GordonMoyes.com

There is tremendous scope for fresh ideas, for new thinking, for being prepared to use 2008 as a year of modernisation of our organisation. The party needs to embrace a change that will replenish our membership. A strong membership base is a strong resource – for developing policy, in campaigning, in fundraising, in spreading the word, in providing the candidates, staff and personnel that every political party needs.

A good inquiry can accelerate improvements that otherwise would take years to make. I am all for them. But I question the utility of the special commission of inquiry into NSW health services. Since 2003 there have been three major inquiries into health services: Camden and Campbelltown hospitals, Canberra Hospital and Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital. All were found to have serious workforce problems (low morale, poor communication systems, poor compliance with institutional protocols, inadequate leadership from senior clinicians and more). Has anything changed? Our workforce is well trained; our hospitals in the main well-equipped, and our managers knowledgeable. So why do we, like many other countries, have an unacceptably high number of errors in the system?

In a report presented at the 2007 Australasian Drug Strategy Conference, the Australian Federal Police noted that ideal weather conditions and improved technology in Afghanistan saw opium poppy production there rise 17% last year, with a further 30% rise expected in 2008.

There are few things that set off alarm bells in a political party more readily than a public accusation that they have gone soft on crime. Both sides of politics scrupulously avoid doing anything that could leave them open to this. As a result, the last decade has seen a general toughening of law and order policy.

Evangelical Australia claims M.V. Tronson, (founder of Sports and Leisure Ministries, and well known author and artist), who cites the recently released National Church Life Survey (NCLS) which shows an astonishing picture of Generation Y’s renewed evangelical involvement while the huge contribution to national health and community welfare by evangelical churches signify the hard yards their congregations put into community involvement.

In 2007, little Cody Hutchings died as a result of major injuries caused by weeks of repeated bashings and abuse. By the time that his stepfather had finished with him, Cody was covered in 160 bruises, his liver was torn and he had two skull fractures.

Scientists in Israel have used a particle beam to etch the entire text of the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) on a chip less than half the size of a sugar grain.

This Christmas heralds a new beginning for all Australians, the President of the Baptist Union of Australia, Rev Dr Ross Clifford, said in his Christmas message. Dr Clifford is also the Vice-President of the CDP. “Change and renewal is happening all around us: in the weather, in the cycles of the natural world, in our personal well-being, in history and politics. But when Jesus was born in humble circumstances in Palestine more than 2,000 years ago, something fundamentally new and permanent was underway.

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life.

During a visit to the Lakemba Mosque on Friday 30 November, NSW Liberal Leader, Barry O’Farrell, offered a formal apology to the State’s Islamic community for the activities of rogue Liberals during the recent Federal election campaign.