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New leadership, Part 2
My take on the shock resignations of Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin and deputy Syd Stirling earlier this week. Also pulling the pin is the Territory's top public servant Paul Tyrrell, who will leave the post at the end of January. But wait, there's more! Long-time Martin critic Norm Fry has quit as the $150 000 a year chief executive of the powerful Northern Land Council. This follows the dumping of NLC chairman John Daly in a secret ballot. It's all happening.
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New leadership
From last September, after Clare Martin suggested Paul Henderson might one day replace her as Northern Territory Chief Minister. And now he has.
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Dan Dingo - Episode 23
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Clare to quit?
According to reports in today's Oz, Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin is tipped to quit. Stay tuned.
Update: She's gone, along with deputy Syd Stirling. No mention of either giving up their seats.
Update: From ABC Online:
The Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin has resigned today after six years in the job.
Education Minister Paul Henderson is expected to put his name forward for the top position.
The Deputy Leader Syd Stirling is has also resigned.
The Chief Minister has been under intense pressure after the Howard Government announced its emergency intervention which effectively undermined the Martin Government's own efforts to address child abuse in Indigenous communities.
Update: Clare is soooo cartoonable. I'll miss her, and her hard hat.
Update: Paul Henderson will be the NTs new chief minister with Community Services Minister Marion Scrymgour as his deputy.
Update: She's gone, along with deputy Syd Stirling. No mention of either giving up their seats.
Update: From ABC Online:
The Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin has resigned today after six years in the job.
Education Minister Paul Henderson is expected to put his name forward for the top position.
The Deputy Leader Syd Stirling is has also resigned.
The Chief Minister has been under intense pressure after the Howard Government announced its emergency intervention which effectively undermined the Martin Government's own efforts to address child abuse in Indigenous communities.
Update: Clare is soooo cartoonable. I'll miss her, and her hard hat.
Update: Paul Henderson will be the NTs new chief minister with Community Services Minister Marion Scrymgour as his deputy.
We're different
The Ruddslide that swept across much of Australia on Saturday ran out of puff by the time it reached the Top End seat of Solomon, with a swing to Labor of just 3.8%, around half of the national swing. Solomon covers Darwin, Palmerston and a part of the rural area. Right now, the ALPs Damian Hale leads sitting CLP member Dave Tollner by around 700 votes. Some guesstimates say there are still around 8000 postal and pre-poll votes to come in, which means we're probably a few weeks away from a clear result. Whatever happens, Solomon will remain one of the most marginal electorates in the country.
Ken Parish dissects the close result over at Club Troppo.
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Dan Dingo - Episode 22
Not many to go now! Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Howard overboard
Forget the pollsters!Forget the bookies!
Ned the Bear accurately predicted today's Sunday Territorian headline.
Ned the Bear gets polled (revisited)
One of the lost Neds, previously published before the blog died a while back. Happy voting tomorrow!
Workplace hazard
One of the dangers inherent in working from home is succumbing to the occasional afternoon nap and having your apprentice pass out on top of you when he is supposed to be looking after the office.
Blogger has issues
Blogger is having problems today and is unable to complete my requests. Blugger.
Back tomorrow, I guess.
Back tomorrow, I guess.
Tracking Guba
For the last week or so Tropical Cyclone Guba - the first November cyclone in Northern Australia since 1977 - has been going around in circles in the Coral Sea east of Cape York Peninsula. At one stage a category three system, Guba is currently a one but this morning has re-intensified and started heading west. The Queensland met bureau has issued a flash warning that Guba could make landfall as early as this evening. It's expected to cross the cape between Thursday Island and Weipa and drift into the northern half of the Gulf of Carpentaria over the next few days, bringing it just a tad closer to the Top End. In recent years a number of Coral Sea cyclones have ended up impacting the Territory coastline one way or another so this might be one to watch. Intense rainfall associated with Guba has already claimed at least 70 lives in PNG. Many people are still missing.The met bureau's cyclone page
Meanwhile
Update: Guba is now an ex-cyclone and has pretty much gone full circle back to where it started, off the PNG coast. In typical unpredictable fashion it didn't do what it was expected to and now shouldn't bother us at all. Guba has had an effect here in the NT though, with a weak trough extending from the system across the Top End, bringing an 'active start' to this year's wet season, meaning isolated showers and gusty storms all over the place.
Croc Jock Shock
My take on last week's dramatic crocodile rescue when a Darwin man used his undies to subdue an agitated crocodile. The cranky 1.5 metre animal was stranded on a popular city beach when Jimmy Howard lassoed it and wrapped his red jocks around its eyes to calm it down. Why he didn't just take off his shirt is anybody's guess.
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Dan Dingo - Episode 16
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Only in the Territory
Offbeat crocodile stories don't come much better than this one:
Man catches croc with underpants
Man catches croc with underpants
Silence those lambs! Now!
The apprentice is getting close to wrapping up his first year in school. He's in 'Transition', which is a sort of educational prep year between pre-school and grade one. Part of the deal with 'Transition' is getting the kiddies into reading quick smart. This involves a nightly ritual where we sit down with a little book - known as a 'Reader' in technical education-speak - and read through it together. It's not as bad as it sounds, really, but just lately the books have been looking a little, er, retro. And it's no wonder. They're from 1973! And they look it! They should be on the Antiques Roadshow, not in a modern Northern Territory classroom in 2007. All of a sudden I find myself keenly interested in this talk of Education Revolutions and such. I may just start getting into this election yet...
Some things that happened in 1973 (apart from Baby Lamb's First Drink being published):
-Australia's first legal casino opened in Hobart, Tasmania.
-15 people died in the Whiskey a Go Go nightclub fire.
-The Sydney Opera house opened.
-Gough Whitlam visited China.
-Bob Hawke was elected president of the ALP.
-The Rolling Stones toured Australia.
-Sex comedy Alvin Purple became Australia's most profitable film since 1932, which says a great deal about everything up until that point.
-I had a dragster, complete with banana seat and sissy bar with headrest. It was cool, man.
Uh-oh
Well, the Wickings have officially signed up to participate in next year's Open Garden Scheme. It'll happen over a weekend in August 2008, which gives us a little over nine months to get the whole tropical paradise thing happening. Given that much of our backyard has been ripped out to make way for our rear deck it'll be quite a job. Stay tuned for updates, and possibly some interesting before and after photos.The plant in the pic, by the way, is called Devil's Ivy, which I mention only to prove that I know the name of at least one thing growing in the garden.
Deck the malls...
Darwin City Council has promised city Christmas decorations will be 'full on' following last year's decoration debacle when they forgot to put them up.
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Brace for impact
I'd better start working out what I'm going to do with the cat...Australia should brace itself for the worst tropical cyclone season since 1998/1999, a leading catastrophe forecaster warned today.
Either five or six tropical storms will hit Australia this season, which lasts from November 1 to April 30, according to a prediction by UK-based Tropical Storm Risk (TSR).
TSR is a consortium of weather experts at University College London and the UK's Meteorological Office, backed by insurer Royal & Sun Alliance, reinsurance broker Benfield Group and claims adjuster Crawford & Company.
The reason for the higher cyclone activity is La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean, pushing sea surface temperatures there to their coldest since 1999, which helps create above-normal tropical storm activity, TSR said.
-news.com.au
Dan Dingo - Episode 9
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Preparing for the wurst
The Top End wet season's got off to a pretty good start with the old afternoon and overnight storm scenario kicking in right on cue. We've had plenty of rain already around our way. This weekend we'll be putting our cyclone kit together, which may possibly not contain a parachute but will certainly contain the following:
-Battery-operated radio, with spare batteries, not tuned to a dance music station.
-Torch with spare batteries, candles in case I forget the spare batteries and waterproof matches in case I forget the batteries and have to light the candles in the howling rain.
-Strong shoes, leather gloves, hat, goggles and overalls. If strong shoes are unavailable really thick socks and a pair of thongs may be acceptable, but don't take my word for it. Seek independent advice from your local footwear specialist.
-First aid kit and manual, and combination pocket knife for emergency tracheotomies. Happens all the time on TV, you know. (You'll probably get by with just a biro but why risk it?)
-Medications, toiletry and sanitary supplies and a change of clothes in case local nightclubs remain functioning.
-Special needs for infants (such as a DVD player), the aged and people with disabilities (I am getting close to qualifying as aged so there will be a lot of stuff in our kit just for me. Heh heh.)
-Ten litres of iced coffee per person for three days. Buy early and avoid the rush. And remember that after a cyclone you can pee just about wherever you like.
-Three days supply of canned food, plus can opener and utensils. Avoid canned cocktail frankfurts and beetroot where possible. These will only make things worse. Or wurst. (I had to work wurst in so the title makes sense : )
-Pet food, water and other animal needs, such as parachutes and sacrificial altars.
-Portable stove with fuel. You may just need a calming, steaming, wonderfully reviving Nescafe at some point. Don't forget the milk and sugar.
-Tent or tarpaulin, and blankets (woollen and thermal). Avoid blankets with Elmo designs printed on them. You'll just end up looking silly in the event of an evacuation.
-Money. There will be after-cyclone sales for bargain hungry shoppers.
-Strong plastic bags for clothing, valuables, documents, photographs, and if you chuck up at some point.)
For further useful advice visit the Met Bureau's Cyclone page and follow the links.
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Frisky business
According to the latest stats from the ABS, the Northern Territory is currently at the forefront of a national baby boom. We have undoubtedly done Peter have-one-for-the-country Costello proud. I hope we can keep it up. (Ha ha. Get it?) Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Dan Dingo - Episode 7
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Dan Dingo - Episode 6
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Dan Dingo - Episode 5
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Dan Dingo - Episode 3
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Cattle class
One from the Centralian Advocate. Qantas has dumped around 50 seats a week from its daily Alice to Darwin run and while on the whole dumping thing also decided to dump business class as well. Only economy tickets will now be available. The airline is replacing its 737s with 717s, a smaller plane just like the Jetstar ones. It was always going to happen.
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Dan Dingo - Episode 2
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Thank God I'm here
...and not here:
Enraged Islamic hardliners took to the streets of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, in late September, defying emergency rule in a fit of arson and vandalism after the publication of a cartoon strip they felt mocked Muhammed.
The 17 September edition of "Naam" (Name), which is published in the popular weekly magazine Aalpin, poked fun at the Muslim community's custom of naming their children after the prophet, depicting a boy referring to his cat as "Mohammad Biral (cat)."
Fearing a countrywide conflagration over this seemingly innocuous cartoon, the interim government succumbed to Islamist pressure and confiscated the remainder of the magazine copies and sent the cartoonist to prison for indefinite period.
- energypublisher.com
Enraged Islamic hardliners took to the streets of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, in late September, defying emergency rule in a fit of arson and vandalism after the publication of a cartoon strip they felt mocked Muhammed.
The 17 September edition of "Naam" (Name), which is published in the popular weekly magazine Aalpin, poked fun at the Muslim community's custom of naming their children after the prophet, depicting a boy referring to his cat as "Mohammad Biral (cat)."
Fearing a countrywide conflagration over this seemingly innocuous cartoon, the interim government succumbed to Islamist pressure and confiscated the remainder of the magazine copies and sent the cartoonist to prison for indefinite period.
- energypublisher.com
Festival of Dan
Here's the first episode of Dan Dingo Private Eye as promised. Dan will be appearing here every day throughout November. As mentioned previously the strip ran in the NT News while I was recently away on leave. Apart from a couple of readers who actually liked it the response was overwhelmingly negative. Feel free to join the fun in comments. Click for a larger version.
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
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