Victorian nurses are walking off the job.

First they demanded Fair Work Australia’s involvement — now Fair Work Australia having made a ruling which they dislike, they defy it.

Australian Nurses Federation secretary, Lisa Fitzpatrick, says, “We never use patients as pawns.”

But they do.

The talking-point is nurse-patient ratios. The State Government warns that their demands would cost taxpayers $1.7 billion extra a year.

Anybody who has worked in the third world — or even thought  about the third world  — knows Australia’s current nurse-patient ratios are ridiculously good.

* * *

Anybody deciding to be a doctor or a nurse accepts a responsibility other jobs don’t require — never to participate in any industrial action that could endanger anybody’s health.

Saint Mary MacKillop was one Australian who worked every day for 40-odd years and was never paid a cent.

Her classes had teacher-student ratios that would cause teacher walk-outs today.

She told her Sisters, “If any Sister would say to herself that she could spend money, even a shilling, as she liked, she would break her vow of poverty.  And so would I, if I did the same.”

Not everybody is called to that kind of devotion/poverty. But thinking about it might improve everybody’s sense of proportion.

Three days ago this blog suggested that Mr Rudd is not a suitable Foreign Minister.

Now he is no longer Foreign Minister.

Coincidence?

Yes, if you say so.

* * *

If Mr Abbott wants to be Prime Minister, all he must do is lie low.

Leave the ALP pollies to rip themselves apart and destroy each others’ credibility.

Perhaps an occasional bland statement . . . to remind us that he exists.

Like, “Labor is run by faceless men and therefore not a fit party to govern . . . .”

* * *

Australian Workers Union Secretary, Paul Howes, tells how in June 2010, shortly before the knifing of Mr Rudd, a “senior federal minister” phoned, asking which out of Rudd and Gillard he wanted for PM.

He said Gillard. We got Gillard.

He — or person(s) of the same kind — will probably decide who is PM next week — and when he/she should call an election.

* * *

Should Australia’s Catholic bishops involve themselves in all this?

While bishops should perhaps not dictate to us whom to support in party politics . . . .

. . . they must warn us when potential leaders appear whose moral stances are such that Christians cannot even think about supporting them.

We must not ignore the fact that PM Gillard is fervently pro-abortion.

And that most of the would-be’s are pro same-sex mock-marriage.

Judith Wright’s book “Cry for the Dead” describes a drought in outback Queensland during the early 1800s.

Water-courses dried up.

Only one lagoon remained to supply water to the settlers’ cattle.

A party was sent out to shoot the local aborigines camping by the lagoon, so that the cattle would not be deprived of that water.

* * *

How could those settlers have been so heartless?

Easy.

They were comfortable in their belief that certain human beings are not real persons.

A person is someone who, if you shoot them, it is murder.

But to those settlers you weren’t a person unless you were white.

* * *

Unborn babies are alive. They are human.

Yes, they are human beings.

But in 2012 Australia being a human being isn’t enough . . . ask any member of the Greens Party . . . or almost any member of the Australian Labor Party.

A community which doesn’t treat abortion as murder has made no progress since that Queensland massacre of the 1800s.

Watch this video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_C-jBMOJaI

Last year a technician employed by the Canterbury District Health Board in New Zealand refused to assist in preparing surgical instruments to be used in performing abortions.

She was called before a disciplinary board and given an ultimatum – do your job or be dismissed.

She sought legal advice and discovered that NZ law states that “no registered medical practitioner, registered nurse, or any other person, shall be under any obligation . . . to perform or assist in the performance of an abortion . . . .”

The lady was NOT sacked.

Since then, two of her co-workers have joined in refusing to assist in abortion.

* * *

This couldn’t happen in the state of Victoria, Australia, where there is no such conscience clause.

And the Queensland government is now preparing similar legislation.

Why do something so controversial just before a state election?

What little hope the Queensland government has of being re-elected will depend on getting each and every single Greens Party preference with no leakage.

The guaranteed way to get the Greens onside is to have policies which undermine the sanctity of human life.

Coles advertisement in today’s paper: “There’s no FRESHNESS like Coles FRESHNESS”.

Referring to fruit and vegetables.

When will we see them sloganise: “There’s no exploitation of addicts like Coles exploitation of addicts”?

If you want to buy anything in Coles, you must enter through the gate and exit through the check-out.

Anything?

Not quite . . . .

* * *

If you’re buying cigarettes you don’t need to enter or exit at all.

Grab them at the footpath-fronting front counter, bypassing both gate and check0ut.

They know that half the people to whom they sell cigarettes are on the pathway to DEATH from cigarette-related disease.

They need lots of recruits to replace the dead ones.

* * *

Impulse-buying by the weak-minded is what they love – what they live on and depend on.

How disgusting.

The money they make is BLOOD MONEY.

The money you save by shopping there is blood money.

Tennis player, Bernard Tomic, 19, driving his orange BMW last week was pulled over by police and issued traffic infringement notices for driving contrary to the conditions of his licence.

P-platers normally aren’t allowed to drive a high-performance vehicle — but Tomic has apparently been granted an exemption because of his career as a tennis player.

Tomic has hired defence lawyer, Chris Nyst, who wants a meeting with Queensland Police Commissioner, Bob Atkinson – claiming there has been a misunderstanding regarding the terms of Tomic’s exemption.

* * *

Professional athletes usually don’t work for a living.

They have all day to get wherever they want to go.

If anything, it would make sense to license them for lower-than-usual performance vehicles.

Road rules should be designed for the safety of the public.

19-year olds with P-plates are typically bigger safety risks than older drivers.

If being a celebrity gives one the right to flout the laws governing other people, it’s a serious matter.

The rule of law is important if our nation is to avoid being a rabble.

By definition, the rule of law must apply to all equally.