Friday 25 October 2013
Birdlife Australia’s NSW and ACT Twitchathon - 26-27 October 2013
NEWS RELEASE
Birdlife Australia’s NSW and ACT
Twitchathon - 26-27 October 2013
Founded in 1901, Birds
Australia, now Birdlife Australia, is Australia's oldest national conservation
organisation, dedicated to the study and conservation of native birds and their
habitats. To assist the organisation in raising some of its funds,
it conducts a Twitchathon on the last weekend of October each year.
Over the past sixteen years, birdwatchers all over NSW and the ACT have
formed into teams and raced about NSW and the ACT to find as many species of
birds as possible over the 24 hour Twitchathon period. Each member of the team
has found sponsorship from friends, family, colleagues or corporations for each
species of bird seen or heard by each team. It has become an extremely
competitive race and enormous fun! Team members have won some fantastic
prizes, which have been sponsored by very supportive corporations and
individuals. They have raised funds for projects associated with
endangered species such as the purchase of trailer and watering units for the
Capertee Regent Honeyeater Volunteer Operations Group, as well as equipment for
both the Educational Units at Gluepot Reserve SA & the Birdlife Australia
Discovery Centre, Sydney Olympic Park. Funds have been provided for the
Hunter Shorebird Roost Site Protection Project, Gosford’s Friends of the Bush
Stone-curlew, the Kangaroo Island SA Glossy Black Cockatoo Conservation Project
and the Murray Valley Bush Stone-curlew Captive Release Project, and monitoring
by volunteers of the NSW Important Bird Areas. Last year we provided
funds for a project to increase both the area and connectivity of native
habitats in the Cowra District, which is located on the Central Tablelands of
NSW, c.100 km south west of Orange NSW and 317 km west of Sydney. In the
last three years, approximately $24,500 was raised each year for the projects
outline.
This
year’s Twitchathon aims to continue the support given in the 2011 Twitchathon
to the Powerful Owl Project. It is intended that the additional funds
will enable Birdlife Southern NSW to extend the project for a third breeding
season. The Powerful Owl Project features the Powerful Owl (Ninox
strenua) in the Greater Sydney region, with new information
collected, analysed and displayed on the new, interactive Birds in Backyards
(BIBY) website. The Powerful Owl serves as a focal point for the
collection of new information on all nocturnal bird species. The aims of
this project are to stimulate and harness community interest in this iconic
Australian species so that, for the first time, an accurate assessment can be
made of its population size, distribution and breeding success in the Sydney
region. Project Officer, David Bain, advises that the Powerful Owls are
now well into breeding season with a number of owls known to be on the nest
with eggs. Chicks will be starting to emerge soon and with over 120
volunteers between Wollongong and Newcastle now involved with the Project, he
expects that we should get a greater understanding of what is happening this
season. Excitingly the project is partnering with Gibberagong
Environmental Education Centre and Taronga Zoo to provide a Powerful Owl
education program to schools in the northern suburbs of Sydney. In other
exciting news there is a nestCAM up and running – check it out at http://birdsinbackyards.net/Powerful-Owl-NestCAM.
Twitchathon 2013 aims to raise about $30,000 to assist this project.
So watch
out for your local Twitchathon team and follow them through this fun event –
watch them “twitch” about in rainforests, swamps, grasslands, woodlands,
sewerage works, backyards and river estuaries, intensely listening, and
desperately searching, for the most or the rarest species. Experience the
excitement of “ticking” and “dipping” on the birds, the desperation to win, the
thrills, the spills of this great weekend adventure! The teams
could be competing in 40° temperatures or during a thunder storm but they will
stick firmly to the Twitchathon Rules! They’ll never give up the thrill of the
chase during the race because so many $’s are at stake! Teams are not
just competing for the highest score, but for the most dollars raised prizes
or even the Lucky Twitcher’s Prize.
You can
also sponsor a few dollars to your local team by contacting:
Alan Morris
Tel (02) 43342776 Email: a.morris42@optusnet.com.au
Your local
Twitchathon team is the Black-necked Stalkers (Greg
Clancy, Gary Eggins, Russell Jago).
Their local
bird club is the Clarence Valley Birdos
See you on the
Twitchathon trail???
For further
information contact : Alan Morris, Twitchathon Coordinator
Birdlife Australia Southern
NSW Group Sydney
Tel 02 4334 2776
Email: southernnsw@birdlife.org.au
Labels:
birds,
environment,
flora and fauna
The Don Randall saga becomes ridiculous
The West Australian 18 October 2013:
The WA Liberal had gone into hiding amid revelations he billed the Commonwealth last year to fly to Cairns where he had taken possession of a four-bedroom investment property.
The West Australian can also reveal Mr Randall had charged taxpayers earlier for a two-night stay in the north Queensland city in 2007, just three days after he bought the land.
Parliamentary records show Mr Randall claimed $414 in living-away-from-home allowance in Cairns on July 2 and 3, 2007, saying he was there as part of work on a migration committee.
Land title records show Mr Randall bought the land in Cairns on June 29 that year for $148,000.
Mr Randall insisted last night the 2007 visit had been within entitlement rules.
Meanwhile, taxpayers
also paid for the Coalition MP and his wife to fly from Perth to Melbourne on
Saturday September 15 last year at a cost of $5,203, for what a Department of
Finance document says was "sittings of Parliament".
Parliament sat last year
the week before that date and resumed on Monday September 17.
That Saturday night, the
West Coast Eagles faced Collingwood in Melbourne in an AFL semi-final.
On 11 July 2012 the WA Liberal Member for Canning Don Randall informed the Dept. of Finance that he and his wife had entered a contract to build a house on land they owned in Cairns Queensland and on, 26 November that same year he informed the department that they had taken possession of this house.
In between those two dates Mr. Randall and his wife took an overnight trip from Perth to Cairns, billing Australian taxpayers for the following on the dates in question:
Travel Allowance for Don Randall
Travel Allowance for Don Randall
18 Nov 12 18
Nov 12 Cairns Electorate Business $354.00 **
**
Incorrect
rate paid. Adjustment to be reflected in a subsequent reporting period.
Airfare Don Randall
18 Nov 12 - Perth to Alice Springs
18 Nov 12 - Alice Springs to Cairns
18 Nov 12 - Alice Springs to Cairns
19 Nov 12 - Cairns to Brisbane
19 Nov 12 - Brisbane to Perth
$2,388.20
Taxi 18 Nov 12 $90.91
Taxi 19 Nov 12 $109.09
Airfare Family Traveller
18 Nov 12 - Perth to Alice Springs
18 Nov 12 - Alice Springs to Cairns
19 Nov 12 - Cairns to Brisbane
19 Nov 12 - Brisbane to Perth
$2,388.20
Total: $5,330.40
Since then Don Randall ha said he will repay this money and Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Warren Entsch MP were reported by The Sydney Morning Herald as stating:
Yet Mr Abbott, speaking on Fairfax Radio on Wednesday, suggested the trip was justified.
"The gentleman in question [Mr Randall] tells me that ... he went from Perth to Cairns to have some very important discussions with the whip," Mr Abbott said. The whip at the time was Leichardt MP Warren Entsch, whose electorate takes in Cairns.
But when quizzed by The Australian Financial Review, Mr Entsch refused to divulge the content of those discussions and admitted he did not know if they constituted "electorate business" as Mr Randall had claimed.
By 24 October Mr. Randall had changed his story when speaking with the Armadale Examiner:
By 24 October Mr. Randall had changed his story when speaking with the Armadale Examiner:
Mr. Entsch is right to be cautious when responding to requests for verification in the present climate – especially if he were to find that there is no diary entry covering this alleged 2012 meeting.
After all, voters might turn their gaze to his own travel claims and recall his past lavish spending on the public purse:
The figures emerged as the Opposition also targeted Liberal MPs in Queensland over alleged travel excess, including the member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, over a visit to a space launch in the US where he spent $6900 a day at taxpayers' expense....
According to Mr Entsch's official travel returns he spent $77,000 on an 11-day trip to the US in July 2005 "to attend the launch of the space shuttle program and to hold discussions regarding the Joint Strike Fighter Program". [Sunday Tasmanian,8 July 2007,p5]
To recap. Thus far we see a West Australian MP who has now given two different explanations of why he went to Cairns in 2012 (and none as to why he needed his wife by his side on this expensive overnight trip) and, who has committed to paying back over $5,000 in travel expenses he denies he had improperly claimed. While at the same time we have a Prime Minister who has asserted that this same MP was engaged at the time in werry, werry, ‘portant but unspecified party business which could not have been conducted over the phone and, a Queensland MP and Government Whip who is not wholeheartedly backing either Randall's or his leader’s version of events.
* Stop laughing – this is serious *
Labels:
Abbott Government,
political probity
Thursday 24 October 2013
The craven Mr. Carr
Former NSW Premier Bob Carr was sworn in on 13 March 2012 to fill a casual vacancy in the Senate caused by the resignation of Federal Senator Mark Arbib.
He became Australian Foreign Minister at the same time.
As Foreign Minister he undertook official visits to Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore in March 2012; United Kingdom, Belgium, Malta and the United States of America in April 2012; Fiji in April 2012; China and Japan in May 2012; Burma, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Turkey, Algeria and Monaco in June 2012.
According to the Dept. of Finance, in 2012 the cost of this overseas travel totalled $966,896.45.
According to the Dept. of Finance, in 2012 the cost of this overseas travel totalled $966,896.45.
Carr first stood for federal election on 7 September 2013 and, due to the resulting change in government became a senator on the Opposition benches whose new six-year term would begin on 1 July 2014.
He announced his retirement on 23 October 2013 (effective the next day) before the 44th Parliament was due to sit on 12 November 2013.
His entire federal political career lasted 19 months and 11 days.
Media reports suggest that Carr will now will become a professorial fellow in the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney and an adjunct professor at the University of NSW.
One wonders why the Federal Labor Party elevated him in the first place.
Labels:
Australian Labor Party,
Bob Carr
Bushfire volunteers in October 2013
With the exception of one celebrity part-time firefighter, all professional and volunteer firefighters and their support teams deserve our unconditional and heartfelt thanks.
Running from the flames during back burning in New South Wales October 2013 bushfires.....
Labels:
natural disasters,
people power,
volunteering
Hon. Tony Abbott MHR on Day 36 as Australian Prime Minister
Action Man as seen through different sets of eyes....
The Sydney Morning Herald 20 October 2013
The Guardian 22 October 2013:
At what point do Abbott’s Putinesque cameo appearance at the beach, on a bike or near a fire, stop reinforcing voters’ perception of the prime minister as fit, strong and decisive, and start to look like mere self-indulgences?
Herald
Sun 22
October 2013:
TONY Abbott's rural fire chief has labelled as
"complete rubbish" and "disrespectful" attacks on the Prime
Minister joining his brigade on the weekend to help fight the devastating NSW
bushfires.
News.com.au 22 October 2013:
THE United Nations says the NSW bushfire crisis is "absolutely" linked to climate change and Tony Abbott's Direct Action policy is dangerous.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has told CNN the Abbott government will pay a heavy political and economic price for walking away from Labor's commitments on climate change.
SBS 22 October 2013:
Professor Phelps is incorrect because discouraging discussion prevents us from unpacking what the image of Tony Abbott in firefighting gear means to us socially and symbolically. If we don’t interrogate it, we end up swallowing a diet of whatever ‘default rational’ ideology is most beneficial to politicians and the press.
The Age 23 October 2013:
Meanwhile, instead of trying to influence Labor's caucus to do what Abbott wants, media commentators should be highlighting the Prime Minister's brazen hypocrisy.
The Sydney Morning Herald 23 October 2013:
Some even suggest the blokey volunteer Tony is self-interested. He cops stick for allowing photo ops in safety gear, lycra or Akubra. And he has been pilloried for billing taxpayers when he does charity work.
SBS 22 October 2013:
Professor Phelps is incorrect because discouraging discussion prevents us from unpacking what the image of Tony Abbott in firefighting gear means to us socially and symbolically. If we don’t interrogate it, we end up swallowing a diet of whatever ‘default rational’ ideology is most beneficial to politicians and the press.
The Age 23 October 2013:
Meanwhile, instead of trying to influence Labor's caucus to do what Abbott wants, media commentators should be highlighting the Prime Minister's brazen hypocrisy.
The Sydney Morning Herald 23 October 2013:
Some even suggest the blokey volunteer Tony is self-interested. He cops stick for allowing photo ops in safety gear, lycra or Akubra. And he has been pilloried for billing taxpayers when he does charity work.
The
Guardian 23
October 2013:
To make
his point, Mr Abbott rattled off a series of years when Australia had
experienced bad bushfires. He also said that Christiana Figueres,
executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was
"talking through her hat" when she pointed out earlier this week that there was a link between
bushfires and human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases.
In
making his statement, Mr Abbott has dismissed out of hand the work of
scientists going back more than 25 years showing that as temperatures and
carbon dioxide emissions go up, so do the risks of bushfires. Christiana
Figueres' hat is stuffed with evidence.
The Sydney Morning Herald 23 October 2013:
The
Herald Sun 23
October 2013:
TONY Abbott says he will
"do the right thing" and attend his gay sister's wedding but could
never support the marriage.
24 October 2013: Prime Minister Abbott continues on his merry way.......
Labels:
Abbott
Wednesday 23 October 2013
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