22 May 2011

The lights are on...

| johnboy
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In the Sun Herald RiotACT favourite Jessica Wright has returned with a complaint about Government departments leaving their lights on at night.

The Sun-Herald observed the federal departments of Environment, Treasury, and Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Australian Federal Police building in Canberra ablaze with light each night last week.

An account manager for energy provider Synergy estimated it took 6 million kilowatt hours of power a year to run each building and the cost to taxpayers of keeping them running at night would ”run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even in reduced power mode”.

How hard would it really be to automate turning the lights down where they aren’t needed?

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She’s at-it again. This time, an article in the Sun Herald, again, about the Water Commission having expensive restaurant meals. I guess it’s hard to dine out in posh restaurants in this town without Jessica Wright knowing about it… oddly though, although she actually mentions Waters Edge in the story, nowhere does it mention her past association with the restaurant, or her involvement in the industry.

And the picture leading the story is of Musillion’s other main restaurant, Courgette. Accidental, I’m sure.

scorpio63 said :

Imaginethat – public servants earn triple the amount and more on average enjoying fully airconditioned and heated offices than thousands of others not working in the public service battling on low incomes.

Overtime? Please!! Most public servants fly out of the public service buildings in Civic at 5pm after a physically and emotionally draining hard day.

Work in both sectors and know without a doubt which I would prefer.

Lol. If the conditions are as glamourous as you’ve said, why aren’t you working in the APS, rather than bitching about it?

scorpio63 said :

Imaginethat – public servants earn triple the amount and more on average enjoying fully airconditioned and heated offices than thousands of others not working in the public service battling on low incomes.

Overtime? Please!! Most public servants fly out of the public service buildings in Civic at 5pm after a physically and emotionally draining hard day.

Work in both sectors and know without a doubt which I would prefer.

Scorpio, Scorpio, Scorpio ………….. The minimum wage sets down that your first comment is incorrect based on a full time wage. While I am earning more than I would in my trade it is certainly not triple.

Also, on the overtime front, I am sitting here at 4:19 typing this ready to fly to Melbourne to do a 13 hour day. I have a week of this in front of me with no extra compensation for being away from my family.

Facts buddy, get them straight.

Imaginethat – public servants earn triple the amount and more on average enjoying fully airconditioned and heated offices than thousands of others not working in the public service battling on low incomes.

Overtime? Please!! Most public servants fly out of the public service buildings in Civic at 5pm after a physically and emotionally draining hard day.

Work in both sectors and know without a doubt which I would prefer.

Anna Key said :

but did you know my department has fridges that public servants use to put their lunch, milk and cans of soft drink. And this is all at taxpayers expense

And I’ll bet you leave that fridge running all day and night, don’t you? You selfish, selfish bastards.

Anna

Just don’t tip Jess off about the microwaves, or there’ll have to be a Senate inquiry. 🙂

You might mock Jessica, but did you know my department has fridges that public servants use to put their lunch, milk and cans of soft drink. And this is all at taxpayers expense

When I worked at PM&C there were people there at all hours, 7 days a week. My division head was an insomniac who would sometimes come in at 3 or 4 in the morning. At that time the lights went into a ‘low light’ default at 6 or 7pm, and you had to manually reboot them in your area every hour for full service. I’m guessing that something similar applies in other agencies.

There were also security people and cleaners working throughout the night.

Egg-beater award to Jessica for this one.

Pommy bastard3:09 pm 22 May 11

Some of us would love to go home at five, turning the lights off after us….

Gee, her career has really taken off in leaps and bounds if that is the sort of story she’s still churning out.

“Next week, Jessica Wright tackles the issue of Commonwealth cars being left idling outside Parliament House while the drivers await their masters. It is estimated that this alone could be costing taxpayers billions of dollars each week.”

To give a true picture of government wastage versus saving, it might be interesting if our dedicated media guesstimated the value of all unpaid overtime the tax payer receives from public servants outside of business hours, and offset these ‘saving’s against the energy ‘wastage’ when doing their sums.

However if the call is for a blanket ban on lights and monitors after regular business hours, I am sure a lot of public servants would be pretty happy with the extra time they could spend having a life.

If that was the worst example of “lights ablaze” they could find, it is storm/teacup territory…

The photo they show has reduced lighting on as opposed to “ablaze with light”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they set up the photographer to go around just as the guards did their rounds.

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