Friday, April 6, 2012

Lost In The Woods

VICTORIANS keen to get away for Easter may well face difficulties if their destinations are state parks, which rangers are declining to unlock as part of ongoing industrial action. Earlier, they declined to take part in preventive burns intended to reduce combustible material in our forests, a policy advocated by the recent Royal Commission examing the Black Saturday fires. Give the rangers credit for thoroughness. Having compromised the state's safety, they are now doing their bloody minded best to ruin its residents' recreation.

While that attitude is shocking in its selfishness, its meek acceptance by the Baillieu government is even more distressing.

Parks are sealed with a simple gate and padlock, which would be the matter of a few moments to snip open with a pair of bolt cutters. Ideally, this should be done for the TV cameras by Minister Ryan Smith, who could then announce that the parks are open to all, as they should be on the Easter long weekend. To further alert the rangers that they have a fight on their hands, he might also have added that anyone caught breaking locks would not be to subject prosecution.


But that would require a spine.

13 comments:

  1. I'm a Queenslander so I don't concern myself too much with the workings of Government in Victoria but this guy Ted Baillieu reminds me of another faux Liberal, the lamentable Malcolm Turnbull. Am I on the money?

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    1. Or David Cameron?

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    2. Walter Plinge of TemplestoweApril 6, 2012 at 2:10 PM

      You certainly are. Peas in a pod.

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  2. The Old and Unimproved DaveApril 6, 2012 at 12:07 PM

    Mr. Ranger's not going to like this, Yogi.....

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  3. "The government has vowed to put on non-unionised ''strike breakers'' to try to keep gates open." http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/park-gates-to-be-shut-20120405-1wfqu.html#ixzz1rDyc3eoS
    This could yet become a major story as Ted confronts the Green thought police.

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  4. Is that where the thousandsof B As churned out by our plethora of "Uselessversities"go ? They become well paid comrades in National Parks."It's Time"to put the Ferrets in ,clear these Bludging Rabbits out , put real Bush People in . They will burn the rubbish off the forest floor.,give the jobs to the ex Timber Workers put out of a job by the alp/groin Wankers.Batchelor of Arts shoul be Abolished just look at gilliardsshower.

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    1. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.April 6, 2012 at 9:15 PM

      Yes, bring the bushies back and give the timber workers a go. Seconded here.

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  5. Walter Plinge of TemplestoweApril 6, 2012 at 2:08 PM

    On my early morning ride today I found my local suburban park was barred, at least to cars. Two notices were cable-tied to the beam. It occurred to me it would be the work of minutes with a cut-off saw or truck-and-chain to open the park to everyone. I'll check it again tomorrow. I trust early morning dogwalkers will have opened it for the public.

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  6. Apart from the constitution requiring it, the benefits of state governments are what?
    They are always too poor to do anything, needing the cash from the Feds to do any large works. They fall into the wrong hands often enough to do a Clover Moore-ish job on a statewide scale, as evidenced by the previous Victorian Labor lot. Laws like the anti-free-speech vilification ones end up high priority, ditto gay marriage or some other pandering to squeaky wheels of the arty left persuasion.
    State police seem to have no higher purpose in life than revenue collection for minor infringements of road rules. State planners think the creation of national parks is more important than anything else, and developing enough land for new home buyers is far too difficult.
    After 10-15 or more years of financial stagnation and PC nannyism, the Libs get back in and are expected to fix it all up in one term before the media call up the It'sTime Factor, or start using hearsay evidence to blacken Barry O'Farrell.
    The state allocations of Senators are all wrong, and need to be pulled back into line with population. Bob Brown reckons one man one value is the go, just not on his mandate. Tasmania only has one industry of any consequence, and the Greens are determined to stop it dead. Who'll pick up the tab for what is to become a large island national park with no industry bar tourism?

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    1. I'd prefer to see the Commonwealth go before the states. We'd be better off if there six or seven competing economies.

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    2. I know it’s a tangent, but spot on, Prof! Nothing good ever – ever – happens as a result of a monopoly. In fact, monopolies cause nothing but high costs and injustice. And the worst of them is government. Two examples of the worst: the privatisation of Australian airports (introduced by the Libs and supported by Labor), which adds as much as 20% to discount air fares because it has turned into a rule-free transfer of wealth from airlines to private airports running operating margins of 70-80% (only marginally less efficient in printing money than the Australian Mint); and the UN IPCC, which has declared itself the global information monopoly on climate and has proceeded to turn climatology into a subversive corruption of science itself, driven by anti-Western political dogma. On the other hand, nothing but beautiful things, like efficiency, low costs and happy consumers, happen as a result of competition. Pound for pound, Australia is the world capital for monopolies and anti-competitive scams, unlike America, where everything’s cheap.

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  7. Does the "industrial action" require them to enforce rules on park entry?

    If not, cut the locks off and go to it.

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  8. OK, having done my little bit of provocation I'll settle for competing state governments and no Feds. That still gets rid of the senate gerrymander, and may make the states behave better. But I don't have a lot of faith in that thesis, and harmonising states' legislation in some key areas would be harder. You can still get Californias!

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