Penny's blog

Final Red Leather for 2009 - now available

2009-12-16T22:51:44-07:00

The end of 2009 proved itself to be yet another example of why just when you think you understand what is happening in politics, it changes before your very eyes.

In NSW we have a new Premier. I would like to record my thanks to Nathan Rees for his hard work and dedication to people in NSW. In his time as Premier, Nathan made an incredible contribution. Nathan Rees;

drove an agenda of openness and transparency that has translated into the best FOI laws in Australia
banned developer donations and pushed to reform political donation laws
prioritised climate change and protecting the environment
guaranteed education and training opportunities to all young people
committed the Government to improving transport across Sydney
found $2 million in government to help the Wayside Chapel rebuild its condemned buildings
cut $600,000 from his media unit to fund homeless services in western Sydney and the inner city
started the process of opening up government data, taking on the hesitance of public agencies and
tirelessly travelled across NSW to talk directly to NSW citizens through an expanded community cabinet and feedback process

As a backbencher I appreciated Nathan's accessibility, his willingness to listen and his energy. Nathan's focus and hard work, in the face of a hostile media, fed often from ill disciplined individuals within the government was exemplary.

The new cabinet has been sworn in. Details can be found here.

Federally saw Tony "People Skills" Abbott accidentally become the federal opposition leader. Some of the strangest outcomes include the re-emergence of Bronwyn Bishop as a frontbencher, a return to the policies of workchoices and the idea that climate change is a left wing conspiracy. If you want to look at the data on climate change check out this contribution from blogger Possum Comitatus on Pollytics.

There has been a change in my office with Cathy Brown taking a position in the office of Verity Firth. I would like to thank Cathy especially for her work on NSW Publicsphere and the support she has given to the myriad of community organisations and individuals who have sought the assistance of my office. I personally thank her for her good humour, mastering of the paper flow within the office and her sense of the absurd on Level 11 in parliament house.

I would like to wish you all a very happy and safe holiday season. Thanks for being part of the Red Leather community. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. Red Leather will be back in February.

Regards
Penny

PS Video of the year: In Social Media goes to the Socialnomics Social Media Revolution video. Political video to the Australia Youth Climate Change Coalition for their message to Tony Abbott.

Website of the year: So many to choose from. But I pick the Fed's Gov 2.0 Taskforce. A huge step forward in Australia this year in relation to Gov 2.0. These guys have helped to lead the way. You can still comment on their draft report.

Red Leather #71 - now available

2009-11-22T19:36:41-07:00

As we swelter in Sydney I am hoping that our federal parliament will pass the ETS legislation this week. The case for action is so very clear and the need is urgent.

The past fortnight in state news has been dominated by the Premier's changes made at the Labor conference, including the ability to pick his own Ministry, the banning of developer donations and the commitment to build the south west rail link.

Other action you may have missed:

The Premier and PM officially opened the 67 turbine Capital Wind Farm near Bungendore. The wind farm boosts wind energy generation in NSW by 700 percent and will provide power to the Sydney Desalination Plant.
A $280 million contract to upgrade broadband for education to revolutionise the delivery of digital education to all public schools and TAFE institutes. The massive program builds on the NSW Government's $158 million Connected Classrooms program and supports the Commonwealth Government's $2.1 billion Digital Education Revolution.
The NSW Government will generate 2,200 jobs for Aboriginal people over the next four years and provide extra funding for Indigenous primary school children struggling with literacy and numeracy.
The NSW Government will return 20,000 hectares of land to the Yuin people on the state's south coast - the single largest Aboriginal land hand back in the State's history.

I also spoke at the Pearcey Foundation's awards at Parliament House.

Video of the week: This is a flash mob on Bondi beach that was done by New Mardi Gras.
Website of the week: Here is where you can get information about fires and emergencies over the summer.

Regards
Penny

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Free Rail Travel to National Apology

2009-11-10T18:39:23-07:00

The NSW Government has announced it will be offering free return rail travel to Canberra or Sydney to people attending the National Apology to the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants.

The official invitation issued by the Prime Minister and the Federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs will need to be shown on booking CountryLink tickets or used in lieu of a ticket on the CityRail network.

This invitation entitles those attending to up to 2 rail tickets.

To register your interest in attending the Apology and obtain an invitation that can be used for your free train travel, please call the (Federal) Department of Families, Housing and Community Services on 1800 634 147. If you have already registered for the event your invitation should arrive shortly.

You can also call this same number if you have any queries.To book your CountryLink ticket please call 13 22 32 or visit a CountryLink accredited agent. Further details on how and where to book CountryLink tickets are available on the website, www.countrylink.info.

For CityRail timetable information please call 131 500 or visit the website, www.131500.com.au.

Please note that forward and return journeys must be undertaken between Saturday 14 November and Wednesday 18 November 2009. This offer is subject to the availability of seats.

Gross Feed-In Tariff for solar panels

2009-11-09T20:35:35-07:00

The NSW Government has announced a ‘gross' feed-in tariff for NSW households with solar panels.

Solar powered households in NSW will receive among the most generous payments in the nation, with a typical household receiving around $1,500 a year. The seven year scheme will commence on 1 January 2010.

The scheme will act as an incentive for households to take up solar energy, further underpinning jobs in the clean energy industry.

For more information check out this fact sheet.

Red Leather #70 - now available

2009-11-08T21:52:30-07:00

Not sure how we find ourselves in mid November. Every year whizzes by and before I know it I am getting ready for very late night parliamentary sittings as the government seeks to get the rest of our legislation through before the end of the year.

In recent weeks the government has:

been pleased about the progress the NSW economy is making. The number of all property and land sales in NSW has increased 29.4 per cent in the September 2009 quarter compared to the same time last year and residential building approvals have increased 17 per cent above national average.
Announced new safety regulations to target the high rate of injuries from children traveling in cars.
Approved a $150 million, 26 turbine wind farm 12 kilometres west of Glen Innes. The new wind farm had the potential to generate power for more than 25,000 NSW homes
Barangaroo will be a world leading ecological development, with the NSW Government announcing the project will enter the Clinton Climate Initiative's Climate Positive Development Program.
Noted that A national survey by Screen Australia shows that NSW is leading Australia's film and television production. The value of production in NSW for the past financial year was $434 million - or 63% of the national total.

This weekend will be the State Conference of the NSW Labor Party. The rubber will hit the road when conference delegates have to decide what reforms to embrace coming out of the Building a Modern Labor Party consultation and the adoption of a revised platform.

This year the State conference will also feature a fringe program open to the public. I am hosting a Labor 2.0 event on Saturday at lunchtime . Click here for the whole program.

Website of the week: The Crisis of Credit Visulazed. Explained in terms anyone can understand (it's 11 mins though) . Thanks to Matt daSilva for the suggestion.

Video of the week: The NSW Libs - two staffers have quit in the wake of this.

Regards
Penny

WANT TO READ MORE >>>>

Launch of Releasing the pressure on remand

2009-10-27T23:54:30-06:00

This morning I attended the launch of ‘Releasing the pressure on remand: Bail support solutions for children and young people in NSW'.

Authored by Burnside, this paper was prepared following a roundtable with some of NSW peak NGO's and community service provider organisations.

A number of reports have noted the increasing number of children and young people in NSW being held on remand in the state's Juvenile Justice Centres.

There are a combination of factors at play that have lead to this increase - but as Jane Woodruff, CEO of Burnside said this morning, there's no point telling Government's what the problems are (they probably already know), you need to offer them solutions.

This report recommends that young people should have a range of support services available to them throughout their engagement with the juvenile justice system. Including early intervention, mandated support to help them negotiate the legal system as well as, importantly, accommodation options and ongoing support services after court.

Minister for Juvenile Justice, Graham West, was also at this launch this morning. He confirmed this Government's commitment to finding new ways to support young people in the Juvenile Justice system - and announced funding for a trial of supported accommodation services for young people on remand. This is a worthwhile step in the right direction.

NSW Positive Ageing Statement

2009-10-20T19:28:04-06:00

The NSW Government has announced the Positive Ageing Statement which follows on from the 2030: Planning for our Changing Population report. The Statement sets the Government's priorities to ensuring older people in NSW live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

Minister for Ageing Paul Lynch has said:

"The fact that people are living longer is a very positive thing. And while an ageing population poses challenges, it presents a range of opportunities and benefits to older people and the community as a whole".

In addition, and to coincide with celebrations for the 2009 International Day of Older Persons, the Government has also announced two new funding initiatives - Positive Ageing grants of up to $50,000 and Applied Research grants of up to $250,000. Applications close 27 November 2009. For more information check out the DADHC website.

Red Leather #69 - now available

2009-10-11T21:23:42-06:00

The last two weeks have been parliament free and very busy. Key government news includes:

The unemployment rate in NSW has fallen from 6.1 per cent to 5.6 per cent. NSW is now below the national average of 5.7 per cent and below Queensland and Western Australia.
The State's AAA credit rating has been confirmed combined with a 25% boost in NSW property sales and figures showing that NSW State Final Demand grew by 0.8 per cent - just above the national growth of 0.7 per cent in Australian domestic final demand.
The NSW Government is also on track to protect the River Red Gums and has welcomed the release of the first independent assessment report on the River Red Gum and Woodland Forests by the Natural Resources Commission.

I attended a Privacy Advisory Committee meeting, farewelled Stevie Clayton as the outgoing CEO of ACON, spoke to a group of MP's and local Councillors from South Africa about local government in Australia, was a guest blogger for Microsoft, co-hosted a talk about approaches to drug law enforcement and launched a fantastic online exhibition in Broken Hill that features the lives of 77 women from the past and the present.

Planning is also underway for some activities for Anti Poverty Week in the Parliament, another Gov 2.0 conference and opening the Apps4NSW competition. I am also working with Tanya Plibersek to have a consultation about lowering the voting age to 16.

The ALP State conference is happening on the 14 and 15 of November. Expect debate about the Building Modern Labor Party Report and the new draft platform.

Video of the Week: Australian Politicians when they were young - little John Faulkner is the funniest.

Website of the Week: NSW Labor MP's are allowing the community to decide how funding for community projects a will be allocated in their local areas. This is being done online. If you live in Marrickville, Menai, Heathcote, Canterbury or Balmain - get online and help decide which local projects get funding - don't forget to let your friends and neighbours know that they can vote as well.

Regards
Penny

Red Leather 68 - available now

2009-09-26T17:46:45-06:00

I write this at the end of a busy parliamentary week.

Tuesday was OneWebDay. The theme of OneWebDay was about what action can be taken to close the digital divide. Around 40 people gathered at parliament house to hear about the ABC Pool project and the Glebebytes project. The Upper House passed a motion and I made a speech about the need to close the digital divide.

This week the government:

Issued an apology on behalf of NSW to the ‘Forgotten Australians' and provided $9mllion for support services
introduced new laws to combat truancy that will support case management and referal to services rather than just fine parents who do not send their kids to school
announced that the 2009 NSW Writer's Fellowship has been awarded to Anna Funder, author of the acclaimed non-fiction book, Stasiland.
reached an agreement with the Commonwaelth that allows NSW farmers to sell their water entitlements to the Federal Government to return to the Murray-Darling Basin

We also passed a lot of legislation in the Upper House, including the:

Website of the week: Information is Beautiful
Video of the week: Videos from NSW Public Sphere are online now!

Regards
Penny

P.S. Congratulations to Ken Davis and Graeme Browning (AKA Mitzi Macintosh) who were celebrated at ACON's annual Honour event last night.

WANT TO READ MORE >>>>>

Electoral Reform Green Paper

2009-09-23T18:30:44-06:00

The Federal Government has released the second Electoral Reform Green Paper - Strengthening Australia's Democracy.

Among the proposals for consideration are granting the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds and permanent residents, and giving voters more time to enrol after an election is called as well as the possibility of enrolment on election day. The government is also interested in whether forms of electronic vote counting should be used at federal elections.

The government is inviting submissions in response to some or all of the specific issues raised in the paper. The closing date for submissions is 27 November 2009.

Do you see anything useful in video Hansard?

2009-09-22T18:10:17-06:00

The NSW Parliament is trialing a video repository for proceedings in both chambers until the end of the year, and I am interested in what you think about this.

Footage from each day of proceedings is divided in up to three sections - morning, afternoon and evening - and made available online within 48 hours of the House rising. The system allows you to use a search engine to locate the sections of video footage you wish to view. Text searches are based on the proof transcript. As the video is running, you can create a bookmark URL to provide direct access to a given point in the video.

For me, I see immediate advantages, including being able to point directly to videos rather than just transcripts of my speeches. For example here is my speech on maternity services.

But I am interested in your feedback. Do you think this is useful? Would you use this resource if it became permanently available?

To try it out for yourself go to: http://www.visionbytes.tv/ and login using the username: nswparl and same password.

This trial is just running until the end of the year, so we need your input if we are to keep it going.

Red Leather #67 - now available

2009-09-14T00:22:34-06:00

The last fortnight has seen the return of parliament after the winter recess. There has been extensive coverage of the reshuffle of the Ministers. The final list can be found here.

It has also been the first anniversary since Nathan Rees became Premier of NSW. A full list of the achievements can be found here.

I have recently hosted a number of forums in parliament, including the Evatt Foundation seminar 'Human Rights and Industrial Relations: preventing a repetition of the James Hardie scandal' to launch Matt Peacock's book Killer Company and NSW Public Sphere: Gov 2.0.

Last weekend, I participated in a meeting of MP's who want to address the issues of violence against women in girls in their communities. This meeting developed a statement of commitment and a male parliamentarians' committee who will do further work on this issue across the Asia Pacific.

Parliament resumed and has dealt with the following legislation:

In addition to legislation, I have raised the issue of equal pay and maternity services in the parliament.

Video of the week: The Onion shows how Social media is revolutionizing the way parents stalk their kids, and Matt Hodgson made this video for NSW Public Sphere that explains exactly what gov 2.0 is.

Website of the week: Mick Veitch has just got himself online - check it out at MickVeitch.com

Regards
Penny

Ps: The Centre for Policy Development has released a new e-book looking at the idea of Upgrading Democracy: combining open access to government. It features a number of the speakers from NSW Public Sphere. Check it out here.

Want to read more >>>>

NSW Public Sphere - today!

2009-09-03T19:13:11-06:00

Today NSW Public Sphere: Gov 2.0 is happening at Parliament House. There are 150 face to face participants but we hope that you can join us of at least a bit of the day.

You can watch it live here. Join this blog and/or tweet your ideas and comments.

All of today's discussion will be turned into a report and recommendations to be presented to the Premier.

Red Leather #66 - now available

2009-08-28T02:09:35-06:00

Next week sees the return of state parliament. While the media speculation about the leadership has been full of rumour it has contained little fact. The leadership speculation is distracting at best and at it's worst takes the eyes away from the real agenda of the government to improve service delivery in NSW - in education, transport, health, community services, housing, disabilities and the environment. I look forward to pursuing those priorities upon parliament's return.

Next Friday will be the conference I am hosting to look at the way that new technologies (known as Web 2.0) can work with our citizens to communicate, collaborate, innovate and improve service delivery in our state. NSW Public Sphere: Gov 2.0 will feature speakers from inside and outside government with case studies and plenty of room for discussion. It is now sold out - there will be 150 attending on the day but you are very welcome to participate online. The event will be streamed all day, you can participate give us your comments via twitter and I expect that someone will be live blogging on the day.

After the event we will be drafting a report and a set of recommendations that will be presented to the Premier. This report will be drafted and then put online for comments before it is finalised.

Video of the week - Social media fad or revolution.

Website of the week - check out The Squawk - a new community site that will use social media for networking people across the Murray Darling region. This site will be featured at the conference next week.

Regards
Penny

PS thanks to all those who have helped to put NSW Public Sphere together so far - if you know anyone who would be willing to help sponsor the event (thanks so far to MOB for wifi support and Kreab Gavin Anderson for a contribution to costs of catering) - or if you could spare a couple of hours early on Friday to staff the registration desk (from 7.30am) please let me know.

> WANT TO READ MORE >>>>

Red Leather #65 - now available

2009-08-17T16:47:42-06:00

Spring seems to have arrived early in Sydney. The weather is fantastic but it makes me nervous about climate change. I am angry at the lack of progress in federal parliament. Labor was elected on a promise to tackle climate change yet has been stymied by both the left and right of politics. Australia is in a position to lead world change, but without taking our own action it makes the task so much harder. I note also that both the Coalition and the Greens are now changing their position on the renewable energy bill...

During the parliamentary break I have visited Tamworth, Scone, Port Stephens, Lismore, Tabulam, Coffs Harbour, Moruya, Merimbula, Pambula, Orange and Lithgow to talk to transport operators, local councils and community transport people about transport issues and to see some of the excellent projects that have been undertaken by transport groups. There is some innovative work going on across the state.

Recent announcements by the Government include:

Premier Nathan Rees announced a major boost for jobs and infrastructure in Western Sydney
Housing Minister David Borger and Community Services Minister Linda Burney officially launched NSW's Action Plan for homelessness
NSW Housing Minister David Borger and Federal Minister for Housing Tanya Plibersek also jointly announced that the Federal and NSW Governments would provide an additional $284 million over four years to reduce homelessness in NSW, through the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness; and
A Review of the State Plan

I also attended parts of the Labor Party National Conference. While most of the media commentary talked about how boring it was - they failed to grasp the concept that the platform has been developed over 18 months, via hundreds of submission from ALP members, input from other stakeholders and our Ministers and MP's. There was strenuous debate, much arm twisting and many compromises to arrive at the final document - just not on the conference floor. I would like to see the Party go further on many issues (eg civil unions) but that issue along with many more will require more work.

Video of the week: Not a video but a slide presentation worth looking at if you are interested in social media.

Website of the week: OneWebDay - Gordon Brown talks about how the web has changed global politics. Watch this space for an event in Sydney on 22 September.

Regards
Penny

P.S. Thanks to many staff and some MP's at parliament house we were able to collect 30 pairs of undies, 50 pairs of socks, 8 pairs of gloves, 9 beanies and 26 scarves to give to the clients of the Wayside Chapel.

Congratulations also to Woolloomooloo branch for their excellent homelessness breakfast at ALP conference for Wayside that managed to get Nathan Rees, Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Tanya Plibersek and 100 others up early to hear about the work of the Wayside Chapel.

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