Big brother - a mere 26 years late

Last 24 June Julia Gillard became Prime Minister of Australia. Predictably, Kevin Rudd’s ousting and Julia Gillard’s ascension created a media frenzy. So hardly anyone noticed a momentous event that occurred on 25 June, i.e. passage through the Senate of the Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 [1]. This Act [2], which received Royal Assent on 28 June, enables the compulsory allocation (no opting out) of a 16-digit electronic healthcare identifying number to every Australian [3]. This number will store each individual’s name, address and birthdate. No clinical information will be stored with it. All healthcare providers will use this unique number for each patient. Use of the identifiers will allegedly facilitate communication between providers. The clinical information collected and stored by each provider will not be seen by other providers. The identifiers will be gradually rolled out by Medicare Australia, nominally from last 1 July. The system’s predicted to become fully operational next October [4]. After that, doctors, hospitals and the Australian public can obtain the numbers by telephoning Medicare Australia. The identifier’s use may reduce government healthcare costs, but as it’s not linked to clinical data it can’t per se benefit patients. It reeks of Big Brother and 1984. Twenty six years late. It’s enough to make me quiver in my boots. And George Orwell (pictured) to roll over in his grave [5, 6]. Ho hum.

Why Farmdoc's voting Liberal

Last Monday Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith (pictured) announced Australia’s expelling an Israeli diplomat in retaliation for Israel’s alleged forgery of four Australian passports in connection with the murder of Hamas terrorist and arms dealer Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh [1]. Here are my responses:

A. The federal opposition Liberal Party says Australia’s action was aimed at currying favour with Arab countries because Australia’s seeking a UN Security Council seat [2].

B. Liberal Party Deputy Leader and Shadow Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia has used and forged foreign passports in intelligence and other covert activities [3].

C. Prime Minister Rudd’s rebuke of Ms Bishop in the interests of national security [4] is tacit confirmation. Why wouldn’t he deny it if he could truthfully do so?

D. A federal election’s due later in 2010. Though I’m ideologically more aligned with Labor than the Liberals, due to this expulsion I’m voting Liberal. For me all else is background music.

E. In his blog Steve Lieblich asks three pertinent questions: If Australia could have prevented the Bali bombing by forging some passports and killing a terrorist, would it have done so? What protest has the Australian government made to the Dubai and other governments openly allowing terrorist activity? And if that protest is weaker than this action against Israel, why [5]? Indeed, Steve.

F. In the battle against the rising tide of Islamist terrorism, Israel’s the gold mine canary. If Israel can’t hold the line then heaven help the rest of the so-called civilised world – including Australia. But Messrs Smith and Rudd can’t see past their noses – which currently are distinctly brown.

G. Screw them. At times like this I’m ashamed of my country’s Prime Minister and Government.

This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. I saw this item about a whale’s stomach contents [1]. We humans should be ashamed. But I doubt we are.

2. Grammar Girl explained the difference between ‘further’ and ‘farther’ [2]. Click on the link if you want to delve further.

3. I read this Australian Government leaflet containing the ‘National Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults’ [3]. So what are you waiting for?

4. my Prime Minster, Mr Rudd, deferred the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until 2013, i.e. six years after he called climate change the moral challenge of our age. To register your disgust, click here: [4]

5. an Archives of Internal Medicine paper documented an association between depression and chocolate consumption [5]. Rightly, the authors pointed out their study tells nothing of causation let alone directionality.

6. a US National Institutes of Health panel concluded there’s currently no scientific evidence that modifying any factor reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease [6]. This includes diet, medications, complementary medicines, physical activity, and social engagement.

7. in Nutrition Diva’s Episode 91, about sugars, she concluded there were no nutritional differences between the types of sugar [7]. How sweet.

8. still on food, I read the USDA’s ‘Freezing and Food Safety’ fact sheet [8]. Everyone who freezes food should read it.

9. Melbourne was named, for the third time, the world’s Ultimate Sports City [9]. I don’t give a shit.

10. last Wednesday Hepburn Wind signed contracts to build Australia’s first community-owned wind farm [10]. I give a shit.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

farmdoc's blog post number 626

A day or two after COP15 ended last 18 December, prime minister Rudd said Australia will do ‘no more and no less’ than other nations to fight climate change. What an attitude. It makes me abhor Mr Rudd for his manifest mediocrity. He’s a middle-of-the-road man. Bland. Insipid. Gutless. Because of him, my country, which could be a leading nation in the fight against global warming and climate change, is destined to remain in the international ruck. Obscure. Undistinguished. Insignificant. I write these words having just read this article by Evan Osnos in the 21 & 28 December New Yorker. Titled ‘Green Giant: Beijing’s crash program for clean energy’, it’s an expose of China’s innovative and promising green energy program. Which is astounding. Exciting. Hopeful. The same day Mr Rudd announced his (and Australia’s) mediocrity, here’s what Thomas L Friedman wrote in the New York Times about Denmark’s green energy initiatives. Denmark’s population’s under 25% of Australia’s, yet the Danes’ initiatives put us to shame. They make me envious. Ashamed. Despondent. What’s the difference between China and Denmark (on one hand) and Australia (on the other)? Leadership quality, obviously. Also Denmark has no coal resource. And China sees the idiocy of burning coal; and its leadership’s not beholden to the coal industry. Trouble is, in this Australian election year prime minister Rudd’s subservience to the Australian coal industry won’t lessen, and neither will opposition leader Abbott’s. Thus will my nation be prevented from distinguishing itself in responding to the greatest challenge of our time. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 553

Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Wikipedia says that though they’re best known from the writings of Lewis Carroll (1832-98), their names were first used by George Byrom (1692-1763). Whether the Tweedles are twins or brothers or unrelated, these days their names signify two people who are alike and never contradict each other. I was going to write that regarding global warming and climate change, prime minister Rudd and opposition leader Turnbull are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. But they’re not. Because they’re competing with each other to see who’ll give the biggest subsidies (aka kickbacks) to Australia’s big polluters under the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Messrs Rudd and Turnbull are men with children and without consciences. And the latter prevails. Clearly. Yesterday was International Day of Climate Action which, via 4,500 events in 181 countries, was the most widespread day of environmental action in our planet’s history. Its symbol is 350 – because 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit. It’s now over 384 ppm. And rising. Yesterday, ordinary people called for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis. Whether Messrs Rudd and Turnbull are the Tweedles or not, we’re wasting our time if we think they’ll provide it. (P.S. Here is the countdown to the United Nations Climate Change Conference [COP 15] in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009.)

farmdoc's blog post number 450

You’d think that as a man whose father died 40 years ago today, I’d be old and wise enough to have things sorted, and to know why things happen. But I don’t. For example, I don’t know…

why prime minister Rudd, having said Sorry so eloquently on 13 February 2008, thinks tourists should be allowed to climb Uluru against the traditional owners’ wishes. [1]

why Tasmanians drive like there’s no tomorrow, having no regard for weather and road conditions. Six deaths last Thursday brought Tasmania’s road toll so far this year to 45 compared with 40 for the whole of 2008. [2]

why governments persist is supporting clean coal rather than genuine clean renewable energy. Clean coal’s the mother of oxymorons. [3]

why left wing liberals support Hamas which is, no doubt, a regime of fundamentalist religious totalitarianism. Yet Israel, which is a parliamentary democracy with a free press, is their knee-jerk nemesis. [4]

who exactly ex-footballers Rex Hunt and John Newman think they are. Hunt was recently convicted for road rage; and last Friday police interviewed Newman about an alleged road rage incident. Did I just use the word ‘think’? Oops. Sorry. [5]

In Paul Simon’s Kathy’s Song, there’s a line:

‘And so you see I have come to doubt all that I once held as true.’

I don’t know if I’d understand these things any better if I talked about them with my Dad. But I’d give everything I own to find out.

farmdoc's blog post number 318

The Australian parliamentary term isn’t fixed, but if it’s nominally three years then, as the latest election was on 24 November 2007 and the Rudd government was sworn in nine days later, the current parliament’s almost half-way through. Because the global financial crisis doesn’t threaten human existence on Earth but climate change does, global warming must be the government’s top priority. But to me, it doesn’t seem so, because the government hasn’t done, and isn’t doing, nearly as much as it should if global warming/climate change’s really top of its list. Putting almost all its eggs in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme basket is pitiful, as is a 5% carbon emission reduction target. I’ve previously praised the ABC-TV program Australian Story. Recently I watched the 9 February episode – about marine biologist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (pictured) who 10 years ago predicted the death of the Great Barrier Reef if the water continued to warm from climate change. His prediction, initially derided by his colleagues, has since gained mainstream acceptance. And his work’s been embraced by Al Gore and David Attenborough. The Great Barrier Reef, an Australian icon, is in trouble. Desperate trouble. As is the entire planet. It doesn’t matter if the Rudd government’s dragging its heels or sitting on its hands. With an election due in late 2010 it must get moving. Pronto.

farmdoc's blog post number 292

Here in Mole Creek, as summer swelters on and our daily raspberry count dwindles, the birds are more voracious. Most of our beaked raspberry-pinchers are black. I’m not clever enough to know if they’re crows. But if they are, I’ve had no urge to stone them. Until last Tuesday, when into my email in-box popped one from the Monthly magazine promoting its February issue. It told me: ‘In his summer holiday, Kevin Rudd wrote a 7700-word essay for the Monthly on the most serious issue of our times, the global financial crisis’. Reading that, I picked up a stone and scanned the horizon for crows. Surely the most serious issue of our times is global warning and climate change. It’s a lay down misere. Announced last Tuesday, Mr Rudd’s latest economy stimulus package includes free insulation for 2.7M Australian homes, and an increased solar hot water rebate from A$1,000 to A$1,600. The annual electricity saving’s equal to taking 1M cars of the road. And thousands of new, green jobs will be created. It’ll help insulate Australia from the global economic crisis, and the planet and the economy both win. So congratulations, Mr Rudd. Clearly the ‘most serious issue’ error wasn’t your doing. So I’ve put down my stone. And the crows, or whatever they are, that share our raspberries can continue on safely.