Occupied Palestinians still under the heel of anti-Arab anti-Semitic Racist Zionists after 40 years of illegal occupation in what outstanding Jewish American scholar Professor Noam Chomsky calls a “Prison” and which can be regarded as a highly abusive Concentration Camp run not by Prison Guards but guarded by a nuclear-terrorist military who police it by regular, weekly, indiscriminate, civilian-targeting shelling, rocketing and bombing)
XIV. There should be a respected, Government-funded but Government-independent body which can make informed, expert public pronouncement on major public falsehoods and related misdeeds (e.g. the non-existent children overboard; non-existent Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction; Bush Administration has been expertly determined recently to have told made 935 lies about Iraq post-9/11: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23098129-401,00.html?from=mostpop – what was the score for the egregiously dishonest Coalition Government?)
XV. There should be a public mechanism independent of Government and the lying, racist Mainstream media to ask questions of the “how much” and “how many kind” (e.g. “how many Indigenous Australians die avoidably every yrear?” Answer: 9,000; see “Stolen generations. Australian Aboriginal Genocide”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20242/42/; see #VII and #XIV ).
10.
i. The best form of security is being NICE to people and doing business with them – after over 2 centuries of Australian involvement in British and American racist wars Australia should cease diplomatic, legislative and military support for UK, US and Israeli state terrorism (post-1950 Indigenous excess deaths in US post-1950 Asian Wars now total 24 million; excess deaths in British-ruled India totalled 1.5 billion; 1950-2005 excess deaths in countries for which the UK, US and Israel were major occupiers in the post-1945 era total 727 million, 82 million and 24 million, respectively: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).
ii. The racist Coalition has bequeathed Australia an evil legacy of explicit, bigotry, racism, xenophobia, anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia Australia – Australia needs to take the advice of both Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser and REVERSE this racist and bigoted perversion by public policy and education (thus both major parties publicly supported US-armed and US-backed Israel when it was bombing, rocketing and shelling 25,000 Australian citizens, half of them kids, in Lebanon in mid-2006 – only the Australian Greens and Australian Democrats called for immediate ceasefire: “Picasso, Guernica, Qana & the Da Vinci Code: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9547/26/ ).
iii. As Germans did after 1945, Australia should adopt a CAAAA (C4A) protocol in relation to its nearly 60 years in post-1950 US Asian wars (Indigenous Asian excess deaths in these US Wars now total 24 million) – Cessation of the killing, Acknowledgment of the crime, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again to anyone” (see “India & UK-US Bush Wars”: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-polya220306.htm ).
iv. Rational Risk Management requires (a) data, (b) science and (c) rational systemic change to minimize risk – to that end Australia needs to encourage (a) free speech, responsible reportage; (b) science and public scientific literacy; and (c) rational public debate and this is achievable by (a) a Bill of Rights supporting free speech; (b) science education, (c) National Web-based public debate (thus Governments can gag Question time or otherwise gag debate but “Web-based public debate” or “Web-based Question time” involving MPs and public servants would circumvent this).
v. Deregulation of education, Accredited Remote Learning, competency assessments, off-campus skilling, participation of parents, professionals and retired teachers, community involvement, industry-involvement, Rational Risk management-enhanced systemic improvement, free speech, Web-empowerment, free top quality education at all levels, top Teaching and Learning and consequent CULTURE CHANGE should dramatically change Australia’s education system and radically address our skills base (e.g. see “Accredited Remote Learning”: http://accreditedremotelearning.blogspot.com/ ).
vi. Indigenous Australians must not only be given a “fair go” and C4A (Cessation of the Aboriginal genocide, Acknowledgment of the crime, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again) - they are a crucial cultural resource component in Australia addressing the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency (for a remarkable (to the artist) but unintended expression of white Australian “aboriginality” see my huge painting “Bundoora Arabesque” via “Racism in Australia. La Trobe, “Bundoora Arabesque”,& Aboriginal Ethnocide”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15960/42/ ).
vii. Given the Climate emergency and Sustainability Emergency, Australia’s urgent major task NOW is to stop fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution and to rapidly become a world leader in exploitation of solar energy through concentrated solar, photovoltaics, wind power and wave power (we have huge renewable energy resources, a huge sun-drenched land mass, 60,000 kilometers of coastline, huge superannuation funds for highly profitable and ethical investment and a world –leading position to exploit solar energy – the solar energy incident on earth is 10,000 (TEN THOUSAND) times the energy currently used by man; instead of being the World’s #1 climate criminal nation committed by current policies to climate genocide and terracide we could rapidly become a world leader in saving the world; e.g. see “Solar energy & the end of war. US balloon technology to slash solar energy cost 90% by 2010”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18667/42/
viii. Human rights have eroded horribly in the last dozen years of Bush-ite Coalition mis-rule – Australia needs to rescind draconian human rights-abusing legislation and to have a Bill of Rights (I have often met quite nice people at social functions in Australia who have been part of a foreign military machine involved in variously imprisoning, bombing, shelling, rocketing and otherwise horribly abusing 2 million Occupied Palestinian children or 25,000 Australian citizens, half of them children, in Lebanon; they have prime allegiance to a foreign, war criminal, nuclear terrorist state in gross violation of numerous International Human Rights Conventions and Laws; they are free to come and go with bi-partisan support – yet an Australian who gives a donation for urgently needed medical services in Gaza (war criminally NON-provided by the Occupier) is threatened with up to life imprisonment under the Australian Anti-Terrorism laws).
ix. The latest evidence from the US and Europe is that the greatest terrorism threat to Australia comes from Bush-ite US and Racist Zionist-run Israel – our Governments and law enforcement, intelligence and security services should urgently protect Australia from this threat instead of slavishly collaborating with these likely perpetrators (The US National Intelligence estimate representing 16 US intelligence agencies has found that the Bush-ite-, neo-Bush-ite- and Racist Zionist-promoted Iraq War has seriously exacerbated the terrorism threat: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html , that there was no substance to the war-mongering Bush-ite, neo-Bush-ite and Racist Zionist claim of Iranian plans for nuclear weapons: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22083384/ , that US claims about Iranian nuclear programs are unfounded: http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2019235,00.html ; that US war drive against Iran was based on lies: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7553 ;Al Gore in his book “The Assault on Reason” describes the Bush refusal to act on a wealth of pre-9/11 intelligence represented a “reckless disregard for the safety of the American people”; and in November 2007 in an interview with a top Italian newspaper, the 7-year President of Italy,law professor, senator-for –life and long-time intelligence intimate Francesco Cossiga declared that the US CIA and Israeli Mossad had done 9/11 to further US and Israeli hegemony and that majpor intelligence afgencies were aware of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Cossiga , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18569/26/ , and http://www.corriere.it/politica/07_novembre_30/osama_berlusconi_cossiga_27f4ccee-9f55-11dc-8807-0003ba99c53b.shtml ; the US and US-backed Israel have a long record of terrorist atrocities; see William Blum’s “Rogue State” and Phillip Agee’s “Inside the Company. CIA Diary”; see “
x. The American Alliance is the sine qua non of Australian politics but must be seriously re- considered in the light of the US Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Climate Genocide and horrendous post-war crimes in Latin America, Africa and Asia, crimes that bear quantitative comparison with Nazi and Japanese atrocities (see William Blum’s best-selling “Rogue State”; John Perkins “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”; Emmanuel Todd’s best-selling “After the Empire”; Harold Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Prize Lecture: “Art, Truth and Politics”: http://www.counterpunch.org/pinter12072005.html ; 82 million 1950-2005 excess deaths in countries of which the US was a major Occupier in the post-1945 era: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).
xi. The major acute threats to Australia and to the world are nuclear, greenhouse and poverty threats; Australia and the US have complicity in these threats; and Australia must urgently decide whether to decisively “turn over a new leaf” or to continue on its servile, Bush-ite path to global disaster, climate genocide and terracide (see “US nuclear, greenhouse and poverty threats”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17652/42/ ).
xii. Public discussion in Australia must be urgently concerned with “how much” and “how many” in relation to key areas of national integrity (Australia is obsessively concerned with answering ‘how much” and “how many” questions when it is concerned with cricket, share prices or interest rates but “goes stupid” when it considers “global warming” (e.g. Australia is the world’s leading developed country in per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution at 43 tonnes per person per year: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ) or “terrorism” (e.g. 7,000 Westerners killed by Muslim origin non-state terrorists in 40 years, this including Israelis and ignoring authoritative testimony of US and Israeli complicity in 9./11 VERSUS about 8 million excess deaths in 21st century Bush Wars: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya071007.htm ; a further example is the Australia 2020 summit itself: there are 1,000 delegates and a 2-day Ideas-fest – that means 2 days x 8 hours per day x 60 minutes per hour = 960 minutes i.e. less than one minute for each of the delegates to say something).
xiii. A general scientific Rational Risk Management culture is vital for the future security and prosperity of
xiv. Analysis of global avoidable mortality reveals the major causes as violence, deprivation, disease and LYING; the fundamental injunctions from the WW2 Holocaust is zero tolerance for racism and “never again to anyone”; and accordingly Australia must adopt a policy of zero tolerance for racism, violence and lying (see “We are all Palestinian”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19915/42/ ).
xv. Useful public discussion in Australia to deal with the sustainability Emergency requires an open access, ethical, non-racist, humanitarian alternative to the generally racist, lying, holocaust ignoring Mainstream media – such a web-based Alternative medium would have the pro bono publico support of Australia’s intellectuals and should be an urgent priority of Government (ABC model) or concerned collective citizens (e.g. the ACTU, NTEU, ethical journalists on the UK Media Lens model ) (for models see Canada-based MWC News which has named, authoritative contributors, e.g.: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and the US Newsvine which as both anonymous and named contributors, e.g.: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/ . I favour the named, credentialed, expert contributor model but with possible anonymity for commenters and especially when intimidation is possible).
xvi. As indicated in #9, an Australian Truth Commission is vital with immunity from prosecution for people revealing the Truth with Remorse (in Rational Risk Management it is vital to get to the truth; systemic change to minimize Risk is vastly more important than traditional “Blame and Shame” played by the fraternally incestuous, Prosperous Anglo-Celtic Men – Pacmen – who run Australia).
xvii. Just as Senate Committees provide Web access to submissions, so it would be very useful for submissions relating to the Australia 2020 Summit could be presented to the public via a Web blog (e.g. such as this and with mechanisms for public discussion).
XVIII. The fundamental message from the Jewish Holocaust and indeed from all Holocausts is that there should be there must be zero tolerance for racism and also for public lying since it is racist lying by commission and omission that permit such atrocities and history ignored yields history repeated (anti-Arab anti-Semitic racism and lying by mainstream media, politicians and public servants continues to enable the continuing Palestinian genocide, the continuing Iraqi Genocide, the continuing Afghan Genocide, the continuing Aboriginal Genocide and the continuing and accelerating Climate genocide with intimate Australian involvement in Genocide Commission and Genocide Denial: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20242/42/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17139/42/ . http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13576/26/ ).
XIX. Given this appalling Australian culture of genocide commission, genocide denial, holocaust commission and holocaust denial, there is an urgent need NOW for no-penalty genocide denial criminalization (in the interests of free speech and scholarly research the only penalty would be the ignominy of public judicial conviction of the repugnant crime of genocide denial or holocaust denial: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12483/26/ ).
XX. There should an immediate Australian and Global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and urgent adoption of policy, as advocated by America’s top climate scientist Dr James Hansen, of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to a safe and sustainable level of 300-350 ppm ( see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm )
This second draft with a total of 255 IDEAS was written in the public interest (the additions over the first draft are listed in Capital Roman numerals) . I will make additions as new IDEAS come to mind. I would be delighted if people would re-publish this with attribution and otherwise disseminate these IDEAS in the interests of the betterment and safety of
Dr Gideon Polya
February 2008
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