NSW Health Minister gets a bi-partisan letter from NSW North Coast MPs

The following is a copy of the bi-partisan letter sent to the NSW Health Minister by NSW North Coast MPs Saffin, Georges, Cansdell and Page:

Friday, December 3, 2010.
REF: PE.03.12.10.

The Honourable Carmel Tebbutt MP
NSW Deputy Premier
NSW Minister for Health
Level 30 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000.

Dear Carmel,

I am writing, with the support of three North Coast-based State MPs, to express our deep disappointment that the NSW Government has excluded the Lismore Base Hospital Stage 3 Redevelopment from a list of priority projects for funding under the Federal Government’s Health and Hospitals Fund Round 3.

We simply cannot reconcile this decision, particularly as this long overdue, $150-million capital works project is so critical to the future wellbeing of a coastal region with one of the fastest growing and ageing populations in Australia.

Lismore Base is a major referral hospital and its importance as the public health service hub for the entire Northern Rivers cannot be understated.

Federal and State governments, regardless of their political colours, and local community leaders, have long recognised the absolute need for this final stage of the hospital’s redevelopment to cope with an estimated 30-per cent increase in patients over the next decade.

This is reflected in the extensive planning done by the North Coast Area Health Service on a proposed new and expanded Emergency Department; upgraded medical imaging; new operating theatres and wards; a new procedures centre, helipad and additional parking.

In 2005-2006, a capital options study was undertaken as part of the planning process, which signalled that capital funds were imminent and construction would start soon after.

We fail to understand how, on any grounds -- be it clinical services need, population demand or time spent waiting in the queue for funding -- any hospital could have been prioritised higher than the Lismore Base Hospital.

All of these major capital improvements, together with an increase of 90 beds and about 70 full-time clinical staff, are also what the people of the Northern Rivers expect and deserve.

At every public forum held in recent years, including a Big Ideas seminar organised by The Northern Star newspaper in Lismore last Sunday, LBH Stage III has been consistently identified as our region’s No. 1 priority.

While we realise that the Health and Hospitals Fund Round 3 is a highly competitive environment, the NSW Government now has made it that much harder for us to argue our strong case for ‘the forgotten corner’ of this State – north of the Central Coast and Port Macquarie.

As Members of Parliament who cover geographic areas beyond Lismore, we too have other priority health projects, but we know that if Lismore Base is not progressed at State level, it will be virtually impossible to get those ones looked at.

The Northern Star has a petition, which calls on you as NSW Health Minister torethink the decision, and further, calls on Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, The Honourable Nicola Roxon MP, to give priority to LBH Stage III, regardless of the current advice coming from NSW Health.

We come from across the political divide to stand unified in representing the interests of several hundred thousand Australians living in our electorates, and we respectfully ask that you act on our bipartisan approach as a matter of urgency.

Yours sincerely,

Janelle Saffin MP

Federal Member for Page.

Thomas George MP

State Member for Lismore.

Don Page MP

State Member for Ballina.

Steve Cansdell MP

State Member for Clarence.

Cc. Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, The Honourable Nicola Roxon MP.

Wikileaks thumbs its nose at efforts to shut it down with 76 mirror site links

Wikileaks is currently mirrored on 76 sites (updated 2010-12-05 11:00 GMT)

		wikileaks.enzym.su
freeus.jsdev.org	wikileaks.kafe-in.net ipv6	wl.opsec.eu ipv6
wikileaks.challet.eu	wl.gernox.de	wikileaks.morningtime.com
wikileaks.renout.nl	wikileaks.fdn.fr	wikileaks.gonte.se
wikileaks.kaptenkong.se	leaks.gooby.org	wikileaks.dubronetwork.fr ipv6
wikileaks.perry.ch	wikileaks.sbr.im	wikileaks.u0d.de
wikileaks.81-89-98-125.blue...	wikileaks.psytek.net	wl.mrkva.eu
wikileaks.joworld.net	wikileaks.chiquitico.org	wikileaks.rout0r.org
www.gruiiik.org	wikileaks.high-color.de	wikileaks.holarse-linuxgaming.de ipv6
wl.alfeldr.de	wikileaks.huissoud.ch	wikileaks.geekview.be
wikileaks.franslundberg.com	wikileaks.krkr.eu ipv6	wl.yoltie.net
wikileaks.aelmans.eu	wikileaks.serverius.net	wikileaks.synssans.nl
wl.ernstchan.net	wikileaks.dena-design.de	wleaks.3sge.pulsedmedia.com
wleaks.hellfire.pulsedmedia.com	wikileaks.palisades-berlin.de	wikileaks.dokansoft.com.ar
wikileaks.gonte2.nu	leaks.stumcomie.com	wikileaks.timburke.org
wikileaks.myscripts24.de	wikileaks.breit.ws	wikileaks.now-pages.com
wikileaks.ego-world.org	cablegate.r3blog.nl ipv6	www.wikileakz.eu
wikileaks.realprogrammer.org	wikileaks.the-secret-world.info	wikileaks.rtjuette.de
wikileaks.rustigereigers.nl	mirror1.wikileaks.lu	mirror2.wikileaks.lu
internaluse.net	wikileaks.r00t.la	wikileaks.cordover.id.au
brd.mcbf.net	wikileaks.1407.org	wikileaks.mollar.me
azow.selb.us	wikileaks.furdev.org	wikileaks.datkan.net ipv6
wikileaks.threefingers.ca	wikileaks.brenne.nu ipv6	wikileaks.hutonline.nl
vm8157.vps.tagadab.com	nl1.wikileaksmirror.nl	wikileaks.xcplanet.com
www.wikileaks.nw-ds.com	wikileaks.infinium.org.uk	peoplerule.info
wikileaks.solvare.se	wikileaks.marktaff.com	wikileaks.hmaks.com

Sentiment in Australia appears to be favouring Assange over recent comments by the Australian Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Federal Attorney-General.
This is a snapshot of a survey question in The Age online at approximately 6.30am on 6 December 2010:


UPDATE:

Before the ink was dry on this post the number of Wikileaks mirror sites began to grow and now stands at 748+, including wikileaks.savetheinter.net and cablegate.savetheinter.net launched by Pirate Party Australia.

Wet, wetter, wettest in 2010

It is flooding across much of eastern Australia right now and thousands of people are affected in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, with many on the move ahead of rising river levels. Who else might find floods under their Christmas tree this year?

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology: The national rainfall outlook for summer (December-February) favours wetter than normal conditions in southeast Queensland, eastern NSW, northern NT and most of WA. Drier conditions are favoured in parts of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Australian Bureau of Meteorology

BOM National Warnings Summary

New South Wales & Australian Capital Territory
Rainfall and River Height Data

North Coast river levels

Cancún conference participants insist on follows the same old route

Reading between the lines it would appear that the world learned nothing from the failed processes used in the past to negotiate an as yet unrealised global response to anthropomorphic global warming and Copenhagen COP15 2009 is being revisited at Cancún with draft documents having so much wriggle room that an unsatisfactory outcome is almost a given:

Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol

Fifteenth session Cancun, 29 November 2010. Agenda item 3

Consideration of further commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol

Revised proposal by the Chair

Statements made in connection with COP 16 / CMP 6

Ending the Australian year as we began it........

Drought in some places, floods in others, coastal erosion on the go, crop worries, rising prices, state and federal parliaments closely resembling 18th century bedlams, serial political pests and too many opinion polls - the year is ending in much the same way as it began.

Here's a little something from this week's Essential Report showing pollies travelling in circles with the Coalition now on top:

Click on image to enlarge

Borowitz homes in on Cablegate

Andy Borowitz puts the recent Wikileaks Cablegate shenanigans into humorous perspective:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In the first major policy fallout from the WikiLeaks disclosures, the State Department has ordered all U.S. diplomats to “cease and desist telling the truth until further notice.”

“We are working overtime to try to make sure that leaks like these don’t happen again,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters. “But until we’ve got the leaks plugged, it’s incumbent on all our diplomats to put on their lying caps.”

Secretary Clinton noted that since many US diplomats are major political donors with long careers in the business world, “this shouldn’t be a reach for them.”

But for those career diplomats who came up through the Foreign Service, the State Department will be holding a series of “truth avoidance seminars,” led by executives of Goldman Sachs.

Additionally, Secretary Clinton said, the State Department would install on all diplomats’ computers new software called CandorShield™, which automatically translates truthful language into a less embarrassing truth-free version.

For example, she explained, the software would translate the phrase “two-faced weasels” into “trusted Pakistani allies” and would delete all references to French President Nicolas Sarkozy as “Monsieur Shorty Pants.”

Elsewhere, Interpol issued this statement about its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: “We will find Julian Assange, and then we will hire him.”

Get the Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox for free here.

Some unexpected Christmas carolling

A big thank-you to Alphabet Photography

and You Tube.................

Better access to film and TV programming for all Australians

From Regional Arts NSW December-January e-newletter:

In November Accessible Arts released an article on two rulings by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) which will substantially increase access to regular film and television programming for Australians who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or with low vision. In May 2010 the AHRC ruled that cinemas must meet their legislative requirements to provide access for Australians who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind or with low vision. This was followed in October by the Commission's refusal to grant a temporary exemption from captioning of pay TV programs to ASTRA, the peak body for pay TV representing 34 broadcasters who operate 91 subscription TV channels. Sancha Donald, CEO of Accessible Arts, welcomes the AHRC rulings. "Viewing these decisions together I think we can gauge a shift in the way access to entertainment is being thought about," said Ms Donald. Accessible Arts has a variety of Disability Awareness and Access Training packages tailored to meet the needs of arts organisations, festivals and venues available online at http://www.aarts.net.au/training/

What does France and Australia have in common besides national wine industries?

It has long been thought a national shame that in Australia the indigenous population is over represented in the prison system.
This is seen as indicative of both a failure of society to respond appropriately to Aboriginal social, cultural and economic needs and, as possible evidence of bias within the justice system.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics publication Corrective Services, Australia, Mar 2009 states:

Nationally, the December quarter 2008 average daily imprisonment rate was 166 prisoners per 100,000 adult population, an increase of 2% from the December quarter 2007 (163 prisoners). The Northern Territory had the highest imprisonment rate (629 prisoners per 100,000 adult population), followed by Western Australia (240) and New South Wales (184).....

The national average daily Indigenous imprisonment rate in the December quarter 2008 was 2,240 per 100,000 adult Indigenous population, an increase of 1% from the previous quarter, and a 3% increase from the December quarter 2007.
The highest Indigenous imprisonment rate was recorded in Western Australia (3,811 Indigenous prisoners per 100,000 adult Indigenous population), followed by New South Wales (2,423) and South Australia (2,413). The lowest Indigenous imprisonment rate was recorded in Tasmania (614), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (1,004)......
The national age standardised Indigenous imprisonment rate from the annual Prisoner Census conducted at June 2008 was over 13 times higher (1,769 per 100,000 adult Indigenous population) than the rate for non-Indigenous persons (133 per 100,000 adult non-Indigenous population).

In France it would appear that persons from Islamic backgrounds who make up only an estimated ten per cent of the total population may also be over-represented within the justice system (possibly based in some measure on institutionalised bias) as this observer admits that the French prison population is thought to be over fifty per cent Muslim.

From Wikileaks Cablegate website:

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 PARIS 005539

SIPDIS  E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2015..... 

SUBJECT: PUTTING OUT BRUSHFIRES: FRANCE AND ISLAMIC EXTREMISM .......
¶1. (C) Summary:....According to recent press reports, the RG,
France's police intelligence service, estimates that 6 million Muslims
live in France, approximately 10 percent of the population.......
¶2. (C) In the Muslim community of some six million, 70
percent are estimated to be of North African (Algeria,
Morocco, and Tunisia) origin. Other sizable groups include
Turks and Pakistanis. Within this overall population, the RG
estimates (according to recent press reports) that roughly
9,000 could be considered extremist, or, just over one-tenth
of one percent.....
¶3. (U) Two specific sources of Islamic extremism are of
special interest. First is the French prison system, with a
population that is estimated at over 50 percent Muslim.....

Alice Springs brings forth a new political party

On 1 December 2010 the Australian Electoral Commission advertised an application for non-parliamentary political party registration by The First Nations Political Party (FNPP).

3. GOAL AND OBJECTIVES OF FIRST NATIONS POLITICAL PARTY (FNPP)

The goal and objectives of First Nations Political Party (FNPP) are...

- To provide direct relief to all First Nations (Originals) from Poverty, Suffering Destitution, Misfortune, Distress and Helplessness caused
..directly or indirectly or by the involvement with the Laws of the Commonwealth or States of Australia in all matters.

- Address all issues encountered by First Nations (Originals) in Australia subjects to provide a real collective political voice to determine any ..future involvement in any shape or form.

Therefore First Nations Political Party will endeavour to advance its:

- Vision in Redressing the Exclusion, Intrusion, and Displacement, Intervention of our Cultural, Sovereignty and Land.

- Mission to participate in all levels of government to ensure the voice of First Nations Original peoples are represented for the benefit of
..Sovereign ownership, Economic Development, Cultural, Education, Health, Social and Justice for our people.

Then as the inherited host to other visitors and settlers, the First Nations members will pardon injustices of the past, by forming a new national identity that is inclusive of other nations within Australia.

1. The sovereign rights and ownership issue is still as passionate and alive today as it was in 1770 when Cook arrived in Australia.

2. To advocate a representative political voice for the First Nations of the Northern Territory and other States of Australia, and within the Federal Government Political system known as the Westminster system.

3. To represent the First Nations and their descendents the Original Australians in both Federal and State Elections:

1. The Senate

2. The House of Representatives

3. Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory Politics

4. All of Australian States

4. To increase the First Nations political views and aspirations in all areas of;

1. Sovereignty

2. Prior ownership

3. Changing of the Australian Constitution

4. Republic

5. Seventh State of Commonwealth of Australia

6. Law and Justice

7. NT Stolen Generations Reparations/Compensation

8. Climate change

9. Immigration

10. Economics

11. Employment

12. Land; Cultural Issues; Resource; Water; Minerals and leasing

13. Social

14. Welfare

15. Education

16. Human Rights, Cultural Rights, Religious Rights, and Sexuality Rights

17. At an International level - United Nations

18. NT Stolen Generation Issues

19. RDA (Racial Discrimination Act)

20. NT Outstation Policies

Especially empowering, influencing and inspiring First Nations People as the Original inhabitants of Australia.

5. To have a Representative Participate in all Levels of Government to ensure the views and aspirations of First Nations People are involved in State/ Territory, Commonwealth and International Levels of Government.

Oh, poo - we lost!

Not only did we lose the FIFA Fútbol World Cup venue bidding war, we lost resoundingly:
2022
Round 1: Australia 1 vote, Japan 3 votes, Korea Republic 4 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 3 votes (Australia eliminated)
Round 2: Japan 2 votes, Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 10 votes and USA 5 votes (Japan eliminated)
Round 3: Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 6 votes (Korea Republic eliminated)
Round 4: Qatar 14 votes and USA 8 votes (Qatar obtained an absolute majority)
And here I was hoping that for the next decade there would've been a national meeja topic which might occasionally actually drown out Tony Abbott's carping, Mark Lahtham's whining, Paul Howe's big noting, Kristina Keneally's scolding, Chris Mitchell's posturing and John Howard's revisionism for whole days at a time.
Apparently the failed bid also cost the Aussie taxpayer about A$45.6 million and all we got for the money was this little video:

The stupid and dangerous fireworks season is underway - there ought to be a law against it!

Actually, there is, so why isn't it enforced?

Where: Yamba, NSW, 2464
When: Saturday, 4 December, 8.30pm
What: Illegal fireworks

WorkCover NSW  requires that:

The possession, use, storage and transport of display fireworks is restricted to individuals holding a:

• pyrotechnician's licence
• fireworks (single use) licence.

There are safety and security requirements for the storage of fireworks depending on the amount and type of fireworks to be stored. Licences are also required to:

• handle fireworks without supervision
• manufacture fireworks
• sell fireworks.

A licence will only be issued for a legitimate reason such as an organised public display that is open to the public. The display must be organised by a community or private organisation for a show, fete, carnival, cultural, religious or sporting event. 

Notified fireworks are displayed on WorkCover's site and can be found here.

According to U.S. Government Assange not a journalist or a whistleblower, but a biased anarchic political actor with an 'agenda'

There is an awful fascination in watching a geo-political giant set out to eliminate one individual and website from any visible presence in cyberspace.

The fascination is heightened by the fact that Julian Assange was born in Townsville, Australia and spent some of his primary school years living in the NSW Northern Rivers region at Lismore.

The latest censorship effort resulted in the whistleblower website losing its U.S. domain name according to an Associated Press report.

In what may be considered the first World Wide Web information war, www.wikileaks.org appears to only be available in Google Cache at the time of writing.

However, this is cyberspace we are talking about and Wikileaks can now be accessed at http://88.80.13.160/ and Cablegate specifically at http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html. While Wikileaks at Twitter is at http://twitter.com/wikileaks.

From the daily press briefing at the U.S. Department of State on 2 December 2010:

QUESTION: From your perspective, what is WikiLeaks? How do you define them, if it is not a media organization, then?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, as the Secretary said earlier this week, it is – one might infer it has many characteristics of some internet sites. Not every internet site you would call a media organization or a news organization. We’re focused on WikiLeaks’s behavior, and I have had personally conversations with media outlets that are reporting on this, and we have had the opportunity to express our specific concerns about intelligence sources and methods and other interests that could put real lives at risk.

Mr. Assange, in a letter to our Ambassador in the United Kingdom over the weekend, after documents had been released to news organizations, made what we thought was a halfhearted gesture to have some sort of conversation, but that was after he released the documents and after he knew that they were going to emerge publicly. So I think there’s been a very different approach. And Mr. Assange obviously has a particular political objective behind his activities, and I think that, among other things, disqualifies him as being considered a journalist.

QUESTION: What is his political objective?

QUESTION: The same letter --

MR. CROWLEY: Hmm?

QUESTION: What is his political objective?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, his – I mean he could be considered a political actor. I think he’s an anarchist, but he’s not a journalist.

QUESTION: So his objective is to sow chaos, you mean?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I mean, you all come here prepared to objectively report the activities of the United States Government. I think that Mr. Assange doesn’t meet that particular standard.

QUESTION: But just so I understand, P.J., what – I mean you just said the – that you thought he was --

MR. CROWLEY: Well, but I mean – let me – he’s not a journalist. He’s not a whistleblower. And there – he is a political actor. He has a political agenda. He is trying to undermine the international system of -- that enables us to cooperate and collaborate with other governments and to work in multilateral settings and on a bilateral basis to help solve regional and international issues.

What he’s doing is damaging to our efforts and the efforts of other governments. They are putting at risk our national interest and the interests of other governments around the world. He is not an objective observer of anything. He is an active player. He has an agenda. He’s trying to pursue that agenda, and I don’t think he can – he can’t qualify as either a journalist on the one hand or a whistleblower on the other.

QUESTION: Sorry. What is that agenda, that political agenda? Can you be more --

MR. CROWLEY: I’ll leave it for Mr. Assange to define his agenda. He has been interviewed by some of your news organizations. He has the ability to talk for himself. But you asked -- I was asked a specific question, “Do we consider him a journalist?” The answer is no.

* In an allegedly unrelated matter Interpol released this:

_____________________________________________

Sweden authorizes INTERPOL to make public Red Notice for WikiLeaks founder

---

ASSANGE Julian Paul

LYON, France - INTERPOL has made public the Red Notice, or international wanted persons alert, for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the request of Swedish authorities who want to question him in connection with a number of sexual offences.

The Red Notice for the 39-year-old Australian, which was issued to law enforcement in all 188 INTERPOL member countries on 20 November, has now been made publicly available by INTERPOL following official authorization by Sweden.

All INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs) have also been advised to ensure that their border control agencies are made aware of Assange's Red Notice status, which is a request for any country to identify or locate an individual with a view to their provisional arrest and extradition.

Many of INTERPOL's member countries however, consider a Red Notice a valid request for provisional arrest, especially if they are linked to the requesting country via a bilateral extradition treaty. In cases where arrests are made based on a Red Notice, these are made by national police officials in INTERPOL member countries.

INTERPOL cannot demand that any member country arrests the subject of a Red Notice. Any individual wanted for arrest should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

___________________________________________________

UPDATE:

Wikileaks now has a Torrent download of its 1.38GiB Cablegate file at:

http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/5723136/WikiLeaks_insurance.5723136.TPB.torrent