Who's Counting?

So the Australian Electoral Commission has overturned its previous result for the West Australian representatives in the Senate.  The first time round, the winning margin was 14 votes for the last two spots.  The second time round it was only 12 but with the Australian Sports Party and the Greens replacing the Palmer United Party and Labor for those last two spots. 

There are two big problems with this result.  Firstly, I think if the recount has resulted in a change in outcome, and by a smaller margin than before, they should actually do another count.  I would like to see the count, or at least its outcome, replicated once.  For all we know, it's been counted wrongly again.  The second problem however, is more serious.  In the course of recounting the votes, it's been discovered that 1375 votes have been lost since the first count.  How can we possibly recognise a recount outcome with a margin of 12 votes when we've lost over a thousand of the original votes.  We've effectively disenfranchised 1375 people in the recount.

More worrying is the fact that this is the 3rd such discrepancy in this election and the 2nd time votes have been lost or misplaced.  These events only come to light when the first result is close, which makes you wonder how many other votes have been lost elsewhere, or if they are ever lost before being counted.   

Spies Like Oz

What do you know?  It's not just the United States that spies on other governments.  Apparently we've been doing it too.  The Indonesians are not happy and they've summoned our ambassador to explain.  Now, for me, this is where it gets interesting.  You see, his name is Moriarty.  That's right, Sherlock's nemesis is apparently our ambassador to Indonesia! 

Mark my words!  No good will come of this...

Spies like US

So in the last few weeks, it transpires that the USA is pretty much spying on anyone and everyone in the "war on terror".  This includes hacking into the mobile phones of the presidents of countries that are allied to them.  It's hard to see how listening to Angela Merkel's phone conversations and messages is going to set back a terrorist group in any way.  And the sheer volume of the data being collected, over 70 million phone records in just a 30 day period in France, belies any notion that this can be limited to known or suspected individuals.  Little wonder then at the resultant backlash from the French, German and Spanish governments.

What's more intriguing in this climate, is the absence of any noise whatsoever from our Government.  Do we not have questions?  Do we already know it's happening and are quite happy about it?  I can't believe that even the most pro-US administration could accept the Prime Minister's phone being routinely hacked.  Maybe we naively assume that it couldn't be happening here.

I think we should at least be asking.

90% of It Isn't About the 10% At All

Our retail unions are advocating for the 10% GST to be applied to online purchases from overseas retailers because online retailers have an advantage over local retailers, which are obliged to charge GST.

Even the slightest analysis of this claim however,  reveals it to be a complete red herring.  Those of us who buy goods from overseas retailers do not do it to save 10%.  In fact, I'd happily pay 10% more to buy from a local retailer, but the reality is, I'm usually saving between 40 and 50% on Australian retail prices by buying online.  Why wouldn't I buy overseas?  So, you'd be tempted to say, "Knock me out - add 10% to the overseas price and I'll still be buying from them."  But here's the catch: it would be difficult, not to mention being an unwanted complication, for an overseas retailer to start collecting tax on behalf of the Australian government.  The likely outcome would be that the overseas retailer would simply decide to refuse to ship to Australia (as currently happens with some suppliers).  That's what the retail union is really aiming for.

The unions claim about the 10% advantage is disingenuous at best.  In reality, it's a cynical attempt to try lock Australian consumers back into the over-priced local market.

Voyage of a Lifetime

On September 12 this year NASA announced that Voyager 1 had left our solar system and entered inter-stellar space.  In doing so, it became the first man-made object to leave our solar system.

This is very impressive stuff but when you also hear that it was launched in 1977, it makes you realise that a return trip would take 72 years: literally, a lifetime.

So I guess, we're not going anywhere far, far away, anytime soon!
  

Elections. Again.

Whenever we have elections and, having them nationally every 3 years and state-wide every 4, this seems often, I find myself thinking of the infamous (but not necessarily actual) exchange in the 1956 American election:

Woman voter:      Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person! 
Adlai Stevenson:  That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!

I think he'd have felt right at home in our election.

The Original

Apparently there's been a royal birth.  Watching TV, you could be forgiven for concluding that there is nothing else happening.

But then, just when you're telling your cynical self that you've seen all this royal stuff before: the crowds, the banks of tv cameras and those strange talking heads called "royal watchers", you see something new.  They have a shouty fellow!  With a bell!  Now we're talking!

He's the original Twitter, you know.