Australian Yobbos

It is with great sorrow that I have to inform the general public that the Australian yobbo has extended its territory from pubs, football fields, backyard BBQ's and has invaded the field of politics.

This is evident in the behaviour of certain yobbo politicians during Question Time in federal parliament, where a cut-out cardboard replica of the Prime Minister was passed around the house.

The yobbos continued to rampage outside parliament by harassing members of the press, and so I'm told, any female they could see.

These non-repentant yobbos have vowed to continue their antics into the future.

Like the cane toads that have grown longer legs as they invaded more territory, so have the Australian yobbos changed their appearance.

They no longer are only found wearing singlets, stubbie shorts and thongs. Some of these wily beasts now wear suits, but their yobbo origins are plain for all to see when they open their mouths and talk.

I have included some statements that have been attributed to the members of this group:

• "John Howard did more for indigenous people than any other prime minister,"
• [On Wilson Tuckey] "He is a man who quite rightly fights for the things he believes in and if, from time to time, this minister goes over the top in a cause in which he believes, that is his nature, that is the nature of the man, that is the way this fine Australian operates,"
• "We ... made a mistake in November 2006 when we introduced Work Choices and most Australians were not able to understand why we were doing it,''
• Mr Turnbull said that giving up the allowance from tax payers would be a poor decision, and would put in question his position as an MP. "I cannot think of anything which would be worse for our democracy,"
• [Tuckey on the 2008 Parliament opening ceremony] "I'm horrified and concerned that we're going to turn the Parliament of Australia into a dance parlour,"
• "I will serve in whatever capacity I can make a positive contribution."

As we have been dealing with the invasion of cane toads, fire ants, equine flu we have taken our eyes of this home grown menace to peace and sanity. People of Australia we must act.

We must send a clear message to these yobbos and yobbettes (sometimes known as sheilas) that we are not pleased, and try to send them back to the jungle where they belong or at least devise some remedial help to try and rehabilitate these poor unfortunate creatures.

If that fails the only solution may be to use the same solution that this group has imposed on the indigenous people of Australia; "special treatment".
For more information on the habits and character of yobbos I refer you to the song in the Music from the North Coast sidebar, The Great Australian Yobbo.

North Coast Area Health Service background checks on medical practitioners need to be reviewed

When the Premier stood before the NSW Parliament yesterday and apologised for the abject failure to adequately check the background and credentials of one Bega medical practioner, he was speaking to a larger problem and one which affects rural/regional areas.

On the same day The Northern Star reported that "FORMER Lismore obstetrician Roman Hasil has had his medical registration in NSW and Queensland suspended after claims of lies, violence and fraud.
Dr Hasil worked at Lismore Base Hospital from 2001 to 2005 but left under a cloud after an investigation found he fiddled the books to claim money he was not entitled to, something the Czech-born and trained doctor denies.
Now a New Zealand Government investigation has revealed Dr Hasil lied about a criminal conviction and jail term in Singapore for domestic violence; was forced from a hospital in Victoria and suspended in New Zealand for drinking while on call; and botched about a quarter of the sterilisation procedures he performed on women while working at New Zealand's Wanganui Hospital."

The NSW Minister for Health, the Dept. of Health and North Coast Area Health Service need to get their act together, and conduct an urgent review of the level of supporting documentation required from doctors applying for hospital positions or privileges and the parameters of background checks on these applicants.
North Coast residents deserve a tangible assurance that due diligence is in place to protect their health and wellbeing.

Iemma squibs it on political donations

Morris Iemma managed to look sincere yesterday as he solemnly averred that there was no point in banning developers from making political donations in New South Wales unless the ban was imposed nationally.

"It is impossible to look at campaign caps, or banning a specific type of donor, unless laws are consistent at a national level," he said.

Now run that by me again. There is no point in stopping a source of corruption here unless it is stopped everywhere?

Oh, Morrie - just how simple do you think we are mate! A child could point out the flaw in that argument.

The BBC on New South Wales, Sydney, Wollongong and those 'Mezzo Sopranos'

This week the UK Beeb whaled into the international reputation of New South Wales and its government.

The serve was well-deserved. Especially in light of the Iemma Government's current push to legislate away local community input into development proposals and environmental and rezoning issues, as well as the blatant land grab on the NSW North Coast.

 

"Sleaze allegations

Certainly, there is the whiff of decay. Alarmed by the level of complacency, the Sydney Morning Herald noted recently: "No law says Sydney must be Australia's premier city. It will only retain its pre-eminent position if it is well planned, well managed and regularly upgraded. That is not happening now."

Now, the beleaguered Labor-controlled New South Wales government is wallowing in sleaze allegations, and stands accused of mendacity as well as mediocrity.
Much of the muck has been excavated from a made-for-the-tabloids sex scandal involving a town planner in Wollongong, a city to the south of Sydney which up until now has been better known for its seaside steelworks rather than its bedroom fireworks.

Were it not such a mouthful, it would be tempting to call it "Wollongongate". And yes, you did read that right: sex and town planning did just feature in the same sentence.------

The problem for the New South Wales government is that five ministers have links with key figures in this imbroglio, either directly or indirectly. Because some of them have Italian-sounding names, they have been dubbed "the Mezzo Sopranos".

The scandal has also shone a spotlight on the massive political donations from property developers to the two major parties.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, developers gave $A13,180,793 ($12m; £6m) to the New South Wales Labor party between 1998 and 2007, and $A8.2m ($7.6m; £3.8m) to the Liberal party over the same period.

Sydney has been disfigured over the past 20 years or so by some determinedly cheap and nasty developments. Many are naturally asking: is this the reason why?"

Aussie blogosphere typing and talking in 2008

NEILSEN/NETRATINGS

	Australia: Average Web Usage Month of January 2008 Home Panel   Sessions/Visits Per Person 38 Domains Visited Per Person 66 PC Time Per Person 35:55:25 Duration of a Web Page Viewed 00:00:52 Active Digital Media Universe 11,147,323 Current Digital Media Universe Estimate 14,787,181

 

Goggle Trends result for 2008 using search terms "kevin rudd" and "rudd government"

 

At least 11 million Australians are regular internet users and it seems that, in comparison to the global internet, local users spend slightly more time online per month on average than the rest of the world, visit fewer domains but visit more often, and spend longer on each web page.

Some reports indicate that Australians have created around 2 million blog sites.
Many of us are also likely to look up Kevin Rudd on Google.

On the NSW North Coast there are conservatively at least 80,000 people who can access the internet each day at home, work or by a public access site. 

All of which will make it interesting to monitor the progress of that new wiki Oz Ideas  (set up as an alternative forum to the Rudd Government's Australia 2020 Summit).

Sick to the back teeth: Iemma. Ditto: NSW voters

On the back of recent polling showing the lowest approval rating for a state leader in a decade, NSW Premier Morris Iemma is yelling about possible libel action and saying that he is sick to the back teeth with allegations of collusion between the development sector and government ministers.

Morrie isn't the only one who is fed up.

New South Wales voters feel much the same way about the feeble response to the problem over the years by both Labor and the Coalition.

 

Not since the Askin era have we seen such naked corruption at state and local government level.

Indeed, many of the development companies mentioned unfavourably in various commissions and inquiries from that period are still close to the NSW Government and some are operating on the NSW North Coast today.

Including one group which was repeatedly mentioned during investigations into the 1975 disappearance and murder of Juanita Neilsen during community resistance to the redevelopment of Victoria Street, Kings Cross. [Thanks to Clarencegirl for pointing me in the right direction here]

 

It's all there on the public record somewhere if you really want to look, Morrie.

No-one is looking after the interests of coastal towns anymore, least of all the NSW Government, and no hissy fit in front of the cameras will make this disgraceful state of affairs go away.

Pollies spend up big on travel before leaving office

The Canberra Times (27/02/2008) details the extent to which our federal politicians spent up on overseas travel in the first half of the 2007 election year.

The Times reported:

Pollies spend up big on travel before leaving office

They were on the way out but they went up, up and away at our expense first.

Retiring politicians fill nine of the top 11 places of backbenchers with the heaviest use of taxpayer-funded overseas travel for the first half of the 2007 election year, according to Department of Finance figures.

Those leaving Parliament (seven MPs and two senators, who do not go until June 30 this year) shared in a total of more than $2.5million spent by federal politicians on overseas travel between January 1 and June 30, 2007.

Leading the retirees' pack (five Coalition, three Labor and one Democrat) was the former Liberal minister Senator Kay Patterson at $37,082.24.

Then came Labor's Ann Corcoran, already rolled for preselection for the safe Melbourne seat of Isaacs when she racked up $30,659.12.

She was followed by Liberal Kay Elson, who retired from the Queensland seat of Forde, at $28,540.14, ahead of NSW National Ian Causley, at $28,382.24. Mr Causley was deputy speaker in the last parliament.


The 13 government front-benchers totalled $1,663,673.74, well over half the $2,568,277.31 spent by all 226 federal Members and senators.

The portfolios that commanded that their ministers travel led the way, with former foreign minister Alexander Downer at $380,853.64, followed by former trade minister Warren Truss at $305,773.66, former prime minister John Howard at $238,809.55 and former defence minister Brendan Nelson at $222,056.04.

Read the report at:
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/articles/1191186.html?src=topstories

What do I say to Iemma's plan to privatise NSW electricity supplies?

NO!

That loud enough for you, Mr. Iemma? Get the picture yet?

Penny Wong rolls up her sleeves and gets on with the job

The new Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, is doing what the Howard Government failed to do over a decade. She has announced that the Commonwealth has begun a $50 million buy-back of water licenses in the Murray Darling Basin in order to return some environmental flow to this significant river system.

The move doesn't really go far enough but it's a good start.

Australia is going to have to face the fact that it needs to reduce the total number of irrigated farms, in order to ensure future national water security. Even if it means that the next couple of decades will see a reduced variety of vegetables and fruit on offer in the market place while the agricultural sector adjusts.

This new Federal Government can sometimes irritate and disappoint, but it's moments like these when it becomes clear exactly why the Australian electorate preferred Labor over the Coalition.

So Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt can say; "The defining failure of the first 100 days of the Rudd Government has been their inaction on the Murray," but he is patently whistling in the wind. 

I just know that the 2020 Summit will bomb - Rudd's invited Tim Costello!

For most of us regional 'mushrooms' the Australia 2020 Summit suddenly appeared on the horizon trailing wisps of the 2001 Australia 2020: Foresight for our Future research paper.

The summit sounded like a good idea when it was first announced, but its obvious elitism was troubling.

The death knell for summit credibility came at the beginning of the week for me, when Kevin Rudd announced the steering committee members who will issue invitations for the 10 topic discussions and also chair the working groups.

 

Yeah, there he was - Tim Costello of World Vision fame. The meister of self-promotion.

A man renown on the NSW North Coast for his verbosity and ego.

A man who in the early 2000s, acting as co-facilitator at a Maclean community meeting, alternatively insulted and patronised. 

A WASP who so dominated the meeting time that he left only 15 minutes for the entire community to put its views and discuss issues.

Then after milking the event for every drop of media coverage he b*ggered off back home, leaving a community asking why it had bothered to spend a night with Tim and Chris.

So strike off 2020 achieving anything except hot air and a plethora of buzz words when it comes to the topic on "strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion".

 

Oh and by the way, our Kev is allowing the unwashed masses 2 pages per topic in any not-so-eagerly-awaited submissions.

Why should we on the NSW North Coast bother? It's obvious we'd be talking to a corporatised brick wall surrounding a set of 'solutions' decided weeks, months or even years ago.

Kevin Andrews proves just how dumb the Libs are

In The Herald Sun yesterday Kevin Andrews opens his mouth to give us all these pearls in an effort to justify former Howard Government industrial relations law, WorkChoices.

Thereby demonstrating that he is politically out to lunch as well as out of government.

• JOHN Howard wanted to limit unfair dismissal laws to businesses with more than 200 employees and abolish all minimum wage classifications.
• Coalition MPs were also collectively blind to the political danger of a policy that potentially tore away entitlements.
• On the day the package was presented to the joint party room meeting, Mr Andrews received a standing ovation.
• Mr Andrews said he was not trying to blame the former PM. "(In the end) this was a cabinet decision and we discussed WorkChoices I suspect more than any other piece of legislation that I can recall," he said.
• But other senior Liberals said Mr Howard was blind when it came to WorkChoices, and in the last few months of government would "erupt" if anyone tried to suggest there was still a problem.
• Mr Andrews said some members of cabinet were more determined to push as far as possible on WorkChoices than others.
• The revelations by Mr Andrews suggest Senator Minchin was reflecting the view of the cabinet when he apologised to the HR Nicholls society early in 2006 for the government not going far enough.  

Share in $1,000 by guessing the number of weeks until Brendan Nelson loses Liberal leadership

The Monthly joins the rest of the media scrum in wondering just how long Brendan Nelson can last as Liberal Party and Opposition leader. It currently has an online guessing competition worth up to $1,000.

"Can you rise to the challenge? The Monthly invites predictions on how long Brendan Nelson's leadership of the Opposition will last, before being ended by any event - such as his elevation to prime minister, his resignation, or a party decision. In the second part of the question, The Monthly asks who you think will be Nelson's successor as leader of the Opposition.

Respondents who correctly forecast the answers to both parts of the question will share in $1000 cash. (A note to those who presume that the public mood can't shift dramatically: consider the unlikely ascensions of Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Howard.)"

Enter the competition here.

 

A Crikey moment

www.crikey.com.au

Why should there be Higgins and Mayo by-elections this year?

Rumour is going strong (fuelled by comments from Andrew Robb) that the Liberal Party is pressuring Peter Costello and Alexander Downer to resign in the second half of 2008 so that by-elections for their seats can be called.

What a bl**dy hide. The Higgins and Mayo electorates voted these pollies in on a three-year implied contract and now the party machine wants their resignations.

Have a little decency fellas - at least wait until mid next year so we can all pretend that voters still decide federal election outcomes in Australia.

feral poodle

The feral poodle is getting on, I've had her for twelve years and she was at least two years old when she arrived into our family.

Her puppy-hood was not the best; she had suffered starvation and beatings, just skin, bones and mattered hair when she arrived here. This left a lasting legacy; she would flinch if anyone picked up a stick or yelled since she is not by nature a shy dog it is out of character.

She was a handy cattle dog till her blindness got the better of her two years ago, we discovery that her sight was failing when we were rounding up some Angus cows and calves. She stood in the paddock and kept barking at this black object in the grass, on closer inspection we found that it was a stump.

Her work ethic is great her eyesight terrible.

Since then she has steadily declined, she is now virtually blind, the arthritis is playing up and she has recurring bladder problems but this has not stopped her from patrolling the house yard, greeting visitors and general dog duties.

She can no long jump into the farm paddock basher so she waits patiently to be lifted in and sits in regal splendour on the front seat.

She was not a dog that I would have usually had on the farm, this woe begotten toy poodle but she has brought great joy to all the family over her many years.

We did the Australian thing and gave her a fair go sure there were problems, have you ever tried to clean a poodle that has rolled in some long dead animal and stinks to high heaven, but the benefits greatly outweighed the disadvantages.

We are all richer for having known her.

For the poodle's point of view see the song It's Hard To Be a Poodle with a Cowboy by Your Side in the Music from the North Coast sidebar.

power companies

I have just received a phone call from the company that provides the electricity to my home; it was a very interesting conversation.

They asked me if I would be interested in paying a premium to run the place on greenpower, sure it would cost me a little bit more in dollar but I would be saving in greenhouse terms.

This interested me so I asked how many kilowatt hours of greenpower do they produce and where are these green clean renewable power generators located. The person I was talking to couldn't answer this question, so I asked if there was some one in the office that could. Silence was the reply.

The next gentleman on the line I assume was the previous person's supervisor.

So I put the same question to him. The reply was rather vague. Some greenpower was being generated, but he gave no definite answer to the question of how much. There was also the inference that some of the money being collected in the greenpower scheme was being used to fund the development of this new generating plants.

So I said does this mean that if I pay the premium that only some of the power is from renewable sources and the rest is for future projects. I didn't receive a convincing answer.

The next question was obvious. If only x kilowatts of renewable are being generated (I still had not found out the figure) how many kilowatts of greenpower was being sold by his company?

He said he had no way of knowing that, so I pointed out that he would have a list of customers that had purchased greenpower and if they were receiving power bills their usage would also be know to the company. If not what sort of company were they running?

The reply was that that was private business information.

So how does the public know if their purchase of greenpower does come from sustainable sources? The company could be selling more greenpower than they produce.

I could see a way out of this dilemma so I asked the company representive how much would the company pay me if I spent around $30,000 to convert my whole enterprise to solar and sent the excess back on the grid. This would save me dollar since the batteries I would need would be far fewer and the company would have genuine greenpower to sell at the premium price.

It seems the company is not interested in these small scale solutions, which is a shame.

So why is the big end of town not interested in small investments like solar panels, backyard tanks or improvement to public rail services, urban rail networks? Is it because such investments can't be captured and controlled by private investors?

A decentralised power generation system would make sense since the more sources of power you have the more options you would have in time of power shortage and many small targets are tempting that a few large ones if you have terrorist leanings.

Anti-whaling Facebook group growing

The New Zealand-based Facebook anti-whaling group F*CK OFF JAPAN... LEAVE THE WHALES ALONE!!!! now has 145,306 members and 5,044 wall posts.

This is an open-membership group which can be found here.

This site lists the online petitions available.

Japan's whaling fleet remains in the Southern Ocean on its annual whale hunt.

 

Liberals rewriting history in an effort to gain distance from former policies

Bereft of any redeeming features and as politically effective as t*ts on a bull, the Liberals now overreach to 'discover' that John Howard was actually in favour of withdrawing troops from Iraq this year.

Pull the other one! Some in the Liberal Party might have privately favoured getting the h*ll out of Iraq, but Howard would probably have fought tooth and nail to keep Australia's combat troops in the Iraq War.

He was in love with the idea of himself as a 'war leader' - it made him feel oh so Churchillian.

Laurie Oakes defends Wayne Swann's economic credibility

Laurie Oakes writing in the Courier Mail comes to the defence of Federal Treasurer Wayne Swann after the halting start in his new portfolio.

 

"Swan has been very energetic and effective in spearing the Howard government over the build-up of inflationary pressures that are causing interest rates to rise.

But Swan has a more pressing concern than undermining the Howard legacy. His central aim is to get Australians to understand that there really is a serious inflationary problem.

He needs to explain the magnitude of the challenge so the community will accept the need for the tough medicine about to be prescribed.

Some of the Opposition's claims in response have been nothing short of ridiculous. We have had Nelson, for example, denying that rising interest rates are "all the fault of inflation". He should try telling the Reserve Bank that.

We have had both Nelson and Turnbull accusing Swan of "talking the economy down" with his warnings about inflation – as though voters should be kept in the dark, mushroom-like, and not informed of economic problems.

And we have had Turnbull's claim that "for a Treasurer to complain about economic challenges is like a fireman complaining about fires".

Firemen, of course, do complain about fires – as they should. They warn people about the danger of fires and conditions likely to lead to a flare-up. And they condemn people who start fires or fail to take proper precautions to prevent them. Swan is behaving like a sensible economic fireman."

 

It seems that Malcolm Turnbull is not as convincing as he would like, or that effective in his attempts to get enough bounce off his exchanges with Swann to see him gain credibility as the leadership contender.

 

Wealthy Aussie pollie's twisted view of the world

Millionaire former merchant banker and Federal Shadow-Treasurer, Malcolm Turnbull, is claiming that he is protecting Australian democracy by taking the parliamentary 'living away from home' allowance while staying at his own $2 million apartment in Canberra.

I kid you not - the media report is here today.

Stephen Conroy gets his ISP 'filtering' report

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, has just received the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) report on proposed censorship at ISP level. 

"This report investigates developments in internet filtering technologies and other safety initiatives to protect consumers, including minors, who access content on the internet. The report was prepared in response to a ministerial direction received in June 2007. ACMA will report annually on its findings for three years. This is the first report."

Not surprisingly the ACMA report points out that the mandatory ISP filtering that Senator Conroy, and his Coalition predecessor, wanted relies on a somewhat simplistic view of the Internet and goes on to list current Australian programs encouraging voluntary filtering by households and businesses.

In the end, this report is nothing more than busy work for bureaucrats, as legislated and regulatory mechanisms are already in place to deal with offensive content.

The Minister's own media release has more than a hint of embarrassment about it when he speaks of "no silver bullets".

It's all a bad dream! MPs who are loathe to let go

This last week Opposition MPs have shown by their behaviour in the parliament that they still see themselves as 'de guvmint'.

 

Member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull is one such, with his blog site still carrying the following at the end of the bio page yesterday;

"Malcolm was elected as the Federal Member for Wentworth at the general election on 9 October, 2004. Malcolm has had a long interest in water policy and water conservation in particular. Malcolm was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water Resources on 30 January 2007 having held the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister since 27 January 2006. Prior to that Malcolm was a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the House of Representatives Standing Committees on Economics, Health and Ageing and Legal and Constitutional Affairs"

 

The Member for Warringah Tony Abbott is another, with his website still carrying this at the bottom of his bio page;

"In January 2001, Tony was promoted to Cabinet as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Following the 2001 election he was appointed Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Leader of the House and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service

Tony was appointed Minister for Health and Ageing on the 7 October 2003."

 

While the Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker is in such deep denial that his bio page stops before his elevation to the Opposition shadow ministry;

"He presently sits on the House of Representatives Standing committee on the Ageing and the House of Representatives Standing committee for Employment and Workplace Relations.

Additionally, he also sits on both the backbench committee for health and ageing and tourism."

 

Wakeup and smell the roses, gentlemen.

Parliamentary conventions may be neither rules nor law, but the authority of the Speaker is the lynch pin of Parliament

I listened with mouth agape in disbelief yesterday, as Coalition MPs on the Opposition benches deliberately colluded to disrupt a House of Representatives sitting day and openly, repeatedly defied the Speaker.

 

With not a thought for conventions, precedent, or the fact that over hundreds of years good men struggled and sometimes died so that the institution of Parliament could exist, former Howard Government ministers and frontbenchers brought their parliamentary parties into disrepute and the House into peril.

Having lost government with good reason in a democratic election, the Liberal and Nationals MPs chose to disregard this fact and attempted to bully the Speaker and Deputy-Speaker into bending to their will.

 

The demonstration that these neo-fascists put on for public consumption had an international as well as domestic audience.

The US Secretary of Defense and Deputy-Secretary of State arrived in Canberra yesterday for the annual AUSMIN talks.

 

For all their pretended outrage at the change to sitting days, I do not think that it is sheer coincidence that the Opposition brought the House to anarchy yesterday as these US officials arrived.

Coalition parties see a conservative, Republican US Administration as a natural ally that they have been able to spook in the past by talking up the idea of a Labour federal government as bogeyman.

 

A blatant attempt to create an impression of a destabilised government may have worked to their advantage in the 1970s, but this set of Opposition MPs will find that they can't try the same confidence trick twice.

 

I remind those wilful and arrogant Opposition members that parliamentary conventions may be neither rules nor law, but the authority of the Speaker is the lynch pin of Parliament no matter who holds government and attempts to weaken that authority lead the House down a dangerous path.

Institutions exist at the will and pleasure of the society.

Societies have been known to dismantle institutions in which they no longer have confidence.

Parliaments are no exception.

Will NSW North Coast Area Health Service cost-cutting put lives at risk?

The Iemma Government fiscal madness continues and it is not only the nurses' union that need answers.

It has been reported that six beds are being removed from daily use at both Grafton and Maclean hospitals. Less nurses will be on duty during each shift.

The NSW North Coast already sees specialist services concentrated in two of the larger hospitals with little or no specialist services or full-time medical staff available at the smaller hospitals.

Local communities often experience these hospitals trying to discharge elderly patients early, often to highly inappropriate home circumstances.

This new policy has the potential to see unnecessary deaths occurring at home, because criteria for admission is based on annual budgets rather than the community's need.

North Coast communities deserve an adequate health service and an honest explanation as to why a second-class service is being perpetuated.

The Daily Examiner yesterday reported the NSW Nurses Association as saying that North Coast Area Health Service documents show that this service expects to save an estimated $253,000 at every public hospital implementing the 'surge bed' regime.

It also reported the association as stating that no additional resources have been put into community health so it could cope with the extra demand created by those who were discharged from hospital early under this policy.

Memo to Luke Hartsuyker, Nationals Member for Cowper

Dear Luke,

On November 24 last year the Coalition lost federal government.

However on a two-party preferred basis, the majority of Cowper voters elected you to represent their interests.

Not the National Party's interests, not the Coalition's interests, Cowper's interests.

So stop being a horse's ar*e in Canberra and get on with it.

TTFN,

Pete

Maclean's 104th Highland Gathering

Readers, make sure these dates are marked on your calendars:

21st -22nd March 2008

Maclean's 104th Highland Gathering will be held on the Easter Weekend at the Maclean Showground.

Maclean is a very friendly town and it's very proud of its Scottish Heritage. The town has a population of only 3,254, which swells to around 6,500 over the Easter weekend, when people flock to the town to attend the annual Highland Games. This year the town will explode with colour, sight and sound to mark the 104th Highland Games. The games are contested on the Maclean Showground, known as one of the most spectacular venues in the world to hold such a Highland event. This picturesque ground overlooks the river and mountains beyond, creating a picture that reflects the beautiful lochs of Scotland.

Maclean is only a short 15 minute drive away from the popular beach resorts of Yamba and Angourie.

Read more details about this year's Gathering at

http://www.macleanhighlandgathering.com.au/

How's the form of Federal Opposition MPs?

Today's sitting of the House of Representatives was disrupted and eventually suspended when a number of vocal and rowdy members of the Opposition ignored the calls of the Speaker and later the Deputy Speaker to adhere to their directions.

The Opposition is obviously not happy with new sitting arrangement for the House of Reps which now sits on Fridays but does not have a period of Question Time. It seems the Opposition is not too keen on working a full week, instead they prefer to be part-timers.

During the morning session of parliament a number of Opposition members were called to order by the Speaker, but they elected to do their "own thing" and ignore the Speaker.

Not unexpectedly, the Speaker ordered the Liberal MP Steven Ciobo to leave the house. Ciobo was escorted from the house by the Sergeant-at-Arms.

Later, the Deputy Speaker ordered Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker from the house after he held up a cut-out of Mr Rudd.

Hartsuyker refused to leave the house and after a period of further dissent and unruly behaviour by Opposition MPs the house was suspended.

What a fine example these MPs are setting! NOT!!!

Read the Sydney Morning Herald's report at: http://news.smh.com.au/parliament-uproar-as-mp-forcibly-removed/20080222-1trt.html

Global warming impacts on the NSW North Coast

Yesterday The Northern Star reported on expected coastline changes and innundation due to climate change. 

The Federal Government has given $2 million towards assisting NSW North Coast councils to plan for negative impacts such as sea-level rises.

"It is estimated that the sea will rise by at least one metre in the next 100 years, claiming about 100 metres of the shoreline.

It would see the destruction of multi-million-dollar coastal real estate at places like Belongil and Lennox Head, more frequent severe floods, and land become swampy in low-lying places like Ballina. ----

Dr Peter Cowell, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, said hundreds of thousands of homes faced possible inundation resulting from climate change over the next 20 to 30 years.

He said Byron Bay and Ballina were areas expected to be among the hardest hit, as well as Cairns in north Queensland, Wamberal on the NSW Central Coast and Narrabeen on Sydney's northern beaches.

"With places like Belongil, it's not a matter of 'if', but 'when'," he said.

"Existing hazards which happen occasionally will start to happen more often. As the sea level rises nuisance floods will happen so often they'll create dysfunction in the community."

 

Unfortunately for North Coast residents, most elected councillors do not fully understand the processes or timelines involved in permanent seawater inundation or rises in the water table and salt levels.

Throwing money at local councils will not result in adequate planning, because both State and local governments are in the thrall of coastal developers.

If the Rudd Government truly wants to help the North Coast plan for climate change it needs to insist that the NSW Government (and other state governments) put in place legislation prohibiting further development in identified vulnerable areas and all coastal estuaries.

It should do so, not just because of the high population numbers living on the coast, but because coastal economies significantly contribute to the nation's wealth and it would be foolish to allow continued public or business infrastructure growth in high risk areas.

Local economic disruption from increased severe storms, flooding, and inundation would have a flow-on effect for the national economy.

The sun never sets for the Attorney-General

Attorney-General Robert McClelland wants to extend the sunset clause in the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (the TIA Act) by another 18 months.

Call me stupid, but isn't a sunset clause often included by Parliament when there is some concern about the need for or ramifications of certain legislation.

In this case it was probably the ability to monitor the phone or trawl the stored communications of anyone having even passing contact with a telephone number, internet connection or person named in a relevant warrant.

According to its blurb, the new bill covers changes which will amend the TIA Act to "extend sunset provisions which relate to activities that can be lawfully undertaken by network administrators of specific public sector agencies to protect their corporate networks and maintain the professional standards of employees."

However, this is not the only change contained in McClelland's bill. It seems the Attorney-General feels that provisions concerning warrants and telecommunication devices are too onerous and wants these provisions relaxed a bit.

Thus making it easier for everyone from ASIO through to AFP to snoop past June this year.

There was a change of government on 24 November wasn't there - or did I just dream it?

Oh, I forgot, Robert McClelland and Labor supported this act and subsequent amendments during its passage through Parliament.

The Speaker finally gets serious

The new Speaker of the House of Reps Harry Jenkins spent a lot of time during the first parliamentary sitting days smiling and chortling at the words and antics of certain MPs.

Predicably he found himself with a noisy, back chatting and often disrespectful House.

Question Time yesterday saw him finally decide that enough was enough.

However he didn't convince the Liberals Joe Hockey, who continued to abuse points of order with gay abandon.

Perhaps the Speaker will have more success when the House resumes after its break.

He can practice in the mirror at keeping the grin off his face while he waits.

"The New York Times" defends Internet free speech

It seems the battle for the Internet is hotting up with a San Francisco judge ordering the 'locking' of a website specialising in leaked information.

The New York Times published this deliciously subversive article yesterday.

"The site, Wikileaks.org, invites people to post leaked materials with the goal of discouraging "unethical behavior" by corporations and governments.---
The case in San Francisco was brought by a Cayman Islands bank, Julius Baer Bank and Trust. In court papers, the bank said that "a disgruntled ex-employee who has engaged in a harassment and terror campaign" provided stolen documents to Wikileaks in violation of a confidentiality agreement and banking laws. According to Wikileaks, "the documents allegedly reveal secret Julius Baer trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion." ---
On Friday, Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco granted a permanent injunction ordering Dynadot, the site's domain name registrar, to disable the Wikileaks.org domain name. The order had the effect of locking the front door to the site — a largely ineffectual action that kept back doors to the site, and several copies of it, available to sophisticated Web users who knew where to look."

Techtree.com also reports the current availability of this site.

Perhaps Senator Conway should take note, and spare Federal Labor the negative perceptions it would attract if his pet plan to censor the Internet by stealth came before Parliament.

The Great Cane Toad Roundup: Sunday 24 February 2008 at Yamba-Angourie

It's that time of year again. The National Parks and Wildlife (NPWS) organised cane toad hunt, to reduce the population of these pests in Yamba and Angourie, has come around again.

See you there....

Day: Sunday 24 February

Time: 6.30pm for free BBQ and cane toad talk

Where: Yamba Golf and Country Club, River Street, Yamba

Bring: Gloves and torch

Wear: Covered shoes or boots

Prizes: for biggest toad and most number of toads caught

Kids: all children taking part in the hunt must be accompanied by an adult

Info: NPWS Grafton on (02) 6641.1500

 

Nine straight victories so far for presidential nominee Barack Obama

The politics of the US presidential race continues to fascinate.

Here is Barack Obama latest email dated 20 February.

Like others in the race, he continues to be something of a policy cipher fixated on raising campaign contributions.

 

"Today, the people of Wisconsin voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new kind of politics.

They rejected an onslaught of negative attacks and attempts to distract them from the common concerns we all have about the direction of our country.

No doubt we'll hear much more of these attacks and distractions in the days to come.

But the noise of these tired, old political games will not drown out the voices of millions calling for change.

Now is the time to join us -- add your voice to our movement by making your first donation right now. By giving through our matching program, your donation will be doubled by a previous donor who has promised to match your gift.

We are very close to reaching our goal of 500,000 people giving to this campaign in 2008. Help push us over the top by making a matched donation right now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/match

We won't know until late tonight the results of today's Hawaii caucus, but we'll let you know how that turns out tomorrow.

If we win in Hawaii, it will be ten straight victories -- a streak no one thought possible, and the best position we can be in when Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont vote on March 4th.

Thank you for making this possible,

Barack"

Turnbull cracks a joke

Malcolm Turnbull turned into the Liberals court jester this week, when he had the hide to complain that the Rudd Government was subverting democracy, because it has decided to roll back the former Howard Government's political donations laws which made it almost impossible for voters to discover where a great deal of party funding was coming from.

"What price democracy?" he asks to howls of laughter from across Australia.

No wonder that some in the Liberal Party can't stand this pretender.

Nationals Chris Gulaptis 4 ever

After his defeat at the 24 November 2007 federal election, the Nationals candidate for Page Chris Gulaptis removed his campaign website from view on the Internet.

Presumably so that it would be unlikely that his words would be quoted back at him in the future.

Which makes the following from the NSW State Library all the more enjoyable.

The Gulaptis website was archived on 23 November 2007.

Chris Gulaptis - Nationals candidate for Page

This title is part of the "2007 Australian federal election campaign - House of Representatives election candidate web sites" collection.

Chris Gulaptis - Nationals candidate for Page was selected for preservation by the State Library of New South Wales. This title is not scheduled for re-archiving. The publisher's site may provide more current information.

Archived 23 Nov 2007 01:11

North Coast website lands two in gaol

Latest example of 'what not to do' on the Internet can be found here.

The website mentioned is now initially unreachable - "No web site is configured at this address"

However, the dynamic Internet wins again, because this is yet another website which can still be reached and read online courtesy of a large search engine's additional features.

Thereby defeating the aim of those who brought the original legal action and only making more people aware of the website's allegations. 

This rather strange and wayward website is now entering a conspiracy theorists Hall of Fame thanks to the court case.

It probably has more site mentions relating to and quoting the allegedly defamatory material than ever before.

It has always been better known on the NSW North Coast for being able to keep one serious allegation concerning a local politician up on Internet for years without being successfully challenged.

Possum Comitatus and Google Trends on Mr. 9% Nelson

The Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson just can't take a trick this week.
He was outed as being interviewed by an ABC Four Corners journalist, but refusing to appear on camera. Thereby earning no points for bravery and a few for stupidity, as most will think he heartily concurred with Abbott, Hockey, Downer etc. and none can disagree with that position.
He miserably failed to find any real dirt on the Prime Minister after repeatedly accusing him of irregularities and falsehoods.
Mid-week Nelson had to accept direction from his shadow cabinet to reverse support for retaining AWAs in any new industrial relations legislation.
Can things get any worse? Of course.
Then he found himself with the worst polling results for preferred prime minister in the recent history of polling.

According to Possum Comitatus at Crikey.com.au:
"Brendan Nelson has stormed into the worse Preferred Prime Minister result in the history of Newspoll with an astonishing 9%. Not 29%, not 19% -- there be no typos here, it really says 9%.So just how bad is 9%, I hear you ask?
Think of every left handed person you know in the country, not of voting age, just in the country. You would, on average, know more left handed people than you would know people that preferred Brendan Nelson to be the Prime Minister. This is not so bad that you could actually list the names of Brendan Nelson supporters on a moderately sized pamphlet – but it’s getting awfully close."

Surely the week must get better from now on? Don't bet on it.

Today's Google Trends world-wide search terms comparison results for Kevin Rudd and Brendan Nelson over the last 30 days. Nelson is shown by the red line.

Turnbull makes a goose of himself

There's nothing like Question Time to bring out the snide side of pollies.

This week Shadow-Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull, acting the smart-alec, was trotting out questions about obscure economic terms and asking nervous new Federal Treasurer Wayne Swann to explain.

On reflection, all Turnbull's questions brought to mind in my house was the observation that it was Turnbull not Swann who is currently co-defendant in a court case allegedly involving creative economics and the loss of mum & dad savings.

Swann has 'L' plates, Turnbull has history.

And their words will return to haunt them - transcript of Four Corners 'Howard's End' episode

Like other North Coast Voices contributors, I switched on to the ABC Four Corners program which discussed Liberal Party views on last year's federal election defeat.

If you missed the program or cannot bring up the video, the transcript of Howard's End can be found here.

 

It is worth reading for a chance to revisit such self-serving gems as:

 

"JOHN HOWARD: Mr Costello obviously would like to see a leadership change in his favour before the election. I have indicated to him that, as I've always indicated, that in the end it is the will of the party and the interests of the party that is paramount."

"JOHN HOWARD: It is the very strong view of the Liberal Party, indeed the overwhelming view of the Liberal Party that the current leadership team with me as leader and Peter Costello as deputy leader should remain in place through to the next election."

"JOHN HOWARD: Do we need to lower carbon emissions over time? Of course we do. But to say that climate change is the overwhelming moral challenge for this generation of Australians is misguided at best and misleading at worst…"

 

"ARTHUR SINODINOS: I suspect the view within the Coalition at the time was, well, he's a new leader, he's a bit inexperienced, come out of left-field in one sense, and we'll wait and see what he's like. But I don't think there was a sense of panic when Kevin took over the leadership of the Labor Party."

 

"TONY ABBOTT, MINISTER FOR HEALTH & AGEING 2003-2007: We didn't have the option of providing a fresh face. We could've provided a different face but not a face that was fresh in the sense that Kevin Rudd was fresh."

 

"JOE HOCKEY: Quite frankly when I took over the job I don't think many ministers in Cabinet were aware that you could be worse off under WorkChoices and that you could actually have certain conditions taken away without compensation. And once I started to raise those issues with colleagues and they became more informed of the impact of WorkChoices we introduced the fairness test."

 

"ALEXANDER DOWNER: We were doing very badly and we were, John Howard and I were of the view that we might lose the election and I was certainly pretty concerned about it. And after all the election had to be called within weeks, within a very few weeks. And it was a reasonable thing that he wanted to sound out the views of his colleagues as to whether we would be better off changing the leadership and I did that."

"Howard's End": bovver boys put the boot in

The Four Corners program on ABC1 last night, which detailed the Liberal Party response to the 2007 Coalition federal election loss, was a study of collective political denial.
It exposed a folie a deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six...... Abbott, Costello, Downer, Hockey, Minchin, McFarlane.

In Howard's End it is painfully obvious that the Liberals are still telling themselves that they lost the election because they had been in government for too long with the same leader and were not perceived as 'fresh'.
Only Andrew Robb came close to understanding why they lost when he articulated some understanding of the party's failure to listen to the electorate and it's abuse of Senate processes.

In their pathetic attempt to redeem themselves and distance the Liberal Party from its own failings, Abbott & Co. heaped blame on an intransigent John Howard as if he alone was responsible for loss of government.
The plain fact of the matter is that the Howard Government lost power because of the collective weight of SEIV X, Children Overboard, successive ministerial improprieties, its part in the Coalition of the Willing and war in Iraq, Immigration Department unlawful imprisonment and deportation of Australian citizens, AWB Ltd scandal, WorkChoices, failure to ratify Kyoto, abuse of parliamentary processes, excessive government spending on 'political' advertising, new sedition laws, the removal of habeas corpus from certain parts of the C'wealth Criminal Code, suspension of racial discrimination law in relation to the NT Intervention, and the sheer arrogance and insensitivity of its leader and his ministers.
This is by no means the entire list of the 'sins' which irked voters but it does cover those most mentioned in ordinary conversation.

The Liberal Party's ongoing failure to understand why it lost the confidence of voters is reflected in its current boast that it will use its Senate numbers to thwart the repeal of WorkChoices legislation and the abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements.

All in all, the bovver boys needn't have bothered - last night's foray into the media did nothing but confirm that the Liberal Party remains unfit for government.

Hartsuyker's terrible timing on petrol prices

The Nationals MP for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, attempted a clumsy piece of political theatre yesterday afternoon.

He rose to his feet and requested that the House consider a urgent motion to debate government policy on petrol pricing.

This appears to have been little more than an attempt to disrupt the order of government speakers.

After all, in his first term and as part of the former Howard Government, he did little but ask dorothy-dixers of his own ministers.

But what made this a quirky moment was the fact that, at the time he was being predicably gagged, the online news services were reporting that petrol prices at the pump were continuing to fall. With further falls predicted on the back of a strengthening Aussie dollar.

Rather bad timing eh, Luke.

Ever wondered how the Oz print media is faring now we are all off surfing the Web?

Circulation				Readership
	Oct-Dec 2007	Oct-Dec 2006	% variation	12 mths to Dec 2007	% variation
National
Australian	135,000+	134,610	0.29	485,000	11.49
Weekend Australian	300,000+	298,107	0.64	840,000	1.45
Aust Financial Review	88,247	86,287	2.27	265,000	3.92
Aust Financial Review (Sat)	96,166	92,781	3.65	149,000	– 13.87
NSW
Daily Telegraph	375,000+	3912,832	–4.30	1,177,000	2.79
Daily Telegraph (Sat)	319,000+	341,917	–6.70	975,00	5.29
Sunday Telegraph	670,000+	648,072	–2.06	1,749,000	–1.46
Sydney Morning Herald	211,170	212,300	–0.53	942,000	7.66
Sydney Morning Herald (Sat)	360,000+	360,000+	0.00	1,204,000	2.64
Sun-Herald	500,000+	510,000+	–1.96	1,365,000	1.26
Victoria
Herald Sun	530,000+	535,000+	–0.93	1,484,000	1.02
Herald Sun (Sat)	509,500+	509,000+	0.10	1,418,000	1.58
Sunday Herald Sun	623,500+	615,000+	1.38	1,542,000	1.25
Age	204,100+	202,000+	1.04	767,000	5.21
Age (Sat)	298,500+	298,000+	0.17	949,000	0.96
Sunday Age	226,000+	214,000+	5.61	722,000	0.98
Queensland
Courier-Mail	220,850+	218,648	1.01	622,000	1.30
Courier-Mail (Sat)	305,215	322,188	–5.27	871,000	–2.13
Sunday Mail	581,418	601,357	–3.31	1,440,000	–4.95
South Australia
Advertiser	190,374	191,100+	–0.38	521,000	–6.96
Advertiser (Sat)	262,591	263,843+	–0.10	675,000	–6.64
Sunday Mail	320,684	321,590+	–0.28	753,000	–1.18
Western Australia
West Australian	198,316	200,687	–1.18	588,000	0.17
West Australian (Sat)	344,432	357,030	–3.53	911,000	–4.61
Sunday Times	341,500+	341,000+	0.15	816,000	–3.89-
Tasmania
Mercury	46,654	46,603	0.11	120,000	–6.98
Mercury (Sat)	61,664	61,451	0.35	148,000	–4.52
Sunday Tasmanian	60,225	60,471	–0.41	138,000	–4.17
Sunday Examiner	41,854	42,388	–1.30	103,000	–1.00
Northern Territory
Northern Territory News	20,508	20,431	0.38	44,000	–12.00
NT News (Sat)	30,697	30,605	0.30	44,000	–7.94
Sunday Territorian	21,603	21,773	–0.78	47,000	0.00
ACT
Canberra Times	35,701	35,193	1.4	106,000	–4.50
Canberra Times (Sat)	61,976	63,644	–2.60	166,000	0.60
Canberra Times (Sun)	35,564	34,720	2.45	98,000	1.00

Table in Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter No. 46

House of Reps crib sheet

Image from http://www.crikey.com.au/

Can't find your local member at Question Time.? Here's a guide to the House after the last round of musical chairs.

Click lower right corner to enlarge.

Australia preparing to come in from the cold and support UN declaration on indigenous rights

Yet another sign that Australia may just possibly be putting the neo-fascist Howard era behind it - the Rudd Government is currently doing spade work for the move to support the UN declaration of indigenous rights.

Australia was one of only four countries to hold out against endorsing the declaration in 2007. The others being the United States, Canada and New Zealand. There were eleven abstentions.

As this declaration is a non-binding text, the Howard Government's objections were always on rather dubious grounds.

 

Rats in the ranks Liberal Party-style

I'm really looking forward to tonight's ABC1 Four Corners episode on John Howard's end.

I foresee the amusing spectacle of Downer, Abbott, Hockey, and other Liberal Party luminaries, all vowing that they are truly intelligent politicians in tune with Australian voters, who just happened to be led by an old, stubborn man in November 2007.

This is going to be good for a belly laugh, because Hansard and newspaper archives clearly show that this baying mob of arrogant, right-wing bullies eagerly helped turn into law every one of the former PM's biased and misinformed notions of what Australian society should be.

This mob must really think we came down in the last shower, if they believe that they can distance themselves from their previous actions by a sly knife job on their former leader.

'Specially as the Liberals are now saying that they will resist any reform of their most oppressive acts and regulations.

And the Commonwealth 2008 Bills roll on

The 42nd Parliament is powering ahead with its bill schedule, including bills put forward by private members.

Although many of these bills will wither on the vine due to the lack of government sponsorship, the sheer number is becoming both impressive and somewhat disturbing when looking at those affecting the Australian Constitution.

 

This is last Friday's ComLaw list of published bills.

 

Alcohol Toll Reduction Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00019
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Fair Bank and Credit Card
Fees) Amendment Bill 2008
C2008B00020
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill 2006 [2008]
C2008B00021
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Constitution Alteration (Appropriations for the Ordinary Annual Services of
the Government) 2001 [2008]
C2008B00022
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Constitution Alteration (Electors' Initiative, Fixed Term Parliaments and
Qualifications of Members) 2000 [2008]
C2008B00023
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Electoral (Greater Fairness of Electoral Processes) Amendment Bill 2007
[2008]
C2008B00025
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Electoral Amendment (Political Honesty) Bill 2003 [2008]
C2008B00024
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Euthanasia Laws (Repeal) Bill 2004 [2008]
C2008B00026
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Genetic Privacy and Non-discrimination Bill 1998 [2008]
C2008B00027
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2008 Measures No. 1)
Bill 2008
C2008B00029
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Marriage (Relationships Equality) Amendment Bill 2008
C2008B00030
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Ministers of State (Post-Retirement Employment Restrictions) Bill 2002
[2008]
C2008B00031
Date Published: 15/02/2008

National Market Driven Energy Efficiency Target Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00032
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Parliamentary Charter of Rights and Freedoms Bill 2001 [2008]
C2008B00034
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Patents Amendment Bill 1996 [2008]
C2008B00035
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Peace and Non-Violence Commission Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00036
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Poker Machine Harm Reduction Tax (Administration) Bill 2008
C2008B00038
Date Published: 15/02/2008

 

Privacy (Data Security Breach Notification) Amendment Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00040
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Privacy (Extension to Political Acts and Practices) Amendment Bill 2006
[2008]
C2008B00041
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Protecting Children from Junk Food Advertising Bill 2006 [2008]
C2008B00043
Date Published: 15/02/2008

 

Public Interest Disclosures Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00045
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Qantas Sale (Keep Jetstar Australian) Amendment Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00046
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Renewable Energy Legislation Amendment (Renewable Power Perecentage) Bill
2008
C2008B00047
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Repatriation of Citizens Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00048
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Republic (Consultation of the People) Bill 2001 [2008]
C2008B00049
Date Published: 15/02/2008

 

Rights of the Terminally Ill (Euthanasia Laws Repeal) Bill 2008
C2008B00050
Date Published: 15/02/2008

 

Same-Sex Marriages Bill 2006 [2008]
C2008B00051
Date Published: 15/02/2008

 

Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00052
Date Published: 15/02/2008

State Elections (One Vote, One Value) Bill 2001 [2008]
C2008B00053
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Stolen Generation Compensation Bill 2008
C2008B00054
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Taxation Laws Amendment (Scholarships) Bill 2005 [2008]
C2008B00028
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Textbook Subsidy Bill 2003 [2008]
C2008B00033
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Poisons Standard) Bill 2008
C2008B00037
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Trade Practices (Creeping Acquisitions) Amendment Bill 2007 [2008]
C2008B00039
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Uranium Mining in or near Australian World Heritage Properties
(Prohibition) Bill 1998 [2008]
C2008B00042
Date Published: 15/02/2008

Workplace Relations (Guaranteeing Paid Maternity Leave) Amendment Bill 2007
[2008]
C2008B00044
Date Published: 15/02/2008

"Obama for America" team worries about superdelegates

Well the e-mails keep coming and now the Obama for America campaign team begins to marshal forces to win-over those Democratic "superdelegates".

Come on down, Superdelegate Lewis!

US oil money seems to be swinging Clinton's way and some commentators are saying that Clinton has the stronger support amongst these uber-delegates.

 

Yesterday's e-mail.

"As you've probably heard, there could be a wildcard in the race for the Democratic nomination.

We firmly believe that the candidate who has won the most pledged delegates -- the result of having more voters in more places supporting your campaign -- will be the Democratic nominee.

But to be safe, we are working to attract the support of "superdelegates" -- party officials and Democratic officeholders from across the country -- who also have a vote at the Democratic National Convention.

You may already know some superdelegates -- they include senators, governors, and even former presidents and vice presidents. But many others are ordinary people who hold positions in the state and local party operations.

These nearly 800 superdelegates will vote alongside the more than 3,000 pledged delegates who are chosen in the various state primaries and caucuses. The candidate that gets a majority of all delegates (superdelegates and pledged delegates combined) will be the Democratic nominee for president.

Right now, Barack is ahead in the contest for pledged delegates. We've won 23 contests out of the 35 that have been held so far -- including the last 8 in a row. And with our decisive victories in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC on Tuesday, we now lead by more than 135 pledged delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination.

While we intend to continue winning states and expanding our lead among the pledged delegates, and believe that will likely ensure that Barack is the Democratic nominee, we're also doing the work of reaching out to superdelegates and making sure as many as possible support Barack Obama.

Here's where you can play a key role.

Our work so far has taught us one important lesson: that your personal story about why you support Barack Obama is often the most powerful persuasion tool for someone who's undecided. That's true whether that undecided voter is your neighbor or a superdelegate.

The story of where you're from, what brought you into the political process, the issues that matter to you, and why you became part of this movement has the potential to inspire someone who could cast a deciding vote in this contest.

Our staff will compile stories from supporters like you and make them a key part of the conversation with superdelegates as Barack asks for their support.

Share your story to help persuade superdelegates now:

http://my.barackobama.com/superdelegates

I've received a lot of email from folks asking how best to help with the superdelegate effort, and this is it.

Your note, combined with those of other Obama supporters, will tell the story of an extraordinary movement of ordinary people -- a story with a common thread of hope that becomes all the more powerful when it brings together the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our supporters.

Together we're building something historic, and your story can help make someone else a part of it.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America"

The high price of sea views on the NSW North Coast

The Victorian Government and local media are coming to grips with the projected effects of climate change on coastal towns and villages in that state.

Media on the NSW North Coast is virtually silent on this issue.

 

Unlike Victoria, the NSW Government does not appear to have taken a comprehensive look at its coastline. Preferring instead to do two case studies at Batemans Bay in the south and Wooli Wooli in the north.

 

Clarence Valley Council has a draft Wooli Wooli Estuary Management Plan on exhibition, but this is hardly an adequate whole-of-shire adaptation plan.

 

The NSW Greenhouse Office leaves the NSW North Coast with little more than broad brushstrokes on climate change effects and the final report on coastal erosion case studies.

If it wasn't so serious an issue, State Government and North Coast local government climate change adaptation plans so far would be laughable.

 

By keeping the North Coast in the dark as long as possible, neither tier of government is actually going to stop residents from finally realising that there is a high price to pay for their sea and river views.

They are simply stopping residents from planning an early personal response to property risk due to potential negative climate change impacts.

After all, we all know from the source documents mentioned here that the NSW coastline is likely to experience higher sea-level rises than the predicted global average.

It's time that the Iemma Government and local councils stopped protecting the short-term interests of developers and gave real thought as to how coastal communities are going to cope with global 

warming and coastline retreat.

Utility Allowance for Disability Support pensioners and carers to be in place by end of March 2008

Another Rudd Government election promise is about to be rolled out at the end of March.

Those on Disability Support or Carers pensions should see the Utility Allowance turn up in their first Centrelink payment for April, if all goes well.

The increase for those already receiving this allowance should show up at the same time.

The expanded telephone allowance with internet connection component is also due to receive the go-ahead this month.

Nice to see this example of the Howard Government's inequitable welfare delivery bite the dust.

Those NSW North Coast Area Health Service 'surge' beds again

ABC News reported that nurses met with the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) yesterday to "clarify implementation of a 'surge bed' plan."

New Auditor-General's findings show that service did not meet admission benchmarks last year.

"Fewer than 80 per cent of patients needing a bed were admitted within eight hours of seeing a doctor or nurse.

The union's general secretary, Judith Kiejda, says the figures make it hard for the health service to justify the conversion of 86 acute beds to surge beds."

It seems that NCAHS CEO Chris Crawford had some explaining to do.

While Mr. Crawford is in explanation mode perhaps he will explain to the Yamba community why it hasn't yet been approved for a HealthOne facility. The actual need was identified years ago.

Leader of the Opposition cut down to size by Koori woman

This week Opposition leader Brendan Nelson fell at the first hurdle when he failed to understand that in Aboriginal cultures the conventions and customs surrounding information sharing are different from those in the wider Australian society.

He has caused deep offence and distress to one Koori woman.

This was entirely avoidable - he should have asked for permission.

Now the Liberals Tony 'Mad Monk' Abbott wants the Opposition to have a direct and equal say on the direction of the Rudd Government's indigenous affairs policies and has indicated that the Coalition will act as Senate spoiler if the government attempted to amend Howard's NT Intervention legislation. 

Heaven help us all.

ALP increases poll lead prior to saying sorry

According to the latest Roy Morgan Research poll of federal voting intentions released on 15 February 2008:

"With much talk and anticipation surrounding the Labor Government-led apology to the stolen generation of Aborigines, ALP primary support is 54% (up 5% from the previous face-to-face Morgan Poll) and L-NP support is 33% (down 3%), the latest face-to-face Morgan Poll (conducted February 2/3 & 9/10) finds.

On a two-party preferred basis, the ALP has extended its already significant lead by 5%: 62.5% cf. 37.5%."

Wonder how the Coalition is performing if you factor in that Clayton's apology from the Opposition Leader?

A link to that IR bill which has the Coalition frothing at the mouth

Although the Opposition Deputy Leader's hissy fits at Question Time have been rather amusing, they have hardly added to our understanding of how WorkChoices will come to an end.

Here is a link for those interested.

Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward With Fairness) Bill 2008 - first reading.

Morrie does a mass mail-out to bail out his latest privatisation scheme

Morris Iemma has just mailed out a letter to all NSW pensioners giving them an "iron-clad guarantee" that "my Government will continue to provide the $112 annual rebate on electricity bills for all pensioners" after privatisation of the State's electricity supplies.

Well that's settled. I'm vastly reassured. Hold on there a minute?

There's no mention of the fact that Morrie's "my Government" legally only lasts until the next election (John Howard taught us that with his weasel words on the GST).

Neither is there any guarantee that power company service fees and charges will not rise, and rise substantially, in the first three years of the electricity privatisation roll-out.

Missing also is any assurance that the cost to consumers per kilowatt hour will not start a sharp upward spiral within five years.

If other state privatisations are any indication, then the annual pensioner rebate is unlikely to pay for even one quarter's electricity account in the future.

Yes, Morrie my little mate, your fine pensioner rebate promises aren't worth the paper they're printed on.  

Yaegl woman named 2008 Clarence Valley Woman of the Year

It was nice to see Lenore Parker recognised for her tireless community work and longtime support of reconciliation.

On 13 February 2008 she became Clarence Valley Woman of the Year.

Ms. Parker was nominated by her daughter, well-known artist Frances Parker.

"Ms Parker was yesterday humble in her acceptance of the honour, acknowledging the contributions of other nominees and the generations of women who walked before her.

The Yaegl woman said she was honoured to accept the award, but emphasised she was doing so on behalf of all women."

Coles and Woolworths show an unexpectedly racist underbelly

With the Howard and Rudd governments' Northern Territory Intervention rapidly devolving into a punitive and racist quagmire, it is more than interesting to note that the giant supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths have enthusiastically entered into the ration book system which so bedevils and taints the recent practice of indigenous income management.

Calling a spade a spade, one would have to point out to these supermarket chains that they are knowingly colluding in institutional racism.

 

Extracts from 14 February 2008 Senate Hansard at page 76 (the bolding is my own).

Senator Siewert:

Is the government aware that income quarantining in

the Northern Territory is viewed by the community as

going back to ration days and is causing huge hardships

in the NT?.......................quarantined money is being

given to people in the form of gift cards, that aged pensioners

—including a lady who has worked for 48

years, has been retired for 10 years and has raised 10

kids—are being subjected to quarantining and that parents

are unable to send food money to children who are

away attending college? How does the government see

ration cards as a new beginning? Isn't the Northern

Territory intervention an example of an old approach

which is clearly failing? Will the government commit

to immediate review of the NT intervention?...........

People are being provided with a ration card. By the

way, this is a copy of the card people are given by

Coles. This is how big it is—it is small. It says 'Coles gift

card'. What an insult to the Aboriginal people of

the Northern Territory. Mothers at the meeting yesterday

were outlining the extreme shame that they feel

when they are standing in a queue at Coles or Woolies

—they are the two main places you can get a card

for. They are standing there with no cash in their hands

and they are told that they have to take some of the

things back because they cannot buy them on the card.

They are standing there with people who have cash,

and they do not. They described the deep shame they

feel. It takes them back to the ration days, when they

can remember that their parents, in some cases, were

given rations in old sugar bags. That is how these people

in the Northern Territory feel. It is outrageous."

 

On 12 February 2008 thousands of people marched in Canberra against this legislation.

Me, I'm going to make sure I spend a lot less at any supermarket chain which takes ration cards for goods and, if the Rudd Government doesn't get it's finger out and roll back this racist legislation then it won't be seeing my support at the ballot box.

Promises, promises, Mr. Hockey

I seem to remember that about three weeks out from the November 2007 polling day, Joe Hockey (then Federal Minister for Workplace Relations) flamboyantly vowed that he would quit the front bench if the Government made substantial changes to WorkChoices legislation.
Well, the Government may be of a different hue this year and Joe may be sitting on the shadow front bench, but will he keep his promise now that Julia Gillard has introduced the first bill to start dismantling WorkChoices?
Nah, didn't think so. :-) The man who tried to wish nation-wide AWAs on us all just won't go away. Even Kevin Rudd's 2008-09 parliamentary salary freeze won't shift him - the private sector job offers just aren't all that attractive yet. Or is it that he sees himself as Opposition leader?

The Brethren still have friends in high places

Question: Just how stupid is Brendan Nelson?

Answer: Very!

He provided first-hand proof of his idiocy when he spoke in reply to The Apology in parliament on Wednesday. However, confirmation that his idiocy knows no bounds has arrived in the news that he sponsored a leader of the Exclusive Brethren sect getting a special pass to Parliament, thus giving the Brethren unfettered access to the corridors of the legislature.

The Sydney Morning Herald (14/02/2008) reports that Nelson and former Tasmanian Liberal MP Michael Ferguson sponsored a pass application for Brethren elder Stephen Hales, who is the brother of the sect's Australian leader, Bruce Hales, to roam the corridors of power in Canberra.

Dr Nelson's days as Leader of the Opposition are surely numbered.

Read the Herald's report at http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/brethren-lobbyists-given-passes/2008/02/13/1202760399016.html

$50M in wasted government spending and I'm so glad

One of the most pleasing things the Rudd Government has done was to scrap the Howard Government's pseudo national identity card, the Access Card.

The government department set up to facilitate this card, which spent more than $50 million on consultants, administration and advertising, is gone.

At least 18 million Australians can rest easy until the next time this daft idea surfaces.

The estimated $1.178 billion required to roll-out the Access Card will now stay in government coffers to be spent on other policies.  

"Senator Ludwig says the money will boost savings and help fund the government's promises in education and health." A much better idea with positive outcomes.

The Access Card and Consumer Privacy Taskforce discussion papers and received submissions revealed that the card was never going to address the Coalition's favourite over-rated bogeyman, welfare fraud, or the estimated $100 million in annual 'losses' due to Centrelink administrative error.

Nelson loses it, Tuckey abuses it, Schultz who?

Personally I think Opposition leader Brendan Nelson lost it during the second half of his speech on the floor of Parliament yesterday supporting Parliament's apology to the Stolen Generations, but you may have another opinion.

Link to full text of speech.

 

However the most unedifying moment of the day was the churlish boycott of the apology by WA Liberal Wilson Tuckey and NSW Liberal Alby Schultz.

 

I did catch sight of the Nationals Luke Hartsuyker, local member for Cowper, as he sat on the new Opposition front bench. At least he turned up, even if he appeared rather po faced during yesterday's historic proceedings.

Nelson hit in the face with a dead mullet during Question Time

Opposition leader Brendan Nelson learnt a hard lesson yesterday when he asked the first Question Without Notice of the 42nd Commonwealth Parliament.

Don't mention election promises, because your own party's track record is bound to be dismal. 

That's why election promises exist - to fill the holes in an incumbent government's policy.

Before Nelson had even finished his question on lower grocery and petrol prices you could almost see that wet fish being pulled out of the bucket and heading towards his unfortunate head.

Rudder's reply was a small gem in its own right.

"In the period of the previous government, which had more than 11 years to act on both these matters, they did nothing and nothing. I would strongly suggest that the leader of the opposition reflects on the performance of his government in relation to these matters before reflecting on what might be achieved through both of the measures we promised in opposition and have delivered on.''

One almost had to feel sorry for the little fella now on the wrong side of the dispatch box.

Australia tries to solve mystery of disappearing Minke whale numbers

Despite Japan's assurances that whale numbers are at sustainable levels, the case for its annual whale kill is not that simple. 

In 2000 the International Whaling Commission admitted that Minke whale numbers in the Southern Ocean had probably been overestimated.

Research has shown these whales are not experiencing a population boom as argued by Japan.

"A female sperm whale may produce one calf every five years, after reaching sexual maturity at nine years. Males reach breeding age in their late twenties. It is not known how many calves a female may bear before reaching menopause or the rate of natural sperm whale mortality. A young whale may suckle from her mother for up to 15 years.----

Scientists believe that it takes around 20 years on average for a female whale to replace itself with one mature female offspring. This does not account for the potential adverse impacts of new human-induced threats to whales such as bycatch, climate change, ozone depletion, marine pollution, ship strikes and underwater noise pollution."

 

After twenty years of international Minke whale surveys, Australia is now using aerial surveys.

"For the first time, Australian scientists will use aircraft to count minke whales in the pack ice around Antarctica.

Since 1978 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has been counting whales in the Southern Ocean for management and conservation purposes. Each year ships, provided by Japan, cover about one-tenth of the Southern Ocean, with each survey in the unstrengthened vessels necessarily ending at the edge of the pack ice around Antarctica. Thus, every 10 years, a circumpolar snapshot of whale abundance is obtained.

Surveys over the past two decades, however, suggest there has been a significant decline in minke whale abundance, leading to disputes over whether the decline is genuine, or an artefact caused by the survey technique.

One theory is that changes in the ice edge boundary each year, and changes in the number of minke whales present in the pack ice beyond this boundary, could be responsible for the differences in estimates of the whales in open water. In other words, could there be more minke whales hiding under the hundreds of kilometres of pack ice (and open areas within the pack ice), where the ships can't search?"

 

Japan's whale meat market has been slashing prices since 2002 and still the general public has not taken to eating whale meat on a regular basis.

Australia apologises to indigenous Stolen Generations

Montage photograph at www.crikey.com.au

Today the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia will apologise to indigenous traditional owners for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss, and especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, communities and their country. Parliament will resolve that the injustices of the past must never happen again.

Here is the full and historic text which was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

"Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australian.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have changed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country."

One NSW North Coast sorry day story

The Northern Rivers Echo last Thursday.

"I was taken in 1960 from a mission in Moree. I was two years old so I don't remember it… but I was told a gun was held at mummy's head".

That's how 49-year-old Lismore woman Priscilla Wightman described the traumatic forced separation from her parents in the lead-up to next week's national apology by the federal government to members of Australia's stolen generation.

Priscilla – along with other local members of the stolen generation, their family and supporters – will travel to Canberra for the sorry ceremony at Parliament House next Wednesday.

A member of the Lismore Aboriginal Justice Group and Lismore People for Reconciliation, Priscilla did not mince words about what the day meant for her and others of the stolen generation."

Well duh, M'lud

Soon to retire Australian Chief Justice of the High Court, Murray Gleeson, predicts that attempts by governments to divide water rights among states, businesses and individuals would inevitably spill into the courts.

 

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald this week he said; "If someone asked me to predict - and said it was income tax 30 years ago, and it is immigration cases now - I would say in 30 years from now it will be water … When there is an important topic of public policy and the likelihood of government regulation, then lawyers are likely to get involved, too."

 

No doubt about it. Years of tertiary education, more years in legal practice, hundreds of hours on the Bench, and a judge comes out with a polished thought on something that has been bl**dy obvious to the hoi polloi on the NSW North Coast for yonks.

Ain't education and a decent income wunnerful?

NSW North Coast battening down the hatches today

There will be little boating or fishing on parts of the NSW North Coast this afternoon. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) weather warning for today.

 

"PRIORITY
Coastal Waters Wind Warning
For NSW Waters North of Wooli and South of Ulladulla.
Issued at 4:10 am EDT on Tuesday 12 February 2008

Synoptic situation
High over the Tasman Sea directing an easterly flow tending northerly in the south. A cold front expected to affect the far southern coast overnight Tuesday before continuing further north on Wednesday, whilst a low pressure system expected to develop off the coast near the Queensland/NSW border Tuesday afternoon or evening.

Gale Warning
For the Far North Coast, from Point Danger to Cape Byron

E/SE wind 20/30 knots increasing to 30/40 knots in the afternoon or evening. Sea 2 to 3 metres rising 3 to 4 metres. Swell of 1.5 to 2 metres increasing to about 3 metres later.

Strong Wind Warning
For the Far North Coast, from Cape Byron to Wooli

E/SE wind increasing to 20/30 knots in the afternoon. Sea rising to 2 to 3 metres, on a swell of 1.5 to 2 metres.-----

Please be aware
Wind gusts can be a further 40 percent stronger than the averages given here, and maximum waves may be up to twice the height."

 

Peter Singer argues that whaling and lethal whale research are unethical

The Japan Times ran this opinion piece under the rather inapt title Hypocrisy weakens West's whaling protests.

 

Peter Singer, an Australian professor of bioethics at Princeton University, wrote this:

"I did not argue that whaling should stop because whales are endangered. I knew that many expert ecologists and marine biologists would make that claim. Instead, I argued that whales are social mammals with big brains, capable of enjoying life and of feeling pain — and not only physical pain, but very likely also distress at the loss of one of their group.

Whales cannot be humanely killed — they are too large, and even with an explosive harpoon, it is difficult to hit the whale in the right spot. Moreover, whalers do not want to use a large amount of explosive, because that would blow the whale to pieces, while the whole point is to recover valuable oil or flesh. So harpooned whales typically die slowly and painfully.

Causing suffering to innocent beings without an extremely weighty reason for doing so is wrong. If there were some life-or-death need that humans could meet only by killing whales, perhaps the ethical case against it could be countered. But there is no essential human need that requires us to kill whales. Everything we get from whales can be obtained without cruelty elsewhere. Thus, whaling is unethical."

Time for Rudd Government to look Howard's NT Intervention squarely in the face

It is no use pussy footing around the issue. John Howard's NT Intervention was a thinly disguised attempt to quash new native title applications on affected land, a grab at indigenous community assets and a dress rehearsal for controlling the income of all Australian welfare recipients.

It is based on 1940s-style racism and bigotry.

In The Age today a call went out for the Rudd Government to overhaul the legislation that it cravenly voted for when in Opposition.

 

"A GOVERNMENT human rights watchdog has called for an overhaul of the landmark emergency intervention legislation to remove "punitive and racist" provisions that discriminate against Aborigines.

A report prepared by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found that the "racially based legislation" contravenes a number of international human rights conventions and the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act.

The Age believes the report outlines a 10-point program on how to unscramble the legislation and endorses moves by the Government to reimpose permits, reinstate the work-for-the-dole scheme, known as CDEP, and provide a strategy to close the life expectancy gap for indigenous people.----

"Tom Calma, the commissioner responsible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice issues and author of the report, said yesterday: "The whole intervention is questionable, especially the racist way it was imposed on Aboriginal people."

While declining to discuss the contents of the report, he said there was a problem with the legislation because "it contravened most of the international conventions Australia had signed up to … There will be a lot of detail and arguments identifying what changes need to be made."

It's the little things that finally drive you mad

Nearly chocked on my morning cuppa yesterday - I kid you not.

ABC News Radio broadcast Liberals leader Brendan Nelson saying that he was the most important person Kevin Rudd should negotiate with about wording of the apology to the Stolen Generation.

Not the Stolen Generation, not indigenous leaders or their communities - just Brendan should be the main focus.

The mind boggles at how little most Coalition MPs understand.

Little Brennie's statement was so 'out there' that it deserves a link. 

 

Almost knocked over a beer at dinner that night - my oath I did.

ABC TV showed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd beaming from the box as he assured us all that privatising the NSW power industry was good for Australia.

In one fell swoop betraying Labor Party principles and NSW voters.

Rudders support was such a 'rat out' that it also deserves a link for posterity.

 

Of course it's always the minor things which drive you screaming from the room - too right.

All night with that new, bright blue solid ABC1 logo, winking and blinking and intruding on every televised scene. Aaaggh!

Wondering exactly where Japan might be made answerable for its Southern Ocean whale kill? Here's one venue Australia may be considering

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea online information.

 

"The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was opened for signature at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 10 December 1982. It entered into force 12 years later, on 16 November 1994. A subsequent Agreement relating to the implementation of Part XI of the Convention was adopted on 28 July 1994 and entered into force on 28 July 1996. This Agreement and Part XI of the Convention are to be interpreted and applied together as a single instrument.

The origins of the Convention date from 1 November 1967 when Ambassador Arvid Pardo of Malta addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations and called for "an effective international regime over the seabed and the ocean floor beyond a clearly defined national jurisdiction". This led to the convening, in 1973, of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which after nine years of negotiations adopted the Convention.

The Convention establishes a comprehensive legal framework to regulate all ocean space, its uses and resources. It contains, among other things, provisions relating to the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone and the high seas. It also provides for the protection and preservation of the marine environment, for marine scientific research and for the development and transfer of marine technology. One of the most important parts of the Convention concerns the exploration for and exploitation of the resources of the seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (the Area). The Convention declares the Area and its resources to be "the common heritage of mankind". The International Seabed Authority, established by the Convention, administers the resources of the Area.

Part XV of the Convention lays down a comprehensive system for the settlement of disputes that might arise with respect to the interpretation and application of the Convention. It requires States Parties to settle their disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention by peaceful means indicated in the Charter of the United Nations. However, if parties to a dispute fail to reach a settlement by peaceful means of their own choice, they are obliged to resort to the compulsory dispute settlement procedures entailing binding decisions, subject to limitations and exceptions contained in the Convention.

The mechanism established by the Convention provides for four alternative means for the settlement of disputes: the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Court of Justice, an arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VII to the Convention, and a special arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VIII to the Convention.

A State Party is free to choose one or more of these means by a written declaration to be made under article 287 of the Convention and deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations (declarations made by States Parties under article 287).

If the parties to a dispute have not accepted the same settlement procedure, the dispute may be submitted only to arbitration in accordance with Annex VII, unless the parties otherwise agree."

 

Both New Zealand and Australia have previously used the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to stop Japan's overfishing of Southern Bluefin Tuna.

Exclusive Brethren fleece the public purse

The Sydney Morning Herald (11/2/2008) reports that a secret review by the federal Education Department reveals how the Exclusive Brethren and other organisations that have been identified as receiving an already too-generous share of government funding are exploiting a loophole to claim even more money from taxpayers - simply by building more campuses.

The report shows the Exclusive Brethren to be the "biggest winner" in this rort by establishing 16 campuses around NSW.

The MET School at Meadowbank, run by the Brethren, is an example of what the Education Department sees as schools getting an unfair advantage. The MET School is the parent school for the other 15 campuses. Only one of these, at Kellyville, is within 50 kilometres of the parent school. One, Lavington, is 600 kilometres away in Albury. If they were called new schools, they would not qualify for the same generous funding. But as "campuses", they keep it.

The department is critical of the "inequities" being entrenched because these schools, under a deal struck with the Howard government, have had their funding maintained at the same level as before the SES system was introduced in 2001.

The overfunding has cost taxpayers more than $2 billion over four years and, according to the review, will cost $2.7 billion over the next four-year funding cycle, starting next year.

Despite having previously criticised the Funding Maintained system as unfair, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, locked Labor into keeping it before the federal election.

The Department of Education's internal review of the funding for private schools was commissioned by the Howard government and completed last year.

The Rudd Government refused to release it to the Herald under a freedom of information request. The leaked report recommends dealing with the extra funding by gradually taking money away from many schools until they receive their correct entitlement.

When John Howard was Prime Minister he had meetings with senior members of the Brethren. Why? Perhaps the sect, which does not allow its followers to vote, but has been linked to funding and advertising campaigns supporting the Liberal Party was getting a few tips on the rort directly from the horse's mouth.

Read the Herald's report at:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/loophole-keeps-schools-in-clover/2008/02/10/1202578600919.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

NRMA making limited ex-gratia payments to some policyholders affected by NSW North Coast flooding

According to The Northern Star the "NRMA announced it would make ex-gratia payments to about 40 policy-holders whose homes were damaged in the flood, but were not eligible for an insurance payout because the company, like most others, did not cover flood.

NSW claims manager William Reilly said the payment would be the same as if the homes were covered for flood damage. However, that did not mean NRMA covered floods."

 

This is welcome news, but many other people are still waiting for resolution of claims lodged with other insurance companies.

Page MP Janelle Saffin praised the NRMA and invited "People with outstanding flood insurance problems can contact me on 6621 9909."

 

Finally, a local member who actually cares.

Barack dances in a policy vacumn to the tune of money, money, money

Watching the US race for presidential nomination, it is fascinating to observe the almost complete lack of stated policy or real political goals. 

To an outsider it seems that both Democrat and Republican candidates view dollars to be as important as delegates.

According to the Obama for America team its fundraising had produced US$7,596,326 between 5th and 7th February.

American politics is certainly a moneyed sport.

 

Here's the latest fundraising e-mail from the Obama camp yesterday.

"We just learned that we won all three contests today -- in Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington State.

We've now won 18 out of 28 states, with New Mexico still in the balance.

What's more, we also estimate that we at least doubled our delegate lead today.

Our momentum is strong, but another round of tough contests is about to begin.

Tomorrow, Democrats will caucus in Maine. And on Tuesday, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia will have their turn.

To win, we need to bring as many people into the process as possible. We're pushing towards 500,000 donors this year by March 4th, when Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont vote.

Now is the time to make your first online donation of $25 -- if you do, it will be matched by another supporter, doubling your impact:

https://donate.barackobama.com/match

This race is still extremely close, and we need your support to remain competitive.

Thank you for making this possible.

Barack"

Frank Sartor tries to finally kill-off local government

The Northern Rivers Echo reported last Thursday on Sartor's mad plan to completely control major regional development from Sydney or locally through his little mates club.
This plan now includes the Minister taking complete control of all developer contribution funds normally held by councils.
It is obvious that the Iemma Government has a death wish.

"Under proposed reforms of the state's planning laws, the planning minister can agree to a 20-storey high-rise building in the middle of Lismore or Ballina and the local council would have absolutely no say.

That is just one of the alarming scenarios facing all mayors on the Northern Rivers – and throughout the state – which sparked a crisis meeting in Sydney recently attended by over 100 mayors including those from Lismore, Ballina, Richmond Valley and Kyogle.

Late last year Mr Sartor announced the proposed changes, which are designed to reduce processing times of development applications, and introduce a new system for approving development applications. It also decreases the amount of money big developers have to contribute to local government by up to 40 per cent.

The mayors fear that local council decision-making will be affected and the reduction in developer contributions (called Section 94 funds) could make community facilities such as new pools and playgrounds unaffordable.

Kyogle mayor Ernie Bennett, the president of the Northern Rivers Regional Organisation of Councils (NOROC), said the changes would undermine local democracy by taking many of the checks and balances out of the planning system.......

"The package of changes gives more power to unelected planning panels and private certifiers, and sets a target of allowing up to half of all new development to be approved by private certifiers using a 'one size fits all' checklist," Cr Bennett said. "That will be a significant change and will put the future character of our communities at risk."

Cr Bennett said the NSW Government's plan to slash developer contributions posed a great threat to small regional communities who relied on those funds to build vital social facilities."

Whale meat market stagnates in Japan but still it hunts in the Southern Ocean

Asahi.com reported the following yesterday.

"Japan's research whaling has long been criticized from around the world as commercial whaling in disguise. Now, research whaling faces a domestic blow--stagnant sales of whale meat."

It went on to say that despite an increase in whale kill numbers and the amount of whale meat supplied to the domestic market jumping by 30% between 2005-2006, the Japanese Government sponsored Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) had to reduce it's wholesale whale meat price by 20%.

The Institute now appears to be seriously in debt to the Government.

 

The Japan Times online also featured an article yesterday condemning the current practice of killing whale calves and lactating females. 

 

While the European Union, never happy with Japan's 2008 whale kill quota increase, has now called for a unified stance on whaling.

 

The current state of play is that the population of Japan is not regularly eating whale meat even with a price decrease and lethal 'scientific' research is not financially viable in its own right.

So why does Japan continue its annual lethal research in the Southern Ocean, when non-lethal methodology is likely to cost less and be just as effective?

Why does the Japanese Government continue to allow and subsidise a whale hunt which is not paying its way and reimbursing grants given to ICR ?

If whale meat is not enjoying high sales for domestic human consumption, where is this whale meat going? Is it being stockpiled or is it being converted into pet food?

Estimates of the annual worth of the whale meat industry show that someone's making an end product profit, but who?

Australia and the rest of the world deserve an answer from the Government of Japan.

Two Australians go to court to censor Google but dynamic Internet beats them

Two South Yarra real estate agents, from the firm Castran Gilbert, are suing Google for the removal of allegedly defamatory material (concerning that firm's agent dealings with a single disabled person) shown on the results page when using an ordinary Google search.

Google Inc. has since denied public access via it's search engine to the primary material/article.

 

Until these men went to court I had never heard of any person connected with this court case.

However my curiosity was piqued. I found that typing one name into the search box and three mouse clicks yielded a result. I was able to read the entire original article from a secondary source.

 

Thus proving that i) the real estate agents have unnecessarily highlighted the alleged defamation they want suppressed and ii) the Internet is so large and dynamic that it is almost impossible to remove any information once it is posted.

 

I guess the last laugh belongs to the original article's author.

Land

I had reason the other day to pull out the land title deeds for the family farm. It is a Torrens title, a very common form of land deed in Australia. It contains such things as the address and a description of the land in the form of lot/ section/plan.
On looking out my window I reflected on how little of what was written on that piece of paper was actually related to what I was seeing before me, and decided that it is an artificial construct that relates to our society rather than the land itself.
My grandson had excitedly told me that dinosaurs had walked here, I couldn't argue with that.
This got me to thinking about ownership in our society. How could anyone claim definitive ownership of land or any object that was there before they were a twinkle in their father's and mother's eyes, and will be there generations after they have gone.
Perhaps in the light of what we are finding our about the planet, life systems, greenhouse problems etc, we should re-think our language and our use of it.
I think stewardship might be a better word and concept suited to our times. This has rights attached to it as well as responsibilities.
I for one am aiming to hand this small plot on to future generations with the best biodiversity of native flora and fauna I can and still be economically viable. I am amazed at the number of people who believe that the society they live in and its economy have nothing to do with the environment that supports them. Who don't understand that if that fails so do they. Perhaps I should spend less time on the tractor, it gives you too much time to think.

Only the rich and trendy eat whale meat in Japan?

Although support for whaling is still strong in Japan according to a recent telephone survey conducted by Asahi Shimbun, the younger generation is not as enthusiastic. 

 

"Consumption of whale meat has decreased to 30 grams (one ounce) per person -- equivalent to a slice of sashimi -- compared with 2.5 kilograms (five and a half pounds) in the early 1980s."

This domestic consumption had in fact been dropping well before the 1980s and the introduction of the international ban on commercial whaling.

 

Among Japanese restauranters the enthusiasm for whale meals has been tempered by the fact that whale meat has not been available to ordinary people for a long time and many have not tasted whale meat.

 

It has been reported that Japan's whale meat industry generated the equivalent of around AUS $74 million annually by 2006.

Either this is making for incredibly expensive meals that only the rich can afford or whale meat and by-product are being used by industry for other purposes - pet food perhaps?

 

Might be time for those with companion animals to contact Australian pet food companies and seek assurances that they are not buying generic seafood product from Japan to include in local cat and dog food.

Will Rudd's razor gang rein-in ASIO's building plans?

Somewhere on the national books there appears to be a plan to supply ASIO and ONA with a new building to the tune of an estimated $460 million.

The spooks are not exactly living in squalor at present, so will Rudd and Tanner put this new building on hold for a year or two as they try to rein-in government spending?

I'm one voter who fervently hopes so.

Why would ASIO need extra office space anyway? When they assist with common law kidnapping they are more likely to use public parks and private homes, according to court records.

Kevin Rudd returns to NSW North Coast to inspect flood damage

Having Labor's Justine Elliot and Janelle Saffin as federal MPs for Richmond and Page seems to be paying dividends.
Kevin Rudd has again visited the North Coast and yesterday, as Prime Minister, he inspected flood damage in the Kyogle area.
Locals are hopeful that this on-the-spot look around will result in more funding for flood damage repairs to infrastructure, roads and businesses.
With Elliot and Saffin on the case I expect a shoe-in. On ya!

Japan's gory 'science' in pictures

http://www.theage.com.au/

Photos taken by Australian Goverment of the 2008 Antarctic whale kill.

Australian Government to extend its surveillance after seeing whale mother and calf kill

Japan's whalers managed to shoot themselves in the foot after Australia's hunt monitoring vessel observed the whaling vessel Yushin Maru 2 dragging a slaughtered Minke whale and calf onboard.

 

The Australian Government now intends to extend its Antarctic surveillance and evidence gathering.

 

"Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the pictures released today support Australia's position.

"I think it's explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," he said.

"To claim that this is in anyway scientific is to continue the charade that surrounded this issue from day one."

ABC News article and video link.

2008 Australian society snapshot makes for interesting reading

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released Yearbook Australia 2008.

It shows that half of the Australian population is on the wrong side of thirty-nine years of age.

That we are living longer, are reasonably healthy, often a bit overweight, are mostly not having enough babies to replace ourselves once we die, care more about the state of our neighbourhoods than the big issues and continue our love affair with the family car.

Economic inequalities haven't really been reduced, renewable energy is still marking time, and even though most of us now recycle, we still have a long way to go to reduce the amount of household waste we produce.

For all the details on everything from natural hazards through to government and the economy go to:

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/1301.0?OpenDocument

 

 

I'm mad as hell, Mizz Bishop

In the long lead into the November 2007 federal election the Labor Party promised that if it were elected to govern it would abolish Australian Workplace Agreements.

Every Labor candidate (old or new) repeated that promise.

Opinion polls taken during the same period showed that most voters were concerned about existing industrial relations law.

Now Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop, her leader and a long conga line of Coalition hacks are saying that the Rudd Government doesn't have a mandate to abolish AWAs and that they will use their Senate majority to block any legislation to remove these agreements.

Mizz Bishop, you are either the most cynical of MPs or you are seriously deluded.

Either way, you better not pass my way or you'll get a bl**dy ear full.

Isn't it enough that your mob stuck taxpayers with an $1,111 election loss booze-up bill.

Do you have to act like addled drongos in Federal Parliament as well? 

A Japanese perspective on Antarctic whaling

UPI Asia Online reported yesterday on Antarctic whaling and the Japanese perspective.
It appears that there is some domestic questioning of the right to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean, but the Government of Japan is holding out for concessions which allow it to increase its coastal whale kill elsewhere.
By canvassing a suggestion of concessions, the US-based Pelham Charitable Trust has opened Pandora's Box and encouraged the intransigence of Japan's whalers.

An Australian perspective can be found in The Daily Telegraph today.
Along with this article and photo of a slaughtered female Minke whale and calf.

The Australian Government continues to monitor Japan's Antarctic whale hunt with a view to taking legal action.
It should be noted that Japan is not conducting indigenous subsistence whaling in the Southern Ocean. This is a large-scale commercial kill for profit under the guise of 'scientific' research.

The Barack Obama 'Super Tuesday' dog and pony show

In 2007 I found myself on the Obama for America campaign team's electronic mailing list.

Since then I have received innumerable e-mails from almost everyone associated with Democrat presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama, except his family dog.

I have even been thanked for my 'help' in the Massachusetts primary. Which came as a complete surprise as I had no idea that I had been so busy!

At the end of Super Tuesday I received this e-mail from an obviously exultant team.

 

E-mail text

"The votes will be counted into the night and into tomorrow, but today we won states and we won delegates in every part of the country.

As of right now, we have won more states and delegates than Senator Clifton. It's a remarkable achievement we can all be proud of.

Tonight, we know one thing for sure -- our time has come, our movement is real, and change is coming to America.

At this moment in history, the stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result.

This time must be different.

There will be those who say it cannot be done. But we know what we have seen and what we believe -- that when ordinary people come together we can still do extraordinary things.

Yes, we can.

Thank you so much,

Barack"

Partial solar eclipse over NSW North Coast today

"People from Brisbane to Adelaide will see varying degrees of the astronomical event in the afternoon with the most dramatic effects observed in Sydney, Canberra and Hobart. Sightings will begin at 2.19pm (AEST) in Brisbane and conclude at 4.27pm (AEDT) in Canberra."

On the NSW North Coast we can expect to see between 6-14% of this eclipse as the moon passes in front of the sun.

Coalition hopes for caveats to that apology?

The weight of public opinion has finally forced Liberals Leader Brendan Nelson, spitting and kicking, towards 'in principal' support for an apology to the indigenous Stolen Generation.

He now wants every Coalition MP to be heard on this matter before it goes to a vote by Parliament.

I suspect that what Brennie is really after is an opportunity for right-wing MPs to slip in a few on-the-record caveats to this historic apology. Hoping that a few spoilers will take the sting out of the event and lessen its national impact.

The Liberal Party has not covered itself in glory so far, in relation to either the apology or recognising the past injustices which make this apology necessary.

Look 'ere! It's the Saffin-Cansdell dog fight

The Daily Examiner today reported on the dispute between Federal Labor's Janelle Saffin and NSW Nationals'  Steve Cansdell as to who exactly arranged a meeting between canegowers and the NSW Minister for Roads, with the Federal Minister for Primary Industries also attending.

The NSW Minister supports Ms. Saffin's version of events.

Sorry, Mr. Cansdell - you are not all that believable.

On the Lower Clarence you already have a reputation for running to the media and taking credit for funding obtained through the local community's own lobbying efforts.

The fact of the matter is that Ms. Saffin has been steadily delivering for the Page electorate since her election in November 2007.

Just yesterday she confirmed a hefty funding boost for Grafton District Meals-on-Wheels, which provided more than 42,000 meals to aged and incapacitated people in the Clarence Valley district in 2007.

The Daily Examiner yesterday:

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3762703&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

Another rate rise announced by the Reserve Bank. Are there more to come?

With so many consecutive interest rate rises since 1996, the latest media release from the Reserve Bank offers only limited hope that this will be the last cash rate increase of 2008.

Read it and make up your own mind before deciding on the next major purchase.

 

STATEMENT BY GLENN STEVENS, GOVERNOR

MONETARY POLICY

 

"At its meeting today, the Board decided to increase the cash rate by 25 basis points to 7.0 per cent.

Recent information points to significant inflation pressures. CPI inflation on a year‑ended basis picked up to 3 per cent in the December quarter, with underlying measures around 3½ per cent. This was a little higher than was expected a few months ago. Indicators of demand remained strong through the second half of 2007, and reports of high capacity usage and shortages of suitable labour persist. In the short term, inflation is likely to remain relatively high and will probably rise further in year‑ended terms, though the Bank expects it to moderate somewhat next year.

The Board took careful note of recent events abroad and developments in financial markets. The world economy is slowing and it now appears likely that global growth will be below trend in 2008. Recent trends in world commodity markets suggest, however, that Australia's terms of trade are likely to rise further.

The pressures in short-term money markets seen late last year have eased in recent weeks, but sentiment in international capital and equity markets remains fragile. In Australia, financial intermediaries have passed on higher costs to their customers over the past couple of months. There has also been some tightening of lending standards to risky borrowers, a process which may yet have further to go.

These developments, together with the effects of earlier changes to monetary policy, can be expected to exert a moderating influence on private demand in Australia over the period ahead. But given the extent of pressure on capacity and the build up in inflation, a significant slowing in demand from its recent pace is likely to be necessary to reduce inflation over time.

Having weighed both the international and domestic information available, the Board concluded that a tighter monetary policy setting was needed now. In future meetings, the Board will continue to evaluate whether the stance of policy will be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to the 2-3 per cent target."

Caroline Overington still M.I.A.

Journalist Caroline Overington appeared again in The Australian online opinion pages briefly in December 2007.

This is the last Google reference I can find after her spectacular, intrusive participation in the November 2007 federal election process which caused that newspaper to issue a public apology.

Overington's career is shaping up to be the lasting journalistic train wreck of the Howard era.

All the other media neo-cons are slowly clawing their way back towards relevancy.

Except for the likes of Piers Akerman (The Daily Telegraph), Gerard Henderson (The Sydney Morning Herald) and Janet Albrechtsen (The Australian) who are irredeemable if their latest efforts are any indication.

Nine tipping points for irreversible effects of climate change

The Independent yesterday reported on the nine tipping points which may cause global warming to run out of control.

 

"Our findings suggest that a variety of tipping elements could reach their critical point in this century under human-induced climate change," said Professor Timothy Lenton, of the University of East Anglia, who led the study."

 

Irreversible changes

* Arctic sea ice: some scientists believe that the tipping point for the total loss of summer sea ice is imminent.

* Greenland ice sheet: total melting could take 300 years or more but the tipping point that could see irreversible change might occur within 50 years.

* West Antarctic ice sheet: scientists believe it could unexpectedly collapse if it slips into the sea at its warming edges.

* Gulf Stream: few scientists believe it could be switched off completely this century but its collapse is a possibility.

* El Niño: the southern Pacific current may be affected by warmer seas, resulting in far-reaching climate change.

* Indian monsoon: relies on temperature difference between land and sea, which could be tipped off-balance by pollutants that cause localised cooling.

* West African monsoon: in the past it has changed, causing the greening of the Sahara, but in the future it could cause droughts.

* Amazon rainforest: a warmer world and further deforestation may cause a collapse of the rain supporting this ecosystem.

* Boreal forests: cold-adapted trees of Siberia and Canada are dying as temperatures rise.

U.S. Big Brother is watching Australia but doesn't like what it sees

The very peaceful and law-abiding Port Phillip Bay anti-channel dredging protest group Blue Wedges Coalition has turned up on the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence's international threat list, according to Richard Baker of The Age.

 

"Blue Wedges is included in an Office of Naval Intelligence's worldwide threat to shipping document, which details active violence against shipping, credible threats to vessels, or situations that have the potential to develop into direct threats.------

Blue Wedges joins Greenpeace as the only groups included in the threat list under the section headed: Environmental and Economic Non-State Activist Groups.

"Protesters plan to surround the dredger (Queen of the Netherlands) as it arrives in Port Phillip Bay, Australia, on 02 Aug (sic) to begin a controversial trial dredging project for the Port of Melbourne Corporation," the Office of Naval Intelligence warned.

"The Greenpeace ship (Rainbow Warrior) is due in port the same week but Greenpeace denies they are planning to block dredging operations. The Blue Wedges Coalition, which is leading the opposition, is consulting lawyers over possible action in the Supreme Court to block the trial dredging."

The Age article last Monday week:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/investigations/blue-wedges-tagged-with-sea-pirates/2008/01/27/1201368944836.html

 

It would seem that the Bush Administration finds democracy Australian-style just a little too heady for its neo-con taste.

 

Greenpeace also appears to be a sensitive topic generally with U.S. Intelligence.

When North Coast Voices began to mention Greenpeace and the protest against Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters, it received a rather interesting site visit from the Naval Ocean Systems Center (Joint Intelligence Center Pacific/RDON) out of Hawaii at ISP 198.201.23.#, confirmed by WHO.IS as a U.S. Dept of Defense ISP address.

Aloha, boys and girls.

 

Brendan Nelson hoist with Liberal Party's own petard

I found this The Sydney Morning Herald take on Brendan Nelson's reluctance to fully support an apology to the Stolen Generation a perfect example of where semantics and pedantry have led the Liberal Party of Australia.

 

"Nelson has argued, however, that we do not claim credit today for the heroics at Gallipoli so why take responsibility for taking children from their families?

These themes last met seven years ago when the Howard government scaled new heights in pedantry by using mathematics to deny the existence of the stolen generation. In a submission to a Senate inquiry, the then-minister John Herron argued fewer than 10 per cent of Aboriginal children were taken from their families, either wrongfully or "for good reason".

Therefore: "There was never a 'generation' of stolen children."

Three weeks later, John Howard was in Turkey for the 85th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

"Thus we come to this place at this hour on this day to observe not only a dawn but a dusk," the prime minister said in his dawn service speech. "For dusk has all but fallen on that great-hearted generation of Australians who fought here."

Demographic statistics for 1915 were not as detailed as they are today but, back then, Australia's population was about 5 million. Based on the best information available, slightly more than 1 million were aged between 15 and 35 years. During the nine months of the Gallipoli campaign, between 55,000 and 60,000 Australians were landed on the peninsula, neither 10 per cent of the whole population or those of military age.

Based on the then-government's logic, there was never a Gallipoli "generation" either.

Try mounting that argument and see how popular you'd be."

 

The Liberals are fast becoming a laughing stock for their convoluted reasoning.

Poll on Rudd's 2020 vision

It was great to see Rudders come up with the notion of a national summit to map out an agreed national direction for Australia beyond the next electoral cycle.

It appears that I am not alone in approving of the Australia 2020 Summit.

Granny Herald ran a poll yesterday which showed 75% of those who answered thought that Kevin Rudd's summit was a 'great idea'.

Let's hope both he and co-chair, Melbourne Uni vice-chancellor Glyn Davis, have a workable outcome to show us all by the end of April.

Leader of the Opposition Brendan 'we'll all be rooned' Nelson as usual is fence sitting and hasn't decided if he will attend this summit.

NSW North Coast Area Health Service tries 'the cheque is in the mail' routine

CEO Chris Crawford and the North Coast Area Health Service are obviously having problems colouring in between the lines of the recent announcement that some public hospital beds would be withdrawn from daily use and nursing shift numbers would be decreased.

 

"AT 5.10pm yesterday members of the New South Wales Nurses Association were still sitting by their fax machine waiting for an explanation from the North Coast Area Health Service on its plans to reallocate 86 North Coast hospital beds, including 12 from Grafton and Maclean, as surge beds.

They didn't get it.

Nurses Association organiser Susan Pearce said she had been told the Health Service had sent the material electronically about 4.45pm, but it hadn't arrived by the 5pm deadline set by a disputes committee.

"They were going to implement this plan on Tuesday, so I wouldn't have thought it would take them that long to send us the material," she said."

The Daily Examiner article on Saturday:

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3762539&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

 

Ms. Pearce is being diplomatic here. This was so obviously local health policy on the run, that I doubt whether anything was in place except the most rudimentary moves to close down beds and reduce shift numbers. 

Why is it that only ratepayers and local government are responsible for disposal of all wasteful or inappropriate packaging of consumer goods?

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief. It doesn't matter who buys that soft drink or hamburger on the NSW North Coast. Eventually the throw-away bottle, styrofoam box or paper bag will be disposed of in landfill, using the resources of local government and money collected from local ratepayers.

So why is it that the manufacturers of food and drink are not responsible for the enduring forms of packaging that they use?

That bottle or styrofoam container lasts well beyond its immediate purpose, and either litters our streets or adds to our landfill refuse volume.

 

Clean Up Australia's Ian Keirnan has the right idea when he calls for the introduction of a national drinks container refund scheme.

It has always been frustrating to watch the successful refund scheme operating in South Australia and know that there was no such scheme available to us on the North Coast.

 

"The organisation's annual rubbish report, for 2006-07 "showed nearly 40 per cent of the 8000 tonnes of rubbish collected on Clean Up Australia Day was used drink bottles and cans.

Chairman Ian Kiernan said climate change meant Australia had to change its ways, with recycling reform an important part of that."

 

So how about it, Prime Minister Rudd, are you up to tackling the multinationals over packaging rubbish?

Is there no-one brave enough to send Peter Garrett to the backbenches?

Peter Garrett attracts bad press like a magnet and almost appears to go out of his way to create conditions for the political gaffe.

Under fire for his volte-face agreement with the Coalition on Gunn's pulp mill proposal during the election campaign, he then went on as the new Environment Minister to endorse another disaster in the making - Port Phillip Bay dredging.

In between, he managed a large and very public foot in the mouth over Labor's future policy intentions.

Somewhere in all this he also cocked-up his part in organising Australia's monitoring of this year's Antarctic whaling season.

Now it seems Garrett thinks he can finalise the Bay dredging issues by looking at documents "over the weekend". At the same time putting Gunn's mill to bed by approving the environmental plan in stages, while hoping Australia doesn't notice by announcing it after 5pm on a Friday night.

The man is shaping up as Federal Labor's great galah. Gawd knows what will happen to this minister once February 13 comes around and he has to get to his feet in the House of Reps.

By then he'll have probably brought Labor's entire environmental platform crashing down.

Especially as Rudd has just given him responsibility for community and household climate change action, greenhouse gas abatement and energy efficiency.

What on earth was the Prime Minister thinking?

Morrie wants to sell the farm and Sussex Street gets very nervous

The NSW Labor Government is still pushing ahead with the privatisation of power supplies in the state.

It's rumoured that sitting government MPs are rather irate at the voter flack that Morris Iemma has brought down on their heads.

The Sussex Street party machine is also worried about surviving the next state election, if the voter mood remains the same.

They should all be worried, every man-jack. This has to be the stupidest political move that Iemma and Costa have made, in a growing list of stupid moves.

I hear that the Opposition is down on its knees every night praying that privatisation goes ahead, as they see it delivering votes and cash when they win government.

  

Bundjalung artists exhibit this month at Ballina

Two Catfish Nesting by Noel Kenneth Caldwell. Photograph from The Northern Rivers Echo.

Indigenous artists from the Jambama Art Shed in Casino are taking their art to the coast for a special exhibition at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina, aptly titled Branching Out.
As well as traditional canvas paintings, there are painted boomerangs, clap sticks, sculptures, pyrographic pieces and designer wall hangings. There are also sewn items including bags, place mats and cushion covers, all with original hand printed designs.
Branching Out opens at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina on Friday, February 1, and runs until February 24. Artworks are also on display at the Jambama Art Shed Gallery Space in Casino, which is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm."

The other side of the 'sorry' coin: bitter bile spews forth

This swam across my screen yesterday from a site describing itself as " Australia's eminent source of news, politics and commentary. Make iServ your trusted resource for accuracy and the good old Aussie fair go!"

It seems this blog has been swallowing Liberal Party memos whole for breakfast, with disastrous results.

 

"Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is about to say sorry to the alleged stolen generation, a generation of people who in reality simply don't understand that they all would have probably been dead by now if it wasn't for them being placed in foster homes - a bunch of ungrateful, resentful brats who are keen on big payouts at the hands of bleeding hearted do-gooders in one of the greatest displays of double standards the current generation of Australians will witness."

Found at http://iserv.com.au/default.asp?t=485 

The National Indigenous Times on the 'sorry' question

The National Indigenous Times January 2008 editorial.

"The Rudd government's handling of the sorry saga over an apology and payment of compensation to members of the Stolen Generation represents both a step forward and a step backward.
And as any fifth grader will tell you, that adds up to not much progress at all.
The step forward is that a national apology will be delivered. Granted, for Indigenous Australians extracting the word 'sorry' must feel like drawing blood from a stone. But a belated apology is better than no apology at all.
The step backward is that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Indigenous affairs minister, Jenny Macklin have decided that no compensation will be forthcoming. That is deeply disappointing.
Of course, the practice of removal was primarily committed by state governments, so it is not the federal government's responsibility to compensate ALL Aboriginal people for the Stolen Generations outrage, even though some leadership from federal Labor on the issue would have been welcome.
But it is most certainly the federal government's responsibility in relation to the Northern Territory, which was under Commonwealth control until the late 1970s.
Sadly, politics got in the way of progress again.
Rudd simply did not want his Prime Ministership defined by an early act of 'generosity' towards 'the blacks'. While it may well have been the 'right thing to do', politics is about pragmatism and populism, not principle and leadership."
National Indigenous Times editorial in full:

http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/story.aspx?id=13781

 

The Australian legal system has recognised that compensation is due to individuals from the Stolen Generation.

 

"THE first stolen generation Aborigine to be given compensation has been awarded another $250,000 by a South Australian court.

Bruce Trevorrow was awarded $525,000 in compensation in August last year after a South Australian judge ruled the state falsely imprisoned him as a child and owed him a duty of care for pain and suffering.
Lawyers for Mr Trevorrow then returned to court seeking 50 years of interest on the compensation payment.
The lawyers argued Mr Trevorrow should receive an extra $800,000 but the SA Supreme Court, civil jurisdiction, today awarded him $250,000 in interest.
Mr Trevorrow was 13 months old in 1957 when a neighbour drove him from his Coorong family home, south-east of Adelaide, to Adelaide's Children's Hospital with stomach pains.
Two weeks later, under the authority of the Aborigines Protection Board, he was given to a woman, who later became his foster parent, without the permission of his natural parents.

He did not see his family again for 10 years--- "

News.com.au article yesterday:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23143865-29277,00.html

Frank Sartor's name is turning into a swear word on the NSW North Coast

The NSW North Coast has been under sustained population growth and demographic change for decades; as retirees, sea-changers and tree-changers look for their piece of coastal paradise.

Consequently demands on local government infrastructure have been relentlessly growing in relation to how many extra bodies there are per town or square kilometre and, although all groups profess satisfaction with their new lives, within five years they are demanding increased infrastructure and services.

Throughout this period there has been limited NSW Government assistance for local government. 

Indeed there has been considerable cost-shifting onto this lower tier of government at both state and federal level.

Now NSW Labor's Morris Iemma and Frank Sartor are intent on finally bringing the only truly immediate form of government available to us, local government, to its knees by depriving it of reasonable Section 94 developer contributions.

 

Genia McCaffery, President of the Local Government Association of NSW, reflects a widespread dissatisfaction with State Government.

 

"Local government usually negotiates as a first option, so it is a measure of how angry we are with the State Government's high-handed treatment that we are now proposing drastic action. On Wednesday 250 mayors, councillors and general managers from across NSW defied the State Government by vowing to refuse to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in community funds.

The State Government plans to slash the contributions developers are required to pay to councils - usually an amount per lot known as a Section 94 levy - to help fund the additional infrastructure that is needed to service the new population housed by the development.

Furthermore, the State Government plans to take control of the smaller contribution developers will have to pay rather than passing it on to the local council so that the council can use the money to build new roads, stormwater and drainage facilities, parks and sporting fields or to extend existing facilities such as libraries and community centres.

We argue that developers should not be able to walk away with huge profits from development, leaving councils with the cost of providing infrastructure to meet the needs of new residents. This burden is particularly onerous under the rate-pegging scheme, where our revenue from ratepayers is already restricted.-------

The Government is hiding behind the catchphrase of housing affordability. They argue that slashing contributions will take $50,000 to $60,000 off the price of a new home. In reality, developers contribute just $13,000 to $15,000 per house.

Does anyone really believe that developers will pass the $15,000 in savings on to new home owners? This Government is pandering to the interests of one group - developers, the same interest group that makes large contributions to party election funding."

The Sydney Morning Herald full opinion piece:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/councils-are-nearing-melting-point/2008/01/31/1201714145875.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 

Going toe-to-toe on the whaling issue in Tokyo

Japan versus the rest of the world is how the issue of 'scientific research' whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary is shaping up.

 

The U.S. based Pew Charitable Trusts through its environment group is now attempting to referee.

It called a two-day symposium in Tokyo and made this left field observation which may not meet with the approval of the International Whaling Commission.

"Tuiloma Neroni Slade, the chairman of the symposium, said a resolution of the row could include a recognition of wider hunting rights by Japan's coastal whalers, suspension of research whaling, and a limit on the number of animals that whaling nations can kill each year."

 

The Age yesterday reported on the Australia-Japan whaling impasse.

"Japan's prime minister insisted a bitter dispute over whaling won't hurt bilateral relations, a day after Australia expressed its disappointment as whalers resumed their hunt.----

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is in Tokyo and has held talks with Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who sought to downplay any diplomatic fallout from the dispute.

"The whaling issue is a matter of each country's circumstances," Fukuda told reporters after the meeting, during which the whaling standoff was discussed.

"It should not negatively influence diplomatic relations.

"It's important to address the whaling issue in a calm manner."

Smith said he was disappointed the whalers had resumed their hunt in the Southern Ocean, killing five minke whales hours after he arrived in Tokyo on Thursday."

Nelson and Turnbull: oh, what hyp-hyp-hypocrites

These last few days the airwaves have been full of Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson and wannabe leader Malcolm Turnbull rabbiting on about how the Howard Government had left a booming economy without a worry on the horizon. They both accuse the Labor Federal Treasurer Wayne Swann of putting a spin on talk of increasing inflationary pressures.

Hello? In the twelve months before the 2007 federal election almost every economist who gave a public opinion warned that the Howard Government needed to watch the growing trend towards inflation, as it presided over back-to-back interest rate rises.

Both these blokes need a good kick in the withers to bring them back on track to reality.

Did that resounding election loss teach them nothing?

Australian political financial disclosure returns for 2006-7 just released

Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) media release today.

 

"The 2006/07 annual financial disclosure returns from political parties, associated entities and donors have been released for public inspection.

The annual returns are on the Australian Electoral Commission's website at http://fadar.aec.gov.au/

The returns for the 2006/07 financial year include 49 political party returns, 218 associated entity returns and 194 donor returns. 

For the first time, people who engage in political expenditure are required to lodge a return.  Fifty-one political expenditure returns have been lodged for 2006/07.

Total receipts disclosed by political parties in the 2006/07 financial year were $127,218,316.76 compared to $74,556,334.55 for the 2005/06 annual returns.

For associated entities, the total declared receipts increased from $113,397,256.91 in 2005/06 to $637,938,063.70 in 2006/07 – largely as a result of the increase in the number of associated entities.

At this time last year, the AEC had received 80 political party returns, 89 associated entity returns and 317 donor returns. 
The increase in associated entity returns since last year can be attributed to the broadening of the definition of associated entity to include trade unions affiliated with the Australian Labor Party. 

The decrease in donor returns is a result of the new increased disclosure threshold (more than $10,300 for 2006/07) applying for the full financial year.  During the 2004/05 financial year, the last to use the old threshold, there were 1,286 donor returns. In 2005/06, when the new threshold applied for half the year, the number declined to 317 donor returns.

Attached is a fact sheet showing the basic disclosure requirements."

 

For those who love following the money trail, all the usual suspects plus more can be found using the search button at:

http://fadar.aec.gov.au/

Sen. Ted Kennedy on the campaign trail for Obama and asking for money

The emails received from Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign team have been a fascinating glimpse into the American political process as it is practised.

One of the marked differences from the Australian system is the constant drive for political donations from ordinary citizens.

Now Senator Ted Kennedy has said "I'm for Obama" and went on to (rather mistakenly) ask me for money yesterday.

What puzzles me [sly smile]. Where are Hillary's emails? Does Senator Clinton have all the campaign funding she needs? And why have no Republicans placed me on their mailing lists?

 

The email:

Dear [edited],   When I endorsed Barack Obama on Monday, I was also endorsing a candidate with the power to transform America.   As President Kennedy said in 1960, "It is time for a new generation of leadership."   This campaign is about a new generation of leadership today. A generation ready to be part of something bigger than themselves. A generation ready to change the country, and a generation ready to change the world.   I'm doing everything I can to elect Barack Obama. With less than a week before my state and 21 others make their voices heard, there is no time to lose.   Please join me by making a $50 donation now:   https://donate.barackobama.com/newgeneration   Like my son Patrick and my niece Caroline, I have found a new generation of leadership for America in Barack Obama -- and I hope you have too!   Sincerely,   Senator Edward M. Kennedy

It's time to speak up in Professor Garnaut's review of climate change issues and carbon trading

The government-sponsored Garnaut Review has committed to undertaking an extensive consultation process to encourage open and informed discussion on key climate change issues.

 

With less than an estimated one quarter of all Australian businesses currently attempting any form of climate change action, it seems that ordinary Australians might have to ginger the debate by making submissions to the Garnaut Review.

 

A strong demand by actual or future customers, for industry wide mid-term climate change targets, is one way to jerk the business community out of its present torpor.

 

Remember, approximately 50% of all Australians live within 7km of our coastline which is expected to take the early brunt of extreme climate change events.

Such extreme events won't just affect the value of houses but, in some cases, the actual value of the land on which they stand.

Climate Change Review Discussion Paper:

http://www.garnautreview.org.au/CA25734E0016A131/WebObj/FinancialServicesforManagingRisk-ClimateChangeandCarbonTradingIssuesPaper/$File/Financial%20Services%20for%20Managing%20Risk%20-%20Climate%20Change%20and%20Carbon%20Trading%20Issues%20Paper.pdf

 

Information on making submissions to the Review:

http://www.garnautreview.org.au/CA25734E0016A131/pages/submissions-financial-services

Kevin Rudd sprays for propaganda roaches and Brendan Nelson bombs

Rudders is a bit of a wonder. The election promises of Kevin 07 are being ticked off at a gratifying rate.

Now it's the turn of the former Howard Government propaganda juggernaut.

The Ministerial Committee for Government Communications is to be abolished and the Government Communications Unit is gone.

Government advertising is to be slashed. Advertising policy and practice are being redesigned -

hopefully with reference to the many calls for a more transparent disclosure of marketing costs.

I look forward to a life where government advertising doesn't constantly assault my senses with the bl**dy obvious or insult my intelligence with blatant lies.

Or am I living in a fool's paradise?

 

This week Brendan Nelson wants a preview of the Commonwealth Government's formal apology to indigenous Australians, to make sure that the government is not apologising for the wrong things. He worries that other matters are more important.

Is this Liberal Party buffoon serious? Will someone please put this bloke out of his misery by challenging his leadership.