Crikey

The firestorm surrounding Beyond Blue chair Jeff Kennett has taken a new twist: a check of all the funding grants from Beyond Blue for the last five years has only thrown up one, yes one, grant for g-y and l-sbian mental health, and that was only for $50k for HIV related depression. Other anti-depression groups, such as The Mental Heath Research Council, are privately scathing of BB’s “mudguard model” (shiny on top, full of sh-t underneath) approach to funding projects, and question how it is the national depression initiative can have ignored the data from institutions such as LaTrobe University’s Writing themselves back in report for so long. Expect to see media articles questioning whether Beyond Blue’s approach is really driven by science.

Did Treasury modelling really show that for the same cost of putting in new, easier to access tram stops for the disabled, that the Victorian Government could have provided cabcharges for them for life?

Qantas is expected to announce Alan Joyce’s replacement at Jetstar today following his appointment last Monday as Geoff Dixon’s replacement as CEO of the Qantas group. The anxiety levels at Qantas are high. A replacement for Peter Gregg as Dixon’s deputy is also expected at the same time. The depth and breadth of change at Qantas is expected to far exceed the business-as-usual comments made by Joyce, Dixon and chairman Leigh Clifford when the succession was announced five days ago.

Henry Lawson would be pleased that NSW Maritime is getting up the nose of the MV Cape Don by demolishing part of the Old Coal Loader Wharf in Waverton where the ship is moored. In 1916, when the wharf was under construction, he wrote in his poem The Sacrifice of Ball’s Head:

They’re taking it, the shipping push, As all the rest must go
The only spot of cliff and bush That harbour people know.
The spirit of the past is dead North Sydney has no soul
The State is cutting down Ball’s Head. To make a wharf for coal.

Where picnic parties used to go To spend a glorious day,
With all the scenery of a coast And not a cent to pay.
The deep cool tangle shall be cleared To make the glaring roads
And motor lorries jolt and grind And drag their sordid loads.

And strings of grimy trucks shall run In everlasting trains
And on the cliffs where wild trees are Shall stand the soulless cranes,
To dump their grimy loads below, Where great brown rocks are grand;
And the deep grass and wild flowers grow – And boating couples land.

No more shall poorer families Give “Grandma” and “Grandad”
A glimpse of nature’s mysteries To make their old hearts glad.
No more our eyes shall be relieved In the city’s garish day
A sordid crime has been achieved! And none has aught to say.

Whittney Jago of Young Liberals fame has suddenly clipped her Facebook friends from over 800 to around 400. She’s obviously scared of leaks!