A virgin birth?

Have organisers of the Catholic Church's World Youth Day 2008 achieved a small miracle with their selection of Sydney man Alfio Stuto to play the leading role in a performance of the Stations of the Cross?

Google reveals that before it was announced that Stuto, 27, was one of the four finalists in the running for the leading role he had no prior history in Googleland.

What? A 27 year old who doesn't have a Google track record?

Perhaps the Catholic church has pulled off the best long shot of the year. Then again, it could be that forces have been at work to ensure the church's selection has the appearance of a clean skin.

'Water poverty' - a case of back to the future

With Australian government at all levels looking to cost increases to the consumer as a way to off-set increasing demand for essential services, this scenario out of Britain does not reassure.

Nothing I have heard from our own politicians has truly come to grips with how increasing costs for water, electricity, gas and petrol will affect low-income families over the long-term or explained how limited and periodic government handouts to compensate for increases will actually avoid this type of Third World poverty trap.

 

According to BBC News last Saturday.

 

The number of people in "water poverty" will rise, says the water consumer watchdog for England and Wales.

The Consumer Council for Water uses the term for people whose water bills cost more than 3% of their income after tax.

It estimates a third of people living in the South West will fit this criteria by 2010.

If you had ever wondered if Brendan Nelson might be a fool, wonder no more...

Aunty's The Insiders on Sunday featured an interview with Coalition Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson.

 

Nelson as usual was all about the big picture and vital national issues.

That is if you delved deep enough under the half-truths and fairy floss.

It seems Little Brennie just knows that all's well with The Alliance even if Queenslanders are about to declare war on Texas, it's really O.K. for a prime minister to travel overseas if he has Liberal Party permission, an Opposition Leader will miraculously regain relevance by going walkabout or pretending to work at Coles, voters will believe this leader is genuine if he doesn't make a fuss about political donation rules, and whatever whoppers he tells will go down easily if he repeats them often enough.

Yeah mate - and the crows will fly backwards to Bourke on the day you show some political nous.

 

Here are the trite bits I liked the best.

 

"And I think what we've seen from President Bush and Kevin Rudd is a reassurance I think to Australians and the rest of the world that the alliance is strong, that the fundamentals of that alliance will continue, and at a personal level it would appear at least outwardly that Kevin Rudd and George Bush have hit it off, and that's in Australia's interest, and I think no one should be critical of that.

Although, I do sympathise with the Queenslanders who are a bit cranky about the idea of Mr Rudd conferring honorary Queensland membership to the President, but they'll debate that in Queensland."

 

"Well look the first thing Barrie is I think it is important that the Prime Minister, and a new Prime Minister, actually travel, we've got no problems with that at all."

 

"Yeah, a lot of it will. Obviously we've got some structure, in terms of places that we are going to, and functions that I will be attending and addressing, but you'll see me in servos and bagging groceries in supermarkets, and all of those sort of things that just, you know, connections with people in day-to-day life."

 

"but I don't think the average Australian wants to get too hung up in us spending too much time on issue [political donations]."

 

"You see you have got to remember, Barrie, we're the real deal."

 

"Again, I go back to our Liberal roots. We are men and women committed to building a better society based on small business, families, reward for hard work and sacrifice in every day life, and one of the key things for us is we need to broaden our base, we need to be a party that's attractive and resonates with every Australian, does matter where they live or whatever their circumstances, and when I'm sticking the groceries in the bags at Woollies and Coles, mate, that's what I'll be talking about."

Mob associated with Hillsong do a lot more harm than good

Surely, recent revelations about the activities of the Hillsong-associated Mercy Ministries requires a response from an Australian government department.

That Mercy Ministries avails itself of government funding for highly questionable motives is in itself a disgrace, but that no government department, and especially a cabinet member of the Rudd Government, has as yet stepped up to the plate and put this matter on the public record suggests this mob of bible-bashers continues to wield power that they ought not have.

Mercy Ministries' Peter Irvine initially reckoned "only (that's Irvine's wording, not mine!) three" women had negative experiences with Mercy Ministries. Irvine subsequently revised the number and said it was six. Come on Mr Irvine, spare us the crap. One is one too many!

US 08: Hillary replies to critics

Simply because I found myself on one of Barack Obama's mailing lists, I have from time to time posted his emails on North Coast Voices.

In a spirit of equal time, here is a piece from Hillary Clinton's team on her official website.

 

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton will lose New Hampshire and the race will be over
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton wins New Hampshire, defying the predictions and the polls

 

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton will lose the big states on Super Tuesday and the race will be over
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton wins the big states on Super Tuesday – and wins them by double digits

 

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton will lose Texas and possibly Ohio on March 4^th and the race will be over
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton wins both Texas and Ohio on March 4^th – and she wins Ohio by double digits

 

THE PUNDITS
Despite Hillary Clinton's big victories on March 4th, "the math" works decisively against her

and the race is essentially over
THE REALITY
The math is simple: neither candidate has reached the number of delegates required to
secure the nomination and either candidate can win

 

THE PUNDITS
Barack Obama is substantially ahead in the pledged delegate count; pledged delegates are the

only measure of success; therefore the race is essentially over
THE REALITY 
The candidates are within fractions of one another on delegates; Barack Obama needs super

delegates to win; and a marginal pledged delegate lead does not determine the outcome

 

Full version of Pundits vs Reality here.

Sometimes it's just not worth getting out of bed for an unsuccessful Nationals candidate and mayoral hopeful

Sometimes local politics brings a broad smile to the face when suddenly the biter gets bit.

In this case Chris Gulaptis, Clarence Nationals chairman (his sexist word not mine), unsuccessful candidate at the last federal election and frequently unsuccessful candidate for Clarence Valley mayor, must wish he had never opened his mouth in The Daily Examiner letters to the editor.

Chris managed to get himself exposed as one of those people who may have looked to a federal political career not out of conviction but because it pays well with good superannuation.

 

Here is a reply to Gulaptis' foray into the letters column which turned up in yesterday's issue of that paper.

 

Chris cross

 

THERE is an old Turkish saying that goes something like this: "If you don't tell the truth make sure you have one foot in the stirrups."

The level of fiction in the Chris Gulaptis letter (DE March 22) almost guarantees he'll shortly be in the market for a good horse.

Probably about the time Janelle Saffin, and not Steve Cansdell, delivers on Grafton Base Hospital.

But it's the last paragraph of his letter that really should have Chris Gulaptis galloping off into the sunset.

He's on pretty shaky ground when he starts accusing people of being something they are not.

I've been around the Labor Party a long time and I wouldn't know Craig Howe if I fell over him.

The Gulaptis story, however, is a little different. His claim to be National Party first, last and foremost is a road to Damascus conversion and came after he couldn't get what he wanted from the ALP.

He shed plenty of sweat chasing a position with Labor, right down to travelling to Sydney to meet with the then NSW general secretary, Mark Arbib, former minister Harry Woods and Harry's chief of staff Mike Fleming.

His comment that Steve Cansdell won seven primary votes to every one of Craig Howe's only proves he knows how to use a calculator.

The fact that Janelle Saffin is now in Federal Parliament proves that what the ALP thought of Chris Gulaptis was spot on.

 

Terry Flanagan

Orara Way

Who's being a little too clever on Antarctic whaling - The Oz, Asahi or Kevin Rudd?

Sometimes the media raises more questions than it answers in a hunt for the next day's story.
The difference between The Australian's take on what Kevin Rudd told Asahi Shimbun and what appears in that Japanese newspaper on the issue of Antarctic whaling appears to be more than a matter of nuance.
The Australian has Kevin Rudd willing to develop a whaling issue "scheme" and abandoning "legal action" but Asahi Shimbun remains completely silent on the former aspect and does not specifically address the latter.
So is Kevin Rudd starting to back down on Labor's support of the international moratorium on whaling or is someone being rather mischievous here?
Given that there seems to have been only one interview with the Japanese newspaper and knowing the rather unfortunate reputation of The Oz, one has to suspect that the Australian newspaper may have expanded what was said.

Last Thursday The Australian ran this article under the banner "Whaling olive branch to Japan"

Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent March 27, 2008

AUSTRALIA is optimistic of getting a diplomatic settlement of the Antarctic whaling controversy "with our Japanese friends", a conciliatory Kevin Rudd has told a top Japanese newspaper.

"I have an optimistic view that the issue can be settled diplomatically," the Prime Minister told Asahi Shimbun editor-in-chief Yoichi Funabashi, Japan's top foreign policy journalist, during a Canberra interview.
"I know that it is not easy to have a solution and I understand that there exist very strong views about it in Japan," Mr Rudd is quoted as saying in the front-page article. "On the other hand, there also exist very strong views in Australia and in international society as well."
Rather than pursuing any legal action against the Japanese government-sponsored whaling, Mr Rudd wants to settle the matter diplomatically, Asahi told its readers yesterday.
The Japanese fleet is returning to port after killing an estimated 500-600 whales during the recent Southern Ocean hunt, partly in waters claimed by Australia.
The catch, less than two-thirds of the "research" quota Japan granted itself for this summer, reflects disruption by the harassing tactics of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace vessels and a diplomatic row that forced the Japanese to abandon plans to kill 50 humpback whales for the first time in 20 years.
Canberra officials are examining evidence, including images of whale killings gathered by the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking, to decide whether to take action in an international court against Kyodo Senpaku whaling company.
"Our activities are to find out what's going on in the area, to find out if it is for scientific purposes, or is it commercial whaling?" Mr Rudd told Asahi. "When we (have) gathered (the) facts, we would like to co-operate with our Japanese friends to establish a scheme for the solution of the issue."
The interview came amid growing concern in Japan about the Australia relationship, and in particular with a Government led by a Prime Minister who once was a China specialist.

On the same day Asahi Simbun online ran this piece in Tokyo under the title "Rudd: Whale talks very, very difficult"

BY AKIHITO SUGII AND YUZURU TAKANO
CANBERRA--The feud between Japan and Australia over whaling can be resolved through diplomacy, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, but he reiterated Canberra's criticism against Japan's research whaling.
"I'm optimistic that we can resolve these matters diplomatically," Rudd said Tuesday in an interview with Yoichi Funabashi, editor in chief of The Asahi Shimbun. "I am fully appreciative of the fact that it would be very, very difficult."
Rudd pledged to oppose whaling during his campaign in November last year that led his Labor Party to win control of the government for the first time in 11 years.
The Australian government under Rudd has dispatched a customs ship to conduct surveillance of Japanese whaling vessels and other steps to strengthen restrictions on whaling.
Rudd reiterated the Australian government's position that has been critical of what Japan has described as scientific whaling.
"The reason we have undertaken the actions we have is to establish in our own mind the facts of what's transpiring down there, vis-a-vis scientific or commercial whaling," Rudd said.
Despite the differences over whaling, Rudd stressed the importance of bilateral relations with Japan for Australia, especially in the area of national security.
"The relationship with Japan is an absolutely core relationship for the Australian government," Rudd said.
Rudd indicated his government would maintain the same course in the cooperative relationship on national security between Australia, Japan and the United States established by his predecessor, John Howard.
"We have reaffirmed the importance of our trilateral discussions between ourselves, the United States and the government of Japan," Rudd said.
At the same time, Rudd took a more pessimistic view toward a proposal made by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to create a four-party cooperative relationship that would include India.
Rudd will visit the United States, Europe and China from Thursday on his first major trip abroad since becoming prime minister.
When asked about concerns that Rudd's government was skipping Japan, the prime minister indicated that the fundamental relationship would not be affected because he described the relationship between Australia and Japan as "good, strong, mature, robust."
Rudd also expressed expectations that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda would demonstrate leadership during the Group of Eight summit to be held in July at Lake Toyako, Hokkaido. Rudd has been invited to represent Australia at that summit as an observer.
"It depends on how Prime Minister Fukuda wishes to conduct the summit, and I understand that obviously climate change will figure prominently at the summit," Rudd said.
Rudd also indicated that he would bring up the issue of clashes in Tibet during his talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on his trip to Beijing.
"I will raise the human rights concerns with the Chinese government," Rudd said.
The interview Tuesday was Rudd's first with a Japanese media organization since he became prime minister.(IHT/Asahi: March 27,2008)

Federal Opposition requires suicide watch

There can be no mistaking the symptoms. These fairly screamed at us all yesterday, on the day Australian Workplace Agreements were legally laid to rest, when Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson told reporters that individual statutory work agreements are not dead.

The Liberal Party of Australia needs to be placed on a suicide watch as it is definitely a political danger to itself and others.

Soup kitchens for GPs

Struggling to make ends meet? Well, it seems you are in good company. Many GPs are also battling to put square meals on their dinner tables, thus forcing them to resort to welfare-like handouts from pharmaceutical companies. Some handouts take the form of work-day food and drink events that are disguised as "educational events" sponsored by drug companies.

Next time readers sit down to one of their gastronomical extravaganzas featuring such delicacies as baked beans (salt-reduced, of course) they should spare a thought, or two, for the poor GPs who suffer the enormous indignity of having to rely on drug company handouts for their very survival.

Yes, readers, "every working day, more than 200 health professionals, mostly doctors, attend an "educational event" garnished with food and drink supplied by a pharmaceutical company." (SMH, March 29)

The Herald reports that "in just six months last year these get-togethers attracted attendances totalling 385,221."

But, there's more, ...

A "review by consulting firm Deloitte found drug companies paid out $43 a head in hospitality. It has identified 52 events which will be investigated for breaches against the industry's code of conduct, which was designed to end lavish dinners and entertainment for doctors."

And, even more, ...

In addition to the largess described above there's "routine schmoozing that the $17 billion-a-year pharmaceutical industry undertakes with individual doctors."

"Not covered by the seemingly exhaustive list of 14,633 events reported are even more frequent sessions drug company representatives hold with individual doctors and staff at morning teas or light lunches that a rep brings to the surgery. Many practices are called on more than once a week by reps, who, while they cannot sell drugs to a doctor, promote their company's products."

Read the Herald's report here.

Bless 'em - the all singing and dancing 2020 Summit partygoers list

Here is the full Australia 2020 Summit invitees list.

 

Just for laughs have a close look at those attending this workshop.

It's so reassuring to see that the wealthy, ivory tower denizens, pollies and the fourth estate will again be informing federal government.

I will sleep well at night knowing that Miranda Devine, Gerard Henderson, Kerry Stokes and George Brandis all managed a seat at the table. 

Plus ça change.....

 

Future of Australian Governance

Mr Martin James Bailey, Male WA

Mr Joseph Martin Fernandez, Male WA

Ms Pia-Angela Francini, Female WA

Ms Alison Lesley Gaines, Female WA

Professor Janette Hartz-Karp, Female WA

Ms Holly Elizabeth Ransom, Female WA

Mr Wayne Francis Scheggia, Male WA

Dr Christine (Chrissy) Sharp, Female WA

Mr Peter Ajak, Male VIC

Professor Judith Margaret Brett, Female VIC

Mr Julian William Kennedy Burnside, Male VIC

Mr Paul Chadwick, Male VIC

Professor Allan Fels, Male VIC

Ms Iresha Herath, Female VIC

Ms Kristen Anna Isobel Hilton, Female VIC

Professor Sarah Louise Joseph, Female VIC

Ms Janice Winearls Keynton, Female VIC

Dr Terry MacDonald, Female VIC

Professor Robert Manne, Male VIC

Ms Katherine Dawn Sampson, Female VIC

Professor Cheryl Anne Saunders, Female VIC

Ms Sally Warhaft, Female VIC

Mr Alan Wu Male, VIC

Dr Sally Young, Female VIC

Mr Benedict Bartl, Male TAS

Ms Lyn Mason, Female TAS

Rev Professor Michael Tate, Male TAS

Ms Olivia Guarna, Female SA

Ms Elizabeth Francesca Ho, Female SA

Ms Tanya Louise Smith, Female SA

Mr Sean Barrett, Male QLD

Senator the Hon George Brandis, Male QLD

Dr Alexander Jonathon Brown, Male QLD

The Honourable Matthew (Matt) Joseph Foley, Male QLD

Mr Paul Formosa, Male QLD

Ms Bridie Kathleen Jabour, Female QLD

Ms Joanne Kelly, Female QLD

Professor the Honourable Michael Lavarch, Male QLD

Mr Michael McKinnon, Male QLD

Mr Alexander McLaughlin, Male QLD

Mr Stewart Mcrae, Male QLD

Dr David Solomon, Male QLD

Dr Anne Tiernan, Female QLD

Ms Danielle Vujovich, Female QLD

Professor Patrick Weller, AO Male QLD

Ms Sarah Jane O'Rourke, Female NT

Mr Mauri Japarta Ryan, Male NT

Ms Erin Adams, Female NSW

Mr Phillip Adams, Male NSW

Ms Robin Banks, Female NSW

Associate Professor Lyn Carson, Female NSW

Professor Greg Craven, Male NSW

Associate Professor Kate Jane Crawford, Female NSW

Ms Miranda Devine, Female NSW

Mr Macgregor Duncan, Male NSW

Professor Geoffrey Ian Gallop, Male NSW

Ms Kate Gauthier, Female NSW

Mr Gerard Henderson, Male NSW

Dr Helen Irving, Female NSW

Dr Paul Kelly, Male NSW

Ms Miriam Lyons, Female NSW

Mr David Marr, Male NSW

Mr Simon Rice, Male NSW

The Honourable Helen Sham-Ho, Female NSW

Professor Christopher Dominic Sidoti, Male NSW

Mr Brett Solomon, Male NSW

Associate Professor Anne Frances Twomey, Female NSW

Professor Hillary Charlesworth, Female ACT

Mr Harry Evans, Male ACT

The Honourable Justice Mary Gaudron, Female ACT

Ms Susan Gail Harris Rimmer, Female ACT

Mr Michael James Harvey, Male ACT

Ms Janet Eileen Hunt, Female ACT

Sir Anthony Mason, Male ACT

Mr Ian McPhee, Male ACT

Ms Jamila Helen Rizvi, Female ACT

Professor Marian Sawer, Female ACT

Ms Amelia Mary Simpson, Female ACT

Professor George John Williams, Male ACT

Sir William Deane, Male ACT

Ms Janet Giles, Female SA

Ms Amy Sarah King, Female

Prof Julianne Schultz, Female

Mr Kerry Stokes, Male NSW

Mr Howard Whitton, Male

Families Minister and Member for Jagajaga channels Mal Brough and throws compassion out the window

ABC1 AM:
TONY EASTLEY: The Federal Government will quarantine the $5,000 Baby Bonus from parents who neglect or abuse their children. Families Minister Jenny Macklin says parents will instead receive the bonus in the form of vouchers to buy items like prams and nappies.

Leaving aside the fact that Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs is merely parroting the former Howard Government and the previous ministerial incumbent; the Welfare Rights Centre pointed out in 2006 that such a move was not going to solve the problem of bad parenting and would be unlikely to stop individual abuse of welfare payments by recipients with an established alcohol, drug or gambling addiction.

Since then Ms. Macklin has moved from endorsing a straight voucher system to talking of implementing a debit card or store cards which would be useable at approved stores and for approved purchases.

The aim still appears to be to progress that old neo-con agenda. Starting with the Baby Bonus and other family payments as a trial of the electorate's gullibility, before moving onto the unemployed, disabled and finally introducing universal income management for all pension, benefit and allowance recipients from groups which are not seen as politically powerful.

Such income management would eventually stop 50% of the fortnightly welfare payment from going directly into a recipient's own personal bank or building society account, and 100% of all advance or lump sum payments would also no longer be given as cash payments into accounts.

Now here's the rub for any rural or regional parent receiving one of these debit/store cards (who even lives within commutable distance of one of the government-favoured big three, Coles, Woolworths and K-Mart) covering the Baby Bonus or other family allowance. These future guinea pigs who are already being identified as 'bad' by both the media and the Minister.

Rural and regional towns and villages are by definition reasonably small - if you don't actually socialise with the person standing next to you, you frequently know a friend of theirs or their children go to school or weekend sports with yours.

Store clerks and cashiers have no training and often no tact when it comes to welfare recipients as it is. They sometimes have no compunction in identifying store gift vouchers, being presented for payment of purchases, as having come from a non-government welfare agency.
In one instance I witnessed a cashier confiscating a packet of sweets from a very average pile of groceries a developmentally challenged adult (whom she only knew as a regular store customer) wanted to purchase with his gift voucher, on the stated grounds that lollies are not good for you.

When under any income management scheme almost inevitably one of these cashiers loudly and publicly tells a parent accompanied by a child that an item the parent wishes to purchase is not on the Centrelink/Community Services/Government list, everyone within earshot will be able to identify that family as 'dysfunctional' and the child as possibly considered to be neglected or abused.

Just how long do you think that child's privacy will last and his/her dignity remain intact when the local rumour mill will have that checkout incident across town and in the schoolyard within days?

One of the saddest aspects of Labor's rush to create its own form of Big Brother has been the sight of Ms. Macklin rising to her feet in Parliament last week and relying on a caller to the Alan Jones radio show for evidence of a need for Baby Bonus income management. A show notorious for setting up straw men to further its namesake's own biased arguments.

Ms. Macklin and the rest of the Rudd Government need to slow down here and develop a little political humility and compassion.
They are displaying nothing less than an arrogant paternalism. At the same time ignoring the fact that the Baby Bonus is currently not being handed out as a lump sum to identified dysfunctional families, but rather is being successfully and discretely delivered in instalments - without placing any child's right to privacy at risk or exposing a family to malicious gossip.

A little Mandarin goes a long way

Photograph from Indymedia

ABC News reported this late last night.

A senior Australian diplomat will be allowed to visit Tibet tomorrow, as a part of a delegation granted access by the Chinese Government.
Australia had requested diplomatic access to Tibet to assess the situation in the region, after a recent Chinese Government crackdown on protesters.
After initially ignoring the request, the Chinese Government has agreed to allow one senior diplomat from Australia's Beijing Embassy to join other foreign diplomats on a trip to Tibet, accompanied by Chinese officials.
The speed of China's approval has surprised the Australian Government.
Before leaving Australia for an overseas trip today, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the lack of access as a sticking point.
A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says the Australian diplomat hopes to check on the welfare of four Australians known to be in Tibet.

Clearly an instance where Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith made better ground than might have been possible if John Howard and Alexander Downer were still at the helm.

The Rudd dog whistle exposed

Faced with the reality of office, everytime it comes up against an uncomfortable moment in the media cycle the Rudd Government has been drawing out of the hat that old trick of re-labelling some troublesome behaviour as significant social problems and then telling the world that these were out of control or at 'epidemic' levels.
Coming out from under 11 years of John Howard using this very same tactic, it was easy to spot the political dog whistles.
Teenagers out-of-control, bad parents, addicts.
This was confirmed mid-week when the COAG communique was posted at the Prime Minister of Australia website here.

"Binge Drinking. COAG today agreed on the importance of tackling alcohol misuse and binge drinking among young people. COAG agreed to ask the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy to report to COAG in December 2008 on options to reduce binge drinking including in relation to closing hours, responsible service of alcohol, reckless secondary supply and the alcohol content in ready to drink beverages. COAG also asked the Australia New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council to request Food Standards Australia New Zealand to consider mandatory health warnings on packaged alcohol.

Gambling. COAG agreed to continue to discuss issues related to problem gambling".

A perfect example of sound and fury signifying very little.
Not so easy is it fellas. Just because you are now teh Federal Government doesn't automatically mean you would be able to come up with instant easy-fix answers or allow you to pretend that this focus on binge drinking and gambling was anything other than a beat up.
I look forward to hearing you discover Laura Norder, border security and welfare 'cheats' next week.

Northern Rivers couple star in documentary

Yaegl woman and film-maker Pauline Clague celebrates her parents life in the documentary film When Colin Met Joyce.

Ms Clague told The Daily Examiner that "For us as film-makers it's important to give it back to our community," ---
"This film is a gift to the Clarence River. It identifies Yaegl country really well,"
Pauline said she was excited and nervous about showing the film at Yamba.
"As a writer and producer it's hard to bring it back to my own community, but Mum and Dad have seen it and they're happy with it," she said."

Details of the film here.

When Colin Met Joyce will also be shown on SBS at 7.30pm on 1 August 2008.

Opposition shadow spokesperson for water makes a Laughing Jackass of himself

It's been a long saga and like many other Aussies I have been crossing my fingers and hoping that this nation will finally come to grips with those huge environmental problems in the Murray-Darling river system which have been generations in the making.
However, Opposition spokesperson for environment and water Greg Hunt continues the Liberal's new tradition of counting kookaburras whenever it is brought face-to-face with another instance of cooperative endeavour between the Commonwealth and the States under the Rudd Labor Government.
Yesterday when a real breakthough was announced on management of water within the Murray-Darling Basin, I swear I heard Hunt on the teev repeating a version of his February line about the Murray-Darling being an "defining failure" of the Rudd Government.
Only this time he was calling it "an abiding failure".
After the complete, utter, total, abiding failure of the John Howard-Malcolm Turnbull attempt to bully the states into a collective formal agreement over this dying river system, all Hunt could do yesterday was accuse Rudd of a similar failure.
He has definitely taken to imitating the Laughing Jackass. A real Koo-koo-koo-waa-aah-aah-ah!
This new agreement may not be perfect, but at least it's a fair dinkum attempt.
You remember what fair dinkum means don't you, Greg?
Here is the Murray Darling Basin Reform Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Prime Minister and every Premier and State Minister with territory within the Murray-Darling Basin.

The 2008 Olympiad as a graphic

Telling graphic from Club Troppo's Missing Link.

Don't do it, Nicola!

This week The Age reported that the Federal Minister for Health Nicola Roxon was inviting Liberal opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott to have coffee and smooth things over between them.
Apparently Abbott has been complaining about a lack of bipartisanship in government decision making in areas covered by his Indigenous Affairs shadow portfolio.

That was on Monday. By the next day that ever changeable far-right media tart was saying something different according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott has criticised plans for a bipartisan approach to indigenous issues, saying it could lead to "sanctimonious" and unsuccessful policies.

---Mr Abbott, writing in The Australian newspaper, said bipartisanship could make "wrong-headed" policies harder to change."

So don't do it, Nicola. Don't try to smooth things over with Abbott. The man will only see this as a sign of weakness and continue to harass rather than help, because he truly believes the Opposition is the real federal government.

Give Mac Bank the flick & bring back bonds says Motorists Action Group

This turned up in the Inbox yesterday.

It seems that the Motorists Action Group has joined those sending Morris Iemma a message about his planned privatisation of NSW electricity supplies.

 

Draft Media Release

 

Government Bonds Not Selling-off Assets To Fund New Infrastructure

 

The NSW Government has been asked to re-issue once popular government bonds to fund new road, rail and services infrastructure projects instead of selling-off publicly owned infrastructure such as the electricity generation network to pay for such works.

 

Richard Talbot, President of the Motorists Action Group (MAG) & long serving NRMA Director said: "A once off sell-off of publicly owned assets to pay for new infrastructure is not the way to go. Nor is handing over new infrastructure projects to merchant bankers who create debt ridden financial models to hoping they can on-sell these financial basket cases and exit the scene to make a short term profit.

 

"Good government is about providing long term, sustainable and user affordable solutions to this countries growing and changing needs. Government bonds were a traditional way previous generations have funded many road, rail, water & electricity projects. They were very popular with mums & dads investors as a safe way of saving for their retirement as they were government guaranteed. Importantly they were a relatively cheap way of the government gaining access to a large pool of funds without having to go through a middleman.

Government bonds were phased out of existence when the economic rationalists took the helm of successive state governments and conga lines of private sector lobbyists became regular fixtures at expensive political party fundraisers.

 

"We should learn from the mistakes of the past with a number of infrastructure funding failures such as the Cross City Tunnel, Lane Cove Tunnel and the Airport Rail Link. The new transport initiatives such as the North West Rail Link and M7 Extension (from Blacktown to Kariong) can all be funded by giving the public and superannuation funds to directly invest in the projects. Additionally other already built projects can be bought back through such an investment method.

 

"Selling-off the silver wear then handing it over to privateers to extract short term profits is not in the best interests of residents and taxpayers. Gaining the support of the people who'll be using the final product by giving mums & dads a chance to invest in their own infrastructure is in the best long term interests of both governments and consumers".

 

Richard Talbot has written to the NSW Government urging the re-introduction of State Government Bonds.

Dinner with Barack anyone?

One can only admire the relentless drive for campaign funds by the Obama for America team.
They are now bringing out the family silver and holding a lottery. With first prize being an intimate dinner for three.

Will Barack finally talk detailed policy then?

Today's email.
Some of Barack's favorite moments of the campaign have been opportunities to meet and talk with the most important donors to this campaign: ordinary Americans just like you.
You've heard about all of these political fundraising dinners, hosted by Washington lobbyists and filled with representatives of special interests.
Contributions like these are at the root of what's wrong with politics. And John McCain and Hillary Clinton have built campaigns fueled by them.
But our campaign is different.
In February alone, more than 94% of our donors gave in amounts of $200 or less. Meanwhile, campaign finance reports show that donations of $200 or less make up just 13% of Senator McCain's total campaign funds, and only 26% of Senator Clinton's.
Our funding comes from a movement of more than one million people giving whatever they can afford.
And in the next week, four supporters will be selected for a new kind of fundraising dinner.
Make a donation in any amount between now and 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, March 31st, and you could join Barack and three other supporters for an intimate dinner for five.
We're reserving two of those seats for new donors like you. If you've ever thought about making a donation to join our campaign, now is the time:
https://donate.barackobama.com/dinner
This movement is changing the way campaigns are funded.
More than one million individual donors have demonstrated that this election is about more than a candidate -- it's about each of us having a personal stake in the future of American politics.
Meanwhile, Senator McCain has raised more than 70% of his total campaign funds from high-dollar donors giving $1,000 or more. Senator Clinton has raised 60% of her funds from $1,000-and-up donors. And both Senator McCain and Senator Clinton have accepted millions of dollars from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs.
Refusing to accept donations from lobbyists and special interests has allowed this campaign to answer only to ordinary Americans like you. And this dinner will be an opportunity for you to sit down with Barack and your fellow supporters and talk about the issues that matter in your life and in your community.
Get the kind of treatment that John McCain and Hillary Clinton reserve for special interests -- make a donation in the next week, and you could share your story and your ideas with Barack in person:
https://donate.barackobama.com/dinner
With every single donation, we're building a movement to change American politics. Help the movement grow, and own a piece of this campaign today.
Thanks for your support,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

No doctors available for some North Coast medical rescue flights

Sometimes it's hard to keep a positive outlook on life in regional New South Wales.

Beautiful surroundings but often woeful levels of services the big metropolitan centres take for granted.

 

This week The Northern Star drew attention to the fact that the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue helicopter based at Lismore continues to experience difficulties in finding suitably qualified doctors to man its medical retrieval flights.

 

"THE future of Lismore's rescue helicopter is in peril because the city's hospital hasn't enough physicians qualified to work with the service, doctors have warned.

A leaked memo from Lismore Base Hospital emergency department director Dr Martin Chase warns the hospital no longer had enough doctors qualified to perform retrievals with the helicopter.

As a result 'there may be occasions over the next few months when the Lismore-based medical retrieval service will be unable to provide an urgent medical retrieval service', Dr Chase says in the memo, which was sent out last month."

 

Two little words for the Iemma Government and the North Coast Area Health Service - fix it!

Broke Libs call on politically bankrupt Howard to fill the party kitty in NSW

It's now four months since the Liberal and National parties were frogmarched out of government.

Plenty of time for the parties to regroup and find a common direction.

However the apparently cash-strapped NSW Liberals are determined to keep reminding voters of their past folly - they have invited John Howard to speak at a fundraiser this May.

At least they appear to have had the grace to hide this 'tribute' dinner away in the suburbs and not charge thousands of dollars for a seat.

In fact tickets are rumoured to be on the cheap side. Probably because Howard's recent US speaking tour showed that he has nothing left to offer except reworkings of his 2007 election set pieces.

I suspect that, besides being in need of a metaphorical group hug from those guests attending, Howard is using this event to keep his profile up just in case a publisher does actually decide to purchase his autobiography.

It surely can't be because this former PM wants to meddle in domestic politics - he was always so vocal in his condemnation of other prime ministerial relics who refused to fade away.

Clarence Valley Council looks into affordable housing scheme

Yet another NSW North Coast council is deciding that there may be a role for local government in the provision of affordable housing.

Clarence Valley Council is looking into the feasibility of creating a not-for-profit charitable body provisionally called the Affordable Housing Trust, with an aim to help meet the need for affordable housing in the valley.

Given the level of public housing stock in this region is lower than the state average, it is good to see Mayor Ian Tiley raising the profile of this issue.

 

According to the Northern Rivers Social Development Council; "No one can escape the affordability crisis that affects households across Australia. The Northern Rivers has one of the highest rates of families living in housing stress in Australia.  Average rents in our region are the same as Sydney, but people here earn on average less than two thirds of the average Sydney income. In our coastal towns and major centres up to 65% of low income households are living in unaffordable housing.  Key workers in industries such as Community Services, Children's Services, Health, Aged Care, Hospitality and Retail have problems finding accommodation close to work and services.  For the most disadvantaged finding any accommodation is difficult."

Nationals Member for Clarence protecting his image

Spotted on the banks of the Clarence River over the Easter long weekend.

NSW Nationals MP Steve Cansdell getting his picture taken with a mate.

Quick as a flash Cansdell grabs the lit cigarette out of the mate's mouth, holds it behind his back, and then jams it back from whence he plucked it as soon as the happy snap is completed.

Does he really believe that voters will think that he doesn't know anyone who smokes the demon weed? G'arn.

Talk about political correctness gone mad.

Port Stephens finds answer to tree vandals. Will Northern Rivers coastal councils follow suit?

News.com.au photograph

Port Stephens Council decided to use shipping containers to punish residents who lopped down 20 trees to improve their sea views.
A move which looks like being a lot more effective than the relatively small, neat and tidy bill boards commonly being used by councils on the NSW North Coast.
Well done, Port Stephens!

National Generators Forum wants major Australian emitters to be given greenhouse get-out-of-gaol-free card

In January this year the National Generators Forum wrote to the Ganaut Climate Change Review recommending that, in any future national carbon trading scheme, major energy companies using conventional dirty production methods be given consideration by way of "appropriate allocation of permits" "to recognise past investment made in good faith".

In other words both public and private energy suppliers would like a free pass on much of their existing infrastructure and production practices. Even though these suppliers could have made an informed decision to apply mitigation measures anytime in the last ten to twenty years.

Such a free pass would also involve considerable dollar compensation to the Forum's 22-strong membership.

It seems that the National Generators Forum is quite happy with the notion that the poor will bear a disproportionate burden when it comes to predicted increased energy costs, but it is less than happy at the thought of its own members bearing any financial burden at all.

Changing and lengthening the Australian minority years

I see the media has been reporting on the idea of extending the school leaving age.

Last year Victoria increased leaving age to 16 years of age. Matching South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.

In West Australia it went up to 17 this year.

Now there's talk of raising it to 18 in New South Wales, so that all students would leave high school and become legal adults all in the same year.

Across the board there also appears to be a debate about raising the legal drinking age to 21 years. Which would leave the young adult in the strange position of being trusted with a right to vote in governments but not to drink an alcoholic beverage.

I'm not knocking the desire to see the young receive a reasonable level of education or discourage alcohol abuse, but it almost looks like we are trying to extend our concept of what childhood is again.

If we keep this up a 'child' will be anyone under 30 years. Rather a tiring thought for all those working parents out there.

North Coast action group speaks out on NSW coastal freight corridors

Climate Change Will Make the NSW Coastal Freight Corridors Unsustainable

On 27th November 2007 in the case Walker v Minister for Planning [2007] NSWLEC 741, Justice Peter Biscoe of the Land Environment Court ruled against a coastal development at Sandon Point, on the NSW south coast on the grounds that it will be likely to suffer from coastal flooding as a result of Climate Change. He found that the NSW Planning Minister had failed to consider "whether changed weather patterns would lead to an increased flood risk in connection with the proposed development in circumstances where flooding was identified as a major constraint on development of the site".
A part of his judgement relating to Ecologically Sustainable Development Principles
covers 49 pages and follows the history through the United Nations and other world forums of these principles which relate to, inter alia, preserving biodiversity and taking inter generational responsibility to ensure current developments are sustainable and will not impose an unnecessary burden on future generations.
An area of coastal vulnerability noted in the case was land within 3 kilometres of the high tide mark and under the 6 metre contour.
When we look at the current transportation policy in relation to road and rail freight corridors between Sydney and Brisbane we find that both the rail line which transports mainly bulky goods and the road freight corridor (Pacific Highway) which transports mainly non bulky goods both run within 1 kilometre of the coast when they pass through Coffs Harbour and both are situated under the 6 metre contour.
Lands within 3 kilometres of the coast and under the 6 metre contour have been recognised by planners and the Insurance Council of Australia as being vulnerable to severe weather events and coastal inundation.
A CSIRO report to the Victorian Government suggested that 1:100 severe weather events could occur every 5 years by 2070.
Buffer zones at Hearnes Lake (calculated for the Sandy/Hearnes Lake Estuary Management Plan) where the proposed motorway will run within 600 metres of the High Water Mark take into account rising sea levels and it has been suggested by WBM Oceanics (authors of the EMP) that planning horizons should cover the next 100 years and that the creation of major infrastructure within the coastal zone should be avoided.
The Environmental Assessment for the Sapphire to Woolgoolga section of the Pacific Highway indicates the cost of the new 6 lane motorway upgrade will cost close to $850 million by completion.
Given that $450 million has been invested in the Sydney Brisbane rail line recently and about $850 million will be spent on the 25 kilometre Sapphire to Arrawarra section of the Pacific Highway alone one has to wonder why is so much money being spent on ecologically unsustainable motorways.
The Tourism Transport Forum Ltd claims responsibility on their web site for lobbying the Howard Government into committing AusLink funding for the Hexham to Tweed upgrade of the Pacific Highway to tolled motorway standard and having it declared a national road freight corridor.
SHAG wonders if its members like the NRMA, the RTA, Toll Transport, Macquarie Bank and the AbiGroup who profit from motorway building will ever display the same awareness of Justice Peter Biscoe and others who embrace Ecologically Sustainable Development Principles and face the challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil and the responsibility to future generations with wisdom and courage.
It is alarming to think that since the WBM Oceanics paper was written, the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets have been found to be melting at a rate of 150 billion cubic metres every year (Refer Appendix F).
Climate Change expert with NASA, Dr James Hansen (Appendix F), predicts that if the Earth’s temperature increases by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius this century that ocean levels could rise by up to 1 metre every 20 years. He claims the last time the Earth was 2 to 3 degrees warmer sea levels were 25 metres higher than they are today.
The Planning Minister Frank Sartor, should adopt the Precautionary Principle, refuse Pacific Highway upgrade works in the Northern Beaches of Coffs Harbour and get on with securing a "fit for purpose" rail freight network between Sydney and Brisbane as well as returning road freight to the New England Highway.

Wayne Evans
Sandy Hearnes Action Group (SHAG)

*Guest Speak is a new North Coast Voices feature airing serious or satirical comment by local individuals or groups.

It can't be all bad if Tim Blair dislikes it

Poor Tim Blair of do-you-know-the-truth-or-do-you-read-the-Telegraph fame.

Almost everything that even hints at being slightly green or mentions the possibility of climate change seems to turn this journalist markedly dyspeptic.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he was also a green legume anorexic as a child. :)

Popped on to his 'personal' blog early last night and around a third of the posts on his home page contained a dig at Earth Hour in one form or another.

With Earth Hour likely to occur again next year and climate change just as likely to be remain a topic of discussion, perhaps Tim will have to consider breaking out the Mylanta.

Here's laughing at you, kid.

 

Look who's going to Rudd's 2020 summit

Take a gander at this piece on Kevin Rudd's Australia 2020 summit coming to a comic strip near you this April.

I'm sorry, Kev, but you don't really expect me to take your bit of fluff seriously do you?

First it was Canberra and now wannabe talkfests are springing up everywhere.

So help me - there's even one scheduled for the Clarence Valley. A real piece of busy business allowing government and council staff (along with non-government agency employees and local business operators) to justify their existence. 

The whole national box and dice has all the hallmarks of a camel in the making.

Larvatus Prodeo pointed out some of the problems weeks ago.

Whales of the NSW North Coast in pictures

A slideshow of whale photographs can be found at the North Coast's Southern Cross University Whale Research Centre website here.

This image shows a whale breaching off Byron Bay.

Whale song from ABC's Whale Dreams.

Obama team lashes out: Clinton will "do and say anything" McCain wants "100 years of war"

With the racial attitudes issue muddying waters in the US presidential nomination race, Barack Obama now refocusses attention on his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Pity that this much publicised opposition didn't include voting in the US Senate to starve George W's war machine.

 

Here is the latest email from the Obama camp, with its usual bottom line request for more money.

 

Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are reading from the same political playbook as they attack Barack on foreign policy.

They have both criticized Barack's commitment to act against top al Qaeda terrorists if others can't or won't act.

And they have both dismissed his call for renewed diplomacy as naïve while mistakenly standing behind George Bush's policy of non-engagement that just isn't working.

But most of all -- after five years of overwhelming evidence that we are less safe, less able to shape events abroad, and more divided at home -- Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are failing to address the consequences of a war they both supported that should have never been authorized and never been waged.

We need a leader who had the judgment to oppose this war before it began and who has a clear plan to end it.

But Barack is facing a two-front battle against Senator Clinton and Senator McCain. Make a donation of $25 to support this campaign today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/twofronts

We knew at the beginning of this campaign that we'd be up against the full force of the conventional thinking that grips Washington.

But no one could have imagined it would go on this long, or that we'd have to fight this battle on two fronts at the same time.

Senator Clinton's campaign, with her chances of winning dwindling and our delegate lead even larger than it was before her so-called comeback on March 4th, has adopted a "kitchen-sink" strategy to throw everything they can at us. Her campaign has made it clear they will do and say anything to win this nomination.

Senator McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, is already running his general election campaign. He's so eager to justify another 100 years of war in Iraq and drum up conflict with Iran that he and his campaign have been making sloppy and woefully false assertions about links between Iran and al Qaeda in Iraq.

We've got to take on both Senator Clinton and Senator McCain at the same time.

Your support now is more important than ever -- please make a donation of $25:

https://donate.barackobama.com/twofronts

Yesterday, Barack laid out a clear plan to make America more secure and end the war in Iraq.

Today, he laid out the economic costs of the war that Senator Clinton and Senator McCain supported.

In both speeches -- and in his speech on race in America earlier this week -- Barack Obama demonstrated that he is the candidate with the courage and judgment to tackle the challenges we face.

The choice Americans have in this election is clear -- and your support right now sends a message to those who support the status quo that it is time for a new kind of leadership.

Please do what you can to help fight this two-front battle for change:

https://donate.barackobama.com/twofronts

Thank you,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Libs have more hide than Jessie the Elephant

Yesterday The Daily Telegraph let the world know that Brendan Nelson, Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott and friends would like more money please.

The parliamentary salary scale for Opposition MPs was fine by them when they held the more financially lucrative government benches, but now they don't they want more money for shadow ministers who currently receive the base salary of about $127,060 per annum plus $30,000 in electoral allowances.

With Nelson as Opposition Leader getting a total package of around $262,00 a year and Bishop as Deputy Leader getting an extra $73,000.

These lord high poobahs just cannot get their heads around the fact that they are now the plebs of the Australian Parliament. Their greed and arrogance appear to know no bounds.

With many on the NSW North Coast scratching to find their next meal, keep a roof over their heads and afford medical treatment, whining Libs will find little sympathy hereabouts. 

Oi, Tony - if your wants were weeds you'd have a paddock full!

Read my lips, Mr. Rudd. I will never vote Labor if you continue down this path

For over a decade the former Howard Government ignored this country's own democratic heritage, international law and UN conventions; as it sought ways to quash many of the historic human and legal rights of Australian citizens, turn the safety net welfare system into a form of alms giving dependant on a whim of the government of the day, commence the transformation of public infrastructure/services delivery into 'user pays', and convert a significant part of government pensions, benefits and allowances into a non-cash component.

 

It was easy to turn away from the Liberal Party and the Nationals when faced with this concerted effort to destroy what was left of the ideal of an egalitarian society and the notion of a fair go.

 

Now barely four months after the federal election which saw it installed, the Rudd Government continues to support most of the legislation and regulations which the Howard Government created as its preferred vehicle for the destruction of our civil liberties and the idea of a fair go.

 

We still see racist law operating, habeas corpus remains missing in action for some criminal charges, draconian sedition laws chill dissent, judgemental and punitive attitudes to the poor still flourish within government policy, and there is a continuing push to transform certain pensions, benefits and allowances into a modern version of food stamps under the guise of income 'management'. 

 

The Northern Territory intervention clearly demonstrated that this current push to replace a percentage of welfare cash payments with vouchers or cards has nothing to do with the cited reason of protecting children in dysfunctional home situations. Because income management there was immediately applied across the board in designated indigenous communities and involved people without children, family commitments or any form of addictive/anti-social behaviour.

 

This push originally started as a possible method to control and restrict the lives of welfare recipients in an effort to disguise the fact that the former government was intending to dismantle the welfare system overtime and the Rudd Government allows the push to continue for very similar reasons.

 

Like the Howard Government before it, this Federal Labor Government is first targeting groups which society has always felt comfortable about negatively labelling before it inevitably widens its 18th century net and goes after the unemployed and those with a disability. 

 

Sadly, modern Labor governments right across Australia are turning out to be nothing more than a collection of self-righteous suits eager to assume the position in front of neo-con think tanks, big business and professional god-botherers. Always happy to demonise the weak and vulnerable if doing so pleases these politically powerful sectors. Seeing nothing wrong with the diminished autonomy, discrimination, humiliation and financial loss that ensues.

 

So read my lips Mr. Rudd. If you continue down this path towards establishing debit cards for any or all 'welfare' recipients, I will not be voting for a Labor candidate at any future election.

What's more, I will treat Labor as I treat the Coalition and make sure that my ballot is likely to be exhausted long before my preferences could flow on to its candidate.

 

Therefore, although the Labor MP for Page may be a genuine and hard-working local member she will never see my vote.

No Labor candidate for the NSW Clarence electorate will ever get my vote in the future. Nor will any Clarence Valley local government candidate identified as a member of the Labor Party.

The ball is now in your court, Prime Minister.

Breaking news: Pensioners in financial stress

Australian pensioners will wake to the news today that their politicians have arrived at the ground breaking conclusion that pensioners don't live on easy street.

An Australian Senate committee report has highlighted that those who rely on the pension as their sole income are among those most in financial stress.

The committee's findings come as no surprise to those who struggle to subsist on the meagre pension, particularly single pensioners.

For some perverse reason, politicians, bureaucrats and other assorted bean counters have long figured that single pensioners have overheads that are significantly less than those of their married counterparts.

Even the most cursory examination of pensioners' expenditure records readily reveals that, for want of a better term, 'economies of scale' are had when couples live under the one roof and contribute towards their shared overheads such as rent and utilities.

Single pensioners face the same costs as couples. One doesn't have to be an Albert Einstein to understand that a more equitable approach to pensioner payments is long overdue.

That the committee has reported its findings and recommended an overhaul of pensions is commendable, but for something to be done about it, well that's another thing completely different.

Pensioners can expect to have to wait in their queue for some time. They would be well advised to not hold their breath while waiting for an appropriate course of action that would improve their lot to be implemented.

Heaven forbid, but some fiscal nerds are likely to respond that married pensioners are too well paid and call for their pensions to be cut, bringing them in line with their single counterparts. Too silly for words? Don't be too sure of that!

In part, The Sydney Morning Herald (March 21) reports:

Older single women tend to have missed out on compulsory superannuation and must rely on a pension that is low by English-speaking countries' standards.

They receive a pension of $546.80 a fortnight, compared with the $913.60 for couples, even though many fixed costs such as rates, rents and bills vary little between singles and couples.

The meagre payment meant pensioners were often reduced to relying on donations of food from friends and even, according to one inquiry witness, to "raiding dumpsters to retrieve bread, fruit, vegetables … and sometimes meat" discarded by grocery chains. Others told the inquiry of going to bed early to cut heating bills, and forgoing social visits to or from friends because of transport and meal costs.

The committee agreed to a bipartisan verdict acknowledging pensions had increased in real terms in the past decade. But after hundreds of submissions the committee said the comparatively widespread prosperity "obscures the fact that the distribution of wealth among many older Australians is unbalanced".

Many Australians, particularly those on low, fixed incomes with little discretionary spending capacity, were vulnerable to living cost rises. They were disproportionately affected by increases in essential goods and services: food, rent, petrol, utilities and health care. Growing medical and pharmaceutical costs and the lack of affordable dental services were disturbing.

"These older Australians do not enjoy a decent quality of life," the committee said.

The committee's call for a rethink on the level of the pension and the way it is calculated triggered a chorus of calls from seniors groups for the single pension to be lifted from the current 60 per cent to at least two-thirds of the couple rate.

The chief executive of National Seniors Australia, Michael O'Neill, said the findings "confirm what every pensioner knows: living on a pension has become almost impossible unless you have additional income".

The Government late yesterday signalled that it would consider lifting the single pension.

Read the report in The Sydney Morning Herald here.

The Easter Bunny in Australia

This weekend the Easter Bunny will begin his dawn journey across Australia laden with a limitless basket of chocolate eggs.

If you listen carefully, you may hear him cry as he tops a hill close by - Don't shoot!

OECD politely tells Australia it can do better for the environment

The 2007 OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Australia is now available.

 

"Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the Government will act on the report's findings.

"Our response to this report will be genuinely whole-of-Government," he said.

"We know environment issues don't rest with one or two portfolios and that these issues don't stop at borders either, it's a whole-of-planet challenge and it requires a whole-of-Government response."

As Peter Garrett is new to the ministry only time will tell if he has any ability to live up to his words.

Hopefully before then he will learn that the environmental picture is larger and more complex than the issue of plastic bags.

 

Some of the main conclusions and recommendations of the OECD review suggest that Australia might be falling behind in effectively addressing:

transport sector emissions, air pollution control monitoring, fine particle pollution, urban growth pressure, use of market-based instruments to advance ecologically sustainable development, exit assistance for business/industry to protect environmental integrity, water scarcity, energy sector net greenhouse gas emissions, agency data collection, monitoring and reporting, integration of traditional owners into whole-of-government policy on natural resource management, equity for all Australian stakeholders, public consultation mechanisms, environmental impact training for business operators, integration of environmental objectives into government procurement and operation policies.

Joe Hockey loses his cool, again and again and again...

WorkChoices may finally be on the way out and Australian Workplace Agreements dead and gone, but Liberal and Nationals MPs brought the House of Representatives to a state of near chaos yesterday when the Minister for Workplace Relations Julia Gillard put forward a motion asking that the House recognise the ills caused by WorkChoices and undertake that statutory individual employment agreements should never be reintroduced into Australian industrial relations law.

The Liberals Joe Hockey went ballistic and tried to shut the motion down. The Opposition then tried twice more in succession to gag debate of the motion.
Thwarted they tried a third time and then Uncle Joe unsuccessfully moved that the Deputy Speaker's ruling be dissented from.

On and on and round and round the arguments and divisions went, from 11.39am to 1.02pm, until Ms. Gillard's motion was finally voted in.

Immediately after that the Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop rose to a make a motion praising WorkChoices and the whole uproar started again for another 21 minutes, as the Government retaliated by gagging this debate and forcing a vote.

Almost two hours of parliamentary mayhem, only lightened by the unconscious irony of former Howard Government minister Tony Abbott referring to another party's parliamentary tactics as "jackboot government" and Labor's Anthony Albanese losing patience and calling Hockey "fool".
Such a waste of taxpayers money.

News.com.au reported on aspects of the uproar yesterday.
Hansard records it all here.

Those life-style nongs are at it again

I frequently have to wonder whether there is anything at all in the brainboxes of some who decide to purchase small parcels of rural land, for a life style change or a gamble on future rezoning.

These people are thick on the ground now on the NSW North Coast and a few like these misguided souls are objecting to payment of the Rural Lands Protection Board levy.

Yelling that this is a tax on seachangers they refuse to cough up for years on end.

Rarely do you find owners like these keeping their land in good heart. Often their plots are weed filled and sour, with no crop or stock in sight.

The half-hearted attempts at bush regeneration are often abandoned before completion. 

I have little sympathy with their views. All I see is more agricultural land being removed from any meaningful productivity and court time being wasted.

Gimme, gimme folks one and all. They give genuine small-acreage farmers a bad name.

It's not easy being green: time for Australian governments to put their investments in order

This month the Australian Conservation Council released its 32 page report Responsible Public Investment in Australia.

 

3 RESPONSIBLE PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA

Few of the government funds interviewed for this report appeared to have linked ESG factors with their material influence on returns and the associated risks and opportunities in investment management.

This demonstrates a worrying disconnection between many public sector funds and industry best practice developments.

In many cases government asset managers lack the transparency of private sector asset managers in terms of their investment strategy and portfolio holdings.

However, a small number of asset managers were aware of ESG developments and reported

that the UN PRI was being considered at board level.

Government investments in the energy sector may be undermining stated environmental policy

objectives.

The investment practices of government funds have the potential to support or detract from government policy goals.

Most Australian jurisdictions, for example, have policies and laws that related to climate change and energy.

But investment priorities sometimes appear to undermine stated policy objectives.

The total investment of all State, Territory and Commonwealth funds in the listed energy sector is estimated as follows:

Industry: Holdings ($ million):

Nuclear/uranium $ 559

Fossil fuels $ 5,379

Renewable energy $ 126

There appear to be contradictions between these investment holdings and the stated policy goals of some States and Territories.

In particular:

• NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia all have significant holdings in uranium-related equities, despite legislative or political bans on uranium mining;

• All jurisdictions have very low holdings in the renewable energy sector, despite a stated strong commitment to renewable energy as a critical part of future energy generation; and

• All jurisdictions have significant exposures to fossil fuel industries, despite a range of policy commitments relating to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The imbalance between investment in fossil fuels and renewable energy sources is striking, given the public commitment of all Australian governments to renewable energy.

 

The report also identifies the Commonwealth Futures Fund as not taking social, environmental and governance issues into consideration when making investment portfolio management decisions.

 

It's time for a whole of government approach to public investment. The Rudd Government needs to lead the way by example on this and then drag the states, kicking and screaming if necessary, into a green investment plan.

Five long years of war in Iraq - time to reflect on our sins

March 19 Blog Swarm logo.

Professor Gideon Polya from Australia writing on Iraq War death toll last year.

"As of September 2007: (a) the accrual cost of the Bush War on Terror stands at $2.5 trillion (as determined by US 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz) ; (b) there are 4 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.1 million; (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.5 million (a corrected estimate based on the latest UN data); (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War; and (g) Coalition military deaths now total about 4,086 (see: http://icasualties.org/oif/ )."

Opinion Research Business (ORB) Iraq casualty survey media release January 2008.
ORB full survey data here.

Obama 08: Send me votes, lots of votes and a starry sky above

The race for Democratic nomination is so relentless one has to wonder if either Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama will have any energy left to contest John McCain for the Oval Office.

 

Here's Obama's latest email effort yesterday.

 

Dear [redacted],

When Michelle and I decided to enter this race more than a year ago, one of our hopes was to bring people back into the political process.

Like so many Americans, we'd been exhausted and frustrated by the slash-and-burn politics that had come to dominate our elections. Smallness and pettiness were the rule, not the exception. And it seemed like every day, more and more Americans were tuning out their democracy.

This election, we're seeing something different.

Nearly as many people have participated in the Democratic primary this year than in 2000 and 2004 combined. And there are still ten contests left to go.

As we enter the final stretch of elections, we have a unique opportunity to shape the outcome -- and the outcome of elections up and down the ballot this November.

The last day to register new voters in Pennsylvania is March 24th. In North Carolina and Indiana, it's in early April. And in West Virginia and Kentucky, the voter registration deadline is a little more than a month from today.

So today we're launching a national initiative to register an unprecedented number of voters in each of the upcoming states.

No matter where you live, you can help get people registered in the upcoming states. You can make phone calls from home, reach out to people you know in these states, or even sign up to travel to one of these states to be on the ground for this massive voter registration effort.

Learn more about what you can do to bring as many voters as possible into the political process:

http://my.barackobama.com/morevoices

Young voters have shaped this presidential primary like no other.

In Iowa, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mississippi, the youth vote has tripled since 2004. And in all other states it has reached record levels. And these young voters are breaking 2-to-1 Democratic.

Statistics show that if we can get young people to vote Democratic now, they are far more likely to vote regularly -- and vote for Democrats -- throughout their lives.

So by getting involved and helping to register voters, you're not just increasing the number of voters in this election. You're increasing the number of people who will be engaged Democratic voters for the rest of their lives.

Sign up to help bring More Voices into the Democratic primary today:

http://my.barackobama.com/morevoices

More than fifteen years ago, after I finished law school, I came back to Chicago and led a voter registration drive on the South Side.

For months, our passionate and hardworking volunteers pounded the pavement -- registering folks everywhere they could, from barber shops to grocery stores to apartment building lobbies to local fairs. One particularly enthusiastic woman -- who until then had never been involved in politics -- made it her personal goal to register 100 voters a day, and ultimately registered 3,000 new voters.

In the end, we made a real difference in Illinois. Our team registered more than 150,000 new voters, not only impacting local elections, but helping to shift the balance in state and national races as well. Illinois went from voting Republican in 1988 to Democratic in 1992.

That lesson has informed how we've run this campaign. And now we have an unbelievable opportunity to apply it on a massive scale.

When new or returning voters participate in the Democratic primary, they are far more likely to come back and participate in the general election.

That's not just good for presidential candidates; it's good for Democrats up and down the ticket. More engaged, committed Democratic voters in the primaries means more votes this November in all fifty states -- from competitive statewide races to state legislative and city council seats everywhere.

You can make a difference right now. Encourage someone to register in time to participate in the presidential race in their state.

Learn more and get involved here:

http://my.barackobama.com/morevoices

Thanks for all your hard work,

Barack

P.S. -- Here's an example of how you can get involved right now.

In Pennsylvania, Independent voters must register as Democrats by March 24th in order to vote in the primary. One supporter made calls this weekend and reached 10 Independent voters who wanted to vote for us -- four of whom needed information about how to register.

Our team has created an online tool that provides all the information you need to make calls from home.

Get started now:

http://my.barackobama.com/callpa

Nelson's 'headland' speech obviously written on the rocks below

Well, I have to say Brendan Nelson's speech to the National Press Club yesterday was really something.

He invoked the ghost of Ming and called on the political corpse of Howard to pick up its bed and walk, as he uttered the mother of all redundant speeches.

Nothing new in it or the subsequent Q&A. In fact he went so far as to promise that there would be no change from the status quo.

The whole thing was just a reworking of Liberal Party broad motherhood statements with a dash of the (by now obligatory) half-repudiation of former policies. 

The right's usual anti-Islamic rhetoric tossed in to spice the mix and a verbal dump on indigenous Aussies for good measure.

Little Brennie going on to garnish the whole with a sudden discovery of the very issues which have troubled this country for the last eleven years, and an earnest pledge to do-something-about-it.

A short blast on a dog whistle to establish his credentials as leader of the morals police.

Then throwing in a tear jerker or two to let us know that he has a heart after all.

Barefaced hypocrisy at its best.

The Age today labelled the 'vision' speech as "rose water" and "gobbledegook".

Myself, watching the entire speech on ABC 1 fair made me want to chunder.

"Big Screen" film festival coming to Yamba 4-6 April 2008

The Australian Film Commission's 2008 Big Screen film festival is on its way to Yamba.

The festival runs between Friday 4 April and Sunday 6 April 2008, with screenings at both Yamba cinemas.

 

Highlights of this year's festival include:

• Meet Wendy Hughes, the star of Careful He Might Hear You and Return to Eden at the NSW premiere of her new film, The View From Greenhaven Drive
• A fantastic double bill with My Brilliant Career and The Man Who Sued God
• Fabulous free school screenings, including Dr Plonk and The Caterpillar Wish
• Our Town and short films by local Indigenous filmmakers
• A special family screening of Elephant Tales

Out Town is of special interest to the Clarence Valley as it is "A spirited film by young locals about the importance of the Clarence River to their lives and to their Indigenous culture. When the government proposes a dam, how do they feel?"

There is a free showing of this film at Yamba's Treelands Drive Cinema on Sunday 6 April at 5.15pm.

 

Phone (02) 6646.3430 or (02) 66.4656 for festival details.

Gillard wipes the floor with Bishop during Workplace Relations debate

The Monday 17 March 2008 Hansard record of Julia Gillard's response to Julie Bishop during the second reading of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward With Fairness) Bill 2008.

 

"I am advised by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that she has nearly finished her remarks. If that is the case we will hear again from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and then do what the Australian people want us to do, which is to pass the bill which they voted for. In relation to the last representations and silly statements by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—no doubt she will stand at the dispatch box and make another series of silly statements which I will leave unanswered—the Howard government never produced any economic modelling of Work Choices. I will not stand here as a member of the Rudd Labor government and be lectured by the current opposition on the question of the production of economic modelling. Indeed, her request for it is the height of hypocrisy. For the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to describe her proposal in her speech on the second reading as something that has been satisfied through the Senate inquiry process is a cover-up of the fact that she has clearly been rolled by her party room again. She tried to achieve yet another extension of Australian workplace agreements, because she believes in Work Choices—she believes in AWAs that can rip people off. She put that position to the party room, she got rolled and she clearly got rolled again on the amendment. I will give the Deputy Leader of the Opposition this: at least she knows what she believes in and she is prepared to stand up for it. I have to give the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that. I can understand her high state of anger with her colleagues whom she described in the media as having 'gone to water'. I can understand that. She at least knows what she believes in. She believes in Work Choices and she always will. But this government was elected to deliver something different. It is this bill. We are seeking passage of it through the House of Representatives today. We will receive the Senate inquiry report. We always supported there being a Senate inquiry with a proper time frame. We will consider what the Senate inquiry report says. But having had that consideration I can see no reason why this bill cannot pass the parliament this week so we can end forever the spectre that Australians walk into their workplaces to be confronted by an Australian workplace agreement that takes away an award condition from them without any, or any proper, compensation. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition can carry on about nominal expiry dates and time periods for agreements, but what she and the Liberal Party know is this: the only thing that ensured the end of Australian workplace agreements that can rip conditions away was the election of the Rudd Labor government. We would never have got to this point had the Howard government been re-elected. She will dismiss it—she will carry on about nominal expiry dates—but the Deputy Leader of the Opposition must concede that next week when this bill is proclaimed there will never again be an Australian worker who walks into their workplace fearful that that is the day when an Australian workplace agreement gets shoved into their hands that takes away an award condition for no proper compensation or perhaps no compensation at all. I think that is a truly historic step. The Rudd Labor government believes it to be a truly historic step. It is what the Australian people voted for when they repudiated Work Choices and the party of Work Choices—the Liberal Party."

 

It would have been interesting to read Ms. Gillard's response to what Malcolm Turnbull might have had to say during the second reading, but he appears to have been steadfastly silent during the debate. Did he even bother to turn up?

John Howard's political love child lives!

Just when I think that we've finally seen the back of that ultra right-wing warrior, John W Howard, something crops up to remind me that his political love children are still sitting on the Opposition benches of Federal Parliament.

 

Showing a hint that Australia may yet be bludgeoned by the dying gasps of Howard's cultural vendetta against everything except a blinkered, timeline view of history and rampant ethnocentric 

nationalism, little Brennie Nelson put this out in the media: "The concept of "defence of the realm" should be expanded beyond border control and fighter planes to embrace "defence of values". Dr Nelson wants to initiate what could be a politically volatile public discussion about what Australians stand for beyond universal values."

 

Oi, Brenn old china, didn't you notice the disruptive racist and xenophobic drivel which welled to the surface when Howard tried his hand at "defence of values"? 

Have you ever stopped for a minute to consider that ordinary Aussies might have been defending their personal and universal values when they kicked your mob out of government last November?

Or were you knee-deep in the jungle juice when you thought up the little bewdy above. 

 

 

Wearin' the green on 17 March 2008

Shamrock photograph from www.thegardenhelper.com

North Coast Voices wishes everyone a great St. Patrick's Day.
Go n-éirí an bóthar leat Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl Go lonraí an ghrian go te ar d'aghaidh Go dtite an bháisteach go mín ar do pháirceanna Agus go mbuailimid le chéile arís, Go gcoinní Dia i mbos A láimhe thú.

Is Mister Splashy Pants now safe from Japan's whaling fleet?

With Japan admitting that this year's annual Antarctic whale hunt will probably yield poorer results due to hunt disruption and domestic sushi franchises and supermarkets indicating a reluctance to sell whale meat due to dwindling demand; will whales like Mister Splashy Pants be safe from future hunts or will he remain vulnerable because the Institute of Cetacean Research again inserts Humpback whales in next year's planned kill quota.

The Institute is obviously not backing down on its 'right' to conduct so-called scientific whaling and has quite a little PR war underway with no less than 25 media releases posted on its webpage so far this year.

Photograph of Splashy from http://www.greenpeace.org/

Ice on skids - a glacier meltdown graph

Glaciers are making the news again in the Australian media.

"Since 1980, glaciers have thinned by about 11.5 metres in a retreat blamed by the UN Climate Panel mainly on human use of fossil fuels. The thaw could disrupt everything from farming -- millions of people in Asia depend on seasonal melt water from the Himalayas -- and power generation to winter sports. The thaw could also raise world sea levels. UNEP said glaciers were among the clearest indicators of global warming. "There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine. The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP."

The World Glacier Monitoring Service has this visual representation of glacier ice net balance which brings home just how fast this melt is occurring.

Have Rusty, Jojo and Mellie finally deserted Malcolm Turnbull?

Malcolm Turnbull's personal blog is no longer posting entries from his family pets.
In fact Rusty the Red Cattle Dog, along with Jojo and Mellie the Maltese Silkies, has been totally silent since the 24 November 2007 federal election.
Have the pets left home for greener pastures?
Or does this present failure to place the pooch in front of a keyboard mean that Mal was under less pressure and better organised when he was a Minister of the Crown, Federal Cabinet member and local MP?
Is being the Coalition Shadow Treasurer turning out to be a task akin to mountain climbing right now?
Perhaps his very public spits at the Speaker during Question Time actually take hours in the planning and he has no time left over from making political mischief.
As the dogs often wrote about events in Mal's electorate, I have to wonder if he is attending many functions there these days.
Indeed the master of self-promotion has very few Wentworth events listed on his blog's electorate news page.

'Safe' GMO crops: one election promise Kevin 08 will run away from?

Instead of running to the media and spinning yet another ineffective attempt to use national advertising in a campaign to scare teenagers away from binge drinking, the Rudd Government should be forsaking the temptation to treat public policy as mere media moments and start quietly beavering away across all the issues that face Australia in 2008.

 

The genetically modified crop debate is one of those contentious issues which need to be resolved forthwith. The first genetically modified canola crop is due to go into the ground sometime this year.

 

Reported in ABC News yesterday.

 

"It is now legal to plant genetically modified (GM) canola in much of Australia, but a large group of concerned scientists, nutritionists and doctors is trying to convince the Federal Government to stop the seeds from ever being sown.

About 700 people have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, reminding him of Labor's election statement that safe and beneficial standards for GM products must be established beyond reasonable doubt."

According to The Age on the same day.

"The new federal campaign is being led by wealthy Adelaide businessman Peter Fenwick, who has urged Labor to maintain its pre-election stance on genetic engineering.

Yesterday, Mr Fenwick said he believed Mr Burke was "relatively uninformed" about the risks associated with GM, and had been "captured by his department".

Mr Rudd has been urged to:

■ Stop the release of any GM crops until he has met scientific experts to hear the latest evidence.

■ Order an immediate product safety recall on all GM crops, GM foods and GM animal feed, and ban their importation into Australia.

■ Overhaul the regulatory bodies with responsibility for policing the industry, and override the states that have lifted their GM bans.

Groups involved in the campaign include the Public Health Association of Australia, the Australian Milk Producers of Australia, Biological Farmers of Australia, a think tank associated with the Catholic Church, plus a host of organic and biodynamic food companies including Pureharvest."

Janelle Saffin MP gets a tick of approval from Crikey and Daily Examiner awards Steve Cansdell MP a thumbs down

This last week has been a study in contrasts between Federal Labor and State Nationals here on the NSW North Coast.

 

Richard Farmer in Crikey  last Thursday gave the Federal Member for Page a well-deserved tick of approval.

"Janelle Saffin, Labor, Page. A former member of the Legislative Council in the New South Wales parliament. She lived and worked in Timor Leste from 2004 to 2007 as Dr Jose Ramos Horta's senior political adviser. Spoke against the use of so many chemicals most of which used for food production "were not made for such use and are not necessary". Forceful and competent speaker. 7 out of 10."

 

While The Daily Examiner yesterday aired a claim that Nationals State Member for Clarence, Steve Cansdell, has been a lazy boy.

"TAMWORTH independent MP Peter Draper has accused State Member for Clarence Steve Cansdell of not pulling his weight in parliament.

Mr Draper analysed the performance of MPs in 2007 and found that Mr Cansdell was one of 12 Coalition members who did not pose a query during any of last year's question times."

 

Ballina MP Don Page and Lismore MP Thomas George are also mentioned as having failed to ask a question in the last twelve months.

 

And the Coalition wonders why it does not hold government anywhere in Australia at present.

It would do well to remember that regional voters reward hard work not complacency.

Further skirmishes in the Swamp Foxglove War

What with Clarence Valley Council on a Eurocentric vision trip which has it intent on chemically clearing around park specimen trees, urban weed-spraying at the drop of a hat, pulling out mature native bushes in the mistaken belief that these were introduced species and mowing sedge plants down so that only a matter of inches remain around the edge of some bodies of water, it takes a brave soul like Greg Clancy to keep at council over the matter of the threatened Swamp Foxglove.
Well done, Greg for highlighting the battle.

The Daily Examiner reports on the battle to save this little flower.

"According to Coutts Crossing ecologist, Greg Clancy, the plant only grows in a few spots in NSW and one of its most prolific patches is in the Coutts Crossing Cemetery.
But that could change if something is not done to protect it from vandals.
Mr Clancy said a car had run roughshod over the foxgloves just as they were flowering, breaking stems and destroying the surrounding environment.
Although Mr Clancy could not prove the damage was deliberate, he had no doubt the plants had been the target.
He said some Coutts Crossing residents were upset when Clarence Valley Council built a fence to protect the foxgloves as they believed the area contained old graves and should not be fenced off.
As a result, council removed the fence a year ago. But Mr Clancy said council had a duty of care to protect the foxglove which was listed as endangered and the fence should be reinstated.
"Before they fenced it off we had a couple of plants here, but when they fenced it off and stopped mowing it we got over 120 plants that came up through the grass," he said.
A week after the fence was removed Mr Clancy found the swamp foxgloves slashed to the ground by vandals."
Photograph at www.environment.nsw.gov.au

US08: let's get real about the odds

You can't switch onto radio, television or the internet these days without getting the latest on the 2008 race for Democratic nomination in the national election to decide the next US President.

What is fascinating is all the space given to the prospect of Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama being voted into the White House.

In a country which still appears firmly convinced that God is a white Christian American male in heavenly robes carrying an M16, does either a woman or an African-American really stand a chance?

Does anyone actually think America is now mature enough to vote for someone other than an aging Anglo-Saxon male? Just asking.

  

Memo to Malcolm Turnbull, Coalition Shadow Treasurer

Dear Malcolm,

Did your father never explain the problems with telling tall stories, whoppers, pork pies? Or the dangers of uttering fibs, stretching the truth, gilding the lily, colouring the facts - in other words, lying.

I'm sure he must have. Pity that paternal lesson appears to be forgotten.

This week you displayed a monumental lapse in both common sense and political acumen when you insisted that Treasury had given specific advice to the Rudd Government to recommend a dollar amount in any submission concerning the minimum wage case currently before the Fair Pay Commission.

You were exposed as misleading the Australian people on this issue, yet you still went on to give a number of interviews in which you continued to spread the canard and cast aspersions on the Treasury Secretary when he publicly denied your claims.

Your argument became so feeble with repetition that you expanded the fibbing with this.

"He said his proof was that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had not denied it when he put it to him in question time this week.

"He declined to contradict me. He did not correct me. If I was so wrong, why didn't he correct me on Wednesday? You have to ask yourself,'' Mr Turnbull said."

Now Mal, that wasn't just untruthful it was downright dumb. A great many people heard Question Time last Wednesday, including yours truly, and we all can check the exact wording online.

Mate, it's time your enlistment papers were stamped snarler and you were sent back from the political trenches.

Hooroo,

Pete

Libs Deputy Leader Julie Bishop comes a cropper coast-to-coast

The Liberal Party's second-in-command Julie Bishop is looking quite lemon lipped these days during Question Time in the Australian Parliament.

She is rarely winning a trick when she takes on her Labor counterpart, Deputy-Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The latest upset for Ms. Bishop was when she rose to her feet at 2.07pm yesterday and called for the release of a government report showing that jobs would be lost if WorkChoices legislation was changed by the Rudd Government.

This allowed Ms.Gillard to point out in reply that the report Julie Bishop was asking for was actually one commissioned, received and then not released by the former Howard Government.

The report of course not modelling the Rudd Government changes to WorkChoices as these were apparently not in existence when this report was written.

Hansard records that Julia Gillard also stated that Ms. Bishop was knowingly misleading the House.

This less than shining moment for Julie Bishop was shown on national television, radio and parliament podcast.

It seems it was the Liberals who did not really understand.

Contemporary Northern Rivers artists - a visual feast

Sharon Muir of Mullumbimby from her Shields series.
Noel Hart blown glass work Modest Parrot.
Garth Lena of Fingal Heads "Three brothers"

When blogs begin to breed like rabbits in the night

Being a novice blogger who views the world-wide web as something akin to 'magik' (don't ask - it's a generational thing), it didn't take long before I was overwhelmed by the number of Australian blogs out there in hyperspace.

It almost seemed that, whenever I turned my PC off for the day, blogs of all varieties began to multiply inside the idle monitor while I slept.

I tried keeping a list of sites I liked, but was often diverted by the strange and obscure and lost my way in an evergrowing blog maze.

So it was some relief to find these two compilation sites. Kwoff which posts what interests readers with an immediacy I like, and Club Troppo's The Missing Link Daily which has a fine eye for the interesting or quirky comment and can deliver an email version.

Think I'll ditch that printed list from now on and check these sites first.

Otherwise I'll have to lay a couple of steel-jawed traps on my desk each night to keep those blog bunnies under control.

The 'compassionate' Coalition in action

Here is Tony Abbott at his hypocritical best .

"The Federal Opposition condemned any move by the Rudd Government to scrap bonus payments to seniors.
Opposition families and community services spokesman Tony Abbott today said the seniors' payments had helped more than two million pensioners last year and should be preserved.
"The Howard government thought this was an important way of allowing less well-off people to share in our economic prosperity. This was the social dividend of the economic boom,'' he said.
This year's budget surplus was predicted to be huge, he said, and it was only fair that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd give something back.
"This year, there's going to be an even bigger budget surplus - $20 billion - and yet the Rudd Government is not going to give carers bonuses and now it's not going to give seniors bonuses either,'' Mr Abbott said.
"Kevin Rudd criticised John Howard as being mean and tricky, but as soon as he gets his hands on the levers of power he starts taking things away from the most vulnerable people in society.
"Kevin Rudd has been parading his Christian virtue, yet he's taking away from the most vulnerable that little bit extra the government was giving as some way of sharing in the good times.'' 

Sounds good doesn't it. Tony wants the seniors bonus payment preserved.

Which begs the question as to why the former Howard Government only implemented this payment as a one-off bonus.

First grabbing the initial give-away money from the Dept. of Employment and Workplace Relations budget and then failing to confirm it in any forward estimates. 
As evidenced by the DEWR Supplementary Additional Estimates Statements 2006-07.

 

Tony also sounds quite good when he rails against the abolition of the carers bonus.

Which calls up a recollection of the May 2007 second reading of the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2007-08. This reading had former Treasurer Peter Costello admitting (of the now increased bonuses) that "Both the seniors and the carers bonuses will be paid by 30 June 2007."

So, in fact neither type of $500 bonus was included in the last Howard Government budget.

Ergo, it was never going to happen in 2008 for there was no budget allocation.

So much for the suddenly 'compassionate' Tony Abbott and friends.

 

Now the Coalition is howling about these bonuses and insisting that these remain even though they had apparently ceased to exist on the Howard Government books.

A "bonus" is never a payment on solid ground anyway and to repeatedly attack the Rudd Government, when it had signalled that it was considering translating these lapsed payments into permanent Centrelink benefits/allowances, was foolish in the extreme.

The resultant panic among the elderly in response to the Coalition's half-truths now means we have a situation where these bonuses continue as a one-off to be delivered at the whim of the government of the day, and who do we have to thank for this uncertainty.

Why, Tony Abbott and friends.

"Mean and tricky" - I think that appellation now applies to Mr. Abbott.

No political experience required to help Obama win Pennsylvania

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama rides victorious from Mississippi and heads for Pennsylvania.
Here is the latest e-mail from the Obama for America team.

"Dear [redacted],
My name is Jeremy Bird, and I'm the Field Director for the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania.
Barack has won twice as many states, more delegates, and more votes than Senator Clinton. But the Democratic race is still very close, and the Pennsylvania primary is the biggest remaining contest.
The primary is still six weeks away, but another important deadline is coming up soon. Anyone who wants to vote for Barack in Pennsylvania must be registered as a Democrat by Monday, March 24th.
Supporters from all across the country are coming to Pennsylvania in the next two weeks to help register voters. Help build our movement and our party by joining us.
Sign up to come to Pennsylvania to register voters before March 24th:
http://my.barackobama.com/CometoPA
If one thing is clear from this campaign, it's that every vote and every delegate matters.
Here in Pennsylvania, hundreds of thousands of unregistered voters are ready to support Barack -- but we have only two weeks to reach out to them all.
That's why people from all over the country are traveling to Pennsylvania to make sure every potential Obama supporter is registered and eligible to vote in the primary on April 22nd.
No prior political experience is required. Sign up to grow this movement and bring thousands of new people into the political process.
Join us in Pennsylvania to register voters and support Barack:
http://my.barackobama.com/CometoPA
All across the country, we've seen people getting involved in politics for the first time or returning to politics after years of frustration.
I hope you'll come to Pennsylvania and keep this momentum going.
Thank you,
Jeremy
Jeremy Bird
Pennsylvania Field Director
Obama for America"

Update:
Highlights from this morning's e-mail.
"When we won Iowa, the Clinton campaign said it's not the number of states you win, it's "a contest for delegates."
When we won a significant lead in delegates, they said it's really about which states you win.
When we won South Carolina, they discounted the votes of African-Americans.
When we won predominantly white, rural states like Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska, they said those didn't count because they won't be competitive in the general election.
When we won in Washington State, Wisconsin, and Missouri -- general election battlegrounds where polls show Barack is a stronger candidate against John McCain -- the Clinton campaign attacked those voters as "latte-sipping" elitists. And now that we've won more than twice as many states, the Clinton spin is that only certain states really count.
But the facts are clear.
For all their attempts to discount, distract, and distort, we have won more delegates, more states, and more votes.
Meanwhile, more than half of the votes that Senator Clinton has won so far have come from just five states. And in four of these five states, polls show that Barack would be a stronger general election candidate against McCain than Clinton.
We're ready to take on John McCain.---
As the number of remaining delegates dwindles, Hillary Clinton's path to the nomination seems less and less plausible.
Now that Mississippi is behind us, we move on to the next ten contests. The Clinton campaign would like to focus your attention only on Pennsylvania -- a state in which they have already declared that they are "unbeatable."
But Pennsylvania is only one of those 10 remaining contests, each important in terms of allocating delegates and ultimately deciding who our nominee will be.---
The key to victory is not who wins the states that the Clinton campaign thinks are important. The key to victory is realizing that every vote and every voter matters.
Throughout this entire process, the Clinton campaign has cherry-picked states, diminished caucuses, and moved the goal posts to create a shifting, twisted rationale for why they should win the nomination despite winning fewer primaries, fewer states, fewer delegates, and fewer votes.
We must stand up to the same-old Washington politics. Barack has won twice as many states, large and small, in every region of the country -- many by landslide margins.---"

Pension Bonus: Don't forget disability pensioners live on God's earth too

 

MEDIA RELEASE

12 March 2008

 

Pension bonus:

Don't forget disability pensioners live on God's earth too

 

"CPSA welcomes Treasurer Wayne Swans reassurance that pensioners and carers will receive their additional payments, but calls on the Government to extend the pension bonus to disability pensioners to help them cope with the cost of disability", said CPSA Policy Coordinator Paul Versteege.

 

"Ninety per cent of disability pensioners cannot work and most have no additional income.

 

"What disability pensioners as a rule do have are large bills for disability equipment and medical consultations.

 

"Disability pensioners deserve not to be left in the lurch. They, too, live on God's earth."

 

Contact: 

Paul Versteege

Policy Coordinator

Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA)

Level 9, 28 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills  NSW  2010

Phone 02 9281 3588

Mob 0410 612 182

Fax 02 9281 9716

The Member for La Trobe will be sent somewhere....(Quesion Time aside by the Speaker)

Parliament resumed sitting this week and right away the noise level coming from the Opposition benches was high, with enough decibels generated to stop the Speaker of the House of Reps from hearing the reply from a minister having the floor during Question Time yesterday.

Still, no matter how boorish the Coalition pollies became, there was no stopping the Deputy-Prime Minister from dropping this little gem into Hansard concerning the Howard Government attempt to address the national skills shortage by training more manicurists.

Ms GILLARD—I thank the member for her question.

This nation does face a skills crisis which is adding

to inflationary pressures. We have been warned

about it, and the former government was warned about

it by the RBA on 20 occasions. I know that in this

place there are members opposite who simply do not

understand the dimensions of this crisis. I refer them to

the words of Suncorp Chairman and Tabcorp Director,

John Story, who is also the Chairman of the Australian

Institute of Company Directors, who delivered this

damning assessment of the former government's approach

to skills shortages:

We should have been addressing infrastructure issues. We

should have been addressing skills shortages five years ago. I

mean, we talked about it. These issues were discussed

around board tables like this for the past 10 years, and the

chickens are coming home to roost and there is no short-term

fix.

That is a message from business about the dimension

of skills shortages. Whilst business is delivering this

message, members opposite live in denial. We have

had the shadow minister for training saying that skills

shortages were 'just a matter of where we are in the

business cycle'—a denial that there is even a skills

crisis. And the shadow Treasurer has been quoted as

saying:

The truth is ... Australia does not have a chronic skills

shortage ...

This is the opposition in denial about their legacy and

in denial about a contemporary problem facing the

Australian community and its economy. Today's Grant

Thornton survey shows that 58 per cent of the businesses

surveyed identified skills shortages as the biggest

constraint to their growth. Whilst the former minister

for vocational education and training may not

have done much about it, at least he was prepared to

acknowledge that there was a skills crisis when he said:

We have got a problem with skills shortage. I mean, we

knew it was coming, but it has arrived with force and, you

know, it is only going to get worse.

How were these skills shortages created? If we look at

where the former government put investment in skills

development, we see some remarkable things. We saw

$3 million invested in the provision of training and

qualifications in nail technology. Mr Speaker, you

might well think to yourself: 'That's good. Hammering

nails into wood, building things—skills shortages in

the construction industry—$3 million into skills training

for nail technology.' You might be thinking that

that is a good thing. It is not those sorts of nails that we

are talking about. We are talking about fingernails. We

are talking about $3 million being invested in skills

training so that people can have manicures—a file and

paint; a set of acrylics. That is what the former government

invested in: $3 million in nail technology.

Mr Rudd—Really?

Ms GILLARD—Really, Prime Minister. I accept

that the Leader of the Opposition is a man of the world

and he probably understands the merit of a manicure.

He probably particularly understands the merit of a

manicure in a party room that is beset by claws that are

unsheathed and out. But I would ask the Leader of the

Opposition and those that sit on the opposition front

benches: when in government, how did they come to

the conclusion that with skills shortages besetting the

Australian economy the most important thing we

needed was 1,232 more Australians qualified to provide

manicures and 700 more Australians qualified to

apply make-up and cosmetics—a total cost of $3 million

for the manicures and $1.5 million for the makeup

and cosmetics? This was their investment in training.

Whilst the mining sector and the construction sector

were calling out for skilled workers, you might not

have been able to get a house built but you could always

go down to the beauty parlour and make yourself

feel better about it. That was their contribution to training

in this nation—hardly meeting the needs of working

families, who need the real skills shortages in this

economy fixed. I am not denigrating the occupations of

providing manicures and providing make-up services

—

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER—Order! The Deputy Prime Minister

has the call.

Ahoy, Northern Rivers shire councillors!

In the face of growing evidence of the negative impacts of climate change and how these are likely to affect the NSW North Coast, both the NSW Minister for Planning and Northern Rivers shire councils continue to cave-in to pressure from developers to allow housing on vulnerable coastal and estuary land.

 

Hopefully this report will give them pause for thought.

 

"IN a portent of how climate change could transform town planning along the nation's coastlines, the South Australian Supreme Court has ruled that predicted sea level rises are a valid reason to reject beachfront housing developments.---

The South Australian Supreme Court cited local sea level rises of 30cm over the next 50 years in ruling yesterday against Northcape Properties' plans for 80 holiday homes at Marion Bay, 150km west of Adelaide.

The changes - which the court ruled was expected, not merely a probability - would encroach on the proposal's "erosion buffer and coastal reserve".

Earth Hour March 2008

On March 29 it's time to switch off the electricity at your house for one hour, to show the world that action against climate change is important to you and demonstrate how people can reduce energy consumption in their own homes.

The global warming initiative began as an environmental event in Sydney last year and has expanded to include 24 cities from around the world.

Razor gang shaves $22 million a year off MPs printing allowance

I just love it when the new broom does some overdue sweeping.

Yesterday the Rudd Government announced that it is introducing changes to Parliament to cut politicians' printing allowances from $150,000 to $100,000.

It is also proposing to stop MPs from stockpiling their funds for election campaigning.

Finally, we might see an end to those useless fridge calendars sent out during the first year of the election cycle and a reduction in those equally useless letters claiming credit for other b*ggers efforts sent out in the last two years before the next election.

Stifling a local MP's urge to print rubbish might save a tree or two as well.

A win-win for us all.

John Winston Howard, no man of steel just an embarrassing old f*rt

Former Prime Minister, John Winston Howard, continues his whistlestop tour of America in defence of those personal attitudes and government policies rejected by the Australian people on 24 November 2007.

 

It's all a bit sad really. Instead of trying for a dignified position on the world stage as a former head of government, Mr. Howard has opted to act the embarrassing old f*rt.

Refusing to believe that he could have been wrong and also refusing to accept that his public intransigence may yet have a direct impact on the political survival of the Liberal Party of Australia.

 

ABC News yesterday published this brief synopsis and video link to his 10 March speech to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, billed on the school's webpage as "A Conversation with the Honorable John Howard".

 

"Former prime minister John Howard has again defended his government's record in a speech in the United States.

Mr Howard addressed students at Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government.

He spoke about his support for nuclear power in Australia and his opposition to Australia signing the Kyoto Protocol.

He has also restated his opposition to a formal apology to the Aboriginal Stolen Generations."

 

John should have ignored Janette's desire to pursue the fleeing tatters of former glory and stayed quietly at home.

 

I wonder if Harvard Uni and his other hosts know that they are objects of ridicule for taking Howard so seriously? For paying him $50,000 a hit to spout a very unoriginal piece of sour grapes from what appears to be a single compilation of highlights from his 2007 election speeches. 

Rudd Government sinks its fangs into public dental plan

Rudd's razor gang continues to wield the knife.

 

According to The Daily Telegraph last week. 

 

"A MEDICARE dental scheme paying for 20,000 dental treatments a month will be abolished by the Rudd Government in three weeks' time.

The scheme, which provides up to $4250 in Medicare benefits for dental work, has been in operation for just three months.

The latest Medicare statistics show that 20,224 dental services were funded under the scheme in January.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon is axing the $384 million scheme and replacing it with a plan to give the states $290 million to pay for one million dental consultations at public dental clinics.--

The Association for the Promotion of Oral Health yesterday slammed the axing of the Medicare dental scheme, claiming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was "stealing Medicare entitlements".

Association chairman Hans Zoellner said Mr Rudd, who has a heart valve replacement, relied on high quality dental services to avoid a deadly complication of his condition known as endocaritis.

Bacteria from gum disease or dental decay could have resulted in a life-threatening heart infection, Professor Zoellner said.

"He is stripping Australians less fortunate than himself from the same dental services he requires for survival," he said.

"We don't all marry millionaires."

 

Now I know that it is possible that Howard's scheme for dental care from private dentists on the recommendation of GPs may have been open to a level of overuse or abuse.

However, carving out a cool $94 million from the dental health budget is not the way to go.

 

The combined states waiting lists at public dental clinics need more than what is on offer to fix the long wait for treatment.

 

"There are 485,000 Australians waiting up to 10 years for public dental treatment and Professor Zoellner said Labor's extra funding would only treat 83,000 of them."

 

Indeed, with most of those who have been on the waiting lists for years now needing considerable work done on their mouths, this new level of funding (which will actually be prioritised and allocated by state governments) will probably only continue to spent on examinations and extractions rather than efforts to keep functioning teeth.

That way the states will make the money go further towards allowing them to avoid significant increases in their own contributions to dental health funding.

 

Ms. Roxon needs to remember that, like health, dental services are the constitutional responsibility of the Commonwealth and ensure that state governments are locked in to proper use of the limited funds she is offering.

Many on the NSW North Coast will be watching this issue with interest as they wait in the dental queue.

Personally, I would have preferred to see the proposed $31 billion in inflationary tax cuts reduced instead of budget cuts eating into public health measures.

Morrie and the Multinationals sing 'It's you and me against the world'

Well the report into the electricity privatisation plan has been presented to the Iemma Government.

Predictably, it comes down predominantly in favour of the Iemma-Costa proposal.

Also predictably, NSW unions hold a dissenting view.

Uncomfortably but not unexpectedly, Prime Minister Rudd weighed in to support his little mate and sang from the same hymn book.

What is a little surprising is the strong rumour that a number of North Coast Labor Party branches are very unhappy and at least one has made known its opposition to Morrie's little scheme to sell-off an essential service.

 

So, apart from most of his 21-strong front bench, some hardline economists and the big multinational energy companies, who is in favour of what appears to be a $25 billion Telsta-style sell out?

Anyone? No-one?

 

Not even the three reports that came before the NSW Government gave an unqualified tick of approval to this sell-off. Doesn't that give you pause for thought, Premier?

Morrie, I hope that they hang you high by your heels at the ALP state conference in May.

 

A collection of papers and the final report are at Securing the State's Electricity Supplies.

The March 2008 Impact Statement with dissenting positions by Unions NSW and the Total Environment Centre is at this link.

Shout Out youth mag revamped

Shout Out the local free youth magazine has been revamped. Its 34 page March 2008 issue is glossy and tightly packed with news and views, as well as great surfing pics.

This mag is a Clarence Valley Arts project funded by the NSW Government through the area assistance scheme.

The Shout Out team are young, bright and cluey and their mag is well worth a look to see what's on and what's up.

If you want to find out what's on for the young on the NSW North Coast, grab a copy of the mag.
Alternatively contact the team at:
cvyouthmag@yahoo.com.au or go to MySpace here.

Remember that the Youth Week 2008 festival is at Maclean Showground on 5 April 2008.
It will have live music, DJs, 4-way bungee, circus workshop, jewellery making, and great food stalls.
Sounds like a great day.

A smile for the start of the working week

Cartoon found at Club Troppo.

Is Japanese government and industry paying for this latest 'informal' whaling discussion?

One has to wonder exactly whose press releases are being relied on for stories concerning last weekend's International Whaling Commission meeting in Tokyo and the additional informal discussion concerning a repeal of the international whaling moratorium.

 

Japan already carries out "a limited hunt in waters close to its shores" in which it kills around 100 whales and in excess of 21,000 dolphins annually according to the government fisheries agency reported in The New York Times.

 

The NZ Herald on Sunday reported the following today.

 

"LONDON - Controversial plans to lift the worldwide ban on whaling were presented to a secret meeting of more than 70 governments in London last week.

The plans, which have alarmed environmentalists, have been welcomed by both pro- and anti-whaling governments and seek to lift a long stalemate over hunting, enabling Japan officially to resume commercial whaling for the first time in more than 20 years.

The plans would permit the world's main whaling nation to carry out a limited hunt in waters close to its shores.

In return, Japan would have to stop exploiting a loophole in international law, through which it kills hundreds of whales around Antarctica each year under the guise of "scientific research".

The plans - drawn up at another unpublicised meeting in Tokyo last month - were presented by the governments of Argentina and the Netherlands to a closed three-day session of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at the Renaissance Hotel near Heathrow airport, which ended yesterday."

 

There is a real danger here that Japan is angling to extend its commercial whale kill into Pacific Ocean waters and to not only include Minke whales but also to have some threatened species 

placed on the official catch list.

 

One also has to question the present motives of the Netherlands and Argentina. 

The Netherlands effectively ceased commercial whaling in 1964 when it sold its last whaling ship to Japan and now officially opposes the practice of whaling. So its support of discussions about 

allowing Japan to widen its coastal whaling is possibly in response to thinly veiled Japanese threats of legal action or diplomatic sanctions over the Netherlands registered vessel, the Steve Irwin.

In 2007 Argentina supported an extension of the Antarctic Southern Ocean whale sanctuary into the South Atlantic and has been critical of Japan for voting against this move.

Given Japan's history of using money to pave the way, a suspicion develops concerning its 'new' relationship with these two countries.

 

The international community would be foolish to believe that any concession granted to Japan would see that country cease its drive to expand both whale kill numbers and the territory in which it conducts these whale hunts.

 

For the voice of the hunted and soon to be hunted go and listen to their songs/sounds:

Blue Whale 1                   Pilot Whale   

Blue Whale 2                   Sperm Whale                   

Humpback Whale 1          Dolphin 1

Humpback Whale 2          Dolphin 2

Humpback Whale 3          Male Whale in 2003

Fin Whale                        Dwarf Minke

When all else fails the Liberals hug their teddy bears

Voters, give little Brennie Nelson a chance to shine as Lib leader; cry Christopher Pyne, Julie Bishop, Greg Hunt, Malcolm Turnbull and all, as they clutch their teddy bears as armour against the long night.

Why should we? When the lot of you were in government I don't remember you giving ordinary Aussies much of a chance.

For over a decade you blithely made your political bed. Now lie in it!

top soil question

Has anyone else in the valley noticed how quickly the topsoil dries out. Since the good rain we have had I decided to plant some trees. I had some seeds that I'd potted up and they were growing strong, so it was time for them to go out into the big world. The hole were dug, fertiliser was ready so in they went.

I noticed when I was digging the holes that the first 50 to 70mm was dry. Under that the soil was moist, and the clay layer was wet. I thought that all the extra water that these trees would need was a good wetting-in on planting.

It was surprising that on inspection two days later the trees were showing all the symptoms of lack of water.

The topsoil was bone dry and the more disturbed the soil the deeper the dryness. Where I had dug the holes for the trees the dryness extended a good 100mm or more.

This has led me to thinking about what would cause this problem. Since most of the trees were well mulched when they were planted, direct sunlight should not have caused the drying soil.

We have not had extremely hot weather so that could not be the cause either.

This made me think about the drought we have just had. Could it be that over the combined dry years the humus in the soil has depleted to such an extent that it leaves the surface topsoil vulnerable to drying?

This is my current theory, but I am open to other suggestions.

If you have noticed the same thing in your garden in the Clarence Valley I would be very interested to hear of your experiences and what you think may be causing this. Or is it just my imagination?

Lost in translation or simply weird science? Japan's whale research

News.com.au carried this report on Japan's whale research yesterday .

 

"AN official scientific review of Japan's bizarre experiments with test-tube minke babies and attempts at cross-breeding cows with whales has exploded the claim whale slaughter is "research".

Scientists have analysed the 43 research papers produced by Japan after 18 years of killing whales and concluded they are useless, strange and esoteric."

 

While in 2005 the Cetacean Society International had this to say about Japan's low priority lethal research.

 

"What do non-Japanese scientists say about JARPA II? Dr. Phil Clapham, director of large whale research at the U.S. National Marine Mammal Lab in Seattle, Washington says: "Japan's scientific whaling program has been widely criticized as a cover for a growing commercial hunt." "The quality of the scientific research is extremely poor, providing almost no information of value for the management of whale populations despite 16 years of operation and thousands of whales killed. Japan's research exists for one purpose only: to `prove' - no matter what the data actually say - that whales eat too much fish and are thus in competition with Japanese fisheries. This isn't the case, and is not even relevant in the Antarctic, where whales eat krill."

 

Last year Science Direct carried this abstract concerning Japan's whaling policy.

 

"Morishita's "multiple analysis" of the whaling issue [Morishita J. Multiple analysis of the whaling issue: Understanding the dispute by a matrix. Marine Policy 2006;30:802–8] is essentially a restatement of the Government of Japan's whaling policy, which confuses the issue through selective use of data, unsubstantiated facts, and the vilification of opposing perspectives. Here, we deconstruct the major problems with Morishita's article and provide an alternative view of the whaling dispute. For many people in this debate, the issue is not that some whales are not abundant, but that the whaling industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself or to honestly assess the status of potentially exploitable populations. This suspicion has its origin in Japan's poor use of science, its often implausible stock assessments, its insistence that culling is an appropriate way to manage marine mammal populations, and its relatively recent falsification of whaling and fisheries catch data combined with a refusal to accept true transparency in catch and market monitoring. Japanese policy on whaling cannot be viewed in isolation, but is part of a larger framework involving a perceived right to secure unlimited access to global marine resources. Whaling is inextricably tied to the international fisheries agreements on which Japan is strongly dependent; thus, concessions made at the IWC would have potentially serious ramifications in other fora."

 

It appears that Japan will have difficulty in sustaining the fiction that its Antarctic whale hunt is 'science'.

Its official credibility may now hinge on how many nation members at this weekend's International Whaling Commission talks it can induce to overlook the flaws in its argument for lethal research.

The Solomon Islands has declined to attend the meeting this year.

"Usually Japan pays for our attendance," Prime Minister Derek Sikua said. But he said the Solomons had declined to attend a special closed meeting on the future of the IWC that wound up in London last night.

"This time we have refused their assistance, so we haven't gone because we can't afford it," Mr Sikua said. He was unable to say how much the support of the Solomons had cost the Japanese in previous years."

 

While not condoning the protest methods of the Sea Shepherd organisation, it is more than passing strange to see Japan's so-called annual scientific expedition defend itself with flash grenades.

 

Here's how the US media reported the incident.

 

"TOKYO -- The Japanese coast guard says the crew of a whale-processing ship clashed with anti-whaling activists from the Friday Harbor (Washington) based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

It happened in the Antarctic Ocean, 1,800 miles south-southwest of Melbourne.

The captain of the anti-while ship, Paul Watson, says he was shot, but saved by a Kevlar vest.

Japan denies a shot was fired. The coast guard says the crew of the whaling ship, Nisshin Maru, threw stun grenades after the activists threw rotten butter, bottles and bags of white powder at the processing ship.

Watson says they were throwing stink bombs."

Crikey on John Winston Howard in Washington 2008

Crikey on Friday 7 March 2008.

Bernard Keane looks at John Howard.

"Having been abandoned by the Australian electorate, his own constituents and, finally, by his own party, John Howard has had to retreat to the United States to find a sanctuary from where he can defend his record.---
Defeat doesn't appear to have agreed with Howard. Perhaps, deep in the bowels of Parliament House, there's a Dorian Gray-style portrait of him. Now that the spell has been broken, the picture has reverted to the Howard with hair, black-rimmed specs and bad teeth, and the man himself has started decaying before our very eyes. There's something pathetic about his preaching to his last remaining mates. It must infuriate him that Australia has so quickly moved on from him, and taken most of his former colleagues with it, leaving him to look like a relic from another age. But as Paul Keating would tell him, there's nothing so ex as an ex-Prime Minister."

A short list of pollies who should've been drowned at birth

A short list of pollies who should've been drowned at birth and some reasons why

 

Brendan Nelson - for that mean spirited attempt at an apology to the Stolen Generations, condoning MPs retiring just because they don't like being on the Opposition benches, and for being generally useless.

 

Peter Costello - for taking his portmanteau of grimaces with him when he went to the backbench and for obviously deciding that the work of parliament is now beneath him. 

 

Tony Abbott - for still defending the indefensible policies of John Howard, having the hide to describe NT Intervention law as having 'purity', and for continuing to inflict those d*amn ears on us all.

 

Alexander Downer - for thinking the Australian electorate now owes him a work-free living until he decides when to take early retirement.

 

Wilson 'Iron Bar' Tuckey - for revelling in both his nickname and his barely concealed racism, as well as thinking that a paid engagement on the Love Boat was a proper use of an MP's time.

 

Joe Hockey - for constantly nitpicking and blustering during Question Time and for repeatedly misquoting Part 3 Section 39 of the Australian Constitution.

 

Luke Hartsuyker - for embarrassing his electorate with his baa-baa mentality on that Friday House of Reps sitting day.

 

Warren Truss - for failing to take firm control of the Nationals and allowing its MPs to walk all over him.

 

Mark Vaile - for acting as a paid lobbyist in the Middle East and for not remembering that this was where he only escaped the Oil-for-Food scandal by the skin of his teeth.

 

Julie Bishop - for giving what must be the silliest hairsplitting reasons why the Coalition should not support the abolition of WorkChoices and then recanting same. 

 

Malcolm Turnbull - for constantly trailing his prospective leadership cape in front of the media when he knows it is still possible that the unresolved HIH matter may make him an embarrassment to the Liberal Party.

 

Peter McGuaran - for cynically changing parties and then standing for re-election with his fingers crossed behind his back.

 

Christopher Pyne - for continuing to inflict pyneonline.com.au on us all and for defending Costello, Downer etc.

When the wind rips the roof off my house and the sea drowns my front yard....

It seems that every time I look around some self-proclaimed Expert On Everything decides to deny global warming.

 

Tim Blair was at it again at the end of February. As was Andrew Bolt.

Andrew really gave it his all , including a link to Watts up with that? showing graphs (which perversely appear to disprove his case).

As usual Tim and Andrew have not allowed facts to get in the way of a sensationalised blog, showing a propensity to confuse relatively short-term observable weather patterns with real evidence against global warming.

 

NASA, taking a more balanced view of the methodology, reveals that when limiting temperature comparisons to a single month across a few years or to a particular location there will inevitably be a wide variation.

 

There is no getting away from the fact that all the graphs used in the Blair-Bolt denialist argument show a warming trend over the last 100 years, as evidenced by the following anomalous temperature graph. 

 

Global Annual Mean Surface Air Temperature Change

 

Line plot of global mean land-ocean temperature index, 1880 to present. The dotted black line is the annual mean and the solid red line is the five-year mean. The green bars show uncertainty estimates. [This is an update of Fig. 1A in Hansen, et al. (2006)]

Figure available as large GIF, PDF, or Postscript. Also available are tabular data.

(Last modified: 2008-01-11)

 

So Tim and Andrew - put a sock in it or I will be knocking on your doors when increasingly severe storms, flooding and saltwater inundation make it imperative that I have help in stacking sandbags around my house.

Is Foxtel playing dirty with McCain presidential campaign?

This little snippet from Chilling Effects makes for interesting reading.

"Associated Press, October 26, 2007
Abstract: The Associated Press reports that presidential candidate John McCain has rejected Fox's call to "cease and desist" from using Fox debate footage in a campaign ad.
Fox is apparently claiming infringement by the use of 18 seconds from a 90 minute debate, in which Sen. McCain is the speaker. Political argument, even in the heated sound-bite form of campaign ads, is at the core of First-Amendment protected speech. This kind of commentary use, of newsworthy material available only from Fox, suggests that not only McCain, but the general public should have greater access to debate footage."

The fight received wide media coverage at the time, but does not appear to have been completely resolved as just last month Fox "We Report You Decide'" News was labelling the Republican McCain as a 'Democrat' in its news footage, and early this month McCain was only rating as a main news maker in about 18% of campaign stories across the media generally.

All of which leads me to wonder exactly who Rupert Murdoch will finally come close to endorsing as the next US President, because supporters of almost every presidential hopeful who started out in the primaries race have accused Fox and Murdoch of bias.

Political malcontent Luke Hartsuyker MP gets his long weekend back

The Rudd Government announced yesterday that it was abandoning its newly scheduled Friday sittings of the House of Reps, pointing to the Coalition's disruptive behaviour which twice suspended the House on the only Friday it sat so far this year.

 

I'm quite sure that Nationals Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker thought he was being rather smart as he followed the Coalition mob, defied the Deputy-Speaker and forced that final suspension.

 

What he was of course was very transparent. Aside from an obvious chance to grab a national headline, Canberra gossip has it that our Luke was really showing just how miffed he was at the thought of losing his chance to return home early each week for the traditional pollies' long weekend.

 

Now he and his friends have had their way (or their bluff called), I expect that this wilful pollie will turn up in the local media hypocritically bewailing the loss of a sitting day.

Don't bother to keep clacking your clogs on the issue, Luke mate - few will believe you.

I certainly don't and neither it seems does the ABC's Virginia Trioli.

Japan accused of vote buying ahead of International Whaling Commission meeting in London

Image taken from The Guardian.

There appears to be little sympathy in the international media for Japan's stand on so-called 'scientific' whaling.

In the UK The Guardian ran this piece.

"Australia will today call on Japan to end its controversial whale hunts in the Antarctic at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in London, as condemnation mounts over Tokyo's attempts to build a pro-whaling majority ahead of the commission's main conference this summer.

Japanese delegates, meanwhile, are expected to push for international action against conservation groups attempting to disrupt the annual culls.

Japan was accused of vote buying after it hosted a seminar this week on the sustainable use of whales that was attended by 12 African and Asian countries - including landlocked Laos - that have recently joined the IWC or are considering doing so.

By bringing in sympathetic new members, it hopes to challenge the 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Despite the ban, Japan continues to hunt whales every winter to collect scientific data it says is necessary to understand the mammals' migratory and other habits.

This season the fleet had planned to slaughter a record 935 minke and 50 endangered fin whales, but the slaughter has been hampered by confrontations with activists Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace.

Critics said Japan used the Tokyo seminar to offer aid packages to countries that had little or no history of whaling in return for their support.

"Once again it demonstrates the clear link between fisheries aid and support for whaling - a policy which Japan has been following since 1994," Greenpeace said.

The chances of overturning the moratorium in the near future are virtually nil, however. Anti-whaling member of the IWC, including Britain, outnumber Japan and its allies, and a three-quarters majority would be required to lift the ban.

Though Japan denied vote buying, an insider told the Guardian that there was a "likelihood that in the near future, at least one of the countries taking part [in the seminar] could find itself in receipt of a quantity of cash.---"

Meanwhile the Japanese media continue to stress attacks on the whaling fleet by the US-based Sea Shepherd organisation and comment on what portrayed as Australia's role in these protests.

"If the perpetrators can be identified, the Japanese government will demand that countries where they have citizenship hand them over to Japan. But Japan has extradition treaties only with the United States and South Korea.

In addition, many Sea Shepherd members are Australian nationals. As antiwhaling sentiment is strong in Australia, it is uncertain to what extent the Australian government will cooperate with the investigation."

The Daily Yomiuri online also expresses some concern that anti-whaling sentiment in Australia may affect visitor numbers to Japan's ski fields.

Slow death for WorkChoices begins on the NSW North Coast

The Northern Star article by Alex Eaton yesterday.

 

"Uni learns about rollback of hated AWAs

 

THE individual employment contracts at the centre of the former Howard government's controversial WorkChoices legislation began its slow death in Lismore yesterday.

 

But, ironically, the first of the city's workers to have their individual contracts jettisoned are the ones least likely to have suffered under them.

 

Federal Page MP Janelle Saffin met with members of the National Tertiary Education Union yesterday to discuss the axing of Australian Workplace Agreements in universities and the Commonwealth public service.

 

Since 2002, universities have had to offer the individual contracts to new staff to be eligible for vital Commonwealth grants funding.

 

The move to axe the contracts was enthusiastically welcomed yesterday by union members, who had campaigned against the contracts.

 

However, union member Jenny Austin conceded the university's administration had never been enthusiastic about the contracts and that new staff had been offered a genuine choice between going on AWAs or being employed under an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, which allows workers to have their pay and conditions negotiated for them by a union.

 

"I understand most elected to stay on the EBA, although there may be a small number of staff on AWAs," Ms Austin said.

 

Ms Saffin agreed the new Federal Government had started its rollback of AWAs with easy targets in areas where it has a direct hand.

 

However, workers in the private sector would have to wait until 2010 for individual contracts to be completely scrubbed from the workplace.

 

"Where we can get rid of them now, we are doing it, and that sends a signal immediately that we are serious," Ms Saffin said.

 

The scheduling of how and when AWAs would go was spelled out in Labor's 'Forward with Fairness' industrial relations policy, she said

.

Ms Austin said there were some universities where AWAs had been enthusiastically adopted and the new rules would have a dramatic impact.

 

However, even at Southern Cross University's Lismore, Tweed and Coffs campuses, the new rules would trickle back into the broader community in the form of greater spending by university staff who felt secure in their jobs."

What a miserable and deceitful little worm is our former PM

On Wednesday 5 March 2008 John Winston Howard delivered the Irving Kristol Lecture to around 1,400 guests at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) gala dinner in Washington DC.

 

Ignoring the fact that both the Australian electorate and his own party repudiated his major industrial relations and foreign affairs policies as well as conveniently forgetting that the Howard Government presided over rising interest rates and decreasing national productivity, the former PM sort to justify himself and dump on the new Rudd Labor Government. 

 

In a display which confirmed his local standing as 'lower than a snake's belly'; Howard also managed a swipe or two at left-wing liberals, single parent families, feminists, gays, those against the Iraq war and anyone who had ever disputed his version of Australian history.

 

Showing an unparalleled level of manure shovelling in Washington, John Winston Howard has also awarded himself the honourific title of The Honourable according to AEI documents. Something he is no longer entitled to since he was kicked out of Parliament.

 

Here are some excerpts from the speech.

 

"The former Australian government, which I led, was accused of many things, but never of betraying its essentially centre/right credo. We pursued a blend of economic liberalism – in the classical sense of that term connoting as it does a faith in market forces - and social conservatism. So far from being in conflict the one reinforced the other. ---

From our election in 1996 we pursued reform and further modernisation of our economy. On the social front we emphasised our nation's traditional values, sought to resurrect greater pride in her history and became assertive about the intrinsic worth of our national identity. In the process we ended the seemingly endless seminar about that identity which had been in progress for some years.---

Of particular note, economically, were our major reforms to the taxation system, the complete elimination of net federal government debt, and changes to our labour market laws which produced a freer and less union dominated system.
These last mentioned reforms, strongly supported by small business, not only boosted productivity but even more importantly they helped reduce unemployment to 4.2%, a thirty-three year low, when the government left office, compared with 8.5% in March 1996.
They included the abolition of unfair dismissal sanctions on smaller firms, which had been discouraging those enterprises from taking on more staff.
The new government in Australia is pledged to reverse those labour market changes.---

We should maintain a cultural bias in favour of traditional families.---

In Australia, at any rate, the late eighties and nineties was the heyday of the more zealous feminist view of these matters. According to this view women who elected to stay at home full time when their children were young were regarded as inferior and in some cases traitors to their gender.--
I am disappointed that Australia's battle group will be withdrawing from Southern Iraq in June as one of the new Labor government's election commitments – rather than making a greater contribution to training the Iraqis to maintain their own security."

 

John Howard's 2008 Irving Kristol Lecture full text.

Is the Rudd Government going to be the new cyber bully?

I'm at a loss to understand exactly why the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is so hot for Internet filtering at service provider level, if his aim is actually to protect children with PC clean feed access but not to impact on other users.

From 1999 onwards the Federal Government has been told that this preferred method of filtering has problems.

 

A September 1999 CSIRO commissioned study outlines what appears to remain ongoing problems with Senator Conroy's current plan to apply blanket internet censorship. 

 

"The disadvantages include:

• Performance impacts including increased delays and reduced capacity.
• Costs of installing and administering suitable filtering systems.
• Limited effectiveness.
• Potential impact on all Internet users.

ISP-based filtering may prove to be difficult to implement on a large scale because of the very nature and size of the Internet. Any delays or access restrictions imposed by ISP filtering mechanisms can have an impact on all Internet traffic, on e-commerce and business as well as on educational or recreational Web browsing."

 

"ISPs are concerned not only with delays imposed on individual messages as they pass through the filter but also with any associated limitations that the filtering workload will place on total system capacity. Excessive delays will degrade the overall useability of the Internet and may make some delay-sensitive Internet applications, such as Internet telephony, infeasible altogether."

 

"There is no single, 'good' technology that could be adopted by all ISPs to filter Internet content."

 

"ISPs implementing content filtering also have to be concerned with introducing instability into their networks and reducing the overall reliability of their services. Reliability and availability are critically important to ISPs and their customers, especially as the Internet takes on the role of providing the data communications infrastructure for the nation. ISPs currently use 'telecommunications grade' equipment designed to be exceptionally reliable (99.999% availability). The kinds of standard computers and software used to implement filtering are more general-purpose and complex, and are unlikely to be as reliable. The computers will, in many cases, be directly in the path between users and the Internet and the failure of a filtering computer would then have the effect of blocking access to the Internet rather than temporarily allowing access to prohibited material."

 

These same problems were still found to exist according to the February 2008 ACMA study, commissioned by the previous Coalition Minister for Communications and on which Senator Conroy now relies.

 

It is looking suspiciously as though, in Senator Conroy's case, ideology is outweighing commonsense when it comes to a desire to censor the world wide web.

 

This push also appears to be at odds with the Rudd Government's boast that it will supply a faster broadband service.

Indeed, Senator Conroy is beginning to come across as a bit of a cyber bully in his approach to telecommunications companies.

Obama spins Clinton wins in Rhode Island and Ohio as Texas hangs in the balance

With Hillary Clinton taking Rhode Island, Ohio and possibly Texas in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama puts the best spin on this first major setback to his progress.

Yesterday's email from the Obama for America team makes it obvious that Obama was anticipating a bad result.

"We may not know the final outcome of today's voting until morning, but the results so far make one thing clear.
When the dust settles from today's contests, we will maintain our substantial lead in delegates. And thanks to millions of people standing for change, we will keep adding delegates and capture the Democratic nomination.
We knew from the day we began this journey that the road would be long. And we knew what we were up against.
We knew that the closer we got to the change we seek, the more we'd see of the politics we're trying to end -- the attacks and distortions that try to distract us from the issues that matter to people's lives, the stunts and the tactics that ask us to fear instead of hope.
But this time -- this year -- it will not work. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high.
Americans need real change.
In the coming weeks, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country with a man who has served it bravely and loves it dearly. And we will offer two very different visions of the America we see in the twenty-first century.
John McCain has already dismissed our call for change as eloquent but empty.
But he should know that it's a call that did not begin with my words. It's the resounding call from every corner of this country, from first-time voters and lifelong cynics, from Democrats and Republicans alike.
And together you and I are going to grow this movement to deliver that change in November.
Thank you,
Barack"

Blogs that Australia preserves for posterity. Are you there?

Pandora , Australia's official web archive, lists 157 Oz blogs. The full list can be found here.

Below is a brief selection.

A Fugitive Phenomenon

After grog blog

Ampersand Duck

Anonymous Lefty

Bent lenses

Blinding sunlight

Cheeseburger gothic

Club Troppo

Cooky La Moo

Daily Flute

Dikkii's Diatribe

Dreadnought

Eclectic Garden

Esoteric Rabbit

Flop eared mule

Frog garden

GalFromDownUnder

Grab your fork

Hecho en Mexico

Intergalactic hussy

Jellyfish online

Larvatus Prodeo

Legless in perpetuum

Lisa's losin' it

New Mandala

Polemica

Possums Pollytics

Wino Sapien

Wog blog

And the slips keep getting bigger

Wilson Tuckey boycotting Parliament, Peter Costello busy with his laptop during Question Time, Downer off dining while the House is sitting, and now Mark Vaile moonlighting as a lobbyist and unavailable to his northern NSW electorate.

The arrogant contempt being flaunted by former Howard Government ministers and MPs has stripped Brendan Nelson of what little authority he had as Leader of the Opposition.

With the only response to this lack of enthusiasm for the job at hand being a call to these MPs to consider defaulting on their electoral commitment by resigning within months of the federal election, the entire Coalition has totally lost what little credibility it had left.

Any more public relations nightmares like these and Nelson may find his dismal 7% approval rating slipping even further. 

"New Matilda" lists the reasons behind an intuitive distrust of NSW Treasurer Michael Costa

It has long been obvious that Premier Iemma and I share some misgivings about NSW Treasurer Michael Costa's style of personal grooming and dress. Why else is this epitome of Mafioso-style elegance rarely found standing behind Morris Iemma during election campaign media conferences?

 

However, in other matters Iemma appears content to give his minister carte blanche whereas my mistrust remains visceral.

 

Yesterday's New Matilda gives a profile of Michael Costa which goes some way to explaining why many ordinary people dislike this politician.

 

"It's a strange old world when powerful unionists, who came to power through union politics and who nominally represent the Labor Party, are calling for policies that will only decrease the power of their own power-base - and hurt the lowest paid and most vulnerable in our society. But that's the allure of neo-classical economics. The stark beauty of the classical model often trumps the messy examination of the data on the ground. It's what the psychologists call a "heuristic".

On reading Labor, Prosperity and the Nineties, we shouldn't be surprised that Costa is spoiling for a fight with his union colleagues over energy deregulation. He has no truck with environmental concerns and doesn't seem to believe there is much of a case for union restraints on managerial power at all. Costa is a deregulator, a decentraliser, and a self-styled reformer. He is also a visceral climate change skeptic who once called Tim Flannery an "idiot."

Don't expect Costa to back down over energy deregulation. From the evidence on the public record, this is the fight of his career."

Japan loses the plot in its opposition to anti-whaling protests.

The Government of Japan appears to have finally lost the plot in the face of continuing anti-whaling protests.

 

On Monday Radio Netherlands reported:

 

"Tokyo - Japan has summoned the Dutch and Australian ambassadors following an attack by anti-whaling campaigners from the Sea Shepherd organisation on a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica.----

Tokyo is protesting to the two countries because Sea Shepherd is registered in the Netherlands, and Australia offered the ship a base of operations. Although Australia is one of the leaders of the worldwide protest against whaling, it has condemned Sea Shepherd's actions."

While yesterday The Age ran an article containing the following:

 

"Japan described the US-based Sea Shepherd as "terrorists" and has lodged protests with Australia, where the Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin vessel last called into port, and The Netherlands, where the boat is registered.

Japan summoned Australian Ambassador Murray McLean and Dutch Ambassador Alphons Hamer, urging them to prevent more clashes, the Japanese foreign ministry said."

 

How strange. The US-based Sea Shepherd organisation, with a properly registered Netherlands ship captained by a Canadian citizen and breaking no Australian law, uses an Australian international sea port and suddenly Australia is supposed to be responsible for its actions.

 

Yes, Japanese government support for its whalers has definitely entered the territory of la la land. 

However, the Asahi Shimbun shows that for domestic consumption, government rhetoric is somewhat more measured and abandons the "terrorists" label.

 

Japan Whaling Association 3 March 2008 media release here.

The lure of dirty s*xy money

Since becoming Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has worked his way thorough a number of election issues and electoral worries.
Not surprisingly this has not necessarily involved a level of thoroughness which would see these matters resolved for the foreseeable future.
Take the issue of political donations.
Rudders has rightly flagged a revamping of laws relating to political funding, but does not bite the bullet and either finally ban donations by corporations or create a government-funded level playing field for candidate election expenses.
Instead he is limiting reform to a complete ban on foreign contributions and a drop in the disclosure threshold from $10,000 to $1000 with a cap on the value of individual donations from corporations and individuals.
Which is a bit of an attempt at having your cake and eating it too.
Aw Kevin, mate - sometimes I wish you were less of a liberal and more like a real Labor man.

Honk if you love Labor

Newspoll results published in The Australian today appear to indicate that it is not just post-election euphoria which is giving such high approval numbers to the Rudd Government and such dismal numbers to the Coalition.

Left click lower right corner to enlarge.

Rudd Government moves on housing afforbability but will developers rort the proposed schemes?

The Rudd Government has moved to address growing mortgage and rental stress across Australia.

It has acted where the former Howard Government virtually sat on its hands for years.

 

Tim Colebatch in The Age today looks at some of the reasons for the housing crisis and Federal Labor's response.

 

What has gone wrong? There are many culprits, but the key ones are:

• Tax breaks for housing investors have lured more than a million Australians to invest in houses or flats, renting them at a loss, using the losses to reduce their tax (known as negative gearing), and then relying on capital gains, which are lightly taxed, to make the investment pay. Last year alone, housing investors borrowed $75 billion to buy existing houses, flats and units, up from $25 billion a decade ago and $2.5 billion 20 years ago. Investors' share of home lending, excluding refinancing, has doubled from 20% in the 1980s to 40% over recent years. That is a huge change in the market, and much of it has been at the cost of first home buyers. Their share of new lending has shrunk from 19% to 14% in that time. People without deep pockets now have to keep renting rather than buy.
• Local opposition to redevelopment of inner and middle suburban areas has led to serious shortages of supply, relative to the demand from people wanting to live close to the city. Land is finite, and when buildings can't go up, prices go up.
• On the outskirts, shortages of serviced land in some cities, coupled with heavy state government charges to supply infrastructure, have been blamed for driving prices up. They certainly help explain why an outersuburban block in Sydney costs much more than in Melbourne, but it is not clear that they explain why prices have soared in inner and middle-suburban areas.
• The Commonwealth and state governments have largely abandoned their former role as financiers and builders of new housing. In the booming 1950s, they built 20% of all new homes. Now they build 2%, and no one has picked their role as a supplier of affordable housing. No wonder Kevin Rudd says the issue of housing affordability is now "at a critical point". And it is likely to get worse.

Labor's central promises are:

• The national rental affordability scheme, aimed at reducing rents and increasing housing supply. This will offer $500 million over five years in tax breaks for investors who build rental housing, and then rent it out at 20% below market prices for the area. Yesterday Rudd reaffirmed this, and extended it to promise a second $500 million over the next five years (or from 2011-12, if the first tranche is used up by then).
• First home saver accounts, aimed at supporting aspiring buyers who have the discipline to save. Would-be buyers who save 10% of their earnings each year for five years will receive government contributions of up to $5000 towards their deposit.
• The housing affordability fund, aimed at reducing the cost of new blocks by investing $500 million to help states and councils fund the provision of infrastructure. Rudd announced yesterday that the first slice will provide $30 million to provide online services by which you can track the progress of your application for planning approval.
• Release surplus Commonwealth land for new housing.

From 2000 onwards under Howard and Costello the First Home Buyers scheme was shamelessly rorted by the wealthy, and on the NSW North Coast we have seen developers push inappropriate lot development on the spurious grounds that housing built would be exclusively for the aged or disabled. So what is to stop developers ripping-off both the Commonwealth and local communities under these new schemes? Not much I expect. 

It is rather disappointing that there is so little emphasis placed on public housing by this new government, without which there is no balance in social policy.

After all, public housing is a long-term solution for low-income families and the proposed tax breaks for investors will only guarantee rental housing for ten years before those houses, flats, units, built under the new scheme will be free to come onto the real estate market.

New Federal Housing Minister, Tanya Plibersek, needs to consider the possibility that jumping into bed with the private sector to ease housing affordability may be like swimming with a hungry crocodile - a rash decision quickly regretted.    

Where is your rural and regional tax dollar going to?

ABC News reported this yesterday.

 

"The NSW northern district president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Ian Murray, says official figures show the big mining companies received $1.3 billion in fuel rebate concessions last year, while coal prices were at record highs.

Mr Murray says it appears taxpayers, who are paying more than $1.40 at the bowser, are subsiding the coal companies.

"Why do companies that are reaping the highest prices - unprecedented profits that they have out of this industry - still receive taxpayer-funded fuel rebates?" he said.

"It is embarrassing to be part of an industry where this is taking place."

 

This is something many living in regional areas such as the NSW Northern Rivers, with poor or non-existent public transport, would like an answer to.

It's bad enough that within bowser prices it appears that a tax upon a tax exists, without finding that hard-pressed motorists and working families are subsidising some of Australia's richest and dirtiest polluters.

Which American bully will replace the incumbent bully in the US Oval Office?

It's hard not to be aware of the battle between nominees for the US presidential race, as Americans go through a drawn-out process to decide on their Republican and Democratic candidates.

However, I have to wonder why we all seem so interested out here in the real world.

When the reality is that, no matter who replaces George Dubbya in the White House, the world will still find itself facing a global bully with few redeeming features.

Perhaps that is what interests us all - exactly what face this bully will wear after the next presidential election. Obama, Clinton, McCain?

I've found a Reuters site which shows posts on the race from blogs outside the US:

Voices without Votes

On the North Coast we even have a song about US foreign policy (details in sidebar):

TexasFever.mp3

Eric Abetz spits back at Nazi 'slur'

Yesterday Liberal Senator Eric Abetz spat back at media reports of his family's Nazi past.

One can sympathise with the senator, but as he was a past master of the political slur while in government that sympathy doesn't extend too far.

I'm sure we are all wondering how the World Zionist Organisation now feels, as it hosted the senator on a tour of Israel in 1982.

 

Senator Conroy still following Howard Government's old ISP lead

With a much smaller than expected take-up of the former Howard Government's free home PC filter software (probably because it also randomly blocked legitimate sites and slowed download speed), Federal Labor Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, is now ploughing ahead with his plan to impose a national filter at ISP level.

 

He has been repeatedly told by industry experts that a filter of this type will not stop inappropriate material coming via social networking sites, chat rooms and instant messaging.

That the technology doesn't exist yet which could successfully filter these sites.

 

Even the former Liberal Communications and IT Minister was forced to admit to these difficuties.

"At its best, mandatory filtering by internet service providers was an expensive and ineffective way to limit children's access to online pornography, Senator Coonan told The Australian.

At its worst, mandatory ISP filtering was ineffective and seriously degraded the internet's performance, she said."

 

While one plaintive cry on the Web says it all about ISP filters:

"This host was good to me for the first half, but during the last few months, i've been experiencing numerous problems.
Support, although responsive, could not fix my problems. Website constantly give me errors, they said it was due to my ISP's filters, etc... "

 

But Senator Conroy, with one eye on his first kindergarten teacher, is intent on ignoring all the danger signs and has granted the tender for a trial which is expected to take place in Tasmania.

Poor Tassie. First in was the guinea pig in Hockey's smart card experiment - now it gets the chance to be annoyed by the Labor Right's absurd paternalism.

 

It will be interesting to see if Enex Test Lab lives up to its own hype about being a first rate testing facility when it undertakes the evaluations of available filter programs.

 

And what of the ISP filter programs which will be run by servers if Conroy's plan comes to fruition - will we find US filters such as this from the Christian right being commonly used?

Oh, how embarassing, Ms. Gillard!

Latest CrimTrack online job advertisement.

 

Attorney-General	Employment Opportunity N.N. 10384541
CrimTrac	Closing date: Friday, 29 February 2008

Job Title:	Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Support
Job Type:	Ongoing, Full-time
Location:	Canberra | ACT
Classification:	Senior Executive Band 1
Agency Website:	http://www.crimtrac.gov.au/

Job Description

Duties
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Support is a key member of the CrimTrac Executive and plays an integral part in shaping and implementing the strategic directions and focus for the Agency and in directing the achievement of its outcomes. The role provides advice and expertise with particular emphasis on corporate functions, finance, information technology and governance of the agency and its projects. The position also provides high quality strategic and operational advice to the CEO, the Minister and the CrimTrac Board of Management. 
Eligibility
The successful applicant will be required to undergo a Commonwealth Security Clearance. 
Notes
Total remuneration around $220,000 pa (to be negotiated through an AWA including salary, employer superannuation, executive vehicle, parking and performance pay) [my emphasis]

To Apply

Selection Documentation:	the CrimTrac website or phone, 02 6245 7755
Position Contact:	Peter Bickerton, 02 6245 7660
Apply:	SES Recruitment The CrimTrac Agency GPO Box 1573 CANBERRA ACT Australia 2601, SESRecruitment@crimtrac.gov.au
Agency Recruitment Site:	http://www.crimtrac.gov.au/recruitment.html

Applicants to employment opportunities notified in all formats of the electronic APS Employment Gazette should be aware that the names of successful applicants will also be notified in all formats of the electronic APS Employment Gazette. 

Now viewing Notice 1 of 1

This notice is part of the electronic APS employment Gazette PS05 - 07 Feb 2008 Published by Australian Public Service Commission.

In Rudd's Australia all human rights are equal, but some are more equal than others

Australia's Attorney General, Robert McClelland recently announced that the Federal Government will be signing the UN's Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

There is also a possibility that prohibitions against torture will be included in the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

 

I have to say I'm pleased with this announcement, but a little puzzled about why some human rights appear to be more important than others in the eyes of Rudders and Co.

 

Australia signed up to the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which has been in force since 1969.

Yet here we are breaking our commitment to this convention every day the Rudd Government allows Howard's NT Intervention legislation and regulations to stand.

Definitely an Animal Farm moment dragging uncomfortably on.

Will Japan's 'bribery' funds sway new International Whaling Commission members?

This week saw media reports that Japan is to hold talks in Tokyo tomorrow with 12 nations ahead of the next International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual general meeting in June.

These talks appear to target developing nations which are new members of the IWC or are thinking of joining.
Japan has been accused in the past of targeting its overseas aid towards poor countries which may be persuaded to vote in favour of its position.

Here's how the online media is reporting Japan's latest push to overturn the international ban on whaling.

Oppn calls for global whale sanctuaryABC Online, Australia - 40 minutes agoThe Federal Opposition has called for a global whale sanctuary to be set up as a way of ending Japan's so-called scientific whaling. ... Push to close whale loophole Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 7 hours ago AUSTRALIA'S push to end Japanese whaling has intensified with a delegation being sent to the International Whaling Commission to urge them to end all ... ... IWC research could stop Japan Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 8 hours ago Standing firm ... Peter Garrett at Maroubra Beach yesterday outlines the Government's plans to modernise the IWC. AUSTRALIA will push an International ... Whaling reform won't be easy, warns Greenpeace ABC Online, Australia - 15 hours ago Greenpeace is warning the Federal Government that a plan to reform the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is likely to face opposition from new nations ... Australia to tackle Japan on whaling The Age, Australia - 17 hours ago Australia will send an envoy to Japan and propose the International Whaling Commission (IWC) closes loopholes that allow Japan to continue whaling, ... Japan Plans Meeting to Sway Developing Nations on Whaling Ban Bloomberg - 18 hours ago By Stuart Biggs March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's government will hold talks with delegates from 12 developing nations who recently joined or plan to join the ... Garrett takes aim at 'scientific' whaling ABC Online, Australia - 19 hours ago The Federal Government says it is stepping up its campaign against whaling by taking charge within the International Whaling Commission (IWC). ... Japan moves to strenghten standing at IWC ABC Online, Australia - 29 Feb 2008 Japan, in a feud with Western nations over whaling, has said it will meet with 12 developing states in a bid to boost its clout in the deadlocked ... Japanese schoolkids have whale of a lunchtime Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 27 Feb 2008 JAPAN'S whaling researchers dumped 10 tonnes of unsold whale meat into primary school lunches, labelling the event "traditional school lunch week". ... Whaling reform won't be easy, warns Greenpeace Radio New Zealand, New Zealand - 12 hours ago Greenpeace is warning that a plan to reform the International Whaling Commission is likely to face opposition from new nations joining it. ... Australia to propose closing 'scientific' whaling loophole AFP - 15 hours ago SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia said Saturday it hoped to close a loophole in International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules that allows Japan to conduct whaling as ... Japan to lobby whaling commission CNN International - 17 hours ago TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan will lobby a dozen members of the International Whaling Commission at a meeting Monday to support its much-criticized Antarctic ... Australia urges IWC to close whaling loopholes LIVENEWS.com.au, Australia - 15 hours ago Australia is preparing to step up its fight against Japanese whalers taking it straight to the global whaling watchdog. The Rudd government will this week ... Aus to fight whaling Sky News Australia, Australia - 17 hours ago A special Australian envoy will be sent to Japan to propose three major changes to the whaling mission in the Southern Ocean. In the latest move to stop the ... Sea Shepherd Receives Message From the Australian Government Indymedia UK, UK - 23 hours ago Captain Paul Watson onboard the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin received an email from the Australian government. See the letter and Captain Watson's ... Australia to ask world whaling body to scrutinize science behind ... The Canadian Press, Australia - 4 hours ago SYDNEY, Australia — Australia says it will push the International Whaling Commission next week to ensure that commercial whaling can no longer be conducted ... Garrett begins action against 'scientific' whaling Scopical, Australia - 17 hours ago Environment Minister Peter Garrett will this week step up his attacks on Japan's "scientific" whaling program, with Australia to take a more hands-on roll ...

How Australia sees its political winners and losers in 2008

Roy Morgan Research has released the findings of a poll undertaken on the nights of 27-28 February  2008.

Concerns since ALP has been running country:

•   Many electors expressed concern over the ALP's recent handling of inflation and interest rates (eg. "They are uncertain about economic policies and interest rates");

•  Another recurring theme was concern about the Government's handling of environmental issues (eg. "I think Labor is