Source: The Sunday Mail, February 12, 2012

IT'S the age-old question - which came first, the chicken or the egg? Queensland's 650,000 school students are now unlikely to be given the chance to find out after a recent crackdown was ordered on egg hatching in classrooms.

In a decision criticised for tying schools up in more red tape, teachers must now submit a 15-page application form before their students can watch chickens hatch from eggs in an incubator.

Teachers are now saying the paperwork is too time-consuming and they won't bother with the once-popular classroom activity.

The application form is the same one used to gain approval to dissect rats and toads in school laboratories.

The ruling that books and chooks don't mix has led to the cancellation of dozens of hatching kit orders after some Catholic schools booked incubators in time for Easter before realising they now needed formal approval from the Queensland Schools Animal Ethics Committee.

Exasperated owners of hatching kit businesses fear at least 1000 unwanted embryo eggs that had been pre-ordered must now be destroyed.

Ann Richardson of Henny Penny Hatching said schools had been threatened with fines of more than $30,000 if they hatched eggs in the classroom without formal approvals, which could take six months.

"Teachers are just finding it too hard," she said. "There was no negotiation. We don't know what to do."

One teacher wrote to Ms Richardson in dismay at the decision, saying bean plants would prove a poor substitute for her life-cycle classes.

Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg said the paperwork burden had made it "virtually impossible" for teachers to continue the activity.

"It is really a case of bureaucracy and red tape being imposed on the education of our children to their detriment," he said.

"Any animal, whether at home or school, should be treated humanely, but our children have a right to learn about the natural world."

Teachers were previously able to conduct chicken hatching in schools without formal permission.

But Animal Ethics Committee project officer Brad McConachie said that has changed after advice from the State Government that poultry programs in schools needed formal approval by the committee under the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 code of practice.

An Education Queensland spokeswoman said chicken hatching was complex and the welfare of the animals needed to be taken seriously.

Bollier Park, a prized 973ha cattle estate, was purchased by the Government for $25.3 million in 2007.

Property experts say it would fetch between $13-16 million in current conditions.

In November, The Courier-Mail revealed the value of the remaining 472 Mary Valley government-owned properties had slumped from $449.5 million to $225 million. The Office of the Coordinator-General, responsible for the long-term management and sale of the estates, is pushing on with a sell-off despite a poor start.

Only two properties have sold - at a combined loss of $253,000.

A spokesman for the Coordinator-General said a dozen - including Bollier Park - would go on the market in coming months.

by: Peter Hall From: The Courier-Mail January 16, 2012

THE Bligh government has been caught out in yet another embarrassing IT gaffe – this time involving the Queensland Treasury Corporation which has blown another $15 million of taxpayers’ money on dumped finance platforms.

LNP Shadow Minister for Information and Communication Technology Ros Bates said the revelation QTC axed IT company Temenos’ $7.5 million contract and dumped a similar amount on internal work that won’t continue, proved Labor’s IT disasters were not just confined to the Health department.

 “This latest costly IT gaffe comes on top of the recent revelation Labor has wasted $46 million on its inter-departmental email system costing $23,000 per user, as well as the problem-plagued OneSchool roll-out and the long running health payroll debacle costing more than $220 million to fix.

“Once again we are seeing evidence that major IT projects have cost Queensland taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more than they should have because of the incompetence of this tired, 20 year old Labor Government.

“Labor just can’t get IT basics right and Queensland taxpayers are paying the price,” said Ms Bates.