Great news for injured war and military veterans in NSW this week with new travel concessions on state transport coming on stream, even if their injuries were not suffered in battle.
NSW’s Minister for Transport welcomed the new deals, explaining that up to now: “only veterans that suffered disabling injuries while posted overseas were eligible for travel concessions.”
He said that from 1 May, veterans who “acquired a disability in a training exercise or while serving here in Australia” could also put their hands out for the entitlements, as long as they carried a Commonwealth health card marked ‘Totally and Permanently Incapacitated’ (TPI) or ‘Extreme Disablement Adjustment’ (EDA).
It was then the Minister put his feet in buses going opposite ways by declaring the changes to the public transport concessions a “step in the right direction”.
PS-sssst! hopes there aren’t too many ‘steps in the right direction’ required of the injured, incapacitated and disabled veterans to take advantage of their otherwise very welcome concessions
Positively in CEIN
Staying in NSW now to exercise our relentlessly never-ending search for the weird and wonderful where the University of NSW (UNSW) has reported on the first meeting of a sparkling new network, imaginatively entitled (for economists!) the Circular Economy Innovation Network, the abbreviation for which is CEIN, presumably pronounced by we polyglots as ‘sane’!
The university went on to announce that the sparkling new Director of CEIN is a professor who was also the founding director of another UNSW initiative, the Sustainable Materials Research and Technology centre, affectionately acronymised as SMaRT for short.
Smart and sane, what more could one want in a groundbreaking professor?
Contra action
To our little dabble in ‘Contra Diction’ which we unleashed last week exposing words in the English language that rejoiced in the contrariness of having two meanings, each meaning meaning the opposite of the other.
Known as ‘contronyms,’ these cantankerous words include ‘strike’, ‘bolt’ and ‘garnish’, prompting Peta M of the Australian Border Force to suggest we add another to the list of incorrigibles.
“How about ‘cleave’,” Peta proposed.
“(It) means to cling to as well as to separate.”
Spot on Peta, and well spotted as well. A fabulous book prize is on its way.
In the meantime, originator of the fun, Haydn D added ‘Sanction’ to his collection, pointing out it can mean to approve and at the same time to boycott. Thanks Haydn.
Seeing a giveaway
To Rama Gaind’s ever-popular giveaway now in which lucky readers get to add DVDs or books to their collections with the compliments of PS News.
Last week Rama’s offering was of DVD copies of the supernatural movie thriller I Still See You starring Bella Thorne and Dermot Mulroney simply by naming Veronica’s friend who helped with her inquiries.
The answer (as anyone who read Rama’s review could see) was ‘Kirk Lane’ and the readers with the first three correct entries to be found in the PS News Barrel of Booty belonged to Helen W of the Australian Federal Police, Phil A from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Sharlenne S from the Australian Taxation Office.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took part. The DVDs will be on the way to their new owners soon.
For another chance to be a PS News winner, simply visit Rama’s giveaway for this week at this PS News link and give it a go.
Good luck!
Blind data?
And finally, another gentle plea on behalf of the English language to separate our singles and plurals when dealing with public information.
Announcing that the annual census of members of the Commonwealth Public service was now under way, the Commission running the survey extolled the virtues of the program thus: “The data collected provides a valuable evidence base to support reform initiatives…..”.
PS-sssst! is sure they do and congratulates the organisers for collecting them but the data so collected will only ‘provide’ the valuable evidence if more than one datum is received.
Till next week…
