The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003 is very clear here, you cannot take detrimental action against a person who has made, or intends to make a disclosure [14. (2) (a)] . Nor can they incite another person to commit that offence [14. (2) (b)] as a $24,000 fine or 2 years imprisonment is a pretty big deterrent [14 (1)]. 

Ok, so where does that leave individuals seeking to make a disclosure? Well, proceedings in tort under subsection (1) may be undertaken against the perpetrator of an act of victimisation. Proceedings may be dealt with under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 under Section 67 of the Act. They need to be careful here, a tort is a civil wrong and the $24,000 could indeed be the cheap option for some of them. 

Right, so individuals need to be calm here and document everything, Section 8. (2) states that a proper authority may refuse to investigate or discontinue an investigation if it is considered that (a) the matter is trivial or (b) the disclosure is vexatious or frivolous and this would be their most likely strategy. Documentation is the key to their survival here, if every action is documented, it is defendable – including timelines. 

Individuals should be very careful here, a person purporting to be a disclosure of public interest information knowing it to be false or reckless also commits a crime and faces a $12,000 fine or 1 year imprisonment. So, they need to ensure they are not looking to make a misleading statement, or one that can be dismissed as frivolous or vexatious.  

Regardless, the last thing they would want is proceedings in the Equal Opportunity Commission to test this defense where all the news outlets are in attendance and this issue is played out in a public forum on the record. Of course that’s not going to happen as I am not going to take them there as despite their shortcomings, I see them as a rational negotiator. 

We were looking to head to the Italian restaurant next door, I had been looking at this Indian restaurant for a while now but my parents prefer the safe option of Italian food. That being said, I really like this Italian restaurant, so I have no complaints. We were looking to head to the Italian restaurant next door, I had been looking at this Indian restaurant for a while now but my parents prefer the safe option of Italian food. That being said, I really like this Italian restaurant, so I have no complaints.

So on arrival, the Italian restaurant is closed and the Indian restaurant is open, so here is my chance. My mother is with us, this will complicate matters, but this will still work. The restaurant is totally empty, this is a concern, we are the only ones there, but it is still early so we will get a seat.

My mother wanted nothing hot whatsoever, ok, so the vindaloo is out. The waitress really helped us with our concerns, she put some mind dishes forward. I saw the standard fares of rogan josh, korma and vindaloo and wasn’t all that interested. I had all that before, so I was looking for something a little different.

I spoke to the waitress and asked her for her recommendations; for me, she recommended the methi gosht and this was an excellent choice. The waitress pretty much looked after my mother, she is on a walking frame so doesn’t get around very fast anymore. The effort alone of the waitress was a reason to return; well, that and the food was pretty special too.

My post on cognitive bias, more specifically, the Dunning-Krueger effect certainly created a stir where I work. For the record, I was never brought into the office to explain my words, nor was I requested to take the post down. Why should I? It was factually correct and balanced.

Since I never mentioned the institution, it is a fair assumption that they are cyber-trolling me. Naturally, I know all this and play their silly little game. I push right to the limit, but don’t give them an actual reason to sanction me. What it did do was force the manager to make a statement. Prior to that, it was a known quantity based on a series of unofficial leaks. It is either confidential or it is announced, it cannot be both. This is a humiliating action required for a humiliating situation that they caused. 

Naturally, the crony club had been briefed, even those not directly connected had been consulted. What a joke, the very people that walked us into this mess had been informed, they knew. They are not the people to lead us out of this mess, they don’t have developed a coherent plan, we are just seeing more of the same. What we are seeing is more failed ideas and poor execution, just another failure coming. 

The people required to provide the leadership to navigate the team through this debacle had intentionally been kept uninformed. They believed they knew better than the combined knowledge of those involved – actual practice would tend to indicate otherwise. So, now we watch them fumble around and fuck up. This is an impressive display of incompetence at multiple levels of the organisation, the incompetence is embedded throughout our division and we are the ones put under pressure. We pay for their incompetence – fantastic.

I am spending time thinking about defensive strategies with the Chinese presence in the South China Sea and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One area I am looking at is the first and second island chains, proposed by former diplomat and Republican John Foster Dulles during the Korean war, the strategy was to surround the Soviet Union and China with naval bases to project power.

So I am looking at the Australian defensive island chain consisting of the main Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, the Sunda islands, Timor-Leste, West Papua and Papua New Guinea. The islands of Kalimantan and Sulawesi provide further depth to the defensive island chain creating bottlenecks for approaching naval vessels. Naval vessels have to navigate chokepoints between the islands, this limits approaches from the north.

Australia has good relations with Indonesia, we have military cooperation and economic ties. Furthermore, Indonesia’s enhanced ability to defend itself also means they will not allow aggressive advances through its territory. This will be a naval manoeuvre, Australian air defences in the north of the country will pick off surface ships transiting through the Indonesian archipelago, so this would be a poor strategy.

Let us be under no illusions here, the threat to Australia is China, there is no other threat to Australian security. China now has assets in the South China Sea including runways and radar arrays on multiple islands. Will China attack Australia outright? Unlikely, however, with Taiwan under threat, the potential for the US and Australia to become involved is greatly heightened and an invasion scenario is now not out of the question.

An attack from the north is fraught with danger, this would then require attacks from the eastern and western flanks. As the majority of the population is based on the east coast, the Chinese security pact with the Solomon Islands is of grave concern, this could now become a spy station, naval base and logistical resupply base that endangers Australia.

This is highly concerning as merchant shipping passes through this chokepoint for the east coast, therefore, the first offensive target for the Australian military will be the Solomon Islands, they will have to knock out all their infrastructure. Indeed, they will flatten the islands. Whilst Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has stated there will be no Chinese military bases on the Solomon Islands, pretty much everyone except Sogavare himself knows this is not the case.

The north west has Christmas Island, Cocos and Keeling Islands with the Cocos Islands utilised as a naval replenishment site, an air force forward operating base, and radar surveillance site. This will prevent a force attacking the country from the north west, whilst the population is sparse, there are more potential landing sites on the west coast that will be unimpeded. However, logistic considerations and long travel times to major centres is an issue.

The harbour facilities that could be constructed on Cocos Island would have far greater potential than Christmas Island. There is a runway already, the island resembles Diego Garcia further west in the Indian Ocean operated by the US Air Force with B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers and B-52H Stratofortress bombers operating from the island. Cocos Island has the potential to operate early warning and surveillance aircraft routinely along with fighter aircraft as required.

One of my favourite timepieces in my rotation is the TAG Heuer Aquaracer reference WAY211C.BA0928, this is the 41 mm case diameter. There is a 43 mm case version as well, I prefer the 41 mm. This is unusual for me as I usually prefer a larger case without going too far oversize as some of the modern styles are now courting. 

The applied index markers on the horizontal streaked dial are bold, they have some of the best lume I have in my dive watches. The straight index markers ensure a sharp dial design, there isn’t too much writing on the dial, the white TAG Heuer logo works with the Aquaracer name above the hands pivot point.

The coloured text below the hand pivot point adds a dimension to the dial with the colour matching the second hand pointer colour. The lume indicator and pointer on the second hand matches the dial text colour, for my tastes, the orange 41 mm colour style is the defining feature. Sure, I like the horizontal streaking of the dial, the orange contrasts the blue streaked dial.

I like the bracelet; however, I know TAG Heuer went cheap on the pin and collar retainer when they should have used a screw type system. This is the area where TAG Heuer let themselves down, they should be using a screw retaining system. Both Oris and Omega use screw type systems, these are two of TAG Heuer’s main competitors. 

Still, there is enough of the Aquaracer to like, they clean up a few areas including getting rid of the plastic spacer securing the movement and they recreated the company. They took a hit in terms of reputation during the 1980s and 1990s, they are slowly rebuilding but they just need to improve in a couple of areas.   

The Ukrainian military is doing surprisingly well considering they are hugely outnumbered in terms of personnel, equipment and technology. Putin should have been right, the Russian military should have marched into Kiev and taken the city in quick time.

The Ukrainian tactics have been sensational, sure, they have suffered losses but for the best part, they have acquitted themselves well. We all know they have been supplied military hardware from major powers such as the US, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Czech Republic, South Korea, Japan, Turkey and Poland to just name a few.

What I am wondering is what military intelligence they are receiving, they have now received heavy artillery and seem to be doing a fantastic job at targeting. I am guessing NATO and the United States are intercepting Russian communications. What we do know is the Russians brought their own mobile phones into the war, Ukrainian authorities worked this out and just shut down Russian phone numbers from their network.

When the Russians worked this out, they started seizing Ukrainian mobile phones from civilians.Ukrainians have reported these seizures to their telco providers and they now intercept these calls for intelligence purposes, they have an idea of troop movements, troop morale, and even troop numbers. The question is, why are the Russians not taking out Ukraine’s telecommunications? I am guessing they are using the network and need it.

What is known is that US Air Force and Royal Air Force aircraft are flying close to Ukraine, they are not entering Ukrainian airspace. The RC-135 is apparently the most tracked aircraft on FlightRadar24.com. The US is flying Blackhawk helicopters in Poland, RQ-4 drones [Global Hawk] are entering Ukrainian airspace and loitering around. I am guessing the US, the UK and NATO are providing high value intelligence to Ukraine and they are targeting Russian assets effectively.

We all have family members we don’t like and my family is no exception. The members of our extended family are conniving, manipulating and display psychotic tendencies. Whist this is normal, when we share shared assets, we have to deal with them and communicate in a manner that does not descend into repetitive and baseless fights, name calling, personal attacks and straight out abuse.  

They harassed my father so badly that he decided to hand over negotiations of the family holiday house over to me. For us, this was a good decision as I have been involved in workplace negotiations for a long period and I am experienced in dealing with a manipulative management that do not employ sound management practices, they attempt to erect obstacles in the path of people trying to get things done. 

So when I sent them correspondence informing them of the change of communication status, I made sure I sent them a pretty clear message. Or so I thought, I did not think there was any ambiguity with my statement, yet they thought they could try to manipulate me anyway, but as they found out, this wasn’t going to work if they kept trying this on – the relationship was going to deteriorate.  

I work with four basic principles, these are:

1. Deal only in facts.
2. No emotions.
3. Never get personal.
4. Send a clear and concise message.

So this is where we find ourselves, we have inherited an extended family holiday house so I am forced to deal with these arseholes. The psychological problems they bring to the relationship really offer no solutions, they don’t have a lot to offer but anyone who is unfortunate enough to have to deal with them all feel the same.

One of the funniest things I hear about is non-performers advancing in their position without actually being employed in a higher duties role. These are the minions who are promised promotions without actually meeting merit selection criteria, it is a very unusual way to advance your career, you are the person that says yes to everyone. 

Even better is when these minions take pay cuts for honorary positions that do not carry any real prospects. They work longer hours for less money, they do not qualify for higher duties allowances, they can’t progress, they lack the credentials, the ability and the knowledge. In a government role, merit selection is required, so anyone promoted without meeting merit selection criteria is a crony. This is a very unusual way to improve their career prospects. 

If you don’t meet the formal selection criteria, you don’t undertake a formal assessment against defined selection criteria by a selection panel, then you are a crony. This is why there are so many acting positions in government. I wonder why people work longer hours for less financial rewards, maybe the promise of better prospects in the future? Unlikely, it looks like they are out of career options. 

The Nomos Club 38 Reference 736 is an interesting timepiece for me, I see this as a dress watch, but with the dual numbers as opposed to the base index markers of a standard bauhaus dial.

The 36 mm stainless steel case is a decent size for most tastes, 40 mm is too large for a dress watch, even for my 8 inch wrists. This is not a true dress watch, the dial is more sports style, but this is not a sports watch with 10 bar water resistance and a velour leather strap. The Nomos Club 38 somehow falls in between a sports and dress watch, this is what makes this style interesting.

The dial with a mix of Roman and Arabic numerals works with grey superluminova, some argue it is cluttered just as the Rolex Air King Reference 116900, I don’t think so. I like this style, it is not the standard Nomos bauhaus design that Nomos has become known for. I think this is supposed to be a fun watch, interesting colours, fun dial and no crown guard.

The domed sapphire crystal is scratch resistant, this is what you would expect with a luxury watch. The rhodium-plated baton hands have a superluminova inlay in white luminescence for low light situations. The petite second hand is neon orange, it offers good balance to the dial. For me, this is a fun dial, Nomos is chasing a slightly different consumer here, they are trying to expand their line without radical changes.

The in-house Alpha manual winding movement has 17 jewels, a power reserve of 43 hours and is immaculately finished. Nomos was originally known for their hand-wound movements, now automatic movements are finding their way into Nomos timepieces, the Reference 736 retains the hand-wound movement. I like the Nomos Club 38, they are hard to find in Perth but I would look to purchase one at a boutique when I am overseas next.

The second island chain extends from Yokosuka in Japan, through Guam, then through Palau to Papua New Guinea. The defensive theory was espoused by former diplomat and Republican John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State during the Korean war as a means to contain the Soviet Union and China strategically. 

Really, the second island chain is all about Guam, unlike the first island chain, there is plenty of blue water between the islands and the island does not disrupt shipping like the first island chain. With Palau now included in calculations, the prospect of further logistics assets in the region enhances both defensive and offensive prowess. I am betting on a radar installation as Palau is east of Mindanao and south west of Guam 

The US gained the territory in 1898 after victory in the Spanish – American war. The US has maintained an air base on Guam since late world war two after establishing a B-29 airfield to conduct raids on Japanese positions on their way to defeat Japan. The naval base was overrun and lost not long after the Pearl Harbor surprise attack in the second world war before being retaken by the US Marine Corps in 1944. 

.The air base was upgraded during the Korean War with B-36, replaced by B-47 bombers stationed there during that conflict. Anderson air base was active during the Vietnam war, B-52 bombers flew missions from the base after replacing the B-47 bomber fleet in 1964. Anderson was an important base throughout the cold war, the B-52 fleet was an integral facet of the US nuclear deterrence.

As a logistics base, Naval Base Guam and Apra Harbour supports naval assets with a deepwater anchorage and repair facilities. The naval base is an important asset in the western Pacific, a small contingent of marines operate from the base along with the army that shares facilities. The US Army operates defensive missile systems on the island, 

The small island nation of Palau figures largely in US strategy, the site of fierce fighting, there are still Japanese aircraft and shipping wrecks scattered around the islands. Should the US and allies be denied access to the first island chain by China, or even be expelled from the region in the case of all out war. The second island chain is not necessarily defensive, this may be the forward operating bases. 

I am intrigued to learn what is planned for Palau, radar is pretty much absolute, I am wondering if naval logistics is planned, if the US Army is going to operate missile defence systems or maybe an offensive missile system is planned. They may be planning anti-ship missile batteries due to the location between the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Guam – this is a less strategic location, but I am guessing a secondary support base.