Commonwealth of Australia. Britain's last colony or 51st state of good ol' US of A?

"One of Australia's largest Defence contractors has been granted an exemption from racial discrimination laws in order to comply with tight US security requirements.

BAE Systems Australia says it needs to be able to prevent employees with dual-nationality of certain "proscribed nations" from working on some top secret Defence projects.

Under US guidelines, citizens of countries such as Iran, Syria, China and Sudan cannot have access to some information.

At South Australia's Equal Opportunity Tribunal, BAE argued that it would have to move its Adelaide headquarters and sack hundreds of workers if its application was not approved.

Today, it was given a three-year exemption under a number of conditions.

BAE must ensure staff do not suffer loss from their exclusion and it can only inform particular managers of a worker's exclusion from a project."

ABC News report yesterday:
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/21/2143118.htm?section=australia

 

Yes, we live in strange days. BAE Systems PLC the third largest global defence company (registered in England and Wales), through one of its subsidiary companies here in this country, just successfully applied to the South Australian Equal Opportunities Tribunal to have Australia's anti-discrimination laws quashed for three years at its Adelaide works in order to appease the 

US Bush Administration.

This is globalisation gone mad.

Frank Sartor lets fly with ageist insult

Last Saturday The Daily Examiner outed NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor for calling building  inspectors "old and fat".

Since when is being old something to be disparaged and why is it now considered a insult?

On the NSW North Coast a great many people are on the grey-haired side of fifty-five and up.

They are also the backbone of many community organisations and vital to the life of coastal towns.

By the same token, carrying a little weight is not the moral failing so obviously implied by this arrogant and prejudiced minister.

Less of the old, Frank. You're no spring chicken either, mate, and your online official portrait shows a distinct double chin.

Oh, and Frank - we oldies are voters too.

APEC's war on The Chaser's War

It seems that the NSW Government just can't forgive ABC TV and The Chaser's War On Everything for the fact that they held both it, the state police and their federal counterparts, up to ridicule during the 2007 APEC Summit. 

The court case continues, at least until March.

Long after the original incident we can all still be amused by this legal nonsense.

C'mon Morrie, lighten up. This is Australia - you must have realised that some bright spark would prick that pompous bubble of authoritarian overkill.

A reminder to the Rudd Government and all state & coastal local governments

Recent wild weather and high seas have highlighted the vulnerability of Australia's coastline. Time is beginning to run out for the formation and implementation of adequate national, state and local government coordinated planning responses.

This opinion piece in The Age last Friday says it all.

 

"COASTAL development, rising sea levels, increasing storm surges and a vocal community are a potent political mix. The climate change debate has rightly focused on the critical need to reduce carbon emissions but inadequate attention is being given to what we need to do in terms of adaptation to climate change on the coast.

Our coastal communities face an impending crisis. Continuing development in areas likely to be inundated is foolhardy at best. For a nation skilled at emergency management when it comes to floods and fire, we are remarkably unprepared for when the inevitable storm surge hits a populated coastal area.

Coastal planning is one of those policy areas that doesn't fit neatly into one portfolio or level of government. It covers environment, urban planning and infrastructure provision, including water, housing and indigenous interests and cuts across portfolio responsibilities. With the significant risks of climate change, this now involves the Federal Government and the insurance industry, as well as state and local governments.

The Sea Change Taskforce, comprising coastal council representatives and the Planning Institute of Australia among others, has lobbied government for years on the looming problem for local councils experiencing rapid urban growth and the accompanying servicing requirements.

The Australian coastline is littered with exhausted communities battling to save the character and environment of their townships. As if this weren't enough, climate change predictions of rising sea levels and storm surge have added a potent ingredient to the mix challenging the capacity of land-use planning systems and local councils to respond. Only now have governments started to map seriously the coastal areas likely to be inundated at the scales and resolutions needed to respond effectively to the science produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the CSIRO. But this has been largely the result of individual council or state government initiatives rather than as part of a wider plan."

The Age article by Barbara Norman, past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/our-endangered-coast/2008/01/10/1199554828671.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

I don't want the Rudd Government to be fiscally conservative - I want it to save the Murray-Darling rivers

The former Howard Government promised $10 billion and created a new Commonwealth water act supposedly to save the Murray-Darling river system.

Then it sat on its hands and did almost nothing, except plan to rob other catchment areas of freshwater and risk further environmental degradation.

Now there is no more time left for the Murray-Darling. Recent flooding in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales are little more than a mirage when it comes to returning a strong environmental flow to this large river system.

The new Rudd Government has made a start, but I for one don't want to see federal government become so focussed on balancing the budget that it forgets it must act swiftly to make up for the years of inaction.

 

As for the NSW Government. If I remember my map, this state has the highest concentration of irrigators drawing from the Murray-Darling system. Time for Morris Iemma to stop pretending that there is any water to return to irrigators if he doesn't want to see the river dead within a decade.

 

"STRETCHES of the Murray River are turning into the corrosive equivalent of battery acid, in further evidence the devastating drought is causing more harm to the nation's iconic watercourse.

Scientists are warning that acid sulphate soils are turning river banks and billabongs into death traps for fish and birds and hazards for humans.

It is impossible for animals to survive NSW's Bottle Bend lagoon, which now has a pH -- or acidity -- level dropping as low as 1.8 -- equivalent to the sulphuric acid found in car batteries. And it is corrosive to the touch.

The waterway is just one of dozens of sites throughout South Australia, NSW and Victoria which falling water levels have turned into aquatic graveyards."

The Australian article yesterday:

 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23040504-30417,00.html

The folly of allowing developments in flood-prone land

Persons associated with proposals to develop West Yamba would be well advised to take special note of a decision of the NSW Land and Environment Court.

In an article headed Court agrees climate-change risk rules out housing plan
The Sydney Morning Herald (January 8, 2008) reports:

"Many may be pleased to know the Land and Environment Court can overturn not just a council decision but a ministerial one.

The court recently ruled invalid a concept plan approved by the Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, for a controversial residential subdivision and retirement complex at Sandon Point, on the coast near Wollongong. The action was brought by a resident, Jill Walker.

The court agreed the department should have considered the flooding risk from climate change as it was an aspect of the public interest that potentially had a bearing on the justice of the decision.

The decision is a win for residents who have been protesting for years against the development of the flood-prone 25-hectare site by Stockland Development and Anglican Retirement Villages.

Deacons Lawyers said councils would have to ensure risks from climate change in flood-constrained coastal areas had been addressed by developers and that they considered such risks in their decisions."

Comment:
The land at West Yamba is flood-prone. Allowing further development in the area will require fill being obtained from elsewhere in order to raise the area above designated ASL requirements. That may solve current problem associated with the West Yamba site but one doesn't have to be Einstein to understand that water which would normally find its way to this naturally occurring flood storage area in times of heavy rainfall will be diverted elsewhere. And just where is elsewhere? Think about it. Land that is currently occupied and considered flood free will not necessarily carry such a tag in the future.

Yes, further development at West Yamba will create a new set of winners (just think 'developers and their associates'), but there'll also be a crew of losers who'll be up the creek without paddles in times of high local rainfall and/or flooding that results from waters flowing downstream from the catchment area.

Clarence Valley Council should have this matter uppermost in its collective mind. So too, should Minister Frank Sartor and all others who will be called upon to give consideration to any hair-brained proposals to develop West Yamba.

Remember, the law attaches great significance to the concept of precedence. Hence, this decision of the Land and Environment Court has implications for West Yamba.

Footpath and road etiquette on NSW North Coast

Mobility scooters are a feature of many NSW North Coast towns and villages because of the high number of retirees, so I wasn't surprised to discover that Ballina considers itself the scooter capital of Australia and is worried about footpath etiquette between those 'scooting' and those walking.

The Sydney Morning Herald today:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/scooters-give-mobility-but-endanger-pedestrians/2008/01/05/1198950127841.html

 

In parts of the Clarence Valley mobility scooters tend to be found on local roads just as often as on footpaths.

While these scooters are a great help with mobility for the aged suffering chronic illness and those with disabilities, I have noticed a new group of users creeping onto the scene. Those who have permanently lost their driving licences after failing either the annual medical or driving skills test.

Mobility scooters are obviously being seen as a Clayton's car rather than a second pair of legs.

 

With the speed some of these scooter 'drivers' are consistently travelling, their insistence on right of way when they do deign to use a footpath, increasing bulk of some scooter models, and relatively low visibility on busy roads, it is no wonder that the NSW Local Government Association is reportedly seeking a state-wide review of mobility scooters.

 

As a pedestrian, I have found myself tooted out of the way on local footpaths, had to smartly skip to the side on shopping mall covered walks and been bumped on the legs in internal concourses. It is obvious that a few people using these scooters have little idea of the rules applying to their use.

A review by the NSW Government would be very welcome.

Good times in the Clarence Valley?

ABC News reported yesterday.

 

"It was identified as one of the most economically disadvantaged regions in the country during the federal election, but a new report shows business is booming in the Clarence Valley.

An economic profile released this week shows the value of goods and services produced in the region has grown by 8 per cent in the last year, leading to the creation of more than 1,700 new jobs.

The Clarence Valley Mayor, Ian Tiley, says growth in population and the manufacturing sector are key factors.

He says the challenge now facing the council is ensuring infrastructure keeps pace.

"The Sartor planning reforms propose we get less developer contributions from these new industries, these new developments," he said.

"That will impact on everybody because it'll mean that we won't be able to provide the same level of infrastructure in the past.

"Inevitably too when you have growth of this nature there is pressure on your infrastructure."

ABC News:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/02/2130090.htm?site=northcoast

Clarence Valley Council media release:

http://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/content/uploads/071218_Clarence_Economy_on_Track.pdf

Clarence Valley Council economic profile:

http://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/content/edu/Clarence%20Valley%20Economic%20Profile%202007.pdf

 

What Mayor Tiley didn't mention is the fact that decades of growth in the Clarence Valley come on the back of continuous land clearing, subdivision, increased urban lot density and often exceeding established building heights. With a significant number of sensitive coastal development consents coinciding with either business interests of sitting councillors or political interests of successive NSW governments.

 

What Clarence Valley Council's media release didn't mention is, that despite the rosy economic growth it alleges, at least 40% of the population continue to live on or under the poverty line.

This is not about to change anytime soon.

Amateur pyrotechnicians = dangerous nuisances

Many New Year celebrations featured FIREWORKS, but most of the fireworks were unauthorised and illegal.

Responsible individuals and organisations respect lawful directions associated with fireworks displays. In NSW this involves making application to WorkCover to conduct public displays of fireworks.

WorkCover's website provides a search facility that shows listings of notified displays. The listings enable authorities and members of the public to take appropriate action in preparation for the displays. The website is http//www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/fireworks_search.htm

In addition to the nuisance factor associated with illegal fireworks, the far more important factor of PUBLIC SAFETY need addressing.

Unauthorised and illegal fireworks should not be tolerated. Contact POLICE, LOCAL COUNCIL and WORKCOVER to report incidents of such activities.
Authorised fireworks displays between 01-Nov-2007 and 31-Jan-2008 were registered with WorkCover. The list isn't very long, so obviously most fireworks are unauthorised and illegal.

Adding insult to injury

Saw an ad on the tellie last night. It was an attempt to sell the Iemma Government's high-handed plan to begin the basement sale of state-owned electricity assets.

Yup. Really believe you, Morrie. This sale will make everything rosie - high level of service, reasonable costs, customer satisfaction, pensioners and rural Australia safe. 

Yup. Just like the sale of Telstra, eh Morrie. Now that one really made everything rosie in the bush didn't it?

Morris Iemma is obviously going to retire before the next NSW state election. Why else would he be pushing the electoral suicide of Country Labor.

Is Morris Iemma turning into the new John Howard?

Premier Morris Iemma waited, until New South Wales was preoccupied with the federal election and State Parliament had risen for the final time in 2007, to begin putting the building blocks in place to privatise this state's electricity suppliers.

He gave an unworkable guarantee that the sell-off of public assets would not affect ordinary consumers and then ignored regional NSW by promising that sale money would be first spent on giving Sydney a brand new metro rail system.

This tactic was worthy of John Howard at his best. It seems the example of his highhanded approach continues to contaminate politics at all levels.

During the last ten years NSW Labor has moved so far to the right that it makes middle of the road voters like myself seem positively Red.

Morris Iemma should take a good look at all those voters who swung against the Coalition at the recent federal election. They are the same voters who will sweep NSW Labor from government if he keeps this up.

A NSW Northern Coast view of Iemma's love affair with Monsanto and GM crops

With the NSW and Victorian governments announcing the lifting of state-wide bans on genetically modified crop seed planting, Australia now moves closer to becoming a client state of Monsanto and its transnational cronies.

Morris Iemma may expect people in this state to bend over and take it, when his government makes a unilateral decision to interfere with food purity and to limit consumer choice because cross-contamination of produce and product cannot be eliminated.

He may be somewhat surprised when all of us do not blindly follow his lead. 

Many on the NSW North Coast are highly suspicious of genetically modified organisms, which are largely untested with regard to human studies, and concerned about effects on plant biodiversity and virility.

Knowing the Iemma Government's lack of moral fibre, I have slowly been adapting my diet to eradicate all produce and products which are likely to currently contain traces of GMOs and likely in the future to contain a percentage of genetically modified material.

So nuts (forgive the pun) to you Mr. Iemma and any NSW farmer who is silly enough to follow your lead. I won't be eating your dodgy food.

The Northern Rivers Echo local views on GM crops last Thursday:

 http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=View%20Article&article=19128&issue=304