Another week, another long series of people that could qualify as Jerk of the Week.

Circumcisers, for example, could well be Jerk of the Week, but I would hate to discriminate against my brothers who had the chop for religious reasons that I don’t understand but graciously accept in the name of cultural relativism.

Barnaby Joice, the man you are never sure whether to love or hate but always adds a little colour, could easily qualify this week. He proved his extraordinary ignorance when he claimed he had no idea that ‘spack attack‘ was a discriminatory term for people with cerebral palsy. Barnaby, you show occasional glimmers of intelligence, you can do better than this.

But as you may have guessed by now, Peter Batchelor takes the prize this week over feeding tariffs. As we teeter on the brink of a post-carbon world, there are a range of simple cost effective measures that have the ability to make energy efficiency and renewable energy generation more attractive to ‘Working Families’. The Victorian Government is digging in and will only pass legislation that will providing a feeding tariff for for net household energy generation of renewable energy through rooftop solar panels rather than gross generation which the Greens (bless their souls) rightly say is the only way to provided intensive for people to install solar panels on their roofs.

In other words, the State Government is only willing to pay you for energy you generate that is not used by your household and fed back into the electricity grid. The Greens want a tariff on ALL energy generated.

At the end of the day it is very difficult to generate more electricity than you will use in a household with roof-top solar panels. However, if people do that then they are using less coal fired electricity therefore reducing out demand on fossil fuels and, hopefully if enough people do it, we might be able to shut a coal fired power station and then be better placed to shift our energy generation to renewables because we’ll generally be needing less electricity to be generated.

The world is now past ‘tipping point’ and careering towards the ‘point of no return’. Yet Batchelor is holding everything up and creating virtually no incentive for people to take action. When the government fails (as it has catastrophically on this, the greatest of all issues) ‘the people’ need to start taking things into their own hands. For the Victorian Government to put barriers in the way of citizens taking their own action against climate change, at very least, earns Peter Batchelor the title of: Jerk of the Week.

In the climate of the Northern Territory intervention, I was very please when Labor won the election and Jen became the Minister for Indigenous Affairs. She righted some wrongs and left some wrongs as they were – but at least that is better than nothing.

That was until last week’s announcement that she, along with the Northern Territory Government, was going to end funding to remote indigenous communities in the NT and create ‘regional hubs’.

I have never heard a less insightful thing in my life. Why?

1. Where was the Community Consultation?
2. Northern Aboriginals are a very different people to those from the Centre – when will you learn that you cannot have a ‘one size fits all’ approach?
3. Pat Dodson did the report that this move is based on. He’s a good bloke, but he’s from the Kimberly. There wasn’t one Territorian that could have donw the report?
4. First Australians have considerably less spent on them than the rest of us already – this is a cost saving measure.
5. It’s racist – there you go, I said it.
6. Where do you think the problems are? In the towns or the remote communities?
7. Contrary to the spin, it will mean a reduction in the numbers of schools and clinics available to First Australians
8. It’s paternalistic and assimilationist
9. I’m sure there are other reasons that those who understand this issues better than I do have

Shame, shame, shame.

Jenny Macklin, for the complete failure of understanding of your own portfolio, you are: Jerk of the Week

Once again, there are several options for Jerk of the Week.

Firstly we have Nick Tonti-Filippini in realation to this news item. The Family Court just made a very sensible decision, one that should be applauded. It allowed a 17-year-old girl to have her breasts removed so she can be more like a boy.

Then Nick chimes in:

But ethicist Nick Tonti-Filippini said mainstream medicine did not recognise hormone treatments and surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria. He said it was a psychiatric disorder qualifying under American guidelines as a psychosis because “it’s a belief out of accordance with reality”.

“What you are trying to do is make a biological reality correspond to that false belief.”

So firstly, you’re a fucking closed minded, bigoted idiot. It simply isn’t a belief out of accordance with reality and only ‘Alex’ can decided what that reality is. If someone is that determined to undergo a gender transformation, then they are pretty serious about identifying with the gender they are realigning with.

But secondly, there has been either some dishonesty on behalf of Tonti-Filippini or a problematic omission by the journalist. You see Tonti-Filippini is a well known Christian Fundamentalist. He works for (or at least has worked for) the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family – hardly experts on gender politics. He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors for Matercare Australia (link to Matercare International) – an aid organisation:

MaterCare International (MCI) is an association of Catholic Obstetricians and Gynaecologists dedicated to improving the lives and health of mothers and their children both unborn and born throughout the world, through new initiatives of service, training, research, and advocacy, in accordance with the contemporary teaching contained in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life of the late Pope John Paul II and reiterated in the first Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est(God is Love)).

So, let’s call a spade a spade and be clear about who we are quoting in the paper – not just selecting any only Jo Blogs that provides and an opposing voice.

Penny Wong is also a hot contender for Jerk of the Week with the revised Emissions Trading Scheme which is only just a tiny bit better than the first version and will still achieve very little.

But the winner for this week is the Victorian Police for this email warning I received yesterday:

Police will launch a four-day road-safety blitz in Melbourne’s CBD in a bid to reduce the alarming number of collisions involving cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists.

Officers will issue on-the-spot fines to anyone caught breaking the road rules.

Pedestrians who cross the road against a red light will be fined while cyclists who fail to stop at red light will be penalized $227.

The four-day crackdown starts tomorrow (Tuesday 12 May) and police will target city intersections.

Below is a list of rules that Victoria Police most commonly see cyclists breaking:

• Cyclists must not ride their bike on the footpath unless aged under 12 years old. The only exception to this is if the footpath is a designated bike path.
• Cyclists cannot ride their bike across a pedestrian crossing. To cross the road at a pedestrian crossing they must get off their bike and push it across the road.
• Cyclists must stop at red lights.
• If there is a no-through road such as Bourke Street Mall, cyclists are not allowed to enter. To enter the area cyclists are required to get off their bike and push it.
• Cyclists must wear a helmet at all times.
• Cyclists cannot ride their bike on a tram track.
• Cyclists must obey all speed limits.
• Cyclists must have a bell on their bike at all times.

Seriously, have you run out of coffee and biscuits down at the Police station and need to make a few hundred dollars. How does this initiative help anyone?

I don’t have a bell on my bike, I’ve never had a bell on my bike, I don’t have a basket on the handlebars either. This is punitive, unnecessary and not particularly helpful.

Victoria Police, you are Jerk of the Week.

Take this:

(Sorry about the lack of regularly with Jerk of the Week, I know there wasn’t one yesterday and I know that I usually do them on Wednesdays. I make no excuse and just say: It’s my blog. Deal.)

There are lots of contenders for Jerk of the Week this week. Let’s take a quick look around.

Rudd, for saying that he opposed civil unions because marriage was between a man and a woman.

Swine Flu also seems to be an obvious contender.

I’m tempted to make it ticket inspectors again as I’m still pissed off.

Then there is John Holland who is sacking workers for not taking a shit pay deal then shipping in Scab Labour.

Not to mention the driver that has walked free after killing a motorcyclist while tuning the radio.

But the winner is Viacom (this one’s for you RXS) for not letting you watch the Daily Show from outside the US. Why? It’s extraordinarily dumb and symptomatic of how stupid big Hollywood’s approach to Intellectual Property is. If you want people to stop ‘stealing’ your programs, then stop making it so difficult to legally obtain them!

Viacom, you are: Jerk of the Week!

So, I get on the tram this morning at 7:30 am. I don’t have any change and the local post office, my nearest ticket outlet, doesn’t open until 8. I don’t have enough change, because you need nearly $6 for a daily and I rarely have that much change on me. I used to carry 10 x 2hr tickets with me but as I ride my bike these days I’ve stopped doing that as I won’t use the ticket up for 6 months by which point it has fallen apart.

Anxious about getting a fine, I keep an eye on who is getting on the tram. But sure enough, as I get into the city the person sitting next to me turns out to be an undercover ticket inspector. Son of a bitch.

Here are some reasons why this is shit:

1. 1. 9 times out of 10 I buy a ticket
2. 2. It was physically impossible for me to buy a ticket as I had no change and the place I can buy a ticket from was closed.
3. 3. When I told the ticket inspector this she told me I should have had the foresight to ensure I had enough change on me.
4. 4. Isn’t is supposed to be convenient so people use it? ie you shouldn’t need that level of foresight to get on the tram.
5. 5. a Ticket is nearly $6 it is unrealistic to be expected to have this much change on you
6. 6. the ticket is WAY too expensive
7. 7. the fines are disproportionate. Fines for speeding are about the same amount but I’m not putting anyone’s life in danger by not buying a fucking tram ticket.
8. 8. fuck you

I asked the ticket inspector why she would do a job like this and how she slept at night. Apparently she sleeps quite well, but she does ride for free as a ticket inspector so there you go. Although apparently, in her last job, she always ensured she bough a ticket. What an angel, no wonder she sleeps so well.

Anyway. Tram ticket inspectors of Melbourne, you are: Jerk of the Week.

Suck shit Mel, you right wing, homophobic anti-Semitic ‘almost Australian’.

I hope your ex-wife takes half, including the rights to Mad Max, Blade Runner and all the Lethal Weapon movies.

Don’t you hate it when the actors in the movies you love turn out to be dickheads.

Mel Gibson, you are: Jerk of the Week primarily because you were once likable.

By and large, I think it’s a good thing that there are high court challenges to the actions of the Government. Yet another form of accountability. If they are contravening the constitution then they should be challenged on it and I applaud the initiative of one academic to do so. There’s not enough activism in academia these days.

But seriously, Bryan Pape, even if I do think that the ‘stimulus package’ is based on the backwards logic that go us here in the first place, don’t stand between me and $950 (or is it $900 these days). I’m a little hard up at the moment. I promise to use the money to pay off debt rather than save it.

Thank you Kevin for giving me money.

Bryan Pape, you are Jerk of the Week*

*NB This is the most tongue in cheek Jerk of the Week I’ve done.

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a greenie so it stands to reason that have an intense dislike for Gunns hardwired into my brain.

Last week I got this news: “A MULTI-MILLION dollar claim by Gunns Limited against the Wilderness Society has collapsed after four years, with the timber giant ordered to pay the society $350,000 in legal costs.”

Suck shit Gunns, and to add insult to injury, you are: Jerk of the Week!

Steve Fielding is actually more than a Jerk, he’s a massive fucken idiot. For the second time in a week he voted against the electoral reform bill which would reduce the threshold on donation declaration from $10,500 to $1,000.

There is no excuse for it (and his excuse is just weird). All he is doing is allowing our political systems to be massively corruptible.

I’ve written to him about this, although I didn’t call him a massive fucken idiot in my email.

Fielding, you haven’t got much longer in the Senate and I’ll do a dance the day you are voted out. So Fielding, you are this weeks: JERK OF THE WEEK!

In an age characterised buy the dual crises of Climate Change and Peak Oil to suggest building another international airport defies logic.

Not only is international air travel a major contributor to carbon pollution – and something that should be covered under the Carbon Trading Bill – but it will be priced out of the market for most middle income people sooner rather than later due to rising oil prices.

So for some seriously backward thinking Lindsay Fox and the Linfox team are Jerk of the Week!

(NB For similar reasons Penny Wong nearly took out the honors this week – the Carbon Trading Bill is a huge joke)