GordonMoyes.com

The Auditor-General, Mr Peter Achterstraat, yesterday called for improvements in the management of Sydney metropolitan bus services. He stated: “Buses are vital for moving people and the public deserves good service. Sydney metropolitan bus services need to be improved.”

Two reports were tabled in Parliament recently. The Standing Committee on Social Issues released a report on “Substitute decision-making for people lacking capacity” and the Committee on Children and Young People released “Inquiry into children and young people 9-14 years in NSW”.

A recent report by the NSW Auditor-General found critical flaws in the system of protecting children from potential abusers and molesters. The Auditor-General’s findings revealed a failure in the State’s employment screening system. The report found that 14 people assessed in 2008-09 who posed a significant risk went on to get jobs working with children. At least one had access child pornography.

Yesterday, the New South Wales coroner recommended major changes to the spa building industry after the “avoidable” drowning of an 11-year old girl. Shannon Rankin died when she was sucked underwater in a spa in the newly built Sevan Apartments block at Forster on the NSW mid-north coast in 2006.

When Kristina Keneally became Premier she reassured that Dalwood will not be closed. Dalwood provides assessment and remedial support for children living in rural and regional New South Wales who are experiencing severe learning disorders. In December last year, the Premier pledged that children from Dalwood would not be left without the programs the school offers until an alternative was in place.

There is widespread concern in the community that children are being exposed to and involved in the adult world before they are ready for it. Advertising and marketing for children has been questioned when it promotes premature sexualisation both in products for children or the use of children in products for adults.

Advocacy groups have ramped up the pressure on cinema companies for applying an exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act. Last year, Hoyts, Village, Greater Union and Reading cinema chains have asked the Australian Human Rights Commission for a two and a half year exemption from complaints about providing captioning for the deaf and audio description for the blind.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the swearing in of Scottish-born military officer Colonel Lachlan Macquarie as the 5th Governor of the then colony of New South Wales. He served in that capacity from 1810 to 1821, during which time he was also promoted to Major General.

To address the pay equity gap in Australia for women, a report by the House of Representatives Employment and Workplace Relations Committee was tabled in Parliament on 23 November 2009. The report, Making it Fair: Pay Equity and Associated Issues Related to Increasing Female Participation in the Workforce, recommended a raft of amendments to the Fair Work Act and Sex Discrimination Act.

Back in 2008, the NSW Government announced the establishment of a Child Pornography Working Party which will examine the artistic purposes defence in the context of child pornography. The report of the Child Pornography Working Party by the NSW Department of Justice and the Attorney General was released last month.