Main players get impatient for final tally in 2010 Australian Federal Election

Virtual Tally Room at 6pm on 27 August 2010
Click on image to enlarge

The Denison electorate in Tasmania is one of those polling anomalies where the bulk of first preference votes clearly got to one candidate (in the this case Labor) but following preferences are expected to flow in large numbers to a second candidate (in this case an Independent).

Today the Australian Electoral Commission staff and candidates scruntineers are counting Denison preferences in this electorate according to an 27 August 2010 AEC media release.

It would appear that all the main players in the national hung parliament scenario are becoming a mite impatient and would like Andrew Wilkie's position clarified asap.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced today that a preliminary distribution of preferences will occur in the electorate of Denison (Tasmania) this Saturday, 28 August.

State Manager and Australian Electoral Officer for Tasmania, Sandra Riordan said the decision to conduct a provisional scrutiny at this earlier stage in the count was to assist in providing some early certainty of the closely contested result of the 2010 federal election for the Electoral Division of Denison.

The provisional scrutiny on Saturday will be conducted on all available ballot papers that have been fully rechecked for the electorate of Denison, and will include all votes cast at polling places on election day, and all early votes that have been processed to date.

Following completion of the provisional scrutiny a further media release will be issued and available on the AEC website.

A provisional scrutiny involves a full distribution of preferences on the ballot papers, and scrutineers are able to be present during the count. The first distribution reallocates the votes of the candidate with the fewest first preferences to the next available candidate. Following that distribution, the votes of the candidate with the next fewest votes will be reallocated to the remaining available candidates. Finally the votes of the candidate that then has the fewest votes remaining will be reallocated. After that third distribution it is expected that the leading candidate, and consequently the likely result of the election, will become clear.

For more information on the counting of votes in the 2010 federal election, visit the virtual tally room.

What NSW Northern Rivers social priorities are in 2010 for local community services

From Northern Rivers Social Priorities 2010 Report:

In early 2010 Northern Rivers Social Development Council (NRSDC) conducted a survey amongst the regions’ community service providers to gauge their views on social priorities. The results from the survey will be used to inform NRSDC in its advocacy role. It will also stand as a resource for other community services to gain an insight into the key social issues faced by the Northern Rivers community and community service system.

Since 2001, initially the Northern Rivers Interagency and now NRSDC have conducted research, consultations and surveys with service providers. The aim has been to identify common social priorities across the region, flag new issues as they arise and monitor the state of those priorities.

Responses from community services of the Northern Rivers to the 2010 Social Priorities survey has revealed that the region’s social priorities, as identified in 2002 and revisited in 2006 remain hot issues in the community.

Data from the survey may be considered in different ways. An indication of what responding services had the strongest feelings about can be found by looking at which issues had the most respondents rating them as 9 out of 9 ie the highest level of concern.

Ranking of the social priorities is as follows on a scale of 1 to 9:

1. Youth 7.72
   
2. Complex needs 7.64
   
3. Transport 7.58
   
4. Housing 7.08
   
5. Ageing 6.92
   
6. Community based management 6.52

Northern Rivers Regional Food Celebration, Lismore 21-23 October 2010

The Northern Rivers Regional Food Celebration
celebrating the authenticity of local producers and the biodiversity of northern NSW

The growing acknowledgment and reputation of the Northern Rivers region of NSW as a foodie destination with biodiverse, innovative food production is to be showcased at the inaugural Northern Rivers Regional Food Celebration to be held in Lismore from October 21 – 23.

The Northern Rivers is a place where food loves to grow and people love to grow it. Food based ecotourism and agritourism is destined to grow based on the region's sustainability commitment and the spiritual connection to nature which lends itself to visitor experiences.

Over three days at the Northern Rivers Regional Food Celebration, visitors can enjoy local produce, meet the growers and producers, and discover the extraordinary biodiversity of the region with everything from macadamia's, tropical fruits, guavas, chocolate, coffee, biodynamic muesli, organic meats, biodynamic fruit and vegetables, and artisan breads, to a local blue cheese that wins awards in France!

The Food Celebration will be a vibrant new element to the North Coast National Exhibition, the largest regional show in Australia, which will also include a Sustainability Living Expo.

The Northern Rivers Regional Food Celebration is an initiative of Northern Rivers Food, the recently formed industry based group which aims to support and develop all food related businesses in the NR Region. The Food Celebration is made possible with funding support from the NSW Department of Industry and Investment, which has partnered with Northern Rivers Food to assist with industry growth

Local and regional sustainable food ambassador consultant Alison Drover is working with Northern Rivers Food and its membership of local producers, and the North Coast National, to develop an event which showcases and celebrates the Northern Rivers as a food producing region. Alison works with business and community to support local food and sustainability and corporate responsibility. She has a reputation for designing creative events which connect people, planet and plate.

The Food Celebration will have a theme of' local' for each day of the event designed around the matching local produce. The menus will be designed to be affordable and accessible for show visitor and shared at convivial communal tables with opportunity to learn more about the region.

The message will be to support and celebrate local food and to celebrate the seasonality.

Top local chefs and producers will develop menus which salute the abundant produce of the lush Northern Rivers and demonstrate the region's reputation for sustainable growing and producing practices.

The Food Celebration will also feature demonstrations by local chefs from some of the region's highly regarded restaurants and schools will participate in a cooking competition, with young chefs cooking exclusively with local produce.

"Set in the lush green environs of Lismore's historic showgrounds, the Northern Rivers Food Celebration will celebrate the tastes and qualities of perhaps the most culturally diverse region of NSW. We anticipate that this event will become a must do on the foodie calendar, for locals and visitors from across the country, and these visitors will equally enjoy the amazing variety of activities on offer at the North Coast National," said event consultant Alison Drover.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR LOCAL MEDIA AND FOOD PRODUCERS

To participate in the Northern Rivers Food Expo, food businesses must be primarily located in the Northern Rivers region, the goods and/or services produced by the business must be primarily created within the region using local produce where available; and the business must have a commitment to using local labour for operations within the region.

"In 2010 the North Coast National will be proudly celebrating 125 years with a renewed focus on our local area and the many talents, skills and businesses that exist across our unique community. It will be a major showcase of the diversity of our region, its strength, talents and dynamism, of which food businesses – both growers and value adders – are increasingly important," said John Gibson, President of the North Coast National.

For application forms and more details, contact John Bancroft, Northern Rivers Food Expo Manager, Tel: (02) 6621 3413 or Email: john.bancroft@lismore.nsw.gov.au;

Or Leanne Clark, Events Administration Officer, Tel: (02) 6621 3413 or Email: leanne.clark@lismore.nsw.gov.au.

Media enquiries: Tracey Mair, TM Publicity

For the North Coast National Ph: 02 6680 7106 or 0419 221 493

Email: traceym@tmpublicity.com

Abbott and the height of pollie hypocrisy

Politics makes outright whores of so many, but never have I seen someone take to that role with as much gusto as the Hon. Tony Abbott MP.
From his Australians for Honest Politics Trust (and maybe two other associated 'slush' funds) created to bring down a politically inconvenient former protégée to this apology made years too late and run in the online meeja by the likes of the Boorowa News last Wednesday:
"THE likely key independent MP Andrew Wilkie said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had apologised for the Howard government's vilification of him over his opposition to the Iraq War.
Mr Wilkie said the apology came as both Mr Abbott and Prime Minister Julia Gillard began to court his support as a key player in the shape of the next parliament.
The former intelligence analyst was pursued by the Howard government in 2003 after his decision to quit its Office of National Assessments and speak out as a whistleblower against the war.
Prime minister John Howard claimed at the time that Mr Wilkie was ''guilty of distortion, exaggeration and misrepresentation'' in his attacks on the government's use of intelligence."

Oh noes - they've been haiku'd!

I recently received a book called ONE HUNDRED GREAT BOOKS IN HAIKU by David Bader.

The premise of the book is that there are great works of literary art but no one has the time to read them, or alternatively that the modern attention span is so short it is too great a chore to read them.

So he condensed the novels into haiku.

A haiku is a three line poem containing seventeen syllables developed in Japan.

I was very impressed and thought I would share a few with you;

THE ODYSSEY

Homer

Aegean forecast-

storms, chance of one-eyed giants,

delays expected.

DE REVOLUTIONIBUS

ORBIUM CAELESTIUM

Nicolaus Copernicus

Guessus whatibus?

Earthus orbits the Sunnum!

Ptolemy doofus.

THE INFERNO

Dante Alighieri

Abandon all hope!

Looks like everyone's down here.

Omigod- the Pope!

MOBY-DICK

Herman Melville

Vengeance! Black blood! Aye!

Doubloons to him that harpoons

the Greenpeace dinghy.

(this could also apply to the Japanese justice system)

LORD OF THE FLIES

William Golding

'Kill him! Spill his blood!'

Marooned lads hold savage rites.

Choirboys lean to prey.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

Jonathan Swift

Thus I was first great,

then small, and much vexed to learn

that size does matter.

Gloria Jean and Mercy Ministries back in the spotlight

With much of the Australian mainstream media and blogosphere focussed on the recent federal election, this The Sydney Morning Herald article past under my radar (kudos to Cafe Whispers for being an exception) :

The parent company of Gloria Jeans Coffee, co-owned by the Hillsong Church elder Nabi Saleh, is in ''financial dire straits'' and should be put into liquidation and an investigation held into its affairs, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.
It is the latest shot fired in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the coffee giant's parent company, Jireh International, by a small US-based coffee supplier, Western Export Services.
On June 11, the court ruled that Jireh must pay the export company millions in commissions and interest after it found Jireh had breached a joint venture agreement. Yesterday the parties were back in court, fighting over the formula used to calculate the total owed to Western Export Services.

The last published judgment in the matter Western Export Services Inc v Jireh International Pty Limited [2010] NSWSC 622 (11 June 2010) awarding $8,387,656 in damages to Western Export Services.

Here in Australia we are all aware of the ACCC's investigations into Hillsong-connected Mercy Ministries:

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has obtained court enforceable undertakings, which includes payment, from seven former directors of Mercy Ministries Incorporated and/or Mercy Ministries Limited in relation to misrepresentations by those entities.
The undertakings include an apology and a voluntary payment of $1050 to those people affected by the conduct. These are made by former directors Mark Zschech, Peter Irvine, Mark Caldwell, Stephen Crouch, Young Pil (Phil) Sohn, Darlene Zschech and Clark Pearson.
Mercy Ministries is a not-for-profit Christian based charitable organisation which offered a residential counselling program to young women affected by issues such as eating disorders, depression, self harm, unplanned pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and the effects of sexual or physical abuse. The program was offered whilst the young women resided in a Mercy Ministries home.
The ACCC was concerned that in a period between January 2005 and June 2008, Mercy Ministries misrepresented in brochures and on its website that its services were provided for free, when the majority of residents were required to assign their Centrelink payments to Mercy Ministries for the duration of their stay.
The ACCC was also concerned that during this period, Mercy Ministries misrepresented that it offered professional support from psychologists, dieticians, general practitioners, social workers and counsellors, when the level of professional support was not available as represented. Mercy Ministries did not employ this range of professionals. It did facilitate access to external professionals upon request from residents.

2010

Undertakings remedy Mercy Ministries misleading conduct

Undertakings remedy Mercy Ministries misleading conduct. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has obtained court enforceable undertakings, which includes payment, from...

Young Pil Sohn

obtained court enforceable Undertakings from seven former directors of Mercy Ministries Incorporated and/or Mercy Ministries Limited in relation to representations made by...

Mark Anton Zschech

December 2009. Undertaking. The ACCC has obtained court enforceable Undertakings from seven former directors of Mercy Ministries Incorporated and/or Mercy Ministries...

2009

Undertaking.pdf

Darlene Joyce Zschech and Clark Pearson were directors or office holders of Mercy Ministries Limited ACN 094 325 765 ( N ML) and/or Mercy Ministries Incorporated ABN...

ACCC October—December 2009.pdf

A report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission s activities 1 October to 31 December 2009

In the middle of the federal election campaign all pollies got a pay rise

At the same time Oz pollies were inflicting an atrocious election campaign on a helpless national electorate they were quietly anticipating a backdated pay rise:
Remuneration Tribunal Statement - 2010 Review of Remuneration for Holders of Public Office (72kb) RTF (528kb)
Remuneration Tribunal Statement - 2010 Travelling Allowance Rates for Public Office Holders and Parliamentarians (32kb) RTF (376kb)
Members of Parliament - Travelling Allowance (96kb) RTF (976kb)

According to The Herald-Sun this means that the prime ministerial position is currently worth $14,000 more starting from 1 August.
No wonder Abbott is hot for the job - with his level of personal debt being prime minister would be a god send.

The public service is of course included in this pay rise and moola reports for the grand poobahs are found here:
Remuneration and Allowances for Holders of Full-Time Public Office (120kb) RTF (1.15mb)
Remuneration and Allowances for Holders of Part-Time Public Office (144kb) RTF (2.18kb)

AEC running vote tally now 71 all on morning of 26 August 2010

Click on image to enlarge

From the AEC Virtual Tally Room as of 4am on Thursday 26 August 2010:
Currently 79.78% of the primary vote has been counted.
The two party preferred count is 76.87% complete.
At this stage the Coalition is thought to have 71 seats, Labor 71 seats, Independents 4 seats and 3 seats are still considered doubtful.


Click on image to enlarge

From the ABC Australia Votes 2010 website as of 4.30am 26 August 2010

Will you help these humpback whales in August 2010?

Arne Fleisher's photograph of Humpback Whale from Greenland.com

A copy of the International Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society email set out below was sent to me yesterday.

These whales may be in distant waters to their Southern Ocean cousins, but their plight still deserves equal consideration by all of us here in the Northern Rivers and across the rest of Australia:

Please protest and help us stop Greenland's humpback hunt.

Greenland's whalers could begin to kill humpback whales at any moment – please help us stop them.

In June the IWC agreed to allow Greenland to kill nine humpback whales a year and according to IWC rules, the hunt would start in mid-October. But WDCS has learnt that Greenland's government has given in to the whalers and will allow them to start much sooner, before the whales leave Greenland's shores to migrate to the warm waters of the Caribbean to breed.

Please will you write to Greenland's Prime Minister to protest? Our e-protest will only take you a few seconds.

A lottery system was used to decide which whalers could go out and kill these charismatic and intelligent animals - treating their lives like prizes in a raffle.

The two whaling boats that won this bloody prize-draw plan to set sail any day. If they kill any humpbacks before October 13th they will violate the IWC's rules, but their government is asking other countries for 'understanding'.

We don't want them to kill these animals at all; we don't believe that Greenland has demonstrated a genuine subsistence need to do so and we are horrified that now they plan to flaunt the agreement and go out hunting early.

WDCS recently went undercover in Greenland and found that so-called subsistence whalers are hunting 'to order' for a commercial processing company and selling whale meat to up market restaurants and tourist hotels. It's heartbreaking that these whales, who are worth far more alive to Greenland's growing tourism industry, may instead soon be found vacuum-sealed and frozen on supermarket shelves.

Please will you write to Greenland's Prime Minister to protest?.

If you are on Facebook, you can post a polite message to the Greenland prime minister's wall. Just click on this link to go to his page, then 'Like' him (this will enable you to post). Then post the following, or words to this effect:

Even though the International Whaling Commission has decided to allow Greenland to hunt humpback whales, we urge you not to permit the hunt to start. These amazing animals are vital to Greenland's growing whale watching industry and its economy as a whole, and are worth far more alive than dead. Please do not permit the hunt to start.

Thank you.

Sue Fisher

WDCS anti-whaling campaign manager