The Deputy Premier the Hon Kevin Foley, London, Red Bull, and Bollocks

Who: The Honourable Kevin Foley. Deputy Premier, South Australia Government.

Where: London

When: 7 August 2008 to 14 August 2008.

What: Sheer Exhaustion

Travel Report: http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/Members/HouseofAssembly/TravelReports/2008/FoleyUKAugust2008.htm

Again I say that I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I must be missing something.

Maybe 50 pages of the Report fell out on the way across cyberville. It is difficult to focus on a particular issue with the report as, well, there is bugger all to it. Just a lot of tables and facts that anyone could get via Google.

He did chuck in a lovely map of the UK, and it was sweeeeeet to see him acknowledge my home country of Northern Ireland.

This will be easy. Here is what you, the taxpayer, got for your money:

THURSDAY
Travel.

FRIDAY
3pm. Meeting with CEO of Connaught

SATURDAY
Big fat blank

SUNDAY
7.00pm Dindins with the Agent General

MONDAY
12.30pm Lunch with Agent General
2.30pm Meeting with CEO Ultra Electronic

TUESDAY
9.00am - 10am Meeting with Genesis
11.00 am - noon Meeting with Credit Suisse

WEDNESDAY
2.00pm - 3.00pm Meeting with Fidelity

THURSDAY
1.40pm off to New York.

When I worked in the Public Service, had I presented this itinerary for approval, I would have been laughed out of the room. A big, fat knockback!!

Apart from the obvious fact that Kevo and Billyboy (Agent General Bill Muirhead) must have really hit it off on the Sunday, or it could have been an all-nighter finishing Monday lunchtime, we taxpayers got just under ONE business day of meetings out of our Deputy Premier's 8 day Qantas-frequent-flyer-pointed, expenses-every-day stopover.

At least he stayed at one of London's cheaper hotels, the Radisson Leicester. Room rates between $430 and $930 per night.

Holy toldeo, I would just love to work for Kevie. Though, with that hectic schedule to follow, methinks Red Bull!

Senator Wong, Premier Rann, and Polly Waffles

In this morning's Advertiser, Senator Wong declared that she '.......plans to have the ailing Murray-Darling system nursed back to health within 10 years......'.

Maybe she will, maybe she will not. Maybe the next Government, if the current mob gets the boot!

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25503444-2682,00.html

It does make me THINK about the experts Premier Rann has been herding in to South Australia during the past 6 years. Thinkers-In-Residence.

http://www.thinkers.sa.gov.au/home.html

Having honourably served my time in the Public Service, I did marvel at how others beamed when the word OVERSEAS was uttered. That magical kingdom, beyond our shores, concealing experts with all the answers.

However, a quick Google of the phrase 'visting australian expert' will equally suggest that we too, here in the land of water-for-some BUT not-for-others, are held in high regard by the rest of the world.

Though, one visiting Australian expert, in New Zealand, stated that '.....poker machines are unsafe products.....'. For a moment I drifted to the land of the head scratch.

To my point. Return On Investment (ROI). A term foreign to many Servants of the Public.

On carefully reviewing some of the Thinkers-in-Residence reports, I wonder what return the taxpayer got measured against the cost. In a way, these Reports uncomfortably remind me of the Travel Reports this state's elected members submit on their return from OVERSEAS.

I have discussed some in my Blog already.

The Honourable Jennifer Rankine on returning from Europe: "Children don't learn from people they don't like"

In the beginning, Senator Wong, before she became Senator, impressed me by the megalitre with her strong and decisive rhetoric. Unfortunately, my opinion has changed, since intently observing her fielding questions from a Committee this year.

The Polie Waffle, and she has it down pat. It is as though newly elected members are put through some waffle boot camp on arrival in Canberra.

It would be so refreshing to hear YES, or NO, or I REALLY DON'T KNOW, but I will get back to you on that one!

More on South Australian Politicians Travel Reports (Part 3)

From 4 August 2004 to 25 August 2004, the Minister for Families and Communities, the Honourable Ms Jennifer Rankine, swanned off to the UK and Spain to study issues concerning childhood development and learning and to study issues concerning volunteers.

Again, I make no excuse for extracting bits & pieces from a rather lengthy document.

• Children don't learn from people they don't like
• Children don't learn if they are not well
• The relationship between parents and their children is recognised as critical to a child's development

And,

• Not all volunteers are good people.

Look, I am not setting out to 'have a go ' at Ms Rankine, because I do have respect for her and she does represent my Electorate.

My issue is with taxpayers monies being spent on some trips that on reading the subsequent travel reports make me think they were a waste of time and nothing meaningful was gained.

Since 1977, I have been employed within the Government (14 years) and I have been contracted by the Government whilst self-employed (15 years), and during those years I never ever saw a copy of any travel report being circulated amongst the plebs. Let's face it, why keep all that new knowledge to yourself. The plebs are out there in the front line, and the Minister is back to Parlie House, cheap lunches, and a chauffeur.

It is my belief and my understanding that travel reports, most of the time, are written by someone else. In this particular case, by PNSG, according to the file properties of the PDF file.

So, the Minister wings overseas, meets people, goes on a few tours, scribbles a few notes, gathers a few brochures & reports, and on return to Adelaide tosses them across to the assistant.

Whoever PNSG is, I think you should not have included comments such as '...children don't learn if they are not well...'

It only attracts critics, like me.

More on South Australian Politicians Travel Reports

OK. I know I should not pluck bits & pieces from reams of reports for fear of presenting words out of context. Nevertheless......

I was under the impression that our honourable elected members embark on overseas trips with a view to bringing back something that will enrich our community.

Here are more snippets from the Attorney-General's (Mick Atkinson) report on his 2008 romp in the northern hemisphere:

• Surveillance means........using a surveillance device.
• CCTV is a powerful crime fighting tool
• Community justice is about courts engaging with the local community
• Poland celebrates its national day on 3 May each year
• The delegation visited the birthplace of Pope John Paul II

Give me a break! Is this all fair dinkum?

Mick, are you absolutely positively sure that a surveillance device is used for surveillance? Can we have May 3 as a new public holiday?

Sounds like a job for moi. Let me see. From the Honourable Rob 'Robbo' McKibbin's USA travel report 2009:

• Donald Duck is not real
• The plonk on the plane was from South Australia
• Americans use a lot of petrol
• John Olsen says gudday
• There are 14 Irish Pubs in Denver

And I haven't started on one of the most bizarre reports I have read yet, courtesy of another Honourable Member who jaunted upaways to the UK. Here's a snippet:

'.....research has shown that kids dont like to be told off......'

Well bugger me!

http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/Members/HouseofAssembly/TravelReports/