Daily Examiner editor socks it to insensitive NSW National Party leader

The Daily Examiner's new editor, David Bancroft, was not impressed by the National Party this week:

THERE is little more off-putting than seeing politicians attempting to make political capital out of tragedy.

Despite the obvious insensitivity and the offence it can cause to people grieving, MPs of all political persuasions seem to find it necessary to trot out one of their favourite soap box topics for the media at a time when the focus should be on the people who are directly affected by tragic events.

This week it was NSW Nationals leader, Andrew Stoner, who could not avoid the temptation to have a crack at the Rees Government over the condition of the Pacific Highway.

Stoner was probably right in what he was saying - that the condition of the highway leaves a lot to be desired - but his decision to use the 20th anniversary of the Cowper bus crash, in which 20 people died, as the catalyst for media comment left me feeling cold......

I remember having the same feeling when the politicians flew into the site on October 20, 1989, and started talking about the condition of the highway rather than displaying empathy for those who had died or been injured.

One of those was another National Party leader, Wal Murray.

The fact is, the condition of the highway was bad then and remains bad. Fewer lives would be lost if governments did what they promised and made the highway dual divided carriageway.

But the primary cause of that accident was not the highway, it was the fact that the truck driver was high on drugs.

A survivor remembers the horror and grief of the 1989 Cowper bus crash

Ballina hosts 350 Climate Fair on Saturday 24 October 2009

Ballina on the NSW North Coast is playing host to the 350.org's Global Day of Climate Action! next Saturday.

According to the Ballina Shire Advocate:

The 350 Climate Fair has been organised by the Ballina Climate Action Network and the North Coast Climate Action Group, in association with non-profit group Island Quarry Inc, as part of a world campaign by 350.org to urge world leaders to take action on climate change.

The keynote speaker is Roger Tomlinson from Griffith University. There also will be stalls and live music. The event will be held at Missingham Park from 10am to 2pm.

Graph from http://www.350.org/

Oi Kev, there's an ugly rumour doin' the rounds.........

There's a rumour doing the rounds that the Rudd Government intends to make income management compulsory for Centrelink and Vet Affairs income recipients.
Income management for all is expected to;
tie up a good percentage of any pension, unemployment benefit, family tax benefit, austudy, carer allowance, other allowance or payment - possibly 50% or even higher;
link this amount to a Basic Card which can only be used at approved stores for government approved purchases - merchants of course having a right to reject the card simply because they can't be bothered or refuse to sell certain goods if a card is presented;
have a daily limit on the amount which can be spent;
and then probably (as soon as technology is ready) allow the card to be tracked so that bureaucratic sticky beaks can see just how money is spent.
And all this expected to happen sooner rather than later, with no respect for a person's dignity or standing.

Here are some of the things which can't be done with the Basic Card now.

You cannot use your Basic Card:
* at an ATM;
* for "cash out" transactions;
* to purchase gift or store cards, or vouchers;
* to repay debts or credit;
* at merchants that are not Approved Merchants;
* for internet, mail order or telephone-based purchases;
* for direct debit transactions;
* for BPAY transactions;
* for transferring any funds;
* to purchase alcohol, cigarettes or other tobacco products;
* to purchase a lottery ticket, Lotto entry etc;
* for instalment payments on goods and services, such as a "lay-by" payment scheme;
* to purchase goods or services from a petrol station (other than petroleum, other fuel products and automotive goods and services); or
* to purchase goods and services from an Approved Merchant utilising a paper based or manual transaction procedure.

According to the National Wefare Rights Network, one of the things you're apparently allowed do with a Basic Card is pay for a funeral - not that you'd have enough money on the card to do so.

Boy, Kev - you really know how to create the mother of all vote losers for Janelle Saffin (Labor MP for Page) and Justine Elliot (Labor MP for Richmond) both of whom have large blocs of voters receiving pensions, family allowance etc. in their NSW North Coast electorates.

The things is, mate - you'll deserve every vote loss if this rumour is indeed true and a stake through the heart for being such a callous bloodsucker.

Is the Liberal Party lining up behind Murdoch and old media?

The Liberal Party of Australia's Simon Birmingham is a senator who doesn't usually swim across my line of vision.

However, this week he came to my attention because of his exchanges with the ABC's Managing Director Mark Scott and the Federal Communications Minister during a Senate estimates committee hearing on 19 October 2009.

After dealing with Bananas in Pyjamas and a few other matters, Senator Birmingham's queries began to focus on the advisability of Scott's public comments on the future of Australian media and the ABC's continuing role in providing free to air and free online news content:

The question relevant to Mr Scott here is whether, as head of the national public broadcaster, he feels that in any way his remarks stepped beyond commenting on the role and responsibilities of the national public broadcaster and into the commercial operations of his competitors in the news world.

and

What risk, if any, do you see in terms of the future of that mixed model, given that the ABC does have a clear and, while you can debate about the levels from time to time, guaranteed source of revenue, whereas the income model for commercial news operators is a rapidly changing and very uncertain world?

and again

But I am acknowledging the reality and I would have thought that as communications minister you would acknowledge the reality that the income model for commercial news broadcasters is changing dramatically and is very uncertain into the future. It is reasonable for them to be hypothesising about the impact of that on the future of news broadcasting and, indeed, on the potential that if their traditional income revenues dry up and the online world does not provide enough revenue, then we will be left with the ABC as the major news provider in that market space. That is the argument being put by some. I am not saying that it will happen, but there is some validity to it.

At the same hearing Senator Abetz revealed a Liberal Party still trying to inflict payback for what it sees as ABC bias and misconduct in its political coverage during the Howard Government years and beyond.

Murdoch & Co are ploughing fertile ground here and all Australians should be very wary of the Liberal Party's intentions with regard to public broadcasting if it is returned to government.

Support your local dairy - give a multinational the finger and wave to a cow today

It sometimes seems that the world's farmers simply cannot win when it comes to negotiating fair contract prices for their produce with wealthy corporations.
Particularly those which hold considerable market share, are downright monopolies, behave like cartels or harvest national agricultural sectors under flags of convenience.

Yet another media report on the plight of Australia's dairy farmers, faced with the market power of multinational food companies, was shown on ABC 7.30 Report last Monday.

It is worth noting that it was alleged that National Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kirin Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd (which is the cover name for the Japanese multinational Kirin Holdings Co Ltd which deals in products and services in alcohol, soft drinks, foods and pharmaceuticals) is using its market muscle to force milk prices at the farm gate to below the cost of production.

For those interested in consumer activism, here is a basic list of Kirin food brand names/products:

• PURA Dairy Farmers
• Berri Yoplait
• Tasmanian Heritage
• Coon King Island Dairy
• Moove Farmers Union
• Dare BIG M
• Masters Australian Fresh
• Australian Gold
• Cheese of the World
• Daily Juice Divine Classic
• Farmers Union Iced Coffee
• Frûche Heidi Farm
• Just Juice Masters Flavoured Milk
• Mersey Valley Mildura Sunrise
• Prima South Cape Sunny Boy
• Tasmianian Heritage Vitasoy
• YoGo Yoplait formé
• Yoplait Go-Gurt Yoplait Le Rice
• Yoplait Petit Miam Zooper Dooper


Head Office Address:
National Foods Centre
737 Bourke Street Docklands,
VIC, 3008
Telephone (03) 9188 8000
Mailing address: PO Box 6089 Melbourne, VIC, 3004

Pondering the global warming debate in a paddock.....

I have been following the global warming debate with interest since being a farmer it will impact on me; I may have to fit phart retarders to all the cows for one thing since methane has been identified as a major greenhouse gas.

There are a few questions I would like answered to help me understand what is going on.

What should the temperature of the earth be?
Since the climate is a dynamic system and there have been many variations in temperature, ocean levels and the like over the last couple of million years - how do we definitely know that this change is not another natural change?

Do the models that are used to show global warming, when run backwards show the climate we know has been recorded?
This is important in that the models should be based in what is known and work to the unknown. Once you put in the variables and run the models forward to predict global warming, if you add the same variables and run the model backwards do the models show the climate that we have records for?

The Earth's climate is a very complex system - do we have enough knowledge of these systems and how they interrelate to identify specific global warming causes?
Even if the final out come is that global warming theory is fault ridden and sloppy science, I have come to the conclusion that the development of sustainable energy should be encouraged.

It is not wise to be so reliant on fossil and mineral resources for our major energy needs.

That old farmyard saying comes to mind, “don’t put all your eggs in the same basket.”

Cartoon credit: Vincent Chow dot Net

APN Media threatens ABC with possible future ACCC complaints. Plans to put NSW North Coast newspapers behind paywalls?

There is little truly independent mainstream media when it comes to daily local newspapers on the NSW North Coast, with the print media dominated as it is by the APN News and Media corporation.

In recent times APN has begun to lift its game with regard to its one-size-fits-all online media presence and, it was noted by alert local residents that the sudden interest in providing more timely (if limited) online news co-incided with the Rupert Murdoch and News Ltd push to introduce paywalls for news on the Internet.

Now we see that APN is definitely aligning itself with both the effort to monetise news and perhaps even with the attack on public broadcasting providing free online news and current events.

Here is an excerpt from ABC TV Media Watch on 19 October 2009:

In fact, the funds are flowing the ABC's way. In the last budget, it received 15 million dollars to create whiz-bang multi-media websites serving regional Australia.

But media company APN, which owns fourteen regional daily newspapers in New South Wales and Queensland, argues that it's risked a lot of its shareholders' money already, trying to do the same thing.

Brendan Hopkins: Of course we're looking to monetise those sites going forward but we've taken, I think, a very brave decision on behalf of our board and behalf of our shareholders that we want to invest ahead of that curve.

Jonathan Holmes: So when you see the government giving the ABC tens of millions of dollars...

Brendan Hopkins: I think it's got to be questioned... I can't believe that the government itself wants to pursue a business model for the ABC, or a model - there's no business involved - a model for the ABC where the cost of the ABC goes up and up and up and up, with all of the public outcry that that will bring, when bona fide commercial operators like ourselves have been investing ahead of the curve in those centres... and if we feel the ABC are competing or trying to compete with us unfairly then we'll go and talk to Mr Samuels at the ACCC and we'll maybe hold them to account.

Jonathan Holmes: In this world of media plenty, that's so different from what it was seventy years ago, is there really a reason for the ABC to exist at all?

Brendan Hopkins: I think now is a good time to have that debate.

— Media Watch interview with Brendan Hopkins (CEO, APN), 16th October, 2009

Once more the APN business model shows just how far removed it is from the idea of a just and fair society with equality of information access which public broadcasting in Australia represents.

Visit the Media Watch video page to watch the extended version of Media Watch's interview with Brendan Hopkins

Centuries old celestial dust trails to produce Orionid meteors visible in both hemispheres 21-23 October 2009 [links to sky maps]

Orionid 2008 from NCDCR

In the International Year of Astronomy Australians will be able to see what is predicted to be a splendid celestial night show from 21 to 23 October 2009 peaking on Thursday night.

Radiating out across the sky from a point between the constellations Gemini and Orion and just below Betelgeuse (Orion's red star) will be meteors caused by ancient debris from Halley's Comet.

On average the Orionid shower produces 20 meteors every hour at its peak (less seen with the naked eye in Australia) and 2am to 4am looking east to north-east is probably the best time for viewing from the Southern Hemisphere.

NASA information page
Sydney Observatory night sky map for October 2009 This star chart shows the stars and constellations visible in the night sky for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth for October 2009 at about 8.30 pm (summer time). For Darwin and similar locations the chart will still apply, but some stars will be lost off the southern edge while extra stars will be visible to the north. Stars down to a brightness or magnitude limit of 4.5 are shown on the star chart. To use this star chart, rotate the chart so that the direction you are facing (north, south, east or west) is shown at the bottom. The centre of the chart represents the point directly above your head, called the zenith point, and the outer circular edge represents the horizon.
Orionid Sky Map 1
Orionid Sky Map 2