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Former Finance Minister Greg Pearce. Photo: Darren Pateman
A sick man whose private medical history was used without his permission in a NSW government press release that declared the state's workers' compensation scheme was out of control, has won the right to pursue sacked former finance minister Greg Pearce for damages.
The man, from northern NSW, has fought for nearly two years to have the state government deal with his breach of privacy complaint.
Mr Pearce, who was sacked by former Premier Barry O'Farrell in August last year after he appointed his wife's boss to a plum job as a director of Sydney Water, is alleged to have contravened thePrivacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998and theHealth Records and Information Privacy Act2002.
Mr Pearce issued a press release in April 2012, warning that WorkCover was "fast becoming unviable" and faced a $4 billion deficit.
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To prove the point, the minister's office included two case studies of long-term users of workers' compensation.
The first detailed how a worker had received $657,000 since 2001 after suffering chronic fatigue stemming from an earlier case of glandular fever.
"The worker travels more than 1000 kilometres to see the treating doctor based in another state," the press release stated.
"The worker claims interstate travel costs to see their treating doctor, domestic assistance, lawn mowing, multiple weekly physiotherapy, chiropractic therapy, psychiatric therapy and exercise physiology.
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Worker seeks damages against Greg Pearce, sacked former NSW finance minister for breach of privacy
An architect's impression of the new Busselton Health Campus.
The architect behind the $120.4 million Busselton Health Campus says the hospital has been designed to maximise the unique features of the natural environment.
Jeff Menkens, lead architect for the hospital's HASSELL design team, said vibrant colours and eye-catching materials would be used both internally and externally.
"Functionality and design must go hand in hand," he said.
"The site for the 84-bed Busselton Health Campus is truly one of a kind and we wanted to make sure that both internal and external planning capitalised on this unique asset.
"At the heart of the campus is the double-height entry, which is pivotal to the navigational flow. Landscaped courtyards link the east and west primary circulation corridors that provide simple and direct connections to key hospital services."
Mr Menkens said the landscape and planning architects had held extensive consultations with health service staff and the community to develop a state-of-the-art design reflecting the environment.
"We have worked hard to provide a warm and inviting environment balancing the use of artificial and natural light," he said.
"Generous windows are used throughout, including panoramic features in all patient bedrooms.
"The calming interior design includes materials and colours that have been matched to the external landscape using soft whites, blues, greens and greys to signify the beach, sea and peppermint trees."
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Architect eyes Busselton Hospital upgrade
Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romeros radio show with questions about everything from preventing fires in their chimneys to getting rid of tree roots invading their sewer system. His goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona. Here are questions about home maintenance and improvement from the Southern Arizona area.
Q: A few years ago, we had a very hard freeze and the palo verde in our front yard was severely damaged. Then it got the mistletoe, and it has finally bit the dust. So now Im trying to find out what to plant next. I only have about 15 to 20 feet of space for the root zone, and our property is located at 2,100 feet in elevation. So it has to be a hardy choice. One year the temperature actually dropped down to 15 degrees. Would a palo blanco tree, the one with bark like a birch tree, work?
A: The palo blanco is native to the Sonora, Mexico area so it might be too frost sensitive for your yard. It can only handle temperatures of about 25 degrees. Think about a mastic tree or an acacia or eucalyptus though some of those trees might have fairly large canopies. A desert willow could work well, and it would let in some sun in the winter when it sheds its foliage. To see more choices, look online at Landscape Plants for the Arizona Desert, published by the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association.
Q: I could open my garage door successfully yesterday, but when I came home from the store, I couldnt shut it any more. When I hit the remote or the button inside the garage, it will only go down a foot or so and then it retracts. Whats going on? Would lubricating it help?
A: Lubricating may not help. Probably the beams at the bottom of the garage door opening are out of alignment. You can reset the electric eye sensors pretty easily and get the door to work again smoothly. There are indicator lights on each sensor that indicate the right alignment. It may be as simple as checking to see if something has been moved into the beam of light that shines between the sensors. If there is no obstruction, move one of the sensors until a green or amber light is visible to show that everything is aligning properly. Then check the closing operation for the door again.
Q: I have an electric stove with a big back burner for cooking large pots of food. Every time my wife turns that burner on, the pot of beans really starts rocking and rolling even when she sets it at a lower temperature. Do I have to get a brand new stove?
A: It sounds as if you have an appliance problem that can be fixed by a repair company. If you like the stove, its worthwhile trying to fix it before you go shopping for a new stove. Most likely your problem is just a faulty control switch.
Q: I have several blackberry bushes that produce lots of fruit. But every year I wonder, when should I prune them?
A: Prune those bushes in the winter time. You can be very severe with them. Dont be afraid to prune them way back. Theyll come back in the spring and produce more fruit than ever.
For more do-it-yourself tips, go to rosieonthehouse.com. An Arizona home building and remodeling industry expert for 25 years, Rosie Romero is the host of the syndicated Saturday morning Rosie on the House radio program, heard locally from 8-11 a.m. on KNST-AM (790) and -FM (97.1) in Tucson and KGVY-AM (1080) and -FM (100.7) in Green Valley. Call 888-767-4348.
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What kind of tree does well in a yard at a higher elevation?
While koi ponds require more maintenance than water fountains, they will surely impress house guests.
Local experts share how to incorporate beautiful aquatic features into your landscape.
Section by Kate Miller
Sometimes, there is nothing more relaxing than the sound of flowing water. Just because the beach is right outside our backyards does not diminish the usefulness of the well-placed water feature. Here, outdoor experts explain how to incorporate fountains and koi ponds to create a yard brimming with elegance.
For Debi Bradley, manager of Laguna Coast Pottery, there is one rule when it comes to water features: the more you have, the better. She believes wholeheartedly in integrating water features in your outdoor spaceit just adds something more. The noise that fountains make is like making popcorn, she says. Its a good sound. Its very soothing for stress.
There are plenty of ways to easily incorporate water features, many of which can simply be placed and left. The easiest? A fountain or water spout. Self-sustaining, these kind of features store their own water source, one that is continually recycled. With no irrigation system and little maintenance, these features add a relaxed, elegant mood to a backyard landscape with little effort.
Debi explains that another perk of fountains is their sustainability and versatility. With the same water cycling through its system, a fountain prevents water waste, as long as the splash overflow is appropriately set.
This overflow is easy to control; your fountain can be set to a high or low speed depending on the mood you want to create, whether its a gentle trickling for pleasing background noise or a loud splashing to impress party guests.
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Water Wonders
Big tree falls
Land clearing in the Kootenays of bc is necessary to see the sun.
By: Dave0965
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Big tree falls - Video
MAPUTO, MozambiqueWhen Biatriz Hernesto was a child, she and her school friends longed to pick fruit in the bush behind her grandparents' house. They knew that's where the best marula fruits and other wild treats grew. But they also knew the area contained land mines, so they seldom ventured there.
Hernesto grew up in Maxixe, in southern Mozambique, in the aftermath of a brutal civil war that lasted from 1977 to 1992 and left the southern African country riddled with deadly, unexploded ordnance.
When she saw people coming to clear the land of mines, she hid. "We thought the de-miners were soldiers who would kill us," says Hernesto, now 25.
Many of them were, in fact, former fighters. Traditionally, mine-clearing efforts in Mozambique, and globally, have employed ex-soldiers as a way to provide them with work and integrate them back into society, says Ashley Fitzpatrick of APOPO, a Belgian NGO headquartered in Tanzania that clears land mines in Africa and Asia.
But those demographics are shifting. In Mozambique and other countries, women are now working as de-miners.
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In Cambodia, women began taking up such work in 1995, followed by Kosovo in 1999. The passage of UN Resolution 1325 in 2000, which required the de-mining industry to work toward gender equality, has boosted the trend. Now, about 20 countries employ females in land-clearing occupations, which include de-mining, training, and managing.
The push for women miners has also come from donors who support the de-mining efforts of humanitarian organizations, says Arianna Calza Bini, director of the Geneva-based Gender and Mine Action Programme.
Those donors, along with the UN and many NGOs, note that in postconflict areas, de-mining is often one of the only economic opportunities available. And workers and funders want to include the larger community in the processit is, after all, their land that's being cleared. Finally, it's often women who are most at risk of being hurt or killed by land mines.
"Women are the people in Mozambique who are responsible for gathering firewood and water, and for tilling the fields," says Kate Brady of the United Nations Development Programme in Mozambique. "Therefore, they are [most] likely to be affected by land contamination."
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Clearing Land Mines Becomes Women's Work in Mozambique and Beyond
Gadget lovers can be so hard to buy for. There are so many devices on the market these days, it can be really difficult to figure out which gadgets are actually worth the money. If you have a gadget lover in your life, here are some perfect gifts for them.
Philips Lux
The Philips Hue light bulbs came onto the market a few years ago and immediately became a favorite of smart home enthusiasts. But at $60 per bulb, the price is a little steep for the average gadget lover. So Philips recently introduced the companys new Hue Lux bulb, which packs in the same smart home capabilities at half the price. While these new bulbs dont have the ability to put out every color in the light spectrum, they do put out a golden glow of warm white light. For gadget lovers that dont need their bulbs to flash green, red and purple, but just want a well-built smart bulb, the Hue Lux is a perfect gift.
Philips Tap
Another entry from Philips, the Hue Tap, tackles one of the biggest problems with smart bulbs: the lack of physical light switches. Sure, all those smart home capabilities are cool, but its not very convenient to find your phone, unlock it, search for the app and mess around with a bunch of settings when all you want to do it turn on a light. The four-button Tap allows you to control your smart bulbs and choose from your favorite light recipes with a physical switch thats always there when you need it. The Tap also uses the kinetic energy of each press to power the device, which means there are no batteries to change or wiring jobs to do. It just works right out of the box.
Dyson DC59 Motorhead
Its not often that you get excited by a vacuum cleaner, but Dysons battery-powered DC59 Motorhead is a serious little machine. This svelte vacuum weighs less than 5 pounds but has nearly as much sucking power as a much heavier full-sized Dyson. The DC59 boasts 24 minutes of vacuuming action, which is more than enough time to tackle an apartment or small home, and its small form-factor also makes it well suited for cleaning the car, drapes, stairs or any other place where a full-sized vacuum would be too cumbersome.
Anova Sous Vide
Sous vide cooking has been gaining in popularity in culinary circles for years, but the price of these machines has left them out of reach for the home chef. Anova looks to change all that with its line of sous vide cookers geared toward the casual cook. Sous vide is the art of cooking food in a temperature controlled water bath, which means you can cook soft-boiled eggs with a perfect custardy texture or get the ideal medium rare steak without ever worrying about overcooking your food. Anova offers two sous vide devices: The Precision Cooker is the perfect machine for the first-time sous vide chef, while the Anova One is geared toward more advanced chefs that want even more control over their food.
Kwikset Kevo
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High-tech home gift guide
TAMPA Dave Mantiones only regret is that he didnt hire a home inspector to keep an eye out from the time the foundation to his new home was poured.
I wish I could go back and spend the money to have the house inspected every step of the way, said Mantione, who recently had a house constructed in Citrus Park.
He did hire a certified inspector once he closed on the house and what home inspector Mark Cramer found was a sagging truss, followed by a haphazard repair job. Cramer also found that subcontractors had fastened the rain gutters to the drip edge of the roof, which, down the road, could lead to a costly leak repair.
These days, a vast number of homebuyers hire inspectors so they know exactly what they are getting. But not every inspector is created equal. In Florida, there is a licensing requirement for home inspectors, but virtually every contractor in the state was grandfathered in when the rules were set up in 2010. Special interests got involved and they basically opened it up to everybody, said Frank Lesh, executive director of the American Society of Home Inspectors.
Members of his organization must conduct at least 250 home inspections to become a member. They also must take and pass an inspection examination and an ethics examination to become a certified inspector. Our organization is the only one in North America that has a third party certified inspection test, Lesh said. Consumers can find certified inspectors by visiting http://www.ashi.org. There are about 60 in the greater Tampa Bay area.
Most inspections are conducted on existing homes. About 15 percent are done on new construction.
Its really incumbent on consumers to know what they are buying when they get a home inspection, Lesh said. The word certified is like the word Kleenex. Everybody uses it, but Kleenex is a brand name and you get a quality product with it. Same with certified inspectors, he said.
While plumbers, electricians and contractors may be legally entitled to call themselves home inspectors, it is rare they actually have the expertise to legitimately inspect a house for a buyer, he said.
The most important thing you can do when looking to hire someone is to look at a sample report from that inspector, Cramer said. They are available on the ASHI website. They will mostly look the same, but if you look deeper at what they are writing, you can see if that is the type of inspector you are seeking.
A good home inspector is searching for expensive future repairs, such as a roof that is near the end of its normal life span, water intrusion in wood frame walls and safety concerns, like too-steep or rickety staircases, Cramer said. The buyer is given an inspection report so the repair issues can be addressed.
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Finding right home inspector key in spotting future headaches
