The South Australian Government will expand a program to help disenchanted young people get back into school or apprenticeships. The program matches children who drop out of school with a mentor to motivate them to study or undertake an apprenticeship. The Innovative Community Action Network program has been running for four years with an 80 per cent success rate. Stop; there’s some issues here. I’ll point them out: People on government benefiets get more help than people not on the benefiets People on government benefiets get to see a job center once every fortnight While people...

Federal Opposition backbencher Wilson Tuckey has again emailed all his colleagues attacking his leader Malcolm Turnbull over emissions trading. An opinion poll today shows the Liberal leader has recorded his worst performance in a Newspoll as the alternative prime minister, dropping three points to 16 per cent. But the poll also shows 45 per cent of people support Australia waiting to introduce an emissions trading scheme until after the Copenhagen climate change talks, whereas 41 per cent say it should bring in the scheme now. Mr Tuckey says there is a message in that for Mr Turnbull, who has...

A new survey shows that motorists are increasingly taking out their frustration on parking officers. Where did they get this survey? The New South Wales union survey found that 250, or a quarter of all officers, were being subjected to some form of physical abuse as they went about their job. I don’t want a fine, so don’t fine me. The United Services Union says they want increased protection and issuing them with batons and capsicum spray is only one of a range of strategies being considered. While you’re at it, give them guns, and body armor, and possibly hearing protection,...

A Melbourne mother has blamed her 14-year-old daughter’s suicide on the internet and the tragic case has highlighted the problem of cyber bullying among young people. In Australia, one of the first comprehensive studies of cyber bullying shows about 10 per cent of teenagers and children have experienced some form of sustained bullying using technology. It is a behaviour that can have tragic consequences. No shit. Speaking on Melbourne radio, mother Karen Rae is in no doubt that cyber bullying was responsible for the death of her 14-year-old daughter. My heart goes out to you, it must...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says Labor’s policy of opposing nuclear power generation in Australia is clear. The Labor Party’s decision to scrap its limit on the number of uranium mines has seen several new mining operations open up. What are we doing with all the excess Uranium then, Mr. Krudd? Opposition energy and resources spokesman Ian Macfarlane has called for the uranium to be used to generate electricity domestically. But Mr Rudd says that is not something the Government is considering. Kiyoto Protocol, man. What a waste of taxpayers money, asshole. “Can I say our policy...

No surprise here: The Labor backbencher Vince Catania has quit the party to join the Nationals. Mr Catania was elected as the Labor Member for North West last year. He had previously served as an MLC for Mining and Pastoral Region. It is the second seat that Labor has lost since the last election. Earlier this year, the seat of Fremantle went to the Greens in the wake of the resignation of former senior government minister Jim McGinty. But why did the Fremantle guy join the Greens, really? What an idiot.

This is crazy, really horrible. Police investigating the murders of five family members at a home in Sydney’s north-west over the weekend say they have concerns for the safety of the surviving daughter, a 15-year-old girl. Brenda Lin flew home from a school study trip yesterday after hearing that her parents, two brothers and an aunt had been bashed to death. A relative found 45-year-old Min Lin, his wife Lillie, their 12- and nine-year-old boys, and Lillie’s 39-year-old sister dead in their home on Saturday morning. All five had been bludgeoned to death in their bedrooms, suffering...

The State Government is looking at ways to stop unions embarking on what it describes as a reign of terror on building sites, as a result of the Commonwealth’s industrial relations changes. More than 100 workers from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union walked off the Westralia Square development in Perth yesterday over safety concerns. As a labOURer I had to deliver plasterboard and some safety issues were obviously arisen, but did the compensation and health and safety dick heads do anything? NO THEY DID NOT. The Industrial Relations Minister, Troy Buswell says the Commonwealth’s...

The Acting Chief Minister, Delia Lawrie, says the Northern Territory Government has spent $70,000 to fix overflowing septic tanks at a community in Central Australia, where locals say they have become sick from having to walk in ankle-deep sewage. OH… SHIT! Dozens of residents in Ampilatwatja, 325 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs, have walked out of their community to stage a protest against the condition of their homes and what they say is a lack of service provision by the Barkly Shire. Yup. Ms Lawrie says a contractor has been sent to the site to fix the sewage problems. “[For]...

Victorian paramedics are threatening to go on strike unless a pay dispute with Ambulance Victoria is resolved soon. Paramedics want more pay and an end to eight hour rest breaks between shifts, which they say causes fatigue. Wait.. What? Both parties will attend mediation sessions later today. Yum. Meditation. But the Ambulance Union’s Victorian Secretary, Steve McGhie, says paramedics could strike next week if progress is not made soon. “This dispute at the moment is becoming very serious and ambulance paramedics are becoming very frustrated with the lack of response from the...