Income scheme in Perth

as posted here

The Federal Government is expanding a scheme under which Perth families have part of their Centrelink payments quarantined.

More than 220 families have voluntarily signed up for the program which sets aside 70 per cent of their welfare payments to purchase essentials and pay bills.

The program has been trialled in the Kimberley and parts of Perth, and will be introduced in the suburbs of Armadale, Gosnells, Fremantle, Spearwood, Rockingham, Morley, Warwick and Innaloo over the next few months.

The Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin says along with the hundreds of families that have signed up by choice, another 60 have been forced on to the program.

"This is us working with the child protection authorities, giving them an additional way of saying to parents you need to take responsibility use your money in the interests of your children.


as posted here

Toilets and Hand Washing ...

I would like to ask the following questions of the Health Services Department.

I quote the following as found in the word document downloaded from your site http://www.gosnells.wa.gov.au from the following link http://www.gosnells.wa.gov.au/scripts/documentredirect.asp?BID=7826&NID=789
PART 2 - SANITATION

Division 1 - Sanitary Conveniences

Premises other than a Dwelling House

6.

(2) The occupier of premises other than a dwelling house shall ensure that -

(a) clean toilet paper is available at all times in each cubicle;

(b) a sanitary napkin disposal facility is provided and maintained in each toilet provided for the use of females; and

(c) each hand wash basin is provided with -

(i) an adequate supply of soap or other hand cleaning substances; and

(ii) hand drying facilities, situated adjacent to and visible from the hand basin.



My question is "Does the above apply to Public Toilets and Toilets in Schools within the City of Gosnells, and if not, what part of the CITY OF GOSNELLS HEALTH LOCAL-LAWS 1999 does cover these Public Toilets and/or School toilets?"

Peter Evans
8 McNamara Drive
Thornlie

REPLY GIVEN

Hi Peter,

Thankyou for your recent email regarding sanitary conveniences in premises other than dwellings.

Part 2, Division 1, Section 6 of City of Gosnells Health Local Laws 1999 refers to the requirements of sanitary conveniences in premises other than dwellings. This will include private school toilets and public toilets located on private land. However, state schools and public toilets located on public land are not covered by these local laws. The jurisdiction of these facilities lies with the state health department.

I hope this answers your question.
If you had an enquiry for a particular location, or i can assist you further please don't hesitate to contact me on the details below, i would be happy to discuss the matter with you.

Kind Regards,

Emma Smith
Environmental Health Officer
City of Gosnells
PO Box 662 Gosnells WA 6990
2120 Albany Highway Gosnells WA 6110
Ph: 08 9391 3274 Fax: 08 9398 2922
Email: esmith@gosnells.wa.gov.au


AND

The toilets located at Harmony Fields and Pioneer Park would be the City's responsibility. The Gosnells Train Station would fall under the jurisdiction of the Public Transport Authority.
Is there a problem with these facilities?

Kind Regards,

Emma Smith


AND

Thank you for contacting WA Health. We welcome your opinions and comments.

Your email has been sent to a member of our staff who will review it and take action as needed. If you have requested a response to your email please be aware that this may take a little time. Thanks for your patience.

Please print a copy of this page for your records.

Name: Peter Evans
Email: webyter@gmail.com
Subject: Public School Toilets
Message: Are there any requirements for sanitation in Public School Toilets, ie should they provide soap, toilet paper and adequate drying facilities or are they allowed to not provide anything in these Toilets, is there any legislation covering these facilities as they appear to be outside the Local Government control and most schools tend to cut costs and not supply soap or adequate drying materials due to wastage by students, given that we as parents teach our children to wash their hands immediately after using the toilet, seems that public schools don't provide the facilities to allow the students to do this, how is it that this situation can be allowed to exist, by example I submit that Thornlie Senior High School does not even have soap dispensers fitted, and Thornlie Primary School has a policy that the students use antiseptic cream when they return to their classroom, which does not help when the children are on a break as they have to wait to get back to class to clean their hands, given the senerio that a child goes to lunch, the fist thing they do is use the toilet, they cant clean their hands other than with cold water, then they eat their lunch, and then when their classroom finally reopens they can, if they remember wash their hands (this is the case in Thornlie Primary) and as mentioned in Thornlie High they simply do not provide anything, and I would suggest that this is the case with many other Public schools as they are not specifically supplied with a budget to cater for this expense, does the Health Department have any policy covering Public Schools or does the Department simply not care!



AND

I have tried repeatedly to contact the Education Department to find out what their policy is on toilets within Public Schools

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

Jeremy.Martin@det.wa.edu.au




Final-Recipient: rfc822;Jeremy.Martin@det.wa.edu.au
Action: failed
Status: 5.2.2
X-Display-Name: MARTIN Jeremy [School Innovation and Reform]



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: webyter
To: Jeremy.Martin@det.wa.edu.au
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 07:14:56 +0800
Subject: Public School Toilets
Is there a policy that relates to toilets within schools in relation to the sanitation requirements ie supply of soap and adequate drying facilities, do schools receive a budget allowance to cater for these items

Peter Evans
0433 307 645

AND

--- The following addresses had delivery problems ---

(RCPT TO: User unknown)


Seems their servers are down or just on holidays in support of the teaching staff : (

Maddington powers up underground

as posted here

Thu, October 01, 2009

The City of Gosnells in Western Australia is the latest local council to participate in Round 4 of the Western Australian State Underground Power Program (SUPP), which aims to deliver underground power to more than 1,100 households in the Maddington area, using horizontal directional drilling.

Western Australian Minister Peter Collier said that the undergrounding of power lines is an important way of improving the standard of electricity supply to consumers by addressing power reliability issues in areas with existing overhead infrastructure.

“The Maddington Underground Power Project will provide residents with a more reliable medium of electrical supply while ensuring improved safety and attractive streetscapes for the community,” he said.

“The City of Gosnells and Western Power Underground Power Group have done an excellent job in preparing the detailed design for the Maddington project.”

The project is expected to cost $A10.8 million, which is shared between the local council, the Western Australian Government and Western Power, and is scheduled for completion in late 2010.

The Maddington project area eligibility for this subsidy was determined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Socio Economic Index for Areas.

The SUPP was established in 1996 to help improve the State’s electricity distribution network throughout Western Australia.

The Underground Power Steering Committee will also call for Expressions of Interest Proposals in the final quarter of 2009 for the upcoming Round 5 projects.


as posted here

Voting Starts ...

My Postal vote package came yesterday, and I have ticked the appropriate boxes, but the curious thing is that only my package came, my wifes does not seem to have arrived yet, I understand that different areas are sent out at different times, but I don't understand why my wife's should not be delivered on the same day, we do live in the same house and we are both on the rates as rate payers, but for some reason her package has not come, has she been denied the right to vote, we shall see ... curious thing about this election it simply requires you to tick the boxes of the 6 candidates that you would like to fill the 6 vacant positions, you must not tick more that 6 boxes, but there seems to be nothing stopping you from ticking less than 6 boxes, so if you felt that only one of the candidates was worthy of the position you could just tick one box, one imagines that the six candidates with the most ticks are elected, as we have reverted back to the first past the post system as opposed to the preferential voting system, I would predict that we will have a less than 30% uptake on the vote this year, I feel that the council could spend a lot more effort promoting these elections ...

Nature at its best

as posted here

THE City of Gosnells Eco Walks and Talks season is on again and with wildflowers in full bloom now is the time to experience nature at its brightest.

Gosnells chief executive Ian Cowie urged people not to miss the chance to enjoy walking through Ellis Brook Valley with naturalist Marc Lane and see some of Perth’s most spectacular bush reserves.

“Each walk allows you to discover new wildflowers and local birds, insects and animals,” Mr Cowie said.

“In October and November there are also night stalks at Ellis Brook Valley and Mary Carroll Park respectively, where people can bring their torches and spotlights for a guided night-time ramble to discover the local nocturnal animals.”

Mary Carroll Park is one of Perth’s main breeding wetlands and a haven for waterbirds, songbirds, migratory birds, reptiles and turtles.”

People can enjoy a range of special activities such as Breakfast with Friends on October 4, where breakfast in the park is followed by an informative walk around the lake learning about bush site rehabilitation and observing waterbirds.

Also at Mary Carroll Park on November 1, the Adventure with Nature walk offers a stroll around the lake and the opportunity to discover a unique ecosystem with naturalist Eric McCrum.

Mr Cowie said other walks included the Wetlands Ramble at the Brixton Street Wetlands in Kenwick on October 24. “This walk is followed by morning tea with live music by Peta Lithgo and Malaika,” he said.

“At the Flora Walk on November 7, people can also discover the amazing and unique plant life at Brixton Street.”

Friends of Ellis Brook Valley, Friends of Mary Carroll Park and Friends of Brixton Street Wetlands run the walks with support from the City.

For a brochure or more information contact Leisure Services on 9452 9901 or visit www.gosnells.wa.gov.au


as posted here

Report cards for schools only fair

as posted here

Educators have widely opposed the Federal Government's push to publish school performance information online at the end of this year because of fears it will stigmatise schools that perform poorly.

Teachers and principals have threatened to boycott the next round of national tests in May unless the Government passes laws to prevent the creation of so-called "league tables" that rank schools based on raw scores. They argue that "naming and shaming" struggling schools will damage students and school communities.

The new online report card will allow parents to compare all schools' performance in national literacy and numeracy tests, the percentage of students graduating from Year 12 and how well each school has progressed in lifting student performance.

Controversy on whether this should be available publicly has been red hot in the Eastern States, with NSW passing laws to fine newspapers for using the information to create league tables that compare schools.

But few from the Eastern States realise that WA has been leading the rest of the nation in giving parents access to school comparisons - and the sky has not yet fallen.

Each year, _The West Australian _publishes Year 12 academic results for private and public schools and ranks the top 50. It also prints the results of national literacy and numeracy tests from State schools. It is only fair that private schools should also have to reveal their performance.

Attempts by the teachers' union and others to prevent publication of school performance data is akin to censorship. A school can't address poor standards if it doesn't know whether they've fallen.

This newspaper has championed school transparency because public money goes into State and independent schools and the community has a right to know how well those schools are doing their job.

Critics also argue that revealing school comparisons will put too much emphasis on literacy and numeracy at the expense of other subjects.

But surely the main purpose of schooling is to ensure that children get a sound foundation in those skills. Every other part of the curriculum depends on those basics.

There are also complaints that teachers are "teaching to the test". But if setting compulsory tests requires students to learn some skills and then demonstrate them, then surely that is a positive outcome.

And if it forces schools to look at ways to improve their students' performance, even better.


as posted here

Perth ‘bouncing back for international property buyers’

as posted here

The city of Perth in Western Australia is seeing its property market bounce back after a recent slump, it has been stated.

Perth went from being one of the cheapest places in the country to being more expensive than Sydney by 2006, valuation manager at Propell National Valuers Travis Coleman told the New York Times.

This boom was followed by a 12 per cent slump in prices, but the paper noted that the market in the city is now recovering, aided by the development of new mineral and gas projects in the state.

It observed that the average price in the city for a home is now AU$375,000 (£202,000).

The best place for those moving abroad to buy in Perth is the suburb of Bassendean, according to St George Bank.

In a list of the top locations in the country for value, the lender said it is "one of the few suburbs within the inner ring which still has a median house price below AU$500,000."

The other district it recommended in the city was Thornlie, due to its combination of affordability and proximity to amenities.

Written by Jamie Musk


as posted here

Petrol tipped to fall to $1 a litre

as posted here

THE price of petrol is heading back toward $1 a litre, an economist says amid continuing falling prices.
Nationally, the cost of unleaded fell by almost a cent in the past week, fresh figures from the Australian Institute of Petroleum reveal.

CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian says the fall in prices is far from finished.

"The key Singapore unleaded fuel price fell by over 12 per cent last week,'' he said, adding it was the biggest weekly decline in nearly eight months.

"This should translate into further savings for Aussie motorists.''

The strength of the Australian dollar against the greenback and oil companies' cutting of their margins in recent weeks mean the good news for motorists will continue.

"CommSec expects petrol prices to fall by two to three cents a litre over the next fortnight,'' Mr Sebastian said.

"In fact, motorists in some capital cities could be paying close to $1 a litre at the low point in the discounting cycle with the assistance of shopper dockets.''


as posted here

Online report card plan teeters

as posted here

State Education Minister Liz Constable has not ruled out rejecting Federal plans to introduce a new online school report card system, saying that she has to work through some "complex issues" before attending a national education meeting today.

Her support is crucial to the introduction of the report cards - one of the Federal Government's education changes - that have already provoked criticism that they would lead to so-called league tables that name and shame underperforming schools.

The WA State School Teachers Union and the WA Secondary School Executives Association are outraged about the online reporting system, which will group schools according to the socioeconomic backgrounds of their students, then rank them based on academic performance.

It is aimed at improving use of resources and will give parents unprecedented information on how schools fare. It could become a political headache because it will expose struggling schools without providing promised information on each school's resources or how it improves the lives of students affected by poverty or other disadvantage.

Dr Constable would not say whether she supported the system and had not yet decided what proposal to put forward because she was still working through complex detail. "There are a range of perspectives and options that will still be looked at before a final decision is made," she said.

Education specialist Barry McGaw, who designed the system, said schools would be grouped with about 60 other "like schools" with students from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. An elite private school such as Presbyterian Ladies College could be grouped with King's School in Sydney and an indigenous school in the Northern Territory could be grouped with a similarly remote WA school.

Each school will be ranked according to how well students do in the national literacy and numeracy test done by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Union secretary David Kelly said the tests were a useless way of comparing students and ranking schools by the results was "farcical". "This is a form of league tabling and it is again the Government trying to abrogate responsibility and justify itself by showing the community that it is caring and is going to make schools accountable or responsible," he said.

The union would support any boycott by principal and teacher groups.

Secondary school Executives Association head Rob Nairn said he opposed the plan because of its "dangerous" simplicity. It had to have protections to prevent exploitation of the material for league tables.

WA Council of State School Organisations president Robert Fry said it was moderate league tabling that would encourage transparency and give parents important information


as posted here

WA trucking industry hits slump

as posted here
Cortlan Bennett, Business Editor

September 26, 2009 06:00pm

WA'S trucking industry has hit the skids, according to owner-drivers, as the economic crisis bites hard.It's a far cry from a year ago, when the resources boom created a driver shortage and a flurry of new-truck sales.

Drivers say the double whammy of the global financial crisis and the end of the Beijing Olympics _ which had created a huge resource demand for infrastructure projects _ have forced many out of business and others to ruthlessly undercut each other.
Lesmurdie owner-operator Steven Marijanich said some drivers had seen the warning signs, but many had ignored them.
``People think the money's going to last for ever and then they go out and buy all the brand new gear and all of a sudden, boom!'' he said.
`I've been saying it for years _ as soon as the Beijing Olympics were over, everything stopped.
``People laughed at me, but it happened. There was no more demand for steel and iron ore out of China.
``A lot of local industry just stopped _ I think it shocked everyone _ because since October, things have just been dead.
``We're earning about 40 per cent of what we were last year and some would be lucky to be earning that.''
Huntingdale-based A&F Transport is really feeling the pinch.
The husband-and-wife team of Arthur and Fiona Wheatcroft bought four trucks during the boom, in addition to the one Mr Wheatcroft was driving, and set up their own transport firm.
But being close to $1 million in debt, and with only enough work for one truck a few days a week, they're on the brink of collapse.
``It's bad. It's really bad,'' Mrs Wheatcroft said. ``It's been bad from October last year.
``Apparently when the Beijing Games were on, everything got shut down over there _ all the steel mills _ and they're still not running at 100 per cent.
``It's been a double-whammy for everybody.
``During the boom, we were making up to $4000 a truck each week. Now we've got one truck going and it's not even working every day.
``I've actually let all my drivers go because I've got nothing for them.''
``We're not sure what we're going to do. We don't know whether we're going to fold or try to persevere and keep going.''
Like many owner-drivers, Mrs Wheatcroft said her husband was so busy during the boom that he bought one truck after another to keep up.
He employed drivers and the next thing he knew he was running his own business.
Mrs Wheatcroft quit her full-time job at the Health Department to run the administrative side.
``If I had a crystal ball, I wouldn't have given up my job,'' she said.
``We're not the only ones _ don't get me wrong _ there are so many people out there in our position.
``They're all saying it's the worst the industry has even been in.
``It's a nightmare. So many of our friends have folded.''
Casuarina owner-operator Peter Swift said many ambitious drivers had themselves to blame.
``Everybody said the boom was going to last 10 years _ it lasted five,'' he said.
``The last one was the biggest and everybody was greediest.
``A lot of the industry has got itself to blame. Blokes who had one or two trucks now have 20 trucks and they're out there now trying to turn work over.
``It's pretty hard. What's happening is work's got that quiet that the general blokes are jumping into our (specialist) work and cutting the guts out of it.''
``I can ride it out, but it just irks me that there's work there but you just can't do it for the rates that are offered _ the big companies are dictating the rates now.''
Mr Marijanich agreed.
``Blokes are taking loads to Port Hedland and then they're sitting there waiting for a backload to make up the money they lost going up there,'' he said.
``And they're sitting there for two weeks, waiting. They still have to make money and so they flog each other for the work.''
Mr Swift said bigger companies were also squeezing out smaller operators.
``With Gorgon, they brought Linfox (Logistics) in from over east, but they haven't got a very good record of looking after sub-contractors,'' he said.
Linfox confirmed this week that it had secured the transport contract for the Gorgon gas project, but there were no jobs for WA drivers yet.
However the company said that would change as the project got closer.
Transport Workers Union WA spokesman Tim Dawson said there was no doubt truckers were ``doing it hard'', but he was hopeful new resources projects would create more work.
``There's no doubt some of these projects in the North-West are going to help, but it doesn't help the bloke sitting at home now when they're threatening to repossess his house or his truck, does it?'' he said.

as posted here

Four schools made independent

as posted here
By Tim Slater, Comment News

FOUR local primary schools, Neerigen Brook, Campbell, Bletchley Park and Challis and the Challis Early Childhood Education Centre were among 34 schools statewide that were selected to become independent by a panel of teaching experts.

The independent status, starting from next year, will give the schools increased independence over decisions on budgets, hiring teachers, curriculum and student expulsions.

Neerigen Brook Primary School principal Megan Barnett welcomed the announcement, saying it had the full support of staff and parents and was endorsed by the school council.

“The big thing for us will be having flexibility with staffing for people who really want to be at Neerigen and being able to keep good staff here,” Ms Barnett said.

“We run a merit selection process here so we will still follow all the Education Department standards for choosing staff.”

She said staff and parents would have more say in important matters including teacher selection.

Campbell Primary School principal Peter Glendinning said the school applied for independent status because it would provide more flexibility to support teaching and learning.

“It's about the businesses of the school essentially and to be able to create some flexibilities in terms of the way the school is managed,” Mr Glendinning said.

“It just gives us the opportunity to manage some of the businesses of the school that generally had been done centrally.”

Education Minister Liz Constable said principals could work with their schools to form the best local solution to their problems rather than relying on a one-size fits all approach.

She said establishing independent public schools was a key election commitment of the State Government and will hand greater control to schools while still providing systematic support and benefits, such as access to professional development programs.

Three other local schools who missed out on the first round were Mundijong Primary School, Kelmscott Senior High School and Yule Brook College.

Ms Constable said schools that were not selected could work with the Education Department to strengthen their bid for consideration in the next intake of Independent Public Schools next year.

as posted here

Vigilant- Motto of Royal Western Australian Regiment

as originally posted here
As pointed out many times previously i am a person who regards themself as a West Australian before being an Ausralian. as a consequence i have a great deal of interest in Western Australian history, epecially those areas which tend to get buried in the greater Australian mythos. one particular area where this is true is in military history.
Western Australia has a surprisingly strong military tradition; in 1831 the Governor of the Swan River Colony, Captain James Stirling, made it compulsory for all male colonists between 15 and 50 to register in the militia. in 1861 the colony formed the Western Australian Defence Force, with units of the WA Volunteer Militia initially located in Perth, Fremantle and Pinjarra. the Pinjarra unit was so successful that it eventually raised a second unit- the Pinjarra Mounted Rifle Company who survive to this day in the form of the 10th Light Horse Regiment. control of the WADF units was enhanced when the tradition of officer elections reposed in such volunteer units was removed in favour of appointments by the governor; by 1875 all officers had to pass a number of tests to prove their abilities. although seemingly obvious to a later generation these requirements for essentially reservist units were not merely revolutionary for Colonial Australia but the British Empire.
by the time the colony of Western Australia surrendered its soveriegnty to the new Commonwealth of Australia, the WADF had some 250 officers and 5000 men. this total includes those men engaged in action during the 2nd Anglo-Boer War, where they were highly valued units even amongst other Australian forces. this is an even more remarkable achievement given that population of the new state was barely some 40 000; or in other words 15% of the population was serving in a military uniform of one kind or another; compared to an historical average of 5% or less for most democracies.
unfortunately this is about as detailed as you can get on-line- not much more detailed once you include the two books published a decade ago dealing with the Officers of the WADF and some historical information on the WADF as a whole. the sad fact is that much of the relevant documentation of the WADF was sent East once Federation was underway. even the resources of the State Library are somewhat limited in this regard. and as anybody who has a passing knowledge of Australian history will tell you- the country stops exisiting once you move east of Victoria and New South Wales.
and it would probably surprise few people that this is a lot more than existed even 5 years ago. slowly the details are being reconstructed as sandgropers rediscover our role in our own as well as the nation’s military history- and this goes for our erstwhile brothers and sisters in the other forgotten states- Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. one project that is of particular interest out of the Territory is the attempt to establish Aboriginal Military history. the current ARA unit NORFORCE is actually a direct descendant of one such unit, also called NORFORCE and composed mostly of Aboriginals, in WW2. the old NORFORCE was responsible for North Queensland and the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of WA- details of its operations help to flesh out the details of the Pilbara Regiment’s history.
it is not simply in military history that WA washes out. much of the moneys dispersed under the Bicentennial committees for history projects went predominantly to Victorian and New South Wales or Indigenous candidates with a consequent bias in those directions. the one great positive in the explosion of the internet has been the realisation that we are in danger of losing our history in the West. as a high school student i did a history project on the City of Gosnells; the council and state libraries had three books between them and the council offices had a photocopied sheet with a couple of pictures. now the website for the City of Gosnells has a whole section devoted to the history of the municipality from Beckenham to Seaforth and Canning Vale to Orange Grove.
the funny thing about reading about the WA back in the 1890s and 1900s is how similar the circumstances were to now; in the 1980s census there were 800 000 people in WA; 25 years later it is almost triple that. the exact same thing happened between the 1880s and 1911. and both expansions were fueled by mining booms- gold in the 1890s and iron ore in the 1990s. ironically, also, both came on the backs of a financial crisis and were ostensibly ended by consolidation of the various individuals and companies into a few. equally fascinating is the history of the Forrest family; Western Australia was known as ‘John Forrest’s Empire’ in the 1890s and his great grandson, Andrew Forrest, is WAs richest man now. of course there are a great many differences, but it is the many similarities that fascinate me. Americans might want to scan the numbers of their citizens here for a future president- Herbert Hoover, 31st President, was an important figure in gold exploration in the 1890s, founding the first ‘Sons of Gwalia’ mine (5million ounces and counting).
if the internet has been a boon to the crazies and extremists it has also been a boon to local and amauteur historians. perhaps if you have a spare couple of hours you might like to look up your local history again- or even for a first time. it will be interesting at least.
as originally posted here