Without wide consultation with indigenous peoples the Turnbull Government is fast tracking amendments to the C'wealth Native Title Act 1993

Without wide consultation with indigenous peoples the Turnbull Government has tabled a retrospective bill, Native title amendment (indigenous land use agreements) bill 2017, in order to overturn Federal Court of Australia orders handed down in McGlade  v Native Title Registrar [2017] FCAFC 10 and ensure that projects such as foreign multinational Adani Mining Pty Ltd’s Galilee Basin complex comprising six open-cut & five underground coal mines and associated infrastructure can proceed.

As it now stands this bill appears to allow a weakening of the authority of Native Title holders identified and named by the Native Title Tribunal in decisions made under existing provisions in Native Title Act 1993 as well as those who may be named in future decisions.

However, this is a complex issue given the number of existing Indigenous Land Use Agreements which have been entered into across Australia and merits Parliament’s attention – though perhaps not the less than 24 hour express train ride Turnbull gave it in the Lower House.

On 16 February the bill passed the House of Representatives with a majority of 9 MPs and has been referred to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee which is expected to file a report on 17 March 2017.

So who has a bad case of egg on face when it comes to an Iluka DA - The Daily Examiner or the NSW Nationals Member for Clarence?

On 13 January 2017 The Daily Examiner contained this little nugget of information on Page 3:

State Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis agreed there were plenty of good arguments to support their case, and said he wa “absolutely supportive” of their fight [for an ambulance station].

But he said it would be an uphill battle, partly due to the village’s small size.

Iluka has a population of about 2000 but it is growing, with planning for a 162 lot subdivision just finalised.

Planning for a 162 lot subdivision just finalised?

Seems either Chris Gulaptis is spinning the situation or the newspaper took its eyes off the ball.

Planning appears to be far from finalised.

This was on Page 31 of Clarence Valley Council’s Environment, Planning & Community Committee Meeting Business Paper of 14  February 2017:

SUB2015/0034 11/12/2015 297 162 lot Residential Subdivision and new roads

Hickey Street

ILUKA NSW 2466

Additional information received and unsatisfactory.

Further information has been requested 24/1/17 (flora and fauna, stormwater, sewer, cultural heritage)

In addition, the formal staff report to council is yet to be tabled and deliberations of the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel are not yet completed.

Global Warming: the Red Herring strikes again!

One of the Clarence Valley’s arch-denialists is once more on the anti-climate science campaign trail…..

Letter to the Editor, The Daily Examiner, 10 February 2017, p.11:

Old heat

Browsing through past newspaper articles brought up this reminder of just how hot it's been in years gone by.

The 1896 February 3 edition of the Kalgoorlie Miner carried this article titled: Heat in NSW: A record of the extreme heat which has prevailed in the West during the last month has been supplied to the government by the Manager of Gundabook estate on the Darling river.

The record shows that from January 1-25 the thermometer ranged from 112deg. to 123deg. in the shade, during the first week from 118 to 124: during the second week from 118 to 128 and during the third week the thermometer once went to 129 degrees: All these readings are in Farenheit and when converted to Celcius range from 44.44deg. to 47.77deg to 50.55 deg to 51.11 deg, 53.55 deg, and 53.88 deg. the highest reading.

Now that was a heat wave that occurred without the assistance of the much maligned industrial revolution.

Fred Perring, Halfway Creek

As usual Mr. Perring doesn’t do his homework.

The Industrial Revolution began around the mid-1700s and over a century later (in the year cited by Perring) the effects of greenhouse gases on global atmosphere and ground temperature, as well as the possibility of fossil fuels being a source of carbon dioxide were already being discussed in the scientific community.

The following is a snapshot of a paper by Nobel Prize winner Svante August Arrhenius published in April 1896:

Royal Society of Chemistry, retrieved 11 February 2017

The paper in its entirety can be read here.

Oh, for heaven's sake! Australia is not being swamped by anyone

If I hear of one more idiot suggesting that Australia is being “swamped” and a Trump-style ban on “Muslim" immigration is needed or an “Australia First” policy is required along with a "Make Australia Great Again" slogan, I will scream in frustration.

On any given day it is estimated that just 2.2 per cent of the Australian population follow the Islam religion.

At the 2011 national census that percentage translated into only 475,562 people spread around the nation.

Whereas there were est. 13,150,078 professed Christians in Australia at the time, along with 4,796,432 people with no religion.

That’s over 13 million Christians to less than half a million Muslims.

Or to put it another way - there was 1 Christian for every  0.58² km of land compared to 1 Muslim for every 16.71² km.

That was over five years ago.

When the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes the 2016 Census sometime this year, I suspect that the total number of people of the Islamic faith will be less than 700,000.

People living in much of rural and regional Australia would rarely come into contact with someone of that faith so it is hard to see how the country or its culture is being swamped.

Perhaps Pauline Hanson of One Nation and Cory Bernardi of Australian Conservatives might like to explain the basis for their fearmongering.