The Commonwealth Government’s “Building the Education Revolution” funding has taken a step backwards over the last week or so. As part of the “Science and Language Centres” criteria, Intensive English Centres were finally (after much political agitation) given a code, independent of their host secondary school, so that BER money could be allocated to them for urgent upgrade of facilities for students and staff. Many of the NSW IECs were given high priority status and were targeted to recieve up to $2 million.

Most IECs are housed in demountable buildings, many of which have well and truly passed their use-by date. They leak, they smell, they are hot in summer and cold in winter. However, for some unknown reason, the Commonwealth Government has resorted to allocating BER funds according to their initial guidelines that gave the IECs nothing at all.

So, while IECs in Catholic schools are attracting BER funding, their counterparts in NSW Public Schools have been advised they will receive no funding at all. What changed? And, more to the point, if the Commonwealth Government had budgeted for funds to be allocated to IECs, where has that money now gone?

70 members of the Brisbane Left meeting on Saturday July 4 passed a unanimous resolution to support Terry Wood, the current Assistant State Secretary of the Queensland ALP, in his role. The vote sends a strong message to the Queensland Left Executive, which meets on Monday, that the faction must adhere to proper process and not pander to a subset of the faction’s industrial wing.

Left members questioned why the Assistant State Secretary should be asked to resign when there was no evidence against him presented to the meeting, and responsibility for the election campaign rests with the Campaign Manager and State Secretary — Anthony Chisholm. The shocked Left meeting rallied around Mr Wood and defended his performance in building the faction and the party over the last decade.

Re. the recently broken story “S-x plot thickens as sailors sent home” on an alleged challenge amongst a group of HMAS Success sailors to sleep with as many female crew members as possible (extra points for scoring with an officer or a lesbian) which was kept track of via a document known as “The Ledger”. I was somewhat amused to see that in the automatically generated “related coverage” box on the News Ltd site, was a link to the January stories “Ralph want hottest Navy babe” and “Sub-standard s-x gaffe from top Navy brass“. Particularly Commander Phillips’ quote: “It would certainly get the right demographic of young men in.” That, it seems, they sure did.

Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) is going to close regional offices around the country due to a $900,000 black hole in the budget brought about by the Labor Governments additional efficiency dividends. Up to thirty staff will lose their jobs. Regional office staff are not fully aware of Canberra’s intentions to do away with their jobs.

Are you aware that Isobel Redmond has been planning a launch at the top Liberal job for quite some time? She has sought attention in the media (Adelaide Review) and has attempted to get publicity for herself in order to foster attention toward her. There has also been considerable pressure placed on Detective Superintendent Jeffries (OIC Fraud Squad) to conduct investigations. More to follow later.