Some Senate Inquiries
Posted by Jacques Chester on Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Dave Bath at Balneus tends to perform a public service by nagging people to do their civic duty by contributing submissions to public inquiries and consultations. In that spirit I’ll mention a two that caught my eye:
Inquiry into the Stolen Generation Compensation Bill 2008. This one is based on a Private Member’s Bill introduced by Senator Bartlett. The scheme proposed seems reminiscent of one mooted by Ken Parish in February. Unfortunately the deadline for submissions passed last week — sorry Andrew.
Inquiry into The Current State of Australia’s Space Science & Industry Sector. I found out about this because of a link to a submission in Missing Link a few days ago. I submitted a brief (2 page) document yesterday and today the Committee has notified me that they don’t mind it being published. What upset me was that mine was submission #5. C’mon, I know Australia has more space buffs than that! Deadline for submissions is this Friday.
ShareThis
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 6:36 PM and filed under IT and Internet, Politics - national.
Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed.
Post a comment or leave a trackback.
Thank you for this one, Jacques. I missed the space inquiry, an area I was involved in when we were trying to re-establish Australia’s space programs in the 1980s. I will try to put in a submission and get approval to publish.
Posted on 15-Apr-08 at 6:43 pm | PermalinkNot many people realise Australia was the fifth country in the world to put a satellite into earth orbit. OK, we had borrow a Redstone off the Yanks but Wresat was locally designed and built.
Sure Canada was fourth but at least we beat the Brits, who had to use an Australian launch site anyway.
But yes, good reminder Jacques. I’ll be putting in a personal submission (”Dear Inquiry, I still want be an astronaut when I grow up.”) But intersteller laffs aside, Australia’s world-leading expertise in composite materials, MEMS and fluid dynamics should be focused beyond just this planet. Maybe we would could team up with Brazil and Japan. They’re really shaking arse now with lightweight control and propulsion systems for powered heavier than air flight.
Also, why not tip a seven figure Government sweetener into getting Virgin Galactic based in Australia? I reckon at least a 40% ROI in terms of through the gate tourism, international branding and tech spinoffs within five years.
While I find serious libertarians generally risible (present company excepted Jacques) I certainly have a soft spot for that whole “Man Who Sold The Moon” approach to the high frontier.
Space may be expensive to get there but it’s free for anything once you arrive. And we wouldn’t be the human race that I know and often love without it taking on apparently ludicrous challenges and succeeding.
“OK, let me get this straight. You’re gonna crawl out of our mother ocean onto that “land” stuff and “walk”? You fool. You’ll be back.”
And we did return - with Bill Beebe’s bathysphere, Jacques Costeau, driftnetting, scuba diving in purpose-sunk ships, telecom cables, hydrocarbon extraction technology, big black submarines and underwater hotels in Dubai and Florida.
Space awaits.
Posted on 15-Apr-08 at 9:48 pm | PermalinkBruce Sterling and William Gibson’s joint short story, “Red Star, Winter Orbit” is not too a shabby take on how consortiums of unsanctioned citizens can jump start moribund public sector orbital outposts. Some of the tech and geopolitics has not weathered well but the idea of nicking old solid fuel military booster rockets to squat on an abandoned ISS has a certain irresistible appeal.
Here’s a vaguely-related clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guzQXTEoDE8
Apparently this old Zulu folk song reinterpreted by American musical folkies is now used as the standard wakeup music on the Earth’s only functioning space station. By request of the Russians.
Now that’s globalisation.
Posted on 15-Apr-08 at 10:11 pm | PermalinkIs it ‘en’quiry or ‘in’quiry?
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 7:10 am | PermalinkF.A.B. Nabs.
We got pretty close with part of Blue Streak, but rocketry is an expensive hobby for second- and third-rate powers. Oh, and Sir Hugo Drax.
In the meantime, keep watching the stars, live long and prosper, yoda yoda.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 7:19 am | PermalinkNiall;
Inquiry is the word used on the Senate website. I’ll check the usage in my copy of the Chicago Manual of Style when I get back from uni.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 7:51 am | PermalinkAhem: rocketry’s only as expensive as you want to make it, Fyodor, ask any guerrilla. It’s the space nerds’ problem that they want the launch point and target to be on different planets.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 8:04 am | Permalink/warnerd
http://www.future-perfect.co.uk/grammartips/grammar-tip-enquiry-inquiry.asp
Jacques is correct.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 8:09 am | PermalinkFowler (MEU):
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 8:10 am | PermalinkYou mean, of course, guerillero. And, speaking of pedantry, tactical rockets aren’t terribly interesting - or even à propos - in this spacenerdery. Please get in touch with my people when you can fly me to the moon on an RPG.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 9:49 am | PermalinkAh-ha: Niall provides evidence that education is getting better at the three ‘r’s!
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 10:05 am | PermalinkWell that’s a matter of disputadum de gustibus, not pedantry. Non-à propos I’ll cop, pops.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 10:13 am | PermalinkSeriously though, the tactical imagination does lend itself to space-mindedness. Witness the Verne-on-roids space-gun and space-slingshot.
JC: Thanks, I dare say the Senate are correct, but have to say it’s one that’s always flummoxed me.
Patrick: You’re living down to my expectations, yet again.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 1:04 pm | PermalinkOh….and KP……thanks as well.
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 1:06 pm | Permalinkand while I’m at it, Patrick….might I say that Blair is clearly showing the effects of his therapy. It’s not working terribly well, is it?
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 1:09 pm | PermalinkWhat on this good Earth were you hoping it would do?
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 1:32 pm | PermalinkInstil some rationality, perhaps? Big ask I realise, however one can but hope
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 1:35 pm | PermalinkTo Infinity And Beyond!
Posted on 16-Apr-08 at 2:29 pm | PermalinkNot a senate inquiry, but the ACCC is requesting submissions about eBay’s plan to only accept PayPal. They specifically solicited the state fair trading offices, Visa, MasterCard and Amex, and a bunch of other organisations with interest in consumer protection, but they’re also taking individual submissions. Closing date is May 2 if you want to get in on it.
Posted on 17-Apr-08 at 6:17 am | PermalinkAn interesting submission, Jacques… I like that you mentioned property rights as an incentive to innovation. As both a space-nerd and small-government libertarian, it’s sometimes hard to reconcile the two, but I think on balance, you did a good job.
Posted on 17-Apr-08 at 8:56 am | PermalinkThanks Jacques
I should just mention that, whilst it is highly desirable to get submissions in by the formal closing date, most Senate Committees will still accept submissions after the deadlines. Deadlines try to make people aim for a date and keep people disciplined, but the Committee will still receive (and thus usually read) any submissions that come in right up until they begin drafting their final report. The Committee also uses the deadline to look at all submissions that have come in by then to help them plan potential witnesses and locations for any public hearings.
If people know their submission is going to be late, it can also help to give the Committee Secretariat a call so they at least know its coming so they can take that into account in their planning.
This advice obviously applies for all future Senate Inquiries, but in regards to the Inquiry mentioned into Stolen Generations compensation, it is also a reminder that its not too late - the Committee isn’t due to report until mid-June, so submissions in the next week or so would still be of some value.
Even short submissions expressing general support for (or against) an idea or for some of the larger submissions already put in can help the Committee get a better sense of how much public support or interest there is in an issue.
Posted on 17-Apr-08 at 10:47 am | Permalink