Giving away the Farm

A not insignificant area of high quality rangeland in Australia's north is being made available, or "produced", for intensive agricultural use.

There are many problems facing the developer/s of this land: Distance to markets, fauna pests, remote area logistics & consequent high costs, etc.

Mine Host has a familiarity with this patch of land. In total it is not a big area, as far as releases of agricultural land go. About a hundred thousand acres. But in high rainfall & tropical climate. Irrigated, it will be a food bowl.

There is nothing new in this release, except for journalists, who have come down with a case of "gee whiz" & are writing about it as if they have only just discovered Australia has an undeveloped north. (This will be because those journalists have only just discovered that Australia has a vast undeveloped north)

This patch of land has been earmarked for this release, more than 30 years ago, possibly longer. There are no surprises. The people who owned it, & everybody for at least a thousand mile radius has known of the impending land release, just not when it would happen.

Except journalists in the deep south. You know, the "informed & investigative" class.

The (current) federal government has been in negotiations with the government of Communist China, for "the chinese" to be allocated every last acre of this land release, for "the chinese" to farm as they see fit, and for "the chinese" to do as they wish with the resultant farm produce.

This is an outrage!

Mine Host has, for the past several weeks (long before [cough] journalists) "discovered" the event, been lobbying everybody he can pin down.

Mine Host is not without ears to bend, knowing lots of political heavy hitters from both major parties & also industry representative bodies.

This land must not, under any circumstances or conditions, be farmed by anybody but Australians, using practices approved by the relevant state Department of Primary Industries.

In the manner of all previous agricultural land releases, this land should be balloted to Australian farmers, conditional upon them (a) living on their allocated land, and (b) developing it as productive farmland.

Anything else will be as good as treason.

Camouflage

New Office-in-Charge at the police station.

Without informing anybody else, he orders several police officers (male & female) to dress in mufti and of an evening mingle through the pubs. New OiC then calls a meeting between him and the town's main liquor licencees.

At this meeting he berates us no end, about the sort of stuff that the constables had seen in & around pubs (when out of uniform).

Apparently the constables-in-mufti had observed behaviour that people don't exhibit when there is a uniformed copper around.

Gee Sarge, ya don't reckon?

Anyways, the new O-i-C (at this special meeting) berated us publicans about how men had urinated in the street, right beside undercover police ladies, etc etc etc.

And now he, the new broom, was going to knock this sort of conduct out of the publicans of the town......

... about here Mine Host hit his pins to enquire just which publicans had been observed engaging in such...er.... street activities?

The meaning went right over the head of the really intelligent and brainy new O-i-C. Actually it ran deeper than that.

In his mind publicans knew this was happening, condoned it, and allowed it to happen.

The meeting was to "let you publicans know" that "this stops now!"

I don't know what this dickhead thought he was going to achieve by treating some of the town's leading businessmen like street hooligans (except to convince all of us that he was a dickhead).

Gee, we don't have any power outside our own buildings, and we aren't the ones with the guns & powers of arrest!

The Cardboarders

Buenos Aires, when socialising in neighborhood steakhouses, applauding tango musicians, sleeping in soft beds, tipping cabbies extravagantly, browsing wine shops, and hankering after nubile and alluring Argentine honeys, is fine when one is weighed down with Australian dollars at the current extremely favourable exchange rate.

For some, life in the world's greatest city is one of grinding & hopeless poverty. Poverty such as cannot be imagined in Australia, where what passes for poverty is affluence by Argentine standards.

In Ozziland, those living in "poverty" are apt to die from obesity. In one of those trendy cultural differences, morbid obesity is not as prevalent among those Argentinians who experience chronic poverty.

During a short post-lunch stroll, Mine Host snapped the above photo. Not being crass enough to approach the subject to both destroy their dignity, and confirm their social status, Mine Host has merely deemed the fellow to be possibly a member of what is known as "the cardboarders" (that is the best translation I could get anyway). These chaps, many of them former white collar workers suddenly retrenched years ago, eke out a hopeless existence collecting discarded cardboard and turning it in.

There is dual melancholy in this. That what was one of the world's most developed nations has been so badly mismanaged that so much human talent & skill is wasted in such manner, and that people live in such miserable circumstances.

As the fellow in the photograph is walking all accross town searching for cardboard scraps, countless people in Australia will be, at the exact same moment, (whilst filing their nails, or slacking off for a smoke break) be bitching about how hard done by they are to "have" to front up at their workplace for eight hours.

Makes one ashamed of one's countrymen. I'd like to do a level swap, a planeload of cardboarders exchanged for a planeload of bludgers.

Argentina (again!)

Mine Host's positive opinion of Argentina is well known.
Visiting Buenos Aires on business (as you do), Mine Host has just hoed into the above tucker. (Yes, a rare lapse from Mine Host's usual teetotal regimen!)

Somewhat hindered by his spanish being limited to learnt-on-the-run, suitable-for-instructing-taxi-drivers, Mine Host has yet to master conversing with waiters. A propensity to tip, combined with the obvious respect he holds for professional gentleman waiters, has meant that dining is usually a positive experience.

Don't be fooled by the ...er.. unique Argentine style of plating. Despite the spartan presentation, the food & wine are top grade. The ambience is most pleasant.

In contrast to what one is always told, I've never yet had a waiter in Buenos Aires recommend that beef be cooked well-done.

By the way, that is a large plate. That steak is quite a lot bigger than it looks.

Guilty - unless proven Guilty!

Still astonished at the current federal govt's brassy manner of promulgating their newly discovered concept of "innocent until proven guilty", Mine Host's mind drifts to some more laws that work the opposite way:

Specifically the Qld state worker's compensation laws. Under which an employer is 'obliged' to ensure a worker suffers no injury, either at the workplace, or work related.

Under the state laws, if any injury whatsoever happens to a worker, the employer is to blame, and may be sued for allowing the injury. Such litigation is in addition to the regular worker's compensation scheme.

It should be noted that being sued for hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, for minor or fabricated injuries is a regular occurrence for Qld employers. Mine Host has been subject to at least three such lawsuits.

Employers have no defence, as none is allowed under the law. If an injury occurred, the employer was negligent.

Were a meteorite to strike the workplace & injure a worker, the employer can be sued for not preventing this from happening.

You couldn't make this stuff up!

Anyone who is wondering why the newly elected Premier of Qld has pledged to "rip up" at least 18,000 pages of legislation that was created by the previous govt. can now see why.

Hypocrites! (appendix)

Further to the preceding post on the .... er... flexible attitude of the (current) federal government to the somewhat ...er... flexible.... concept known as "presumption of innocence", paraphrased here is the closing paragraph of a post from October last year:

"In the glossary from the Fair Work Ombudsman, the employee is termed "the complainant" and the employer is termed "the wrongdoer".'

Hypocrites!

Through gritted teeth Mine Host has been over past weeks listening to the news.

One of the government politicians has got himself mixed up in a most salacious scandal, involving impropriety on a grand scale. Hookers (platoons of them), missing money (by the wheelbarrow load) etc.

The government has a majority of one vote in the parliament. If the scandal claims their frisky comrade, the government will fall. Thus the government is most anxious to water down any righteous anger from the public.

Thus various members of the (current) federal government have been banging on endlessly and most indignantly, about how it is some sort of natural right to be presumed innocent.

Don't these ... er.. people... read their own laws? The ones they voted into existence only a couple of years ago? The one that was one of their big election promises?

Yep! The "Fair Work Act".

Mine Host has, in his spare time been brushing up on his facts. At least one entire section of the Fair Work Act declares an employer guilty the very second an empoyee (present or past) makes an allegation. To "get off" punishment for the offence, the accused (employer) has to disprove their guilt.

The Federal Budget in One Phrase

"We've run right out of money!"

This in the middle of a mineral boom!

I do my bit for the feds

Wow, the federal government is going to pop $830 into parents' bank account, for every school age child. (Likely this will happen a month or so before a federal election, or something)

This money is to be for *cough*cough* education expenses that the parents may incur.

Riiiiiight!

Mine Host (& every other poker machine operator in the nation) is salivating at this news.

Merry Christmas! (to me!!!)

Will this money be blown on poker machines, grog, tattoos, new TV sets & the like?

You betcha it will!

And that is exactly what the federal government wants people to do with it.

The Notice that Never Was

A recent post on serving notice, by Legal Eagle, at the site she shares with Skepticlawer (she of the minimum two thousand word blog posts!) brings to mind Mine Host's favourite story of having notice served!

************

A fellow seated himself at the bar of the Wayside Tavern.

It was 6 p.m.

The bar was very busy.

The bar staff were flat out.

The stranger asked for Mine Host, & then the manager, both by name & was told that neither was on the premises.

The fellow pondered this for a few moments.

He then said that this abscence presented him with some difficulty. He was there to "serve notice" (at this point he waved an envelope) and had to serve it urgently, as he had been "supposed to serve it last week."

The barmaid was very busy & didn't catch everything he was saying. It was peak hour.

Later she noticed the fellow was gone.

He had left his envelope sitting on the bar, among the scattered newspapers, betting stubs, beer coasters & other detrius of a busy trading day.

This wasn't unusual, people usually leave things, including their money, on the bar while they go next door to buy something, or go outside for a smoke.

The papers/envelope were swept up and thrown into the rubbish bin when the bar was cleaned later on.

We know all this from a review of the security cameras.

For several days later the barmaid hesitantly mentioned that she may have "done something she shouldn't have".

Does just dropping the papers on the bar in a busy pub count as serving notice?

What was the particular legal matter referred to in the papers?

We have no idea whatsoever. It all went out with the rubbish many days ago.

Just Where is he from...?.....!!!!!

Scene: Wayside Tavern Office
Time: Very late at night (11pm+)
Cast:
Mine Host
DJ
2nd Chef (arrived 5 mins ago on the bus - first time he's been out of the big smoke in his life!)

Action:
Mine Host & newly arrived 2nd Chef are engaged in quiet small talk.
DJ appears at the doorway that leads to his office.

DJ: "I'm putting the kettle on, anybody want a cuppa?, I'm having coffee"
Mine Host: "Yair, I'll have a cuppa please."

(then comes the line that he will never live down, that has us still talking a year later, and gets a rollicking laugh from everybody we tell it to.):

2nd Chef: "I'll have a latte please...."


Hmmm.............. his horizons have certainly been very narrow!

False Media Reports

Of recent days much airtime & column space has been devoted to "shootings" & the like.
The streets of Australia are being painted as the scene of "drive-by shootings", "bikie vendettas" etc.

Rubbish! The news media should stop making things up. It is not true. These things didn't happen. These things cannot happen.

For in 1996 Australia had very strict gun laws imposed. To stop this sort of thing.

Thus the press is making it all up. Reading such poppycock is bad for the blood pressure!

***********

Or perhaps every poltician who voted for the laws, and every member of the public who supported/supports such laws, is wrong. Plain wrong.

What have gun laws achieved, except the disarming & subsequent harrasment of law-abiding citizens?

Every politician who voted for such laws, and every citizen who supports such laws, should hang their head in shame. Utter shame.

Not only for getting it wrong, but for being so blindingly stupid.

With friends like these...........

One of the benefits of the introduction of television service to the outer reaches of the nation is the televising of the Anzac Day march.  The televised march has usually been from the southern city of Brisbane, but with the introduction of multiple TV channels, we can now watch excerpts of the marches held in other (deeper in the south) cities.

Favourite part of the televised ANZAC day march?

The Military Police (or Provost Marshal's Corps, or whatever their real name may be) were preceded by a banner that accross the bottom had a slogan that read something like:

"Always with the troops, Always supporting the troops"

Leaves me speechless.

Mine Host's recommendation:  The returned servicemen former M.P.s meet after the march at a pub where no other returned servicemen are drinking at.

Being as none of the marching former M.P. Anzacs looked as robust as they used to be, and they no longer have the wrath of hell backing them up.

Memories are long, and the support the provos provided to the troops will be well remembered by those on the receiving end of that (*cough*) "support".

******************************
(Footnote:  The changes to blogspot?  They really suck!  -  After over 7 years of using the same format, I was quite happy with it, and am finding the new format heavy going.  Posting isn't as easy anymore, perhaps I'll change to another site, I'm not sure I'm prepared to go to the extra work that blogger is now putting me to).  I run close to half a dozen blogs, & they've all become hard work.

Does anyone have any recommendations/comparisons?

Breathing Trouble inflicted

Mine Host has lately been seething aplenty at the narrow-mindedness and obtuse stupidity of his urban TV-watching comrades from the deep south.

These are the people whose uninformed & ill-considered outcry (over cruelty they saw on their TV screen) led to the federal government mindlessly killing a productive industry. The northern cattle industry.

An industry Mine Host once worked in.

There is one universal sin in that industry. Commission of which will bring all walks of life together against you, and will have you ostracised, cast out, shunned, etc.

Cruelty to an animal.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

So picture this:

One of the men was sitting, pulling the wings off a fly. The boss, a big gruff and rough type, saw this and was troubled by the needless cruelty.

The boss roughly issued an order to the man:
"You kill that fly right now!"

The man laughed & released the fly.

The boss broke the man's nose.

Pause to Think

There's certainly some second thoughts going on about the advisability of going on strike.

The closure of Norwich Park mine has thrown quite a scare into some of the fellers. They've got it very good, and know it. It hadn't occurred to them until BHP just up & shut the mine, that there could possibly be a downside to biting the hand that feeds them.

Reference Check

Mine Host's preferred industry association has a partnership with a recruiting company.

This firm phones one day to conduct a reference check on a former employee, as they have a client with a position vacant that matches this former employee's qualifications & experience.

Mine Host gives very accurate answers to the questions he is asked. This is not well received, as the answers are rather negative. (The former employee left under the... ah... most questionable of circumstances)

Mine Host emphatically does not recommend the employee, and states that under no circumstances whatsoever would he re-hire the employee.

The recruiter stops there... pauses..... then says:

"This isn't a very good reference, I'm going to have to keep calling more people on the list until I finally get a positive reference, as we have to place this person in that job!"


Mine Host makes a note to never use that firm to fill any vacancies. Ever.

Rafferty's Rules

As will be known by every employer who has sponsored migrant workers, the dept of immigration is very arbitrary in the approvals process.

The people of Australia quite likely have a (reasonable) belief that there are a clear set of immigration rules and standards, which each and every employer sponsored migrant has to adhere to.

Ha ha haha hahaa...........

There is not. Each application is handled by a case officer.

There are rules, yes, but it is up to the case officer to interpret them how they wish.

Mine Host has often had the experience of having three concurrent migration applications lodged, each handled by a different case officer, and having to meet three entirely different sets of standards. Each of the three applications will require entirely different paperwork, with almost no documents in common.

Believe it or not, the case officers pretty much make it up as they go along.

They will change the rules as the application progresses. Arbitrarily.

Or they will not. It is all up to the case officer handling the application.

If the public knew how capriciously administered the immigration process was, they'd be marching on parliament house, armed with flaming torches and accompanied by baying hounds!

The way the immigration dept handles the various employer sponsored immigration programmes is a joke. Heaven knows where the blame lies, ministerial incompetence, or perhaps disinterested leadership.

Simple Directive

In the office with the Manager, for a stern interview, Mine Host starts the conversation in as offhand a manner as he can.

There is only one point of discussion, the major item. The matter of the manager's daughter being shacked up in the presidential suite with a boyfriend, both of them eating their heads off at Mine Host's expense. None of it paid for.

The subject is not addressed head on, for Mine Host is crafty.

Mine Host has noted that one other staff member is permanently housed in guest accommodation, as are other staff temporarily, from time to time.

Mine Host issues a directive that "All guest rooms are to be made available for the use of paying guests. It matters not if a guest does not check into that room and the room lies vacant for a whole year. The purpose of guest accommodation is to house paying guests, and that is the business we are in."

Rather than carry out this directive, the manager chose to summarily resign their position.

This was somewhat unexpected.

Mine Host stated that if this was the manager's considered position, then all he could do was give the manager as long a notice period as they wished.

The manager announced that they would work out one month's notice.

Stand by for the next, and most unusual, development.......

Fearless Prosecution

Being as his attacker was identified and spoken to at the scene by police, bar manager is keen to see the culprit charged.

How do the police go about this?

Try this:
When he attends the police station, the investigating constable informs him that they are "unable to take a statement in the police station" and makes an appointment to attend his home to take a statement.

The police do not keep the appointment.

Bar manager phones the police the following day, and is informed that police will attend his home at 3pm, to take a statement.

The police do not keep the appointment.

Bar manager attends the police station to try to get things happening, and is informed that police will call at his house "sometime tonight" to take a statement.

Police do not turn up at his house.

He rather emphatically makes his views known at the police station. (Days have now passed). The investigating constable has a chat, using lots of phrases along the lines of "Do you really want to do this?" and "He won't like it if he is charged, are you sure you want to rock the boat in this manner?" and so on & so forth......

Mine Host has a chat with the constable, who obtusely states that she is "unable to comment about an ongoing investigation" and tersely notes that Mine Host is not a complainant in the matter, and thus isn't entitled to know anything!

Oh boy, greenhorn Constables..... So Mine Host has an informal chat with one of the police Sergeants. The Sergeant points out that no complaint has yet been made, thus the police are unable to investigate.

This gives a good starting point to the informal chat. Mine Host makes it plain, (in the course of conversation) that members of the public who cannot even get a complaint heard by the police, let alone have their attacker charged, have considerable resources at their disposal.

The Sergeant doesn't miss this implication. He is aware that a complaint about poor policing, driven by Mine Host, will not only go direct to the correct authorities, but will be very well worded and will likely have maximum effect upon the Constable's career.

Stand by for a sudden reversal of policing policy.

Grassfed!

A randown snapshot, taken during service in the kitchens of the Wayside Tavern.

Note the yellow fat. This beef is grassfed!