Just because it is beautiful........(17)

Here's some slow-mo whale watching action from the weekend with @sydneywhales... talk about non-stop breaching!  pic.twitter.com/2BdZIcpyS5

— Australia (@Australia) November 7, 2016

Even before that environmental vandal NSW Premier Mike Baird further weakens state environmental law large scale land clearing is increasing

ABC News, 14 November 2016:

In a country with one of the highest land clearing rates in the world, laws making it easier for farmers to clear native vegetation from their properties are expected to be passed in New South Wales within days.

Earlier this month, a leading scientist advising the Baird Government on the proposed changes quit in protest.

Professor Hugh Possingham warned that rather than protecting biodiversity, the laws would allow a doubling of broad-scale clearing that would put some native animals at risk of extinction.

The current laws are supposed to prevent that kind of clearing without permits.

But a Lateline investigation shows the State Government's environmental watchdog has dropped investigations into illegal clearing, after direct political intervention…..

The shocking 2014 murder of environment officer Glen Turner by farmer Ian Turnbull highlighted the ongoing battle being waged in the bush, where huge economic pressure for higher returns clashes with the need to conserve native vegetation.

Australia now has the 5th highest rate of land clearing in the world.

In 2015, a study by NSW Parks and Wildlife found that 60,000 hectares was being cleared per year in the state — a four-fold increase on previous State Government figures……

For two years until end of 2015, the Priestleys collected evidence of alleged illegal clearing and sent it to the State Government watchdog, the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH).

Last year, without explanation, the OEH halted its investigation.

"I'm completely devastated," Claire Priestley said.

"I've grown up on that land, I've been out there my whole life. It's devastating to see that a large conglomerate can come into this community, it seems like they have a special privilege to just clear what they want."

Mr Priestley has photographed what he claims is the aftermath of broadscale land clearing, including images of several bulldozers and piles of smouldering native vegetation.

"You can virtually clear the size of the moon and get away with it but you can be in trouble for trespass by taking photos."

Approvals for native clearing are required to be on a public register.

The NSW Environmental Defenders Office recently searched for any approvals given to the Harris business to clear land on its properties west of Walgett.

"We have searched those registers. They're complex registers. You navigate through them by GPS coordinates," EDO chief solicitor Sue Higginson told Lateline.

"With the resources we've had available to us we have searched those registers and we have not turned up any approval for the native vegetation clearing that the Priestleys have witnessed on the Harris properties."

Lateline can also reveal that the Office of Environment and Heritage dropped an investigation into alleged illegal clearing by 12 farmers in the nearby Wee Waa area due to what it believed was the risk of a "catastrophic consequence" if environment officers entered farmers' properties.

The decision to suspend the Wee Waa investigation was the result of an email sent in May 2015 by Nationals state MP Kevin Humphries, urging the investigation be dropped because it was "too explosive" and "not warranted".

Mr Humphries, the Member for Barwon, warned that farmers were looking to blockade any attempt for an on-site visit by OEH and if the visits went ahead it would be "the start of something that will escalate very quickly between farmers from around the state and the authorities".

Despite Mr Humphries' email, there is no evidence that the farmers were planning to blockade OEH inspectors.

Mr Humphries denies the email perverted the course of justice…..

Former station manager Bill Keene has accused the OEH of being unwilling to stop big players in Australia's agricultural industry.

"No doubt they're monitoring it, they're just not doing anything. They're all noise," he said.

For 28 years Mr Keene managed Brewon station, now owned by P & J Harris & Sons.

He was invited by the OEH to be a witness in an investigation of the Harris company's alleged illegal clearing before the Priestleys complained to the agency.

Mr Keene claims he provided information of illegal clearing on Brewon station to the OEH based on satellite imagery of the property.

He left the area a decade ago but he has reviewed recent aerial footage of the Brewon station obtained by Lateline which he compared to a 2013 Google map.

"I've seen from one end to the other and I know the country inside out. All this country to the west has all been cleared and sown under wheat.

"There's been a massive expansion of clearing and to the best of my knowledge it's been done without permission."

"It's all wheat now. That country's fragile out there and I don't see why people should blatantly illegally clear things like the TSRs [trade stock routes].

"They're there for a reason, they're Crown land. They don't own them so why can they try and squeeze an extra few bags of wheat or whatever?"

Tony Graham, the manager who succeeded Bill Keene on Brewon, said the previous station owners would have loved the opportunity to farm more country.

"We did contact the relevant authorities to try and get that done but no permits were ever issued and under no circumstances was I aware we'd be able to do that.

"That's the reason why the Native Vegetation Act was put in place, just for the protection of that native vegetation."

When the Harris business bought the property in 2010, Mr Graham was told his service was no longer required.

A year later, the Office of Environment and Heritage asked him if he too would be a witness against the business.

"I was given some aerial maps, satellite imagery pre-2010 and post-2010.

"I was asked which country we had set aside for farming and for grazing and it was pretty obvious from those aerial images that it was chalk and cheese as to what had occurred to the country post my time as manager of Brewon.

"Just on those aerials in excess of 5 to 8,000 acres that we certainly didn't have anything to do with, country that I believe had been cleared."

After two years of consultations, Bill Keene and Tony Graham were told the Harris investigation would not go to prosecution.

Tony Graham: "I was very upset. I was very angry given the time myself and another of the previous managers put into it."

The Harris Business repeatedly declined interview requests, referring Lateline to its lawyers.

It denies all allegations of illegal land clearing.

It dismisses Chris and Claire Priestley as bitter losers, accuses the family of waging a vicious hate campaign, and highlights the fact the siblings' mother apologised for earlier defamatory statements, which she also retracted.

Donnie & The Trumpettes have a new website to play with

U.S. president-elect Donald J. Trump has created an official transition website which appears to be the repository of all his official media releases – www.greatagain.gov.

The website allows an Internet user to directly email the president-elect’s transition team to go on a mailing list and contains links to ‘policies’  but does not contain a search button, so as content grows it may be difficult to find older material.

There are a few things one must remember about this site.

Firstly, Donnie & The Trumpettes have reserved the right to collect, retain and pass on to third parties all information that can be accessed from your personal computer or other digital device – including but not limited to information on the device you are using, your ISP server and your internet address.

They further reserves the right to personally identify you from that information for “site security or law enforcement purposes”, to retain all information indefinitely, share it freely with undisclosed others and apparently spam at will.

This website privacy policy also states:

If you choose to identify yourself (or otherwise provide us with personal information) when you use our online forms:

We will collect (and may retain) any personally identifying information, such as your name, street address, email address, and phone number, and any other information you provide. We will use this information to try to fulfill your request and may use it to provide you with additional information at a later time. We may share your information with third parties.

If you request information, services, or assistance, we may disclose your personal information to those third parties that (in our judgment) are appropriate in order to fulfill your request. If, when you provide us with such information, you specify that you do not want us to disclose the information to third parties, we will honor your request. Note, however, that if you do not provide such information, it may be impossible for us to refer, respond to or fulfill your request.

If your communication relates to a law enforcement matter, we may disclose the information to law enforcement agencies that we deem appropriate….

We may keep information that will collect for an unlimited period of time.

Secondly, Trump reserves the right to limit access of individual Internet users to www.greatagain.gov for their infringement of the “intellectual property rights of others”:

For readers who may be interested, Trump’s transition team communications director is firing off the propaganda with gusto over at @JasonMillerinDC.

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The 7th Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report released today

Australian Government, Productivity Commission, 17 November 2016:

In April 2002, the Council of Australian Governments commissioned the Steering Committee to produce a regular report against key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage. The Steering Committee is advised by a working group made up of representatives from all Australian governments, the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report measures the wellbeing of Australia's Indigenous peoples. The report provides information about outcomes across a range of strategic areas such as early child development, education and training, healthy lives, economic participation, home environment, and safe and supportive communities. The report examines whether policies and programs are achieving positive outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

The most recent edition of the report is, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016, released on Thursday 17 November 2016.

ABC News, 17 November 2016:

The report points to a failure of policy and oversight, with the commission estimating only 34 of 1,000 Indigenous programs are been properly evaluated by authorities.

Productivity Commission deputy chair Karen Chester told the ABC's AM program the findings are a wake up call for all levels of government about the reality of Indigenous wellbeing and whether the $30 billion budget is being properly spent.

"You want to know that money is being spent not just in terms of bang for buck for taxpayers, but that we're not short-changing Indigenous Australians," Ms Chester said.

"Of over a thousand policies and programs, we could only identify 34 across the whole of Australia that have been robustly and transparently evaluated.

"At the end of the day, we can't feign surprise that we're not seeing improvement across all these wellbeing indicators if we're not lifting the bonnet and evaluating if the policies and programs are working or not."

The report is being billed by the commission as "compulsory reading" and the most comprehensive report on Indigenous wellbeing undertaken in Australia….

But Ms Chester says it was now up to state, territory and federal governments to take the report on board to determine what is working and what is failing.

"I think the clock has been ticking for a while already," Ms Chester said.

"We have the data, we have the analysis and we know what indicators are linked to the others."

While the report includes case studies of examples of "things that work", it says the small number available underscores the lack of Indigenous programs that are being rigorously evaluated for effectiveness.

Excerpt from Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016:

Key points

 This report measures the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and was produced in consultation with governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Around 3 per cent of the Australian population are estimated as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin (based on 2011 Census data).  Outcomes have improved in a number of areas, including some COAG targets. For indicators with new data for this report: – Mortality rates for children improved between 1998 and 2014, particularly for 0<1 year olds, whose mortality rates more than halved (from 14 to 6 deaths per 1000 live births). – Education improvements included increases in the proportion of 20–24 year olds completing year 12 or above (from 2008 to 2014-15) and the proportion of 20–64 year olds with or working towards post-school qualifications (from 2002 to 2014-15). – The proportion of adults whose main income was from employment increased from 32 per cent in 2002 to 43 per cent in 2014-15, with household income increasing over this period. – The proportion of adults that recognised traditional lands increased from 70 per cent in 2002 to 74 per cent in 2014-15.  However, there has been little or no change for some indicators. – Rates of family and community violence were unchanged between 2002 and 2014-15 (around 22 per cent), and risky long-term alcohol use in 2014-15 was similar to 2002 (though lower than 2008). – The proportions of people learning and speaking Indigenous languages remained unchanged from 2008 to 2014-15.  Outcomes have worsened in some areas. – The proportion of adults reporting high levels of psychological distress increased from 27 per cent in 2004-05 to 33 per cent in 2014-15, and hospitalisations for self-harm increased by 56 per cent over this period. – The proportion of adults reporting substance misuse in the previous 12 months increased from 23 per cent in 2002 to 31 per cent in 2014-15. – The adult imprisonment rate increased 77 per cent between 2000 and 2015, and whilst the juvenile detention rate has decreased it is still 24 times the rate for non-Indigenous youth.  Change over time cannot be assessed for all the indicators — some indicators have no trend data; some indicators report on service use, and change over time might be due to changing access rather than changes in the underlying outcome; and some indicators have related measures that moved in different directions.  Finally, data alone cannot tell the complete story about the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, nor can it fully tell us why outcomes improve (or not) in different areas. To support the indicator reporting, case studies of 'things that work' are included in this report (a subset in this Overview). However, the relatively small number of case studies included reflects a lack of rigorously evaluated programs in the Indigenous policy area.