Miss Starry in the fork of a tree and Ashby David is a little reluctant to go from his washing basket transport.
Friday 21 September 2018
Two koalas return to their home range in the Clarence
Clarence Valley Council, Media Release, 18 September 2018:
Mayor: Jim Simmons LOCKED BAG 23
GRAFTON NSW 2460
General Manager: Ashley Lindsay
Telephone: (02) 6643 0200
Fax: (02) 6642 7647
Miss Starry in the fork of a tree and Ashby David is a little reluctant to go from his washing basket transport.
Coming home to the
Clarence
Clarence Valley Council
natural resource management project officer, Caragh Heenan, said Miss Starry was picked up by a WIRES
carer and assessed by a local vet, then sent to Australia Zoo’s Wildlife Hospital
where she was also treated for chlamydia – a serious and potentially fatal
infection that causes blindness and internal infections if not treated.
Ms Heenan said her last
few weeks were at the Friends of Koala Nursery in Lismore where she had been
regaining strength for her release.
Another koala was
released the same day; ‘Ashby David’ was found on the ground in Ashby and was sent
to Currumbin Wildlife Hospital for treatment for chlamydia.
Ms Heenan said Clarence
koalas were under threat from fire, cars, dogs and disease.
“WIRES carers play a big
role in caring for injured animals, and koalas need your help too,” she said.
“With funding from the
NSW Environmental Trust, council is running a project to support our koalas.
“Register where you’ve
seen a koala at http://www.clarenceconversations.com.au
and help us plan for Clarence koalas into the future.
“With the public’s help
we can help koalas remain safe and healthy for the long term.”
Release ends.
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
flora and fauna,
Koala
Only one Liberal female federal politician was brave enough to stand up and publicly name an alleged political bully
Image: 9News |
This was the Liberal MP for Gilmore Ann Sudmalis according to Hansard on 17 September 2017:
To date NSW Liberal MLC Gareth Ward has not specifically denied Ms. Sudmalis' detailed allegations.
Instead saying he was "too busy" to have conducted a campaign against Sudmalis, suggesting it was all a case of "sour grapes".
Shoalhaven
councillor, Andrew Guile, described her speech as an appalling abuse of parliamentary privilege.
As is becoming usual for the current Prime Minister, he still refuses to publicly admit there is a culture of bullying in the Liberal Party.
But make no mistake the Liberal Party has mobilised and, Morrison is now making sure that Ann Sudmalis is incapable of anymore spontaneous truth telling over the next five parliamentary sitting weeks, by appointing her as the Coalition member of a two-member Australian delegation to the United Nations until the end of 2018.
After which she will be further neutered by the early December to start of February long parliamentary break and subsequent est. twelve weeks between when Morrison announces the federal election date and the return of the writs in May 2019.
Indeed after her New York sojourn at the United Nations we will probably never hear from Ann Sudmalis again.
Thursday 20 September 2018
Sometime Australian Prime Minister & MP for Cook, Scott Morrison, is the protector of religious freedom? Don't make me laugh
This was Australia’s
most recent Liberal prime minister quoted in The
Sydney Morning Herald on 17 September 2018:
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison will enact "preventative regulation and legislation" to
shield freedom of religion from future enemies, giving his strongest hints to
date about the government's intentions regarding "religious freedom"
laws.
What a load of
codswallop, manure, dung, heifers dust, cowpats, meadow cocktails – what ABSOLUTE BULLSH*T!
The Liberal Member
for Cook Scott Morrison already
knows that the Australian Constitution without qualification guarantees religious
freedom in this country at federal level:
The Commonwealth shall not
make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any
religious observance, or for
prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test
shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the
Commonwealth. [my yellow highlighting]
As the
Australian Constitution is the highest source in the land on this issue, one can only suspect that:
a) Scott
Morrison has never read the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (as
amended up to 1977); or
b) Scott Morrison is shamelessly pandering to his
far-right, ideologically blind & bigoted supporter base, in the hope of being re-elected in 2019.
Even a callow first-year-in-parliament politician knows that when state law is in conflict with federal law it is federal law which usually prevails and, if either is in conflict with the Constitution it will be the Constitution which prevails.
Having well and truly politicised his own faith Morrison may in fact be creating his own "future enemies" - he has all but guaranteed that someone will take his legislation and regulations to the High Court of Australia - where every word, phrase and punctuation mark will be studied closely.
He
appears to forget that Australia has also ratified a number of UN resolutions which directly or indirectly protect religious freedom and these have been upheld by the courts.
While he ignores the fact that Tasmania has had a religious freedom provision written
into its state constitution since 1934 and Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia,
the Northern Territory as well as the ACT have passed legislation prohibiting
direct and indirect discrimination on the ground of religion. Only South Australia appears to have no legislation specifically covering religious freedom to date.
Morrison also
forgets that whatever legislation he forces through this parliament, or whatever
regulations he imposes, can all be undone in the first instance by subsequent federal parliaments and in the second instance by the minister of the day.
If he really
wants to genuinely strengthen existing religious freedoms he would call a
referendum to change the Australian Constitution.
Even a callow first-year-in-parliament politician knows that when state law is in conflict with federal law it is federal law which usually prevails and, if either is in conflict with the Constitution it will be the Constitution which prevails.
Having well and truly politicised his own faith Morrison may in fact be creating his own "future enemies" - he has all but guaranteed that someone will take his legislation and regulations to the High Court of Australia - where every word, phrase and punctuation mark will be studied closely.
Wednesday 19 September 2018
State of Play Australia 2018: 11 per cent of the workforce is unemployed and 8 per cent underemployed
Roy Morgan, media
release excerpt, 13 September 2018:
Australian employment
has grown solidly over the past year however the faster rate of overall growth
in the Australian workforce due to more Australians looking for work means
unemployment has increased to a two-year high of 11% in August.
The latest data for the Roy Morgan employment series for August shows:
The latest data for the Roy Morgan employment series for August shows:
* 11,940,000 Australians
were employed in August, up 255,000 over the past year;
* The workforce which
comprises employed and unemployed Australians is now 13,416,000, up 407,000 on
a year ago;
* 1,476,000 Australians
were unemployed (11% of the workforce); an increase of 152,000 (up 0.8%) on a
year ago and the highest level of unemployment for over two years since March
2016;
* In addition 1,071,000
Australians (8.0% of the workforce) are now under-employed, working part-time
and looking for more work, a fall of 170,000 in a year (down 1.5%);
* The increase in
employment was driven by an increase in full-time employment which was up
323,000 to 7,761,000, while part-time employment fell 68,000 to 4,179,000;
* Roy Morgan’s real
unemployment figure of 11% for August is more than twice as high as the current ABS
estimate for July 2018 of 5.3%.
Source:
Roy Morgan Single Source October 2005 – August 2018. Average monthly interviews
4,000.
Full media
release can be found here.
Labels:
Australia,
statistics,
under employment,
unemployment
The Morrison Government continues to internally haemorrhage
“On the local scene since the day of winning preselection in 2012, the
local, self-determined senior Liberal has been leaking damaging material to the
media and having publicity stunts that are completely against federal policy
initiatives. And more recently he approached friends asking me to nominate my
retirement date and then he'd call off his people.” [Liberal MP for Gilmore Ann Sudmalis in House of Representatives
Hansard,
17 September 2018, p.103]
As a Liberal
Party candidate Ann Sudmalis was
elected to the House of Representatives for Gilmore, New South Wales, in 2013
and 2016.
At 63 years
of age with 5 years of parliamentary service behind her, it now appears the
boys club has stack her home branch and attempting to squeeze her out as the
Liberal Party’s preferred candidate at the next federal election in 2019.
The NSW boys club's preferred candidate is former Australian Federal Police sergeant, sometime public servant and now real estate agent Grant Schultz (left), son of the former member for Hume Abby Schultz.
This will be the son's second try to become the Liberal candidate for Gilmore and as not uncommon for male Liberal candidates he appears to have a bit of a past.
His mentor NSW Liberal MLC Gareth Ward appears to suffer from a similar image problem.
Ann Sudmalis told parliament on 17 September that; "I endeavoured to hold my decision in private until after the Wentworth byelection. Unfortunately, that is now not possible."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison endeavoured to do likewise.
A policy which was spectacularly unsuccessful....
Ann Sudmalis told parliament on 17 September that; "I endeavoured to hold my decision in private until after the Wentworth byelection. Unfortunately, that is now not possible."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison endeavoured to do likewise.
A policy which was spectacularly unsuccessful....
Illawarra
Mercury, 17
September 2018:
Federal Liberal MP Ann
Sudmalis will not contest the next election after last ditch pleas by
Prime Minister Scott Morrison for her to stay on, failed.
Ms Sudmalis, who holds
the southern NSW coastal seat of Gilmore by just 0.7 per cent, has told The
Australian Financial Review that she informed Mr Morrison at a meeting on
Monday that she was withdrawing her nomination for preselection.
She did so after she
lost control of her local federal electoral conference (FEC) when it
was stacked by forces aligned to local state Liberal MP Gareth Ward.
While Ms Sudmalis
believed she was still likely to win her preselection against challenger Grant
Schultz, she said she would have been unable to work with the people stacked
into her FEC, many of whom had no campaign experience.
"I can't work with
the team there anymore, they don't know the electorate well, they don't know
how to campaign."
SBS
News, 17
September 2018:
In a statement to her
electorate, Ms Sudmalis blamed one of her "state liberal
colleagues" for her decision.
"The [Liberal] has
been leaking damaging material to the media .. and has been unfair and
unethical," she said.
"My decision has
been made after six and a half years of holding my pledge to be a team player
in the face of NSW Liberal Party bullying, intimidation, leaking and
undermining."
ABC
News, 18 September
2018:
"I've been
contending with undermining and leaks at the local level for five-and-a-half
years and it's been a slow, steady, aggravating, annoying process," she
said.
In a statement, Ms
Sudmalis went even further.
"My decision has
been made in the face of NSW Liberal Party bullying, intimidation, leaking and
undermining at a local level," she said.
Party insiders say Ms
Sudmalis has a "toxic relationship" with New South Wales Liberal MP
and party powerbroker Gareth Ward, and believe he has been behind the campaign
to unseat her.
She makes reference to
an unnamed "local self-determined senior Liberal" who she claims has
been "leaking damaging material to the media and holding publicity
stunts" that are "unfair and unethical".
But in a statement, Mr
Ward said he had "enjoyed" working with Ms Sudmalis on local
projects.
"I wish her and
her family all the best for their retirement and look forward to working with
her successor," he said….
Ms Sudmalis said she
wrote to Mr Morrison last week telling him she wanted to withdraw her
nomination, but that he refused to open the letter until yesterday.
"When he did open
it, he was pretty disappointed," she said….
The Liberal MP said the
final straw came when she lost her campaign team the weekend after the change
in Liberal leadership.
"My fundraising
committee, my campaign committee, my friends were all outvoted at the
AGM," she said.
"It means my core
group of people who've been my support for six years have been replaced."
Ms Sudmalis was facing a preselection challenge from local
real estate agent Grant Schulz and while she believed she could still
win, she said she simply "can't work with the team that's there
currently".
"It's just
ludicrous that these people have been put in this position," she said….
Ms Sudmalis's
announcement will not only affect the Coalition's chances at the next election,
it will also further reduce the number of women in Liberal Party ranks.
Victorian MP Julia Banks is not recontesting the next election,
Queensland MP Jane Prentice lost preselection, South Australian
senator Lucy Gichuhi has been relegated to an unwinnable spot
on the state's ticket and there is an expectation former foreign
minister Julie Bishop may also be stepping down from her blue
ribbon seat in Perth.
* Photograph from the South Coast Register.
Tuesday 18 September 2018
Prime Minister Shouty McShouty is just being his normal obnoxious self
There has
been some advice offered to Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison by mainstream media.
Some
journalists are suggesting that he should shout less.
That would be
nigh impossible as it would be going against his very nature as the political
version of a weekday schoolyard bully and a Sunday self-righteous prig.
Here are
videos of his performance in the House of Representatives as Treasurer to demonstrate
that he had little volume control even then :
When a prime minster fails to grasp the basics of climate change policy.....
The
Australian Prime Minister for Fossil Fuels and Liberal MP for Cook, Scott Morrison, has been repeatedly insisting
since he came to office on 24 August 2018 that Australia is on target to meet
its Paris Agreement greenhouse gas emissions targets.
Apparently he
is telling journalists that “the
business-as-usual model gets us there in a canter”.
Business-as-usual of course includes those cuts to climate change mitigation programs Morrison made as federal treasurer - including no further funding for the Abbott Government's Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) which has so far failed to purchase enough abatement to outpace Australia's emissions growth.
Those agencies outside of Morrison's ‘magic circle’ are quite frankly contradicting his prediction of success.......
The COAG
Energy Security Council’s Energy Security
Board expects that Morrison’s refusal to revive National Energy Guarantee
legislation will see the electricity sector “fall short of the emissions
reduction target of 26% below 2005 levels”.
According to
Dept. of Environment and Energy total
annual emissions for the year to December 2013 fell by 0.8%.
No report was issued for the year ending December 2014, however annual
emissions rose by 0.4% for the year ending December 2015 and annual
emissions for the year to December 2016 rose by 1.4%.
While the Dept.
of Environment and Energy's, Quarterly
Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: December 2017 stated:
Annual emissions for the
year to December 2017 are estimated to be 533.7 Mt CO2 -e. This represents a 1.5% increase
in emissions when compared with the previous year. Over the year to
December 2017, there were increases in emissions from the stationary energy
(excluding electricity), transport, fugitive emissions, industrial processes
and product use, waste and agriculture sectors. These increases were partially
offset by a decline in emissions from the electricity sector. The annual
increases in stationary energy (excluding electricity) and fugitive emissions
were largely driven by an increase in LNG exports. [my
yellow highlighting]
The
independent Climate
Works Australia reported on 6 September 2018:
Australia is not yet on
track to meet its emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement but
there are many opportunities to still get there, according to new research
released today.
The ClimateWorks
Australia report, Tracking Progress to net zero emissions, found Australia
needed to double its emissions reduction progress to achieve the federal
government’s target of 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and triple
progress to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The report found
Australia’s emissions were 11 per cent below 2005 levels in 2017 but have been
steadily increasing since 2013. If Australia sustained the rate of improvement
in emissions intensity it had achieved between 2005 and 2013, it could meet the
government's 2030 target. But progress has stalled in most sectors and reversed
overall. [my yellow highlighting]
Climate Works’
latest report, Tracking
progress to net zero emissions: National progress on reducing emissions across
the Australian economy and outlook to 2030, was released in September
2018 and although cautiously optimistic it doesn’t suggest that a Morrison
Government would be able to just canter towards the commitments given in Paris:
This report uses
findings from the Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project (DDPP) and compares
these with the Australian Government's emissions data and projections to
examine whether Australia is on track for a net zero pathway and for its first
commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change to reduce emissions by
26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. It assesses recent progress since
2005 and the outlook to 2030.
In common with 179 other
countries who ratified the Paris Agreement, Australia has committed to keeping
global warming well below 2 degrees, aiming to limit warming to 1.5 degrees and
to reach net zero emissions. For developed countries like Australia, a 2 degree
limit is generally accepted to mean reaching net zero emissions by 2050 – the
majority of states and territories have agreed to this goal. Limiting global
warming to well below 2 degrees or 1.5 degrees would require an earlier date.
Australia’s current
emissions reduction target is 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. This
is less ambitious than the Climate Change Authority’s recommended target range
of 45 to 65 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 for Australia’s contribution to
a 2 degree goal (CCA 2015). To make sure the world is on track, all countries
in the Paris Agreement have been asked to consider whether their current target
is ambitious enough.
We already know
Australia can reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Pathways to Deep
Decarbonisation in 2050 (DDPP) report (ClimateWorks et al 2014) identified the
emissions reductions potential to put Australia on a pathway to net zero in 2050
while the economy continues to grow…
In 2017 Australia’s
emissions were around 11 per cent below 2005 levels. This is an increase from
their lowest point in 2013. Overall progress was due to strong reductions in
the land sector, while emissions rose in most other sectors. Although there
were improvements at the whole of economy level and in some sectors,
improvements on average were not equivalent to the pathway to net zero
emissions by 2050.
Emissions are higher in
buildings, industry and transport than they were in 2005. Emissions are lower
in the land sector, with the reduction being larger than increases in other
sectors. Electricity emissions fell slightly…
There were times of
reasonable emissions intensity improvements in industry and buildings but, as
with the electricity sector, these improvements then slowed or reversed. This
occurred alongside the repeal of the carbon price and related policies. Energy
intensity improved in these sectors, suggesting better energy efficiency, but
not at the rate needed for net zero. And in industry, some of this improvement
was driven by declines in energy-intensive manufacturing….
Without further policies, Australia will not be on track
for the net zero pathway or the Government's 2030 target. ClimateWorks’ research previously
identified potential emissions reductions on the net zero pathway and this
report shows where this potential is not yet being unlocked. The national
process of developing Australia’s long term emissions reduction strategy
provides an opportunity to unlock this remaining potential and get on track to
achieving net zero emissions by 2050, as do similar processes in many state and
territory governments. [my yellow highlighting]
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