What’s the deal with the pokies reform?

I could be almost certain that in the last few months, you may have heard about something called the ‘pokies reform’. To be honest, I had little knowledge about the proposed pokies reform until I researched the topic further, so my hat goes off to you if you have kept up to date and understood the reform from the beginning!

To start explaining what the pokies reform is, it’s important to know how it came about. Back in 2010 at the last federal election, both the Labor and Liberal party landed 72 seats each, which is four seats short for a majority government. Because of this hung parliament, it was up to independent MPs to side with either Labor or Liberal to create the majority parliament. At this time, Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie sided with the Labor party - on the condition that Labor must support the pokies reform. 

A simple quick check of Andrew Wilkie’s website shows just how passionate he is about the pokies reform. Wilkie’s website is covered in the latest news on the reform and facts about gambling. Wilkie’s website states that each year, 5 billion dollars is lost to poker machines by problem gamblers. To put that in perspective for you, more than half a million dollars is lost to the pokies each week, just in Hobart and Glenorchy. Also stated is the fact that, on average, problem gamblers spend 21 thousand a year on gambling. Whether that is money lost on poker machines or other gambling outlets, it is not hard to conclude that there is money that is not being spent on food, bills or supporting a family. The facts are shocking! So much money is disappearing into chance and luck games, instead of creating a better life for the gambler or their family. It is because of this, Andrew Wilkie has negotiated the national implementation of a mandatory pre-commitment system in poker machines, which means that before people start gambling, they themselves can decide how much it is that they want to spend on any one day or night. They can set their own limits and then they can stick to them with the help of pre-commitment technology.

The pokies reform sounds all well and good in the helping of problem gamblers, but early this year, Prime Minister Julia Gillard pulled out of supporting the pokies reform. This was a huge slap in the face to Wilkie! Gillard and Wilkie both signed an agreement for the pokies reform, and to have Gillard back peddle on their agreement meant a delay in the pre-commitment technology.  In response to Gillard taking back her word, Wilkie has announced that he has withdrawn his support of the Labor government. Since all the pokies reform shenanigans, the Labor Government have come back and said they will support a watered down approach to problem gambling. In spite of this, Wilkie will still not support the Government. Wilkie was quoted saying: ‘…the issue is not that the Government is not progressing poker machine reform. Rather the issue is that the Government has decided it can’t deliver on the reforms it agreed to, which I’ve insisted repeatedly were the basis for my ongoing support and which I’ve honoured since the agreement was made some 16 months ago.”

Oh dear. It is clear that there are certainly a lot going on with problem gambling in Australia, particularly in regards to politics. What do you think about it all? Should the original reform go ahead? Or is Andrew Wilkie overreacting. I would love to hear your thoughts on the hot topic!!

Australia Day - A simple Reflection

Lately, I've been seeing A LOT of Sam Kekovich. 
Coming from a lamb-down-under, speaking our lamb-uage, he's trying to
set straight a few problems. As he sees it, it's Un-Australianism, the
scourge of our great nation. Today is Australia Day - perhaps the bastion of Australianism. Let's reflect on it shall we?
 

Australia Day, the day where we celebrate our great country, marking the
arrival of the First Fleet and the proclamation of British Sovereignty
over 'New Holland'. Officially, that's what it is. What about for the
average bloke, the common sheila, and the kids? Well, I guess it's a day
to be thankful for what we have, to share that joy and thankfulness
with others and perhaps indulge in the bounty that we have. Sam Kekovich
is a little miffed with Un-Australianism at the moment. As far as I can
make out, it involves the moving away from traditional values that are
often associated with Australia: Mates, Laid back, Fair go, Lamb chops
(so....much...lamb...) and the Barbie. Yet, when I ask people what Aus
Day means to them, they generally capture these 5 points in what they
describe to me - 'Yeah mate, just havin' a Barbie, got some chops or
something. Nothing big, just laid back you know. Come 'round if you
want, everyone's invited!' So for me, I feel like it's a day that's been
designated a holiday in order that we as Australian citizens might get
together and...exercise...if you will, our Australianism! Obviously
there are a number of other traits that arguably are Australian and if
you can think of a few, try to include them in what you do today. Take pride in your day today.



This leads me to my next point - Patriotism. We are
funny bunch when it comes to that. You just have to look at the
Americans and they put us to shame. Seriously, who of us stand at the
footy IF they sing the National Anthem? Who of us sing? Granted there
will be a few of you, but it's a minority. You could say this is a sad
state of affairs - our anthem means little to us, people dislike the
flag, we eat the two animals on our National Emblem
(I believe we are among VERY few who do that), we tend to hold our
leaders in very low regard (tall poppy syndrome) and generally we don't
like to be emotional about the nation. Again I say look at the Americans
and they are RIGHT into all those things. But I think it would be a
mistake to say the Americans dictate what patriotism is. While our
version of it may not rest in the outward symbols and icons of our
nation, I believe we hold a great deal of pride in the values that
surround our national identity. We dislike arrogant, stuck up people who
are unwilling to share and include (Fair Go). We dislike people who are
so wound up they can't just sit down and relax...around the BBQ (Laid
back & BBQ). If you aren't either of the above, we'll call you
'Mate'... Though we might use it in an aggressive way (Mate). I'd say a
majority of us don't mind lamb either. While it may not be an obvious or
intended display of our particular brand of patriotism, these are a few
things I believe we all hold fairly dearly and Australia Day is a day where we celebrate our country and be patriotic, in our own way!


So today when you meet up with friends and family around the BBQ just take
a moment to reflect on Australia, what it means for you to be
Australian and if you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside, don't be
scared...it's okay; go do something Australian! Eat a Kangaroo or Emu.
It doesn't get more Australian than sticking it to some age-old tradition set up by the Poms!

Hope you all have a great (and safe) day.
P.S. - Put a chop on the Barbie for me would you?

Read more by Tom
 

SOPA and PIPA

In 2007, there was a teenage boy with a hobby. This particular boy, age 13 years, liked to sing covers of popular R&B songs. His family, an endlessly encouraging bunch, posted these videos on YouTube. Fairly quickly, this boy gained a devoted following online, with fans praising his videos and talent. Life continued on as normal for this boy until one day, purely by coincidence, a record label executive named Scooter Braun clicked a link to one of the boy's videos. Very impressed by what he saw, Braun tracked the boy down and offered him a record deal. The boy's dreams had come true. Today, this boy – Justin Bieber – earns hundreds of millions of dollars pursuing his love of music and performing. Regardless of your opinion of his songs, there is no denying that Justin Bieber is hugely successful, and all of his success is due to his freedom to upload videos of himself singing covers of other people's songs. The internet has always fostered and facilitated such creative freedom, and stories like Bieber's are becoming more and more commonplace.

That may be about to change.

These last few days, it has been difficult to avoid hearing about SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). For those who are unclear, or unaware, they work as follows: if passed, these bills would grant the United States government and copyright holders (i.e. the entertainment industry) the right to block, shut down, and/or remove websites that are guilty of breaking copyright law. Ostensibly, this is to combat online piracy, an undeniably worthy goal. However, the powers granted to the US government and entertainment industry under SOPA and PIPA are, in reality, far too excessive. In order to accomplish the near impossible task of thwarting online piracy, websites that are even vaguely complicit in the theft of intellectual property – such as YouTube or Facebook – would be entirely fair game for copyright lawyers. An individual uploading a movie in 10-minute snippets on YouTube would be a felony for which the whole website could be charged and potentially shut down, as would singing a cover of your favourite song and displaying it on Facebook. Yes: the very thing that made Justin Bieber famous could be a criminal act in a very short time.

SOPA and PIPA would also grant the US government the ability to remove any given website's DNS (Domain Name Server) from the “internet phonebook”, so to speak. In simpler terms, typing “www.google.com” would no longer work if the government blocked the page. DNS blocking is a misguided and frankly awful idea, for two main reasons. First, blocking the DNS would not make it impossible to reach an offending website, it would only require the user to type the actual IP address into the search bar; it's as simple as copy/pasting “216.239.51.99” into the search bar instead of “www.google.com”. Clearly, blocking any given DNS would not block access to actual pirate websites. Second, and far more significantly, fiddling with DNS has the potential to damage the underlying architecture of the Internet itself – it is in fact possible, it seems, to “break the internet.” Blindly damaging a central entity of our modern era in order to block access to a 13-year-old's rendition of Rick Astley's “Never Gonna Give You Up” is the height of misguided problem-solving. In the same way as burning down a house to kill a single flea, SOPA and PIPA present solutions that would ultimately be more damaging than the problems they set out to solve. If piracy is to be stopped, SOPA and PIPA simply cannot be allowed to be the means by which it is achieved.

Admittedly, the worldwide internet protests that took place several days ago (on January 18th) went a long way towards ending any chance that SOPA or PIPA will ever be passed into legislation – but these two acts haven't gone away just yet. Even if SOPA and PIPA are nixed for good, similarly Orwellian, freedom-of-expression restricting pieces of legislation are bound to be proposed in the near future. It remains the duty of all people who value creative freedom to thwart these measures. Protest any proposed measures that echo SOPA and PIPA; send letters to politicians; flood social media. At the end of the day, democratic governments are answerable to the people, and it is only through being vocal that the Internet can remain to bastion of creative freedom that it (thankfully) still remains.

Read more by Solomon

2011 and Google

At the end of every year, Google releases the list ( and video ) of the most searched items on the Internet as well as reports on general trends and their rises and falls over the last 12 months. Every year I love to take a look at these just to gauge where we as the human race stand in our interests and what it is that really captures the attention of the global community. But before I delve into these trends it should be mentioned of the sheer scale of the data compiled, Google states that the number of search queries used are in the billions, and I guess this isn't that difficult to believe, with the average number of page views of google.com being 1.7 Billion, every single day, equating to 87.8 Billion searches and a staggering 600 Petabytes of data processed every month. To put this into perspective 600 Petabytes is 614,400 Terabytes !

People were left shocked when they watched 'The Social Network' and discovered that facebook was worth 25 billion dollars which has since risen to 60 billion dollars. But again to place some perspective Google towers over this, being worth 111 billion at last evaluation, controlling a crazy 85% of the global search market, only being this small due to one seventh of the globe (China) being unable to access its full services. So when I discovered that all this crazy amount of money, time, data and down right awesomeness amounted to Rebecca Black being the number one searched person on the Internet, to say I was disappointed in humanity would be an understatement.

But to put aside too many personal biases it was still an interesting read. The website you will need if you are wanting a more comprehensive look at the results is 'Google Zeitgeist' but for everyone else who don't want or need the graphs, here is a quick summary of what humans wanted information about in this last year.

The top 10 fastest growth list consisted of two separate apple products, (ipad 2 and iphone 5), Rebecca Black, Google Plus, Battlefield 3, Casey Anthony, Adele, Ryan Dunn, The Fukishima Power Plant Meltdown and of course Steve Jobs. On the other hand, the fastest fall list had things such as Myspace, Mebo,Hotmail, Hi5 and Delta Airways. I was quite happy to find that in the top 10 searched news events, a bunch of results consisted of actual news Such as Fukushima, Libya and the death of Gadafi. Also Battlefield 3 made it on the news list with Modern Warfare 3 nowhere to be seen ( :D ).

And if it feels like there is something missing, Charlie Sheen does make it on the list under most searched people on the web, a section that also included Pippa and Kate Middleton, Steve Jobs and of course Osama Bin Laden. Apart from these, there wasn't a heap more interesting stuff. The Amazon Kindle Fire was the most searched consumer electronic, Wendy's the most searched food and a random University in Tennessee was the most searched place.

This may seem silly, but these statistics are a snapshot of what we were in the year 2011, what events mattered to us and who we cared about. As much as we individually define these statistics they in turn define who we are as a collective people. This isn't to say this is a bad thing, but it is definitely worth thinking about when a teenage singer and various electronics can be more important, than events like the London Riots, Occupy Wall St and Egyptian revolution. 2011 was a year of people for change showing that when people work together they can bring revolution to the world.

There is certainly a whole lot more in depth information on the site, but the above is a general summary. For me it is interesting to try and discover what this actually means about society, do we not really care about anything other than Rebecca Black, or do we just not need to go online to find out information about more important things? What are your thoughts? Do these stats surprise you? And what are you going to do to evoke change in your world in 2012?

Read more by Brayden

To Dear

How many cards did you receive in 2011? A birthday wish, a merry Christmas, maybe even a get well soon, accompanied by a pretty picture and a signed name?

Do you remember as primary school ended for the year, Christmas cards would be exchanged amongst ten year olds at rapid rate, with everyone in the class often receiving an abundance of cardboard cheer? I received my fair share, but I don’t recall the cards ever saying more than, “To Lauren. Merry Christmas. From classmate” (unless they were written by a best friend at the time). Maybe that says more about who I was in primary school rather than the peers who lacked more creative words.

Whenever I receive a card with an impersonal and generic message I feel incredibly ripped off, even if the card accompanied a nice present. It’s because I like nice words but also because what’s the point of giving someone a card to celebrate an occasion if you’re not going to say anything meaningful at all? Save your $4.99 and add the cost to the gift if you don’t have much more to say than, “Congratulations on your pregnancy.”

Cards seem to be the expected thing to commemorate a particular event or occurrence. Weddings, birthdays, newborn babies, Christmas, illness. It’s a lovely way to document memory and remember who shared particular moments of your life with you. I have shoeboxes filled with old cards – I never throw them out. Every now and then I will look through them and remember the people I may no longer be in contact with, and recall the events of the day that the particular card was gifted to me and try to decipher what once where personal jokes. They bring me a contented reminiscence. The cards that give me that feeling are the ones that had effort poured into the words. The generic words don’t mean a thing.

Writing a card isn’t just for now. When that person looks back in one, or five or even twenty years at the cards from their engagement party how do you want to be remembered? That you didn’t even care enough to write something from the heart?

I think cards mean so much more when they’re not for anything in particular. Not a “thankyou” for the meal, not a “congratulations” for the wedding, not a “sorry” for their loss. While those things have good intention, just nice words to someone you care about it, for no reason at all, could have such greater impact. But then I suppose that’s not even a card anymore – it’s a note. 

So seeing it’s holidays I’ve been thinking maybe I’ll start writing cards. To people I appreciate, just for no reason at all. And I’ll make sure they say more than, “You’re cool!” Wanna join me?

Read more by Lauren

Eyes on the Inside: The Falls Music & Art Festival 2011

When it comes to seeing in the New Year, it would be difficult for lovers of music, beautiful scenery and a bit of adventure to pass up The Falls Music & Art Festival. The Falls celebrated its 18th year in 2011, showcasing an impressive assortment of musicians, comedians, street performers and general entertainers against the stunning backdrops of Lorne and Marion Bay over the New Year period. Boasting approximately 4 days of festivities and 129 acts (not to mention ~16000 attendees at Marion Bay alone) this time around, The Falls has continued to grow since 1993 to be considered one of Australia’s iconic and longest running music festivals.

Music is at the heart of The Falls and 2011 was no disappointment in terms of bringing high calibre musical performances to the table. International headliners such as The Kooks, Crystal Castles, The Arctic Monkeys and The Naked and Famous wowed the masses; local artists did much the same with Falls veterans The John Butler Trio and Regurgitator standing out as definite crowd pleasers. Other highlights included the London-based, audio-visual spectacular The Wonderful World of DJ Yoda; Los Angeles’ Grouplove; Sydney group The Jezebels and – well, the standard was incredibly high across the board. The festival seemed to have a little something for all audiences, with everything from blues & roots and folk to electronica and hip-hop making at least one appearance: a dub step adaptation of a Pink Floyd record entitled Dub Side of the Moon was a particularly interesting part of the schedule. If you’re interested in having a look at the full 2011 Falls lineup, it can be found here.

Drums and guitars aside, all kinds of entertainment was available to campers for the duration of The Falls. Stand-up comedy acts had the afternoon sun-soakers in stitches; karaoke and interpretive dance competitions kept Lorne adventurers moving and shaking. The Village, a carnival-like hub of activity in the heart of the Falls universe, hosted everything from craft to cabaret: the Village people were responsible for the fabulous New Year’s Eve Fiesta, complete with costumed festival-goers and a truly enormous papier-mâché fish. The APRA People’s Stage was also a highlight; open to any camper with a (claimed) flair for entertaining: gems such as “kitchen appliance electro-rock” graced the stage, blending smoothies and improvising rap lyrics to a poorly kept beat. Hilarity for all involved.

For those expecting little but riots, illicit substances and irresponsible youth at a festival like The Falls, you may be somewhat disappointed. The overall festival atmosphere was one of relaxation and while, of course, there were those who had well and truly lost their inhibitions, people generally looked out for one another. Music lovers of all ages congregate each year for The Falls, with infants in strollers and curious youngsters being just as common as couples and groups in their 40s and beyond. Midday naps in the shade were commonplace; trekking to the nearly beach took a bit of time and energy, but to see the stunning shoreline and take a quick dip in the ocean was definitely worth every effort. As far as food and beverages were concerned, there was no shortage of variety. Many campers brought most of their own food and water; however the temptation of hot food and a cup of coffee seemed too good to resist for some. Water was readily available and free of charge throughout the day and night, while soft drink, hot beverages and alcohol demanded a few dollars and an often lengthy wait in line.

Despite the scorching daytime heat, freezing night-time temperatures and that timely bout of rain that came just as we were packing up our camping gear, The Falls had a lot to offer in 2011. A fantastic array of music and entertainment, gorgeous scenery, enough free water and sunscreen to supply a small city and the kind of atmosphere that makes you wish you never had to leave … Though, I’ll admit, it was wonderful to come home and take a shower! I’d recommend The Falls to anyone who can stand sleeping in a tent and dealing with “environmentally sustainable” restrooms (and even those, like me, who struggle a little).


Read more by Morgan

Pity Parties are so last year

I’ve never been a fan of New Years resolutions, mainly because nobody holds onto them and they’re really just a load of rubbish. But I do believe that we should both reflect on what we’ve learnt the year before and set some kind of goals to ensure we actually accomplish something this year.

And if you’re anything like me, when you hear the word ‘goals’ you automatically cringe, because it reminds you of high school diaries and insistent home group teachers. But I’m talking about working out where you’re headed and then taking every necessary step to get there. Because if you’re not working towards something you’re working against it.

Last year was great for me because I really started to work out what really matters to me and what I want to do in life after several years of not having a clue. But in saying that, it wasn’t a perfect year, no such thing exists. Life is never going to be perfect we’re always gonna have stuff rock up to test us. We just have to decide what we do when it does. We can either learn from it, or whinge.

And unfortunately too many take the second option and throw a pity party. I was disappointed to see a lot of facebook statuses over the New Years celebrations that said about how terribly awful last year was and how this one better be good. I understand that some people genuinely have had some rubbish stuff happen to them this year, such as loss of family or a job, or perhaps a serious injury. But that doesn’t mean the entire year was a waste of time! And maybe you didn’t really suffer at all and that’s just the mindset you’ve decided to adopt. If that’s so then maybe it’s time for a change.

As I said life is never perfect, but corny stuff aside it is really what you make it. The attitude you carry will change your life. This year I learnt that if I rock up somewhere as a leader with a bad attitude, other people will follow suit. And before you know it, you’ve majorly killed the vibe. And it’s the same for how people see you. If you whinge and moan and carry a negative attitude with you everywhere, you’ll ruin your chances of ever having something good happen and you’ll also ruin the mood of those around.

I’ve met too many people that think that others don’t want to hang around with them because of particular choices they’ve made in their life, but it’s not that at all. They’re just horrible to be around. They suck the mood out of the place, so that you don’t want to be within ten feet of them. And it’s sad.

I was stoked to be able to finally see the new Tintin movie before New Years as I’m huge fan, but one line really stood out to me and it was in a scene between Tintin and his sea captain sidekick Captain haddock. Haddock told Tintin that we send out our own signal and that’s what people see. And it’s so true. It’s ok to be sad or angry at times, but you can’t make that your default because you’ll never accomplish your goals and you’ll lose the friends you have.

There are too many opportunities in life to waste your time wallowing in self pity. The worlds already full of people who will pull you down whenever they can, so don’t do it yourself.

So if you don’t have a goal to set for this year or a ‘resolution’ if you really want to call it that, then commit to not being a debbie downer and to being someone who lifts up and encourages others.

Read more by Dylan