Important news this week from the Family Court of Australia that it is on the verge of adopting a new state-of-the-art electronic filing system to allow users of the Court’s services to lodge their important legal documents online for the first time.
In an official notice the Court declared it would not simply stop at accepting lodged documents, its foray into electronification will also allow it to do wonders to the very heart of the Court.
“The Digital Court Program will also see the digitalisation of most Court forms, files and administrative processes,” the learned bench pronounced heartily.
Prompted by the use of the word ‘digitalisation’ instead of ‘digitisation’ the pedantic PS-sssst! dived into the online dictionary to clarify exactly what it meant.
It found this: “Digitalisation, noun. In the treatment of heart disease, the administration of digitalis”.
It then found the definition of Digitalis, noun. “The dried leaves of the foxglove, used in medicine as a heart stimulant.”
Could this mean the Family Court actually has a heart?
Best not go there!
Fine banking!
To another example – as if we need one – of a bank behaving badly now with the extraordinary story of the bank that made its customers pay it extra so it could pay a fine for allegedly mistreating those very same customers.
Homeowners may recall that two weeks ago the Westpac bank hiked up its interest rates by 0.14% adding $35 a month to an average $300,000 mortgage
A week later, the same bank agreed to pay a record fine of $35 million for allegedly mistreating its customers.
Excuse PS-sssst!’s cynicism but why is it that the bank’s shareholders, who may well have profited from any mistreatment, be allowed to keep their profits while the poorly done by customers are required to finance the fine?
Surely it’s time for a special ‘Capital Fine’ system in which penalties for mistreating customers are paid by those who benefitted from the mistreatment!
Looking on while the bank increases fees from customers to pay its penalties for mistreating the very same customers doesn’t seem to be good enough in these days of consumer protection.
And just for the record, the editor of PS News has a bank account with Westpac, although not a mortgage.
To bee or not to bee?
A special mention and a muttered ‘Thankyou’ now to Wen L of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources for taking the time to embarrass PS-sssst! and its occasionally illiterate editor who strings together its long list of fumbles, mumbles and stumbles that make up the pompous hotch potch we laughingly consider a funny column.
In this case Wen blew the whistle on last week’s PS-sssst! snippet highlighting her Department’s efforts to fight off the seriously destructive pest and enemy of the honey bee, the Varroa mite by pointing out how the Department was helping “Australia bee prepared”.
“I think there is a letter missing in one of the paragraphs,” the ever-polite Wen wrote.
“You described the Department’s message as being delivered with ‘…the solemnity such a potential treat deserves…’’.
“I’m not sure we (in the Department) regard Varroa mite as a potential treat. In fact, we regard this particular mite as a potential threat.”
Mea culpa, Wen. You’re sooo right! Our ‘treat’ should have been a ‘threat’.
If PS-sssst! had a proofreader we’d treat him or her to a threat!
We hope you’ll accept a fabulous PS News book prize for your Department’s library for taking the time to set us right.
And as the PS-sssst! office is just a stone’s throw from the glass house we live in, we will post it to you from there.
Giveaway winners
To Rama Gaind’s weekly giveaway now in which three wise readers stand to win a free copy of the book Rama reviewed last week – The Pacific Room by Michael Fitzgerald.
To join the winners, all readers needed to do was tell Rama which island the book used as a backdrop and then have their correct entry emerge in the first three from the infamous PS News Barrel of Booty.
The answer Rama was after was Samoa and the three lucky entries to greet the judges with that slice of information were from Anne B of IP Australia, Nicholas B of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, and Amanda J of Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took part. The books will be on their way shortly.
For another chance to be a PS News winner, simply follow this link to this week’s competition and try your luck. You have to be in it to win it and it’s not that hard!
God luck to all who do.
Numbers up!
And finally, another month, another stampede of new subscribers to PS News with August sign-ups rocketing eight of our nine editions into uncharted growth waters.
Among the record breakers were the national Public Service which shattered the 72,000 subscriber mark for the first time; the Victorian Public Service which passed 26,000 for the first time; and Queensland’s PS which reached over 16,000 for its first time.
Also reaching new heights were the NSW PS at the all-time high of 26,939 subscribers; the Tasmanian PS with 15,162 subs; the WA PS with 12,913, its highest ever; the SA PS at its best with 9,339 subscribers; and the Northern Territory PS which reached its biggest subscriber number ever of 1,075.
The total from all States and Territories at the end of August also reached a record, coming in at 195,164 keen readers.
To every one of that 195,000-plus the PS News editorial, management and online web teams say a sincere thankyou for trusting us with your PS news and information and promise to keep up the good work if you keep up the good reading.
As always, if you’re on the PS News subscriber list and would prefer not to be, simply return your email update with ‘Unsubscribe’ as the subject line and you’ll be taken off.
For everyone else who wants to stay on board, there’s no need to do anything – simply enjoy the latest in PS News and information and the occasional notification of a PS News endorsed event, course, conference or special offer from one of our many PS-friendly service providers.
As one of almost 200,000 subscribers, each one of us can rest easy in the knowledge that we’re not reading PS News alone.
Till next week……
