Australia 2019
With an overall very low performance, Australia ranks 55th in this year’s CCPI. The country continues to receive very low ratings in the categories GHG Emissions, Energy Use and Climate Policy. The country ranks at the bottom of low performers in the Renewable Energy category with national experts criticising the government for not putting forward any plans for renewable energy beyond 2020. Experts argue that national climate policy has continued to worsen – the government has no comprehensive emission reduction policy, no regulation of transport emissions and no plans to phase out coal. Experts observe that the government has become an increasingly regressive force in international negotiations, attempting to weaken climate finance obligations and dismissing the IPCC 1.5°C report.
Holland ranks 28th while Finland has a ranking of 9th
https://www.climate-change-performance-index.org/country/australia-2019
I am desperate and keen to have a positive something to say about Australia, the country my parents chose to migrate to back in 1956. With Australia day coming up on the 26th of January, can some of you please, guide me to a distinctly positive item that Australia excels in. Lately we have been inundated with bad things. We have a Royal Commission on aged care. Last week we watched how elderly are being strapped down in a chair for up to 14 hours and no toilet breaks. A man suffering from dementia was seen reduced to a vegetable, all bent double over, strapped on his chair. This was hard on the heels of video footage by combat troops with assault weapons at the ready, trained on children at a juvenile detention centre.
It just doesn’t seem to stop. The best thing that Australia almost achieved, but not quite, was allowing a Saudi girl in Australia. Sadly this did not happen either.
We will now see how all those dead fish in our largest river will survive. I don’t like their chances either.
I suppose a good thing that has happened is that the weather is now a lot cooler. For the moment we can turn off our air-conditioning. So…Aussi, aussi…oi oi oi.
Tags: Assault, Australia, Climate, Dementia, Energy, Finland, Fish, Netherlands, Renewable, Saudi
Oosterman Treats Blog 
January 19, 2019 at 4:12 am |
Yes , Gerard, today it is much cooler, here in Dapto too. I took advantage of the recent very warm weather to go to different pools in the neighbourhood. Most often I went to our lovely Dapto Pool. But I also went to the Port Kembla Swimming Centre next to the ocean and to the Shellharbout Pool right at the ocean. Peter did drive me everywhere but did not go into the water himself. He claims the water was too cold for him! 🙂
I think pools and the beach are a great plus in Australia, especially during extreme heatwaves like we had during the past weeks. 🙂
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January 19, 2019 at 5:59 am |
Yes, Uta. I admire very much that you go swimming during those hot days. My mother in Holland too like to go swimming as often as she could. Up till in her eighties she used to ride her bike to the swimming pool. Later on the local council used to provide transport to the pool.
Not my father. He did not like beaches or getting wet. I too am reluctant to enter the water and am on Peter’s side. We seem to have a permanent cold stream going along our shore lines.
Swimming in Bali or Thailand was more to my liking. But, apart from all that, I don’t really like getting wet. I like sitting in the shade with a friendly cool breeze, and stay dry.
Isn’t it terrible how some of those old-age homes are treating their ‘clients’? And they call it old-age care? We now have a Royal Commission, but will that change anything? I am not looking forward to the time that I too might get strapped down in a chair in a ‘care’ facility.
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January 19, 2019 at 6:09 am
We can only hope, Gerard, that we can still look after us right into very old age and maybe never have to enter an old-age home. Recently I heard about some people in their nineties living at home on their own with just a little bit of outside help.
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January 19, 2019 at 6:47 am
Yes, Uta. You are right. We hope the same. My mother was independent in Holland on her own till she was 85. My dad died much earlier when he was 79.
Even so, she finally needed an old age care home in which she lived till 96 years. The last couple of years in a dedicated place specific for those that needed special care, a hospice.
Her care was excellent and for the benefits of the inhabitants and not dependent on profits for shareholders like it is in Australia.
We hope to live till the end independently but that might not be guaranteed. I can’t imagine how this will turn out. Should we go back to Holland or Finland? I don’t get to hear about elderly people being strapped down or beaten by own slippers and abused in old age care facilities back in Holland or Finland.
But then again, they don’t mind paying higher taxes.
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January 19, 2019 at 5:17 am |
Yes, too much of Australia’s news is depressing.
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January 19, 2019 at 6:03 am |
I am looking forward to some good news, Peggy. The weather has turned mild and that has to be good news. Your planned trip with Poor John is very wise and that is good.
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January 19, 2019 at 9:38 am |
Interesting…I was born and raised by the sea…used to go swimming and skin-diving all summers…but now..I too do not like getting wet..Perhaps it is a blokey thing…: “Women = water…: Blokes = earth”….
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January 19, 2019 at 12:58 pm |
I don’t mind showering and getting wet but as far as going into the sea, I am now not at all keen.
Yet, at earlier times I had a balsa wood surf board and was one of the earlier surfers at Northern beaches.
These were the time of bodgies and widgies with malted milkshakes and fooling around against a paling fence. All that is gone now. The paling fence replaced by zinc-alume or colour bond. It is not the same anymore.
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January 19, 2019 at 8:53 pm
” The paling fence replaced by zinc-alume . . .”…..yes…I would suspect THAT was at the instigation of the local Methodists…you know, of course, of their aversion toward ANY position of vertical sex as it could lead to the sin of dancing.
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January 20, 2019 at 7:28 am
Zinc-alume did it of me. Paling fences at least were honest and one could see a bit of the neighbours through the cracks. Zinc-alume ruined all that. I often wondered why in Australia people were so keen on all that privacy.
The first thing real estate agents are asked when a buyer shows interest is; how is the privacy?
Is a bit of life next door very dangerous?’
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January 20, 2019 at 7:36 am
No..but sometimes just TOO ugly!!
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January 20, 2019 at 7:22 am |
Yes, water means getting wet. With doing the dishes by hand I get enough wetness and growing up in Holland below sea level must have left its mark, Jo.
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January 19, 2019 at 8:43 pm |
Important post, Gerard.
There is so much sadness and confusion in so many parts of the world. Australia is not alone in it’s not-so-good stuff. But, that’s not an excuse. And every country should be stepping it up to help it’s people…especially those people who don’t have a voice.
The cooler weather is good news! And we must look for the good, and the joys, in each day. And when I can’t find any…I create some!!! 😉 😀
So what did the Australians think of Steve Irwin?! We loved him here. 🙂
HUGS for you and Helvi!!! 🙂
PATS for Milo!!! 🙂
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January 20, 2019 at 7:32 am |
Yes, for a great deal one makes one’s own happiness. I agree, better still is to try and make others feel good. You, Carolyn are good at that.
A basic ingredients for that is to get away from oneself. Not an easy task for someone who loves to give opinions.
Steve Irwin is still revered here in Australia and fondly remembered. He took big risks with crocodiles.
Hugs, Gerard
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January 20, 2019 at 8:51 pm
Yes, making others feel good is THE best of joy! 🙂
Thank you! I try!
So true…about getting away from oneself and out of one’s own head.
I wondered about him because he is listed at the top of your post with some scary things…like the man-eating koalas! 😮
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January 19, 2019 at 9:32 pm |
New Zealanders send $5 billion a year in interest payments on money Australian banks create out of thin air. I would like to think you guys were putting that money to good use. From your blog post, it sure doesn’t sound like it.
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January 20, 2019 at 7:40 am |
Any surplus is used to give even more tax cuts. A logical conclusion to that will be that in Australia finally no tax will be paid.
Tax paying is forever being vilified almost on par with asylum seekers from Muslim countries that dare to come by boat.
With the federal elections due shortly, I bet more tax cuts will be coming. Pity for the unemployed, the elderly, the mentally ill, the public schools and health provisions.
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January 19, 2019 at 10:20 pm |
Ah, Gerard…I must introduce you to the universal Aussie catch-cry that greets any innovator or original thinker upon this wide brown land…: “That’ll never work!”…. or it’s variation that is accompanied with a wrinkled brow…” Nah!…a waste of time..that is!”….and THEN followed with the aforementioned catch-cry…: “ That’ll never work!”.
As an amateur inventor of several devices that evolved from the physical activities of my work in the building industry, I once created a “drop-down gutter bracket” that allowed any person with aged or disability that precluded them climbing a ladder to drop-down a straight length of guttering to clean out leaves or blockage…I took it to an engineering shop to see on its possibility of production.
Another time I had made for me from a stout leather strap, what I would call a “false tendon” that strapped around the wrist, sat flat against the back of the hand and clipped around the head of a hammer or other light tool to be used for striking…the “false tendon” replacing the need for an arthritic or otherwise encumbered hand from tight-gripping the implement’s handle…an idea derived from my years of using/holding a hammer in my trade of carpentry in nailing wall-frames together…
I also invented what I call a “device” used to tighten the girth-straps of a saddle on a large horse, that last couple of holes on a tall horse being just out of reach (even on tip-toe) for my Irene to do..and the horse can get fidgety if you fool around too long trying…It is unique in it’s simplicity of design and no moving parts makes it VERY long lasting (been using it for over ten years with no signs of “wear or tear”)..and it works brilliantly….Took it to a saddlery shop with an offer to make some for it to sell…
The resulting comments on all three inventions when presented for appraisal?….
You guessed it…: The pouted lips and furrowed brow of curiosity followed by the pinched nose and wrinkled brow of ignorant doubt..and then the inevitable …” Nah!..it’ll never work!”..
And that is where modern Australia sits at this moment..and as for the future..: “It’ll never work!”
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January 22, 2019 at 1:28 am |
I remember seeing some sort of rotating gutter that could be operated from ground level with the help of a metal pole. I think the only problem was it had no facility for any sort of corner in the guttering. Of course that has been superseded by guttering that doesn’t require any cleaning at all!
Yes, in spite of our supposed rich heritage of inventiveness and ingenuity, Australia is a piss poor place for getting a new innovation going.
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January 22, 2019 at 1:43 am
The paint roller was a great invention. I am not sure who invented it. We have the Hill’s Hoist! They were difficult to dig out as they were set in a huge clump of concrete.
Is the lamington Australian? One innovation that is totally unique is Tax Evasion! But, we paid the price.
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January 22, 2019 at 2:46 am
The paint roller was a great invention, then came the corrugated paint roller, for corrugated roofing, fantastic. I think the lamington is Australian, don’t know about tax evasion, it’s probably been around since money was invented!
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January 22, 2019 at 2:52 am
” Australia is a piss poor place for getting a new innovation going.”……but hey!……invent a kind of “snap-off” film-cap for a stubby of beer . . . ?
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January 22, 2019 at 2:55 am
You make me laugh. Yes, invent some new bottle cap, or save a few micrograms of aluminium in a can design and you’re hailed a hero.
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January 20, 2019 at 7:58 am |
It is a lament that one hears a lot, Jo. I worked as a painting contractor for some decades and when the paint roller came about the scepticism went right around the country. The housing commission banned the paint roller and I ended up advising the painters to hide them in the gutters when ‘Smithy’ the dreaded inspector came around.
He used to sniff around for any paint rollers and their large buckets.
Even a bigger crime was to tint particulars colours by hand. I was very good at that till Smithy caught the small tints of concentrated colours and went into a rage. He said: ‘You are nothing but a fucking tinter.’ I never forgot this slur. Even though, tinting to exact colour samples is not easy.
I was given the contract to paint the extensions to the NSW Art galleries back around 1972. I was presented by the architects of different coloured panels to be used on walls, doors etc. I tinted as good as I could even though there does exist a British Colour Standard which the architects ignored.
Don’t spread it around, Jo. I ended up covering the Architects samples with the colours that I had tinted. Of course they were as exact it could be. The ponsy architect came around and held the samples against all the surfaces and said. ‘I think they are pretty close enough’. The Greek painters could not stop laughing. They knew what I had done.
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January 20, 2019 at 8:08 am |
You painters are devious buggers!…I remember a yarn told about one such fellow..perhaps it was YOU!..: There was this bloke I knew up in Darwin…a Kiwi fellah…a painter…any how, he was telling me he done this big job for a wealthy family, the whole house, inside and out….a couple of months work..and they didn’t pay him…couldn’t get the money out of them….rich people can be the worst payers….and him with all the material costs, all the paint…and the other blokes he had working for him…a fortune..and it was sending him broke but he got this other job…with another wealthy family.
He was up on a ladder painting the cornices one day and thinking of going down the tube what with these others not paying and thinking one thing an’ another an he didn’t know how he did it but he dropped his pot of paint!…and it fell outside the groundsheet!…all over the white carpet!….”Holy shit!” he cried “I can’t afford to pay for that!…” and he was just about to panic when the woman’s poodle walked past (he knew she wouldn’t be far behind)….
He quickly grabbed the dog and threw it onto the spilled paint and cried in an exaggerated yell…”You little bastard!” ….the woman came rushing into the room ,threw her hands up in the air ….”Oh Pickles!…oh you naughty dog, I’m so sorry,..I’ll…. I’ll pay for the paint ”
You painters are such wags…but you all complain about us carpenters not punching the nails deep enough..
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January 20, 2019 at 8:14 am |
Oh Oh!…I just gotta tell you about this other painter…a woman painter …:
The best payback I know of personally was confessed to me by a woman tradie..a house painter who was bullied by this misogynist builder who didn’t believe building sites were a place for “girlies” as he called her..He would bump the step-ladder when she was on it, kick her long-handled roller as he walked past and generally be a real bastard.
On her last day, just before she left the job, she took his tea-pot from the smoko bench (he liked his tea made in a pot with loose leaves and poured into a mug)…and went and urinated in it…swirled it around a few times, emptied it out and replaced it on the bench…just as she was getting into her van, she told the apprentice of what she had done( knowing full well the mischievous intentions of the lad).
At smoko, the builder prepared his usual pot of tea, poured himself his mug and proceeded to drink it down…the apprentice, being an apprentice, let him get a few good gulps down and then with an air of innocence blurted out:
“Oh..I meant to tell you..that painter woman..she pissed in your tea pot..”
At this point we can, as Mark Twain wrote..; “Draw the curtain of charity down over the following proceedings.”
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