No names, no pack drill

 

All personal submissions published on the Australian Parliament Joint Standing Committee on Migration’s Inquiry into Multiculturalism in Australia web page are only identified by the initials of their authors.
I don’t know who this circumstance reflects on more – the Committee or the political climate in this country.

Equal gender numbers make up new senators entering the Australian Parliament in July 2011

Senators-elect (terms of service commencing 1 July 2011)

Di Natale, Richard
VIC AG
Public health specialist, drug and alcohol clinician and general practitioner
Drug and Alcohol Clinician, Geelong, 2008–2010Worked on HIV prevention for injecting drug users in India with the Nossal Institute for Global Health, 2005–2007
Public Health, Department of Human Services, 2001–2004
Medical practitioner, Aboriginal Health Service (NT), 1999–2000
Fellow, Australasian Faculty of Public Health MedicineMaster of Public Health, Master of Health Sciences

Edwards, Sean
SA LP
Born and educated in Clare, South Australia, as part of the 5th generation of Clare Edwards’, his career pursuits in business meant he has been involved in both rural and city communities in the varied fields of property development, agriculture, viticulture, winemaking and global trade. Married with four children.

Fawcett, David
SA LP
Director, Fawcett Consulting
Member of the House of Representatives for Wakefield (SA), 2004–2007
Army officer, 1982–2004Commanding Officer, RAAF Aircraft Research and Development Unit, Edinburgh, SA

Gallacher, Alex
SA ALP
Secretary/Treasurer, SA–NT branch, Transport Workers’ Union of Australia (TWU), 1996–Federal President, TWU, 2007–2010
Vice President, TWU, 2005–2007
Organiser, TWU SA–NT branch, 1992–1996Federal Industrial Relations Officer, TWU, 1988–1992
Director, Motor Accident Commission (SA), 2005–2010Commissioner, National Road Transport Commission, 2003–2004 Member and acting Chair, Road Safety Advisory Council (SA)

Madigan, John
VIC DLP
Blacksmith, Hepburn Springs, Vic
Apprenticeship, Victorian Railways Newport workshop
Former employee of Victorian Railways for 10 years

McKenzie, Bridget
VIC NATS
Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Gippsland Campus, Monash University, until 2010Junior vice-president, The Nationals (Vic), 2006–2009
Former secondary school teacher
Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement)Bachelor of Education

Rhiannon, Lee
NSW AG
Member of the NSW Legislative Council, 1999–2010
Founder and director, AID/WATCH, an NGO that monitors Australia’s overseas aid program, 1993–1998
Founder and convenor, Coalition for Gun Control, 1988–1992
Former freelance journalistCampaigner on a range of issues including promoting workers’ rights, public education, environmental protection and political donation reformQualified zoologist and botanist

Singh, Lisa
TAS ALP
CEO, Asbestos Free Tasmania Foundation
Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, 2006–2010Minister Assisting the Premier on Climate Change, 2009–2010
Minister for Corrections and Consumer Protection, 2008–2010
Minister for Workplace Relations, 2008–2010
Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier Assisting with Education, 2008

Thistlethwaite, Matthew
NSW ALP
General Secretary, NSW Labor, 2008–2010
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Unions NSW, 2004–2008
Industrial Officer, The Australian Workers’ Union, 1995–2004
Director, State Transit Authority of NSW, 2005–2008
President, Maroubra Surf Lifesaving Club, 2004–2008
Member, Racing Industry Advisory Council, 2002–2008
President, NSW Young Labor, 1997–1998Bachelor of Economics (UNSW)Diploma of Law

Urquhart, Anne
TAS ALP
President, Unions Tasmania, 2007–Vice President, Australian Labor Party (Tas), 2004–Secretary, Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (Tasmanian Division), 2004–2010President, AMWU (Tas), 1998–2004
Organiser, Food Preservers’ Union, 1990–1998

Waters, Larissa
QLD AG
Community environmental lawyer, Environmental Defenders Office (Qld) Inc., 2002–Graduate lawyer, Freehills national law firm, 2001–2002
Researcher, Land and Resources Tribunal (Qld), 2000–2001Volunteer Queensland editor, National Environmental Law Review, 2005–2008
Volunteer board member, Queensland Environmental Law Association, 2004–2007LLB (Hons)/BSc, Griffith UniversityGrad Dip (Leg Prac), College of Law, NSW

Wright, Penny
SA AG
Solicitor, tribunal member and mediator
Deputy President, Guardianship Board (SA), 1996–2010
Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, Relationships Australia, 2007–2010
Member, Social Security Appeals Tribunal, 2006–2007
Conciliator & Investigating Solicitor, Legal Practitioners Conduct Board, 2003–2006
Member, Residential Tenancies Tribunal, 1993–2003
Former campaigner for human rights, aid and environmental organisations

AG—Australian Greens, ALP—Australian Labor Party, DLP—Democratic Labor Party, LP—Liberal Party of Australia, NATS—The Nationals

'Cause a light-hearted view of the world never goes amiss.....

Footpath sign in the main street of Maclean "The Scottish Town" on the NSW North Coast...........everything else is just old newspaper wrapping this quick and easy meal.

Thanks to Clarencegirl for the pic.

There's more to lose than a few dollars if antimony mining is again allowed in the Clarence River catchment

…………wealth is about more than money.
Quality of life and the environment feature pretty high on my agenda. And we need to be mindful of what happens after we sell off the farm. In the case of the proposed antimony and gold mines in the Wild Cattle Creek and Tyringham areas - the mining company would be Chinese, the approving authority the Bellingen Shire Council and most of the workers (and there is unlikely to be too many of them) would probably be based in Coffs.
But who cops the risk if a tailings dam fails and mercury or other heavy metals spew into the tributaries of the Nymboida River?
The Clarence Valley, of course.
And it appears unlikely to receive any of the benefits.
Mining has helped Australia ride out an international financial storm, but we need to be careful that we look at more than dollar signs when considering projects. There's more to lose than a few dollars.

[David Bancroft, Editor, The Daily Examiner 2 July 2011]

Willie Soon tells the world that porkers can fly

 

“One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies.

Dr Willie Soon, an astrophysicist at the Solar, Stellar and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, is known for his view that global warming and the melting of the arctic sea ice is caused by solar variation rather than human-caused CO2 emissions, and that polar bears are not primarily threatened by climate change.

But according to a Greenpeace US investigation, he has been heavily funded by coal and oil industry interests since 2001, receiving money from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute and Koch Industries along with Southern, one of the world's largest coal-burning utility companies.

Since 2002, it is alleged, every new grant he has received has been from either oil or coal interests.

In addition, freedom of information documents suggest that Soon corresponded in 2003 with other prominent climate sceptics to try to weaken a major assessment of global warming being conducted by the UN's leading climate science body, the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Soon, who had previously disclosed corporate funding he received in the 1990s, was today reportedly unapologetic, telling Reuters that he agreed that he had received money from all of the groups and companies named in the report but denied that any group would have influenced his studies. ‘{The Guardian on 28 June 2011}

Porker flew in from Google Images

For no other reason than this political comment appears to be getting up Gerry Harvey's nose [video]

http://youtu.be/7ZSRLbRQVHk

The Sydney Morning Herald 4 July 2011:

MFC and GetUp! had planned to launched a 60-second television commercial targeting Harvey Norman, which is a major TV advertising client.
But the groups said the ad had been refused classification by industry body Commercials Advice - which provides classification and information to advertisers, agencies and production houses - on the basis that it might expose free-to-air TV stations to legal action.
The ad was due to be shown during this week's State of Origin rugby league decider.
GetUp! national director Simon Sheikh said the classification decision amounted to corporate censorship.
"The reason given to us for the refusal was that running the ad may expose networks to lawsuits from Harvey Norman, but this assessment is beyond [Commercials Advice's] mandate," he said in a statement.

Markets for Change
‘NoHarveyNo: How Australia’s largest furniture and electronics retailers is driving the destruction of our native forests.’: Executive Summary and Report
Commercials Advice (CAD) 2010 Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice

We want to buy your farms and mines, says China

 

我們要買你的牧場和礦場我們要買你的牧場和礦場我們要買你的牧場和礦場

"We want to buy your farms and mines"
The Daily Examiner 2 July 2011

Chinese Government 'world view' as expressed at the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China:

China is a development nation with a large population but limited resources. In the new century, strengthening China's cooperation with other developing nations in the fields of science and technology and economy has become unprecedentedly urgent and important. Such cooperation will obviously create ways and means for taking full advantage of the respective strength of different countries, alleviating poverty, accelerating economic development and making fortunes for their people. Such cooperation will also become a stimulus to the south-south cooperation and enhance our international competitiveness and risk resistance so as to allow more positive involvement in the economic globalization process, safeguarding our economic interests and security, and enhancing the visibility of developing nations in south-north dialogues.

The China Shandong Jinshunda Group Co Ltd through its Australian mining exploration arm, Anchor Resources Ltd, is now seeking ways to put this philosophy into action at Wild Cattle Creek in the Clarence River catchment.

* Wild Cattle Creek: China encourages mining in Clarence River catchment in order to conserve its own national resources? 25 June 2011
* Is Chris Hartcher trying to flannel the Clarence Valley? 30 June 2011
* No problems with any new Wild Cattle Creek tailing dams, according to the China Shandong Jinshunda Group 1 July 2011