Politics in Australia: that was quick, Julia!

Clicking onto the Kevin Rudd PM website last Friday morning led directly to http://www.alp.org.au/kevin-rudd/12876 which in turn displayed this:

Very afraid that I would find Julia had done a K-K-Keneally and immediately wiped all her predecessor's posts, press releases etc. from government and Australian Labor Party websites and therefore from our collective history; I went on to the official website of the Australian Prime Minister and found this message:

"On 24 June 2010, the Hon Julia Gillard MP was sworn in as Prime Minister by the Governor-General, succeeding the Hon Kevin Rudd MP.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has archived material from the former Prime Minister's website.

If you wish to direct any messages to the office of the former Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, please follow this link."

Julia it seems is a class act.

Abbott the Ungracious

One rather felt it would be the case, but still it was disappointing that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott barely paid lip service to the historic moment for Australian society and federal politics last Thursday before trying to paint new Prime Minister Julia Gillard as one of the worst of the worst.
Following his vitriolic lead in a closely orchestrated attack were Julie Bishop and Warren Truss.
Badly done, Mr Abbott.

Although I have to admit his constant talk of Sussex Street death squads is giving me a good belly laugh at his expense.
In that I'm not alone. Twitter has a tag just for this:

DarrylMason: Can't sleep. Twitch the blinds to see outside, a night empty street, silent, but out there, somewhere, we now know, #labordeathsquads roam.

easynowtiger: RT @rod_benson: Had a knock at the door earlier. Thought it was the #LaborDeathSquads but it was just the #LatterDaySaints. Gave them a copy of Battlelines.

weezmgk: "Security threats prompt school lockdowns in NSW" http://is.gd/d3tqn SOMEONE MUST STOP #LABORDEATHSQUADS NAO!

What year is this again?

I clicked onto Computer World and saw this:













Err.....it's almost mid 2010 now for starters and the next NSW state election is not due until 26 March 2011 or thereabouts.
But Computer World can take heart - it could have been worse.
Recently the mainstream print media decided that a deceased local's nieces and nephews actually numbered amongst his in-laws. Something which might confuse future genealogists.
While I'm on the subject of out of whack - Maud up the Street want to know when the town clocks in Grafton and Yamba going to show the correct time?

Real news item

While earth-shattering news about events in Afghanistan, Canada, North Korea, South Africa and even down-town Canberra grace the headlines it's refreshing to know that a Clarence valley punter is able to eloquently express his concerns about a local matter of vital importance.

The punter, who hails from Junction Hill (a satellite suburb of Grafton), wrote to the local paper (The Daily Examiner) about a rumour circulating in the valley that his favourite tipple will not be available at next month's Grafton racing carnival.

John 'Loves Black Beer' B********'s (surname deleted) letter

New native title claim in the Clarence Valley being considered

The Daily Examiner reported on 22 June 2010 that a new native title claim may be lodged over the Clarence Valley coastal zone from Woody Head to Red Rock.

Currently there are approximately 3,925 sq kilometres under active native title claim from Evans Head and its hinterland to the Grafton area, as well as the waters of the Clarence River.
These claims are on land within Clarence Valley Council, Lismore Shire Council, Richmond Valley Council, Tenterfield Shire Council, Glen Innes Severn Shire Council local government areas.

If the media report is correct then this proposed application would be a logical progression of the sincere efforts of Northern Rivers traditional owners to gain a measure of protection for the environmental, cultural and spiritual values of this land.

I wish them well in their endeavours.

Come orf it, Mendoza!

I'd be the last person to support the proposition that the Oz public health system is working for everyone anyone, but I have to wonder about the motives of John Mendoza, former chair of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health.

This is John last Friday in the Ballina Shire Advocate:

"He said Mr Rudd failed to listen to him, snubbed today's summit at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and ignored a petition signed by 80,000 Australians calling for $500 million boost to mental health funding."

This is John in a GetUp! email doing the rounds:

"On Thursday, I and over 60 mental health organisations from across Australia intend to present a letter to Kevin Rudd with a plan of action for mental health. But so far, the Prime Minister has declined to receive it, and so too has the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon."

WTF?
A couple of weeks ago a letter is sent and the PM hadn't yet replied? Yep, a scandal of the first magnitude.

Rudd and Roxon refuse to have this letter re-presented to them (presumably by the doughty John) for the benefit of the media? A shocking abuse of power I tell you!

Rudd ignored a GetUP! petition which is apparently only a few days old and delivered to Canberra last Thursday? My gawd, that defies belief.

John - take two aspirin tabs and lie down - your ego is out of control.

Pic of the boofhead from GetUp! website

New Matilda will be missed when it closes its doors today

Best wishes for the future to all New Matilda

management, staff, journalists & assorted others

from all of us here at North Coast Voices

Take an utterly random trip down memory lane as New Matilda ceases publication today:

2010

So Long, Sussex Street By Andrew Elder

Mungo MacCallum: Serial Killer By Mungo MacCallum

The New Adventures Of Old Matilda By Robbie Swan

Someone Lend This Man An Economics Textbook By Ben Eltham

2009

Get Ready For These Nuclear Fallacies By Mark Diesendorf

What Makes Climate Sceptics Tick? By Lyn Bender

2008

Rudd Has Betrayed A Generation By Anna Rose

The 10 Worst Cock-Ups Of 2008 By Ben Eltham

2007

Cops Hit the Front Page By Sam Davies

Leaks and Whispers By Bruce Haigh

Brown's Got Soul By Tim Soutphommasane

2006

A Senate Majority Was Meant to Be Easy By Michael Brissenden

Time to Point the Bone? By Michael Brissenden

Minamata 50 Years On By Christopher Reed

2005

Our greatest addiction By Daniel Donahoo

Federal Labor - dealing with its economic mistakes By Kirk McKenzie

2004

Lady in waiting? By Christine Wallace

The sticky pole of nationalism By Maria Kunda

Speak no evil - security law on the books By George Williams

Waterlines Report June 2010: how much water does Australia use?

Australian Government Waterlines report 30 - June 2010:

This report documents:

• the location of significant intercepting activities that fall outside the current entitlement framework
• the potential rate of expansion of each activity over various time periods
• estimates of water usage of each activity in water management areas used in the Australian Water Resources 2005 report.

The report includes a definition and description of activities that intercept surface water and groundwater and identified the following activities for further analysis:

• overland flows
• farm dams
• stock and domestic bores
• plantations
• peri-urban development

The report shows that the total volume of water unaccounted for as a result of land use activities outside our current water entitlement regimes and planning frameworks equates to almost one quarter of all the entitled water on issue in Australia.

Or to put it another way - a combined volume of at least 5,600 gigalitres of fresh water is intercepted annually across the country. Which is around 10 Sydney Harbours worth of water according to my calculations and, much is apparently being siphoned off outside of current government-endorsed management plans.

Surface and/or groundwater interception activities: initial estimates (7.26MB)

Executive summary (141KB)

Petticoats rule!

Back in the 1950s I'd never have thought it possible.
We New South Walers now have a female head of state (Her Maj), a female representative of the Crown (teh G-G), a female Prime Minister (all hail Gillard!), a female State Governor (hat tip to Marie B) and a female Premier (K-K-Keneally acting on behalf of her hair).
This has to be the ultimate hat trick.

Federal Labor and Peter Garret keep promise to protect whales

Yes! Yes! Yes! A win for the whales.
The International Whaling Commission at its Morocco meeting has not endorsed the breakway whaling nations push to end the moratorium on commercial whaling.
Now the case Australia has brought against the Government of Japan in the International Court of Justice on 31st May 2010 alleging that; "Japan's continued pursuit of a large scale programme of whaling under the Second Phase of its Japanese Whale Research Programme under Special Permit in the Antarctic ("JARPA II") [is] in breach of obligations assumed by Japan under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling ("ICRW"), as well as its other international obligations for the preservation of marine mammals and marine environment" can proceed and hopefully all whaling will end in the Southern Ocean in the foreseeable future.
Go, Migaloo!

As the road toll mounts we're still waiting, Kristina..........

As the annual road toll on the NSW North Coast leg of the Pacific Highway steadily mounts, local mayors and the media are still waiting for Premier Kristina Keneally or her designated ministerial representative to undertake an inspection by car along the worst of this route.

The invitation has been on the table since early February this year and the Premier appears to have committed her minister to a full inspection according to a March 2010 media report.

The inspection is overdue to say the least.

A short visit to Coffs Harbour in late March by Regional Development Minister Ian McDonald trying a snow job on the mayors and burbling on about "cost-benefit analysis" being needed before highway upgrades can occur just doesn't cut the political mustard - especially as scandal has since seen him go from office and parliament.

The NSW Government has been responding to these road deaths with sad shaking of heads for years now.

In 2005 Keneally's mentor, then Roads Minister Joe Tripodi, was telling ABC TV Stateline:

I am very conscious of the many tragic deaths on the Pacific Highway. One death on our roads is one death too many, and my heart goes to the families and friends who have suffered this terrible loss.

The NSW road toll for 2010 as of 16 June was 213 deaths. As in past years, too many of these were on the Pacific Highway.

In certain quarters local tempers are becoming rather frayed and we are still waiting, Kristina.........

Photograph of 2007 Coffs Harbour area fatality at The Sydney Morning Herald (top left ) and 2010 Tabbimobile area fatalities at The Daily Examiner (bottom right)

How to take part in ORRCA Annual Whale Census Day, Sunday 27 June 2010

Celebrating 25 Years of Marine Mammal Rescue

MEDIA RELEASE

ORRCA Annual Whale Census Day 27 June 2010

"Come and help us count whales"

On Sunday 27 June 2010, ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) will be conducting its annual Whale Census Day along the Australian coastline.

Any members of the public who are interested in whales are invited to head to their nearest or favourite ocean viewing spot to take part in the whale census and learn more about these noble and fascinating creatures.

Migrating Whales

Every year hundreds of whales migrate up and down the east and west Australian coasts to escape the wintry Antarctic waters and to mate and give birth in warmer waters. They head north from April and return south in October in time for the Antarctic summer. June and July are the best months to see northbound whales off the NSW coast.

Humpback and Southern Rights are the most common migrating whale species, but other species have been sighted too, including Minke, Orcas (Killer Whales) and even the biggest-of-all Blue Whales.

Reporting on the 2009 migration season, ORRCA President, Ronny Ling, said: "Last year we recorded the largest number of sightings ever, with the benefit of favourable ocean currents and weather conditions. With the help of more volunteers in 2010, we are hoping to beat that record."

Whales are in the news, according to Mr Ling: "We have been involved in whale rescue for 25 years and now more than ever people are becoming interested in whales. People realise it is such a privilege to have the whale's great, epic journey right on our doorstep. There is something awesome about these creatures, they touch our hearts."

What is Whale Census Day?

ORRCA census day is a non-invasive approach to researching the number and behaviour of migrating whales on the same day each year. The recording and tracking of whale migration provides useful statistical data. It is also a great opportunity for the whole family to get involved and observe whales in their natural environment as they journey up and down our coast.

Celebrating 25 Years of Marine Mammal Rescue

To register and report your sightings, just call the ORRCA Hotline (24 hours) on (02) 9415 3333. Pack a picnic, sun block and your binoculars (and a book on whales if you have one) and enjoy the great outdoors.

For further information visit our website. www.orrca.org.au

What is ORRCA?

ORRCA stands for Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia. It is a community volunteer organisation dedicated to the care of whales, dolphins, seals and dugongs in the wild. ORRCA was founded in 1985.

ORRCA provides rescue and research services, including specialised assistance in situations involving stranded or injured whales, dolphins, seals and dugongs. ORRCA also provides a 24 hour hotline service (9415 3333) where the public can report whale and seal incidents.

Media enquiries: Please contact Ronny Ling, ORRCA President on 0411 673 773 or Shona Lorigan ORRCA media relations on 0404 851 267

Bee-have

I am arranging a combined birthday party out at the farm. My mother is turning 80, two days before my Uncle reaches 92 and the youngest son is 26. So I have been on the phone ringing friends and relatives to inform them of the event.

I was talking to one set of Queensland relatives who live on a squatter selection that has been in the family since well before Federation.

When the selection was taken up in the late 1800’s the family arrived on site with bee hives, the only reliable sweetening agent that could be produced in the area.

One of my grandmother's fond memories was going to rob the bees with her mother - she was in charge of the smoker - and eating fresh honeycomb with the honey dribbling down her chin. Something I too have had the pleasure of experiencing.

About 20 years ago the neighbouring selection was purchased by the National Parks and according to the rello’s they have been quite good neighbours.
A few bush fires between friends were not enough to sour the relationship.

The month before I phoned he had received a letter from the National Parks stating that they had just became aware that he had European honey bees on his property, and that he is obliged to keep his bees out of the national park.

He wrote back to the parks official that he had gone down to the bees and read them the letter and, had even taken a map to show the bees so there would be no confusion about the borders between their land and the national park.

The bees, he wrote, have agreed to keep off the national park if the national park stops frog, lizards, birds, possums and other assorted critters from coming over to the hives and eating their sisters and raiding their honey.

He had just received the reply to his letter; it stated that the animals in the national park were wild animals and the authority could not control their behaviour and therefore could not stop them from entering his land and raiding his bee hives.
He was wondering how he was going to break this news to the bees.

They will be attending the birthday party - just look for the group bringing the mead.

Bee aninimation from Animation Buddy