OMG Frank Sartor wants NSW's top job?

This week the spectre of Frank Sartor running New South Wales raised its ugly head once more.
Sartor has the hide to push his - ahem- expertise in planning law and reform as an example of why he has the right fibre for the top job.
Sartor as NSW Planning Minister was bad enough - Sartor as NSW Premier determined to create new planning policy is the stuff of nightmares.
On the NSW North Coast we still have his large development consents languishing for lack of investment money or buyer interest while the same development companies push even more grand plans under the nose of the current minister.
Francesco, you left behind an utter mess last time you held the reins.
The mind boggles at what you would do with a second bite at the apple and before we have to again endure your overbearing arrogance it might be wise if everyone on the coast permanently crosses the nearest state border!

At last we have a new epoch........

Even with our communal love of labelling things and delight in buzz words, this term appears to have been around for the last eight years but doesn't seem to have really taken off.
Perhaps because in creating a new 'age', 'period' or 'epoch' it implies that global warming is here for a long, long time and (although realistic) that is a very uncomfortable thought for many.

Robert Cahalan, climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center speaking to Science Daily in May 2008:

"Over recent decades, however, we have moved into a human-dominated climate that some have termed the Anthropocene. The major change in Earth's climate is now really dominated by human activity, which has never happened before."

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica online:

Anthropocene Epoch
geologic time unofficial interval of geologic time characterized by the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere resulting from the onset of organized human industrial activity. Although the modern period of Earth's history is conventionally defined as residing within the Holocene Epoch (11,800 years ago to the present), some scientists have argued that the Holocene terminated in the relatively recent past. They contend that Earth currently resides in a climatic interval during which humans have exerted a dominant influence over climate. The onset of the Anthropocene Epoch, so-named by Dutch chemist Paul Crutzen, is said to be coincident with the creation of the steam engine by Scottish inventor James Watt in 1784.

Stephen Conroy needs to remember that half-truths are as bad as outright lies

The Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Central Propaganda , Senator Stephen Conroy, has reached the stage where he will say almost anything to shepherd his mandatory national ISP-level Internet censorship into being.

It is hardly believable that he imagines that any sensible person believes that the Rudd Government will spend over $44 million dollars on such a limited filtering scheme (as set out in media quotes below) and the possible re-implementation of a government free filtering software offer.

Given the number of half truths Senator Conroy has already uttered concerning his Internet filtering plan, I would not trust him not to be secretly relying on regulatory provisions to widen his net, once legislation was passed, and implement the wider form of censorship many legitimately fear.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald on 2 June 2009:

Results of the trials are due to be published in July but, in response to a freedom of information request, the Government has admitted that "there are not success criteria as such"...............
The ACMA blacklist of prohibited URLs, which forms the basis of the Government's censorship policy, contained 977 web addresses as at April 30, according to ACMA.
The Government initially planned to censor the entire blacklist but, after widespread complaints that the list included a slew of legal R18+ and X18+ sites, the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, backtracked, saying he would only block the "refused classification" (RC) portion of the blacklist.
According to ACMA, 51 per cent of the blacklist, or 499 URLs, is RC content.
Based on the Government's budgeting of $44.5 million to implement the filtering scheme, this means the policy will cost $90,000 per URL.

Smart Company reports:

Conroy's office also confirmed that "unwanted content" - which the Government previously said it would block under the scheme - will now be blocked on a voluntary basis by internet service providers. The "unwanted content" refers to some material that is rated R18+ or X18+.
"ISPs can offer to filter additional content if they choose to, as an optional service for families," the spokesperson said.
"The Government is also considering optional ISP content filtering products for those families who wish to have such a service."
The decision comes after Conroy said last week in a Senate estimates hearing that the list of sites to be blocked may be submitted to an independent body for regular review, a decision welcomed by the ISP industry.
Conroy's office also confirmed that "unwanted content" - which the Government previously said it would block under the scheme - will now be blocked on a voluntary basis by internet service providers. The "unwanted content" refers to some material that is rated R18+ or X18+.
"ISPs can offer to filter additional content if they choose to, as an optional service for families," the spokesperson said.
"The Government is also considering optional ISP content filtering products for those families who wish to have such a service."
The decision comes after Conroy said last week in a Senate estimates hearing that the list of sites to be blocked may be submitted to an independent body for regular review, a decision welcomed by the ISP industry.

Some of Conroy's misleading statements entered into Hansard about his original plan:

1. On 10 November I released an expression of interest, seeking the participation of ISPs and mobile telephone operators in this live pilot. The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA black list of prohibited internet content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content.

2. The list could contain 10,000 potentials. When you look around the world at Interpol, the FBI, Europol and other law enforcement agencies and you look at the size of the lists that they are actually using at the moment, 1,300 would not be sufficient to cover the URLs that we would have supplied to us with the purpose of blocking. So let me be clear about this: the pilot will seek to test network performance against a test list of approximately 10,000 sites.

Stop it or they'll go blind!

Now I've heard everything! The Rudd Government is reducing the Medicare rebate for cataract surgery from $831.60 to $409.60, according to the Minister for Aging and Member for Richmond Justine Elliott.

There are already quite a few worrying out-of-pocket expenses associated with eye surgery for those pensioners without savings or investments (as well as waiting lists which can still see a older person wait up to a year for publicly-funded eye surgery) and now the federal government is about to put such surgery almost out of reach for people living below the poverty line.

Right now if you have the money up front or private health insurance a cataract operation can usually be performed within 6 to 8 weeks on the NSW North Coast (by the same specialists and hospitals which make the poor wait and wait for exactly the same medical procedure), so the health system is already biased against those poor sods with no money in the bank.

Bluddy Kevin Rudd and his merry troop have just made this unfair state of affairs even worse and their piddling little national grant for rural & regional areas will go nowhere.
This counter-productive cost cutting stupidity ranks alongside the Clayton's public dental system - obviously those in power won't be happy until pensioners and those on low incomes are blind as well as toothless!

Federal Labor and Health Minister Roxon crossing a bridge too far

The Federal Minister for Health Nicola Roxon has announced a national health data base which can be accessed by hospitals, doctors, paramedics, dentists and chemists - every Australian will be assigned an individual identifying number attached to their digital medical history.
Eventually a special hi-tech Medicare card will hold an access chip/key.

Access to this data base will only allegedly be allowed with the freely-given permission of the person seeking medical treatment, dental work or a dispensed prescription.

I use the word allegedly because the voluntary nature of this data base access plan will not last more than a day or two after legislation is effected.

Public hospitals and medical practices will in short order insist that a person cannot be seen unless permission is given to access digital medical records and, as the Minister has little or no control over state area health service policy practices she will be rendered impotent.

Indeed Ms. Roxon statements to the media this week indicate that she will enable any bar an individual may have in place to be overriden at will by hospitals and ambulance services.

This scheme is in effect information acquisition and dissemination by stealth, as Ms. Roxon would be well aware that she is unable to contain the genie the Rudd Government is determined to let out of the bottle.
In fact her statement about the voluntary nature of this new health information scheme is almost a bare-faced lie.

So many Labor election promises made in the lead-up to the November 2007 election has either been inadequately legislated, so poorly funded that they are only window dressing, resulted in both new and amended policies either running on the spot or being studious delayed - now it seeks to implement a policy before the next federal election which will eventually see every medical Tom, Dick and Harry trawling though personal health information.

What is it with Labor? Don't they want a second term in federal government? Is it trying to alienate its 2007 support base because the Opposition benches are beginning to look nostalgically oh, so comfortable?

eHealth? eDisaster.

Amnesty International Media Award 2009 winners deserve a mention

2009 Amnesty Media Award Winners

GABY RADO MEMORIAL AWARD
Aleem Maqbool, BBC News

INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION & RADIO
World's Untold Stories: The Forgotten People, CNN, Dan Rivers and Mary Rogers

NATIONS & REGIONS
The Fight for Justice, The Herald Magazine by Lucy Adams

NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS
MI5 and the Torture Chambers of Pakistan, The Guardian by Ian Cobain

NEW MEDIA
Kenya: The Cry of Blood - Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances, Wikileaks, Julian Assange

PERIODICALS - CONSUMER MAGAZINES
The 'No Place for Children' campaign, New Statesman, Sir Al Aynsley Green, and Gillian Slovo

PERIODICALS - NEWSPAPER SUPPLEMENTS
Why do the Italians Hate Us? The Observer Magazine, Dan McDougall and Robin Hammond

PHOTOJOURNALISM
No One Much Cares, Newsweek, Eugene Richards

RADIO
Forgotten: The Central African Republic, BBC Radio 4 - Today Programme, Edward Main, Ceri Thomas, Mike Thomson

TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY & DOCUDRAMA
Dispatches: Saving Africa's Witch Children, Channel 4 / Red Rebel Films / Southern Star Factual, Mags Gavan, Joost Van der Valk, Alice Keens-Soper, Paul Woolwich

TELEVISION NEWS
Kiwanja Massacre: Congo, Channel 4 News / ITN, Ben De Pear, Jonathan Miller, Stuart Webb and Robert Chamwami

SPECIAL AWARD
This year's Special Award for Journalism Under Threat was awarded to Eynulla Fәtullayev, from Azerbaijan. Find out more.

Media Watch gets half an explanation from The Northern Star

ABC.NET.AU

Last week Media Watch highlighted "churnalism" in regional media and pointed to an article published in Lismore's The Northern Star on 25th May 2009.
In its right of reply The Northern Star pleaded newness to the position of the Sunday Chief of Staff as the main cause of the no~no of publishing - a supplied press release passed off as reporting.
Now this CoS may be 'new' to his current position, but he has been a Northern Star journalist at least since 2006 (before that editor of the Rivertown Times since about 2003) and definitely would have known the paper's basic editorial policy.
I doubt whether Media Watch would have gone as softly on the newspaper if it had known that it was discussing "churnalism" approved by a seasoned journalist and editor and not by an implied young, wet-behind-the-ears CoS.

Anyone who tuned in, turned on and drop'd out in the Sixties would smile at this one

From Wikileaks:

June 1, 2009
Summary

States that are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are required to confidentially provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with a description of the location and purpose of each of their nuclear sites.

The document presents a sensitive 5 May, 2009 draft of all US nuclear sites for Congressional review together with a covering note from President Barack Obama giving more detail on the restrictions.

It seems that by mistake, the entire document, including the sensitive portions--labeled as such on every page--was printed by the US Government Printing Office.

A day after its publication here, and on Secrecy News[1], the GPO removed the document from its website, according a story published in the New York Times[2] two days later.

The document is likely to be of substantial interest to environmental activists.

Graphic from Google Images

3 Rivers Aboriginal Art Space to open in Lismore on 19 June 2009

Mapping Beirrinba by Frances Belle Parker

ANR Indigenous Arts Development Officer

According to Arts Northern Rivers eNews:

The long awaited Indigenous art centre has arrived in the form of the ‘3 Rivers Aboriginal Art Space’. Located at 125 Magellan Street Lismore the centre will be used for workshops, meetings, forums, exhibitions as well as an artist studio space.Bookings are now invited from artists who wish to use the space as a studio. To make a booking contact Frances on (02) 6628 8120 or 0414 847 288 or email mailto:frances@artsnorthernrivers.com.au

Parilamentary English: nasty, nerd and bitch.....

On Tuesday 2nd June 2009 Bernard Keane writing in Crikey said: "The Coalition's discipline, which held more or less solid for the eleven years of the Howard Government, has never really recovered from the election defeat. Malcolm Turnbull was busy running his own under Brendan Nelson. Since Turnbull's ascension, Peter Costello has felt no apparent compunction to do anything to help his leader or his party. Wilson Tuckey and Bronwyn Bishop insist on behaving like senile old relatives. And the Nationals, with Barnaby Joyce elevated from maverick to Senate leader, are not so much off the reservation as permanently on the warpath, and don't much care if its Liberals or the Government they're fighting."
Everyone it seems is noticing.
Yet despite the entire country looking on askance at Coalition disintegration, the Leader of Opposition Business withdrawing comments made in the House of Reps during Question Time on the same day attempted to get on the record the interjections "Nasty, nerd and bitch".
How much longer do we have to endure these childish behaviour and puerile name-calling?

So predictable that only Steve didn't see it coming......

Speaking from Washington, Senator Fielding said that asking the White House to explain why it is convinced global warming is linked to greenhouse emissions was part of "picking up the fight for the underdog".

He earlier attended a climate sceptics' conference run by free-market think tank the Heartland Institute — part of a trip to "hear both sides".

Senator Fielding said he found that Dr Aldy and other Obama Administration officials were not interested in discussing the legitimacy of climate science. [The Age,6 June 2009]

A little light beginning to illuminate the scene yet, Senator Fielding? That's right - thinking people know that the junk science is not coming from IPCC.

Of course Obama's aides might also have seen this:
















Fielding's bottle imitation from ABC News online

UPDATE 8.06.09:
On ABC News Radio this morning an excerpt from AM was played in which Steve Fielding stated he wants the solar flare theory investigated before the Rudd Government's national carbon emissions trading scheme comes up for a Senate vote.
Senator Fielding also calls for an open debate on the science. If he was serious about this call he would have published on his own website those Heartland Institute conference graphs he keeps citing as evidence for legitimate doubt concerning climate change cause and effect.

Why we need a fact checker during President Obama's speeches

Politicians make so many speeches that it is hard not to make a verbal slip or two, like substituting the word privacy for piracy.
However Barack Obama goes beyond the usual tongue-twist and now it's wise to double-check his supposed facts.
It seems that the US President really needs his aides to be a little more vigilant whenever that unknown someone pens the first draft of his speeches.
Sometimes these silly mistakes ruin what could almost be inspirational moments.

FactCheck highlights these bloopers:

1.
* He said "we import more oil today than ever before." That's untrue. Imports peaked in 2005 and are substantially lower today.
* He claimed his mortgage aid plan would help "responsible" buyers but not those who borrowed beyond their means. But even prominent defenders of the program including Fed Chairman Bernanke and FDIC chief Bair concede foolish borrowers will be aided, too.
* He said the high cost of health care "causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds." That's at least double the true figure.
* He flubbed two facts about American history. The U.S. did not invent the automobile, and the transcontinental railroad was not completed until years after the Civil War, not during it.
* He claimed that his stimulus plan "prevented the layoffs" of 57 police officers in Minneapolis. In fact, it's far more complicated than that, and other factors are also helping to save police jobs.

2.
* President Barack Obama claimed that the U.S. is "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world" in terms of population. That strains the facts mightily. The U.S. Muslim population probably doesn't even rank in the top 50.

3.
* President Obama said, that "[m]ore than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States?" Government statistics don't actually support that claim.

4.
* President Barack Obama made one factual error in his first speech in office when he said, immediately after being sworn in: Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. It is true that Obama is counted as the 44th president, but he's only the 43rd person to take the oath. Grover Cleveland is counted

While Voter Fact Check cites:

1.
* Did Obama incorrectly say his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz?

Yes. Obama's great-uncle helped liberate Ohrdruf, which was a subcamp of Buchenwald, not Auschwitz....

Turnbull couldn't take a trick until......

On 1st June the Leader of the Opposition was twittering negatives about the Australian economy under the Rudd Government:
TurnbullMalcolm in case you have not seen it - our new TV ad http://tinyurl.com/nyklya

The very next day his doom and gloom ad campaign hit a hurdle:
"The trend estimate of the balance on current account for the March quarter 2009 was a deficit of $3,676m in current price terms. This was a decrease of $2,691m (42%) on the deficit recorded for the December quarter 2008 where:
* the goods and services surplus rose $2,091m (52%) to $6,112m
* the income deficit fell $634m (6%) to $9,602m
* the current transfers deficit rose $34m (22%) to $186m.
In seasonally adjusted current price terms, the current account deficit fell $1,743m (27%) to $4,614m between the December quarter 2008 and March quarter 2009 where:
* the goods and services surplus rose $900m (22%) to $5,075m
* the income deficit fell $862m (8%) to $9,498m
* the current transfers deficit rose $18m (10%) to $190m."

Then matters darkened even further for Malcolm with the announcement of GDP quarterly growth and publication of "Debt for Development Makes Sense say 21 Prominent Australian Economists", which removed the last of the air from his little campaign.
Every time poor Mal thought he'd found a silver bullet to fire at his political opponents, along came economic reality.

However the gods must have listened to his desperate prayers, for up popped Fitzgibbon and Ute Man.
Ah, saved to fight another day! Even if nobody gives a toss - when you've shot your credibility wad you've shot your wad period.

The rest of Australian Bureau of Statistics 2nd June 2009 analysis and comments here.

Chapman uses Chaser blunder to hit back at Media Watch

Image from The Daily Examiner

In this clumsy attempt to hit back at ABC TV Media Watch (for this item and probably this earlier item) under the guise of commenting on The Chaser's War on Everything's lapse in good taste, I particularly enjoyed Peter Chapman's silly jibes about ABC employees:

where many journalists go to retire

they prance around with an air of superiority and arrogance watching the clock tick from 9am to 5pm

They live in a world of their own where they believe their snobbish upperclass views are indeed the only views that have any merit

While his dig at ABC radio news coverage on the NSW North Coast begs the question as to why The Daily Examiner editor, who is notorious locally for his advertorials and product placement in supposed news articles, dares to point to journalistic failings in others.

One almost feels like echoing the comment of his young daughter; Zip it, Dad. [The Daily Examiner,"Slants on Life",6 June 2009]

Though comments on the ABC Media Watch website go further:

Bred and born in the Clarence :
18 Apr 2009 2:36:13pm
I've lost count of the number of people I have spoken to who no longer buy the Daily Examiner due to its degrading gutter journalism. Reports continually try to divide our wonderful coastal community on a variety of issues.
Perhaps the community should call for a "vote of no confidence".

clarence valley gal :
15 Apr 2009 9:44:15pm
Thank you for drawing attention to the pathetic attitude of the editor of the local paper [ Daily Examiner]. We have to suffer through his boorish comments on a regular basis.

Jen :
14 Apr 2009 6:53:26am
Well done Media Watch. This newspaper editor writes rubbish on a regular basis and it's good to see him called on this. Unfortunately he also writes articles with serious bias and disses local towns such as Yamba and South Grafton. The former apparently on the grounds that all its shops were not open on New Year's Day for the benefit of his relatives. In addition - one of his very early stories on the Clarence Valley almost lost it the services of Rex Airlines.

National interactive map of GM-free farms, businesses and councils - register now

Gene Ethics has developed an Australian interactive map which shows those farms, retailers, restaurants, caterers, seed suppliers and local government councils which are proudly GM-free.

The map also shows GM farms and receival depots.

To get your NSW North Coast GM-free business on this register, Download this form and email it back to Gene Ethics.

Congratulations to Truefood Trading at Diggers Camp for being the first North Coast business to register.

First Dog on the Moon asks the ultimate Internet question

Cartoon from Crikey on 2nd June 2009

It's an exciting time for black politics in Australia. The genie is out of the bottle and her name is Marion Scrymgour**

Picture: National Indigenous Times

Marion rocks!

Scrymgour quits and throws Henderson government into chaos

**Post title is taken from the final paragraph of a 5 June 2009 Crikey article by National Indigenous Times editor Chris Graham.

Noel Hart and the radiance of birds

Blue Eared Lorikeet 2009

Byron Bay artist Noel Hart with the assistance of glass blowers, Johnathon Westacott & Greg Royer, along with cold worker Earl Sullivan, has created blown glass art inspired by the vibrancy and colour of parrots.

This artist's work is featured on his own website and at Retrospective Galleries Jonson Street, Byron Bay NSW.

Media has fun with the Federal Opposition

Tongue-in-cheek media headlines the Federal Opposition has generated recently:

PARLIAMENT FARCE: Joe runs with scissors - LiveNews

Snippy Hockey props up Question Time - ABC Online

Turnbull 'disappointed' over press gallery stoush - The Age

Why didn't we hear about 'grateful dead' under the coalition? - Crikey

Turnbull gets big bickies with his morning tea - Brisbane Times

Turnbull coyness is a bit rich - The Daily Telegraph

Want to be a millionaire? - Townsville Bulletin

Plaque blowback - Crikey

One very solemn one:

Widow slams Opposition over cash comments - The Age

And a piece of pure mischief:

Turnbull denies plan to quit politics - WA Today

What gripe does the Daily Examiner have with PNG?

After Wednesday night's State of Origin the Examiner's editor, Peter Chapman, called for all NRL video referees "to be taken to the docks for a one way trip to Papua New Guinea".

Many people will agree with Chapman that the video referee in Wednesday night's NRL State of Origin went way too far when deciding 'No Try' after Blue's Jarryd Haynes had flirted with the touch line.

However, sending all the video refs to PNG is stretching things a bit too far. What on earth have PNGers done that caused Chapman to decide they should have to host the refs?

Chapman admitted that he "bunkered down at home for the match complete with freshly-ordered pizza and a cold drink by (his) side".

Perhaps, Chapman had one cold drink too many. Then again, perhaps the pizza was off.

Political incompetence in the Senate: surely it is no coincidence............

Heartland Institute scale of fees

The Senate seats of Bill Heffernan, Barnaby Joyce, Stephen Conroy and Steve Fielding all expire on 30 June 2011.

Surely this is heaven's way of giving Australia the chance of a brief respite from over-the-top political incompetence.

Senator Fielding in particular is excelling himself on the subject of global warming as first this statement showed:

We've all bought this idea that man is the problem with carbon emission and therefore man has to change what they do with carbon emissions. That's where we're at the moment. But there are some questions now being asked: is man the problem? And if not, then what are we doing?

And then this exchange revealed on ABC TV Lateline on 4 June 2009 after the senator had attended a Heartland Institute conference:

STEVE FIELDING: ......And I'll be coming back to Australia to sit down with the - Senator Wong and the Rudd Government to share with them and to just to see what their thoughts are and what I've heard from here. Now, what they did say yesterday, the scientists - and, look, I'm not saying that they're right, but they've actually put a very big question about the link between carbon emissions and global warming. Now, what they put forward yesterday was that in fact over the last 10 years, carbon emissions have gone up, but and global - or the temperatures, global temperatures have not gone up. Now, that obviously ...

TONY JONES: Well, I mean, yes, that is their claim, that since 1998, when there was a peak in temperatures, it hasn't gone up. But you'd be aware of the other evidence on that, wouldn't you, I dare say? That Britain's Hadley Centre, ...

STEVE FIELDING: Yes.

TONY JONES: ... which is one of the most respected organisations involved in measuring global temperature has data for global mean temperatures that says 1998 was the hottest year on record; 2005 the second hottest year on record; the third hottest, 2003; the fourth, 2002; the fifth hottest, 2004 and the sixth hottest, 2006. They're saying they're the hottest temperatures ever measured since temperatures were first taken in 1880.

STEVE FIELDING: And so that puts a question on it. But, Tony, you know, you've got to actually look at the facts and figures, which you've put forward a case. I'll need to (inaudible) just to make sure that what I heard yesterday, what are the arguments against it. You've put them forward, but I need to check today with the Obama administration, and I may even check with the Bradley area as well and just to make sure because this is too big an issue to get wrong. And what's worst, if we make the wrong decision, what's worse than that is if we make the right decision too late. And so the issue is that if you look at the graphs, if you look at the temperatures over the last 10 years, yes, they've gone up and down, but they've actually, if you look at the average, it stayed reasonably level, and CO2 emission over that time have gone up drastically. So, the whole idea about that there's a direct link between CO2 ...

If we make the wrong decision, what's worse than that is if we make the right decision too late - no Senator, the wrong decision or the right decision too late are equally disastrous for Australia and I rather suspect from the aforementioned exchange that you have entered the essentially 'anti-science' la-la land inhabited by Heartland members and backers.

What is worse, Senator Fielding, is that the right-wing free market advocate Heartland Institute (partly funded by coal, oil, nuclear energy companies and a water privatisation and big tobacco apologist) obviously targeted you as a gullible fool long before it extended its invitation.

This is what the Heartland Institute says about its relationship with donors and the targets it picks:

The Heartland Institute has discovered a way to get the attention of busy elected officials. We package research and commentary on public policy issues as news, in the form of monthly public policy newspapers.

As a courtesy to donors, we share with them advance copies of the studies they helped fund, and we often solicit their advice on what audiences to target during promotional campaigns.

Steve Fielding could have saved himself those overseas travel costs by either: a) allowing his mouse to do the walking on the Internet and so easily acquire the type of information he is allegedly seeking; b) requesting the Parliamentary Library provide him with research; c) arranging to meet with the CSIRO which might objectively give him an insight into global warming science; or d) visiting communities on the NSW North Coast where coastal erosion and seawater inundation is not a maybe but a very real occurrence for some families.

Saffin highlights problems with Maclean Hospital senior management staff cuts

On 3 June 2009 the Labor Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, stood in up the House of Representatives and spoke on behalf of the people of the Lower Clarence:

While Maclean District Hospital sits just outside my electorate of Page in Cowper, thousands of my constituents in the Lower Clarence rely on it. Many constituents hold real fears about the future of their hospital, particularly if the EO/DON is transferred to Grafton Base Hospital 45 kilometres away to become the DON for both Clarence Valley hospitals. Ordinarily such a centralisation proposal, obtained by the Daily Examiner newspaper, might make sense. However, coming at the same time as the North Coast Area Health Service is deleting a total of 400 positions from Tweed Heads to Port Macquarie for budgetary reasons, my constituents see this hospital management restructure as a body blow to their smaller hospital. The ladies of the Maclean Lower Clarence Hospital Auxiliary have written to me saying they cannot see how one director of nursing can be expected to provide fair management to two hospitals. Neither can I. They say:

This could well be a precursor to our hospital being downgraded even further and therefore jeopardising the level of service provided to our community, which continues to grow steadily, thus putting more pressure on the hospital and its staff.

While I understand the need for belt tightening in the context of responding to the global recession, I share the community concerns that the target of 400 positions will put too much pressure on front line health workers and potentially affect the quality and viability of hospital services. As a starting point, I am asking that the existing management arrangements for Maclean and Grafton hospitals remain in place and unchanged. I note in today's Northern Star, the newspaper at the other end of my electorate, that the editorial heading is 'Health system needs injection of sense'. I agree.

On a positive note I report that two of my major election commitments from 2007—redevelopment of Grafton Base Hospital's operating theatres and emergency department and the fast-tracking of Lismore Base Hospital's radiotherapy unit—are progressing well. At the end of budget week I returned to Grafton to see the North Coast Area Health Service Lodge a DA for three new operating theatres with the Clarence Valley Council. This was a milestone event for everyone who supports the hospital, particularly its Medical Staff Council Chair, Dr Allan Tyson; Grafton Community Health Committee Chair, Shirley Adams; Area Health Service Advisory Council member, Sandra Woods; and Clarence Valley Mayor, Councillor Richie Williamson. The council is expected to approve the planning application within weeks. The main building works tender will be let in September 2009. Construction is due to be completed in December 2010.

In this year's budget there was an announcement from Minister Roxon that the government would invest in a $560 million network of state-of-the-art regional cancer centres with associated accommodation centres. I am encouraging the Lismore district's medical fraternity and other community leaders to work with me to secure one of up to 10 such centres, enhancing the one that we have under development. We could have our PET scanner and accommodation service.

If you have not yet signed the petition to the NSW Minister for Health asking for reconsideration of these senior staff cuts, contact Jim Agnew on (02) 6646.1685 after 5pm each day for current locations of this petition.

You little ripper, Janelle!

According to The Far North Coaster the Labor Member for Page, Janelle Saffin has secured inclusion of horticultural wind damage losses in the Commonwealth-State flood assistance grants available to those affected by May 2009 NSW North Coast storms and flooding.
Again, Janelle shows she is worth the confidence voters showed in November 2007.

Turnbull admits he also threatened Packer

In a marvellous coincidence this piece in The Age surfaced on a day (when many are wondering about Coalition economic policy) Malcolm Turnbull was probably hoping for a change of subject; Packer made kill threat: Turnbull

"Kerry was, um; Kerry got a bit out of control at that time. He told me he'd kill me, yeah. I didn't think he was completely serious, but I didn't think he was entirely joking either. Look, he could be pretty scary.
"He did threaten to kill me. And I said to him: 'Well, you'd better make sure that your assassin gets me first because if he misses, you better know I won't miss you.' He could be a complete pig, you know. He could charm the birds out of the tree, but he could be a brute."

Notice anything? Why yes, Turnbull also verbally threatened the life of Kerry Packer.

A little further into the article Turnbull is quoted as saying; "I never make threats I don't carry out."

So who is the federal politician with the nastiest temper? Hmmmmm.............

A bit of cheek from North Coast Nationals Luke Hartsuyker concerning local flooding

Nationals Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker has been making a bit of noise about people in the Coffs Harbour area affected by flooding in March 2009 not receiving a one-off Disaster Recovery payment.

He states; "We all know Kevin Rudd's a Queenslander but we expect him to be even-handed when it comes to helping people in wake of a disaster.The message he's sending is clear - it's one law for Queenslander flood victims and one law for everyone else."

Leaving aside that Hartsuyker did little about trying to secure this payment at the time, there are many who think that he is being more than a little hypocritical in now offering to table a petition in Parliament on behalf of these residents.

As one Northern Rivers identity remarked to me earlier this week:
He is being a bit cheeky. In 2001 when the cyclone hit Innisfail the Howard Government scooped out the money to help victims but when flooding hit the Clarence, causing comparative damage, it offered nothing.
Nothing like double standards. **

Apparently the Member for Cowper (first elected November 2001) is not above cynically using waterlogged electors to try and score a political point now he's on the Opposition benches.
In government his party frankly didn't give a d*mn.

** Clarence Valley residents well remember when they were hit by a flood, a cyclonic-strength east coast low and another flood - all within the space of weeks in the first quarter of 2001.

Naturally talented photographers of Coffs Harbour

Images from nature by members of the Coffs Ex-Services Camera Club

More delightful photographs can be found on the camera club's website.

One of its members won Overall Top Image in the Interclub Photo Competition at the 33rd annual Northern Zone Photographic Convention last weekend.

Congratulations Margherita Standing.

Is Barnaby Joyce Bill Heffernan's 'love child'?

Listening to the Nationals Barnaby Joyce is a real treat these days.
With Bill Heffernan apparently depressed into near-silence by the Coalition's trouncing at the last federal election, there hasn't been a designated clown regularly performing on parliament's doorstep for over a year.
The new Joycean stream of consciousness turning up in Hansard and the media fits the bill nicely.

"It's like a madman giving you free beers at a pub - you'll drink them but you won't respect him."
"We have had the claim that Malcolm Turnbull is crab-walking on this. I can tell you that Mr Rudd makes Mr Turnbull look like Rudolph Nureyev."
"Don’t worry about your workers in the Illawarra and your workers in the Hunter Valley. No, don’t worry about them. You put on your Giorgio Armani suit and go and do the light fandango at a coffee shop near wherever you live,.."
"The guy's a psycho chook,'' ....."Who in their right mind gets onto a plane and because he doesn't get the right colour birdseed has a spack attack?''
It's an employment termination scheme.......it's an employment termination scheme. {repeat endlessly if you like the sound as much as Barnaby obviously does}
"You are going to have a piece of policy that comes direct from the manic monkey cafe of inner-suburbia nirvana-ville straight to you,"
"Don’t leave me out; I want to be in."

Leave you out? Never, Barnie!

The Australian Economy May 2009: Rudd grins, Turnbull glowers

Graphic: Thomson Reuters

This graph has to be the Liberal Party of Australia's worst nightmare. Not only does it allow the Rudd Government to successfully defend its economic policy to date, it also signals the likelihood of increasingly rebellious displays by its Coalition partner.

The Australian economy may not be out of danger yet, however it is far from the train wreck under Labor predicted by Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop and Joe Hockey.

Monsanto can Twitter but it can't hide

Not long back I added MonsantoCo to my Twitter list.
It has been fascinating to watch the parallel universe in which its public relations employees live.

Equally fascinating is that this urge to tweet appears to follow on from its earlier advertising campaign which was apparently based around the concept of 'sustainability'.

One has to suspect that the campaign in print and radio was not the success Monsanto hoped for, hence the back-up.

Of course Monsanto & Co is not alone in pushing the GMO cause - its clones are out there doing their bit as well.

The Mid America Croplife Association apparently wrote to Michelle Obama trying to head that new White House vegetable garden off at the pass and, Croplife Australia is still plugging way.

Needless to say SourceWatch cites BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow Agrosciences, DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta as key funders for the Croplife group.

Such is Monsanto's chutzpah that through Croplife International (of which it is a member) the company attempted to hijack the U.N. sponsored International Day for Biological Diversity this month which had as its theme Invasive Alien Species.

Invasive alien species are plants, animals, pathogens and other organisms that are non-native to an ecosystem, and which may cause economic or environmental harm or adversely affect human health. In particular, they impact adversely upon biodiversity, including decline or elimination of native species - through competition, predation, or transmission of pathogens - and the disruption of local ecosystems and ecosystem functions.

If you believed Croplife, the international day was actually all about the pesticides/herbicides, genetically modified seed etc., supplied by its member companies.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Over at A Clarence Valley Protest the water wars continue....

Clarence River Gorge from Gilmore at Flickr

Former Clarence Valley shire councillor Terry Flanagan is one of those calling former National MP for Page Ian Causley to account in Clarence Valley pours scorn on Nationals has-been over past water policy.

Planning Minister Keneally please note that Clarence Valley's mayor has accidentally highlighted one of the many reasons West Yamba development is a dumb idea

Channel 10 State Focus on Sunday 31st May ran a telephone interview with Clarence Valley Mayor Cr. Richie Williamson in which he admitted that 6,500 people in Yamba were cut-off by flooding for almost seven days.

This is the same shire councillor who voted to send down to the NSW Minister for Planning a draft plan to put another 2,000 to 2,500 people in Yamba on flood-prone land.

Only one councillor, Margaret McKenna, held out against the well-heeled North Coast and Queensland developers driving this flawed development agenda.
The rest of Council only seeing floating visions of additional rate revenue and disregarding risk to life and property.

The question many in the Clarence Valley are asking; "Is Kristina Keneally also in the pocket of developers?"

Picture of Endeavour Street, Yamba in May 2009 from ABC North Coast.

Those media moguls ain't getting my readies!

Last week the Australian public broadcaster ABC via its online website told us that a couple of dozen media execs met in a Chicago hotel to "discuss ways newspapers can protect their internet content and in some cases, charge web surfers to read it".

Previously both ABC News online and free-to-air television had informed us that Rupert Murdoch had plans to make his online media a pay-for-view affair.

So why would I pay for (as an example) News Corp's The Australian 26-line puff piece on the technology Rupert wants us to buy so he can charge for online 'news'?

Ah yes, because Rupert wants me to! {falls about laughing hysterically}

Look who's a big user of the OpenAustralia website...

OpenAustralia did a bit of digging into its user profile and came up with a surprisingly large number of government PCs using its website.


It looks as though OpenAustralia is easier to use than Hansard records as it comes with the added feature of email alerts.
Perhaps MPs whose staffers use this website might consider whether a donation or two would be in order to keep this handy site going.

Truth in advertising missing from Turnbull's debt and deficit advertisement

Liberal Party advertisment May-June 2009

This week I saw a news clip on the teev showing Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull spruiking the former Howard Government's financial record and bagging the Rudd Government's level of public debt.
There was even a snippet from a coming Liberal Party advert on the subject.
"18 months ago we had no debt and cash at the bank."
And there's the rub - Mal was so foolish as to say that the Howard Government went out on zero debt.
How stupid does he think the average punter is?
Does he really think no-one was watching the growing current account deficit, outstanding Treasury bonds, level of government borrowing and interest payments before November 2007?
For heaven's sake - in 2006 total public sector gross foreign debt was 9.1% of GDP, in 2007 it was 7.7% of GDP and a big chunk of that was general government & Reserve Bank borrowing.
As for total gross national public debt.
Well, let's look at that graph again.







A history of public debt in Australia

See a 2006 0r 2007 zero there anyone?
The fact that Turnbull appears to be bragging about a lack of net public debt by 2006-2007 doesn't mean that there is absolutely no Commonwealth debt.
It simply means that government liabilities (mostly in the form of debt) were matched with financial assets which it could if needed sell-off to meet outstanding debt and interest obligations.
However, I suspect that with Costello as Treasurer these net figures became a trifle rubbery over time. Commonwealth unfunded superannuation liabilities and net claims were an ongoing problem in the final Costello budget.
As a millionaire ex-merchant banker, Turnbull can't pretend that he doesn't know that the Libs are trying to pull the wool over voter's eyes and he can't walk away from the fact that he is telling a political whopper in that first advert of a blatant disinformation campaign.
Who could honestly feel comfortable with the thought of this man's hands on the national helm?

"Over my dead body" - a reminder of the Northern Rivers water wars

The Daily Examiner letter to the editor posted at A Clarence Valley Protest on 28 May 2009:

It is on again.

Floods in the Clarence and droughts in the Murray bring out the ratbags.

On my walking and paddling trip down the Darling in 2007 I encountered a host of people, nearly everyone in fact, who wanted the Clarence River diverted inland.

In 2008 we had a Fellow of Engineers Australia advocating the same. Now in 2009 we have the Citizens Electoral Council issuing a press release about the desirability of the scheme and radio programs picking up on it.

We diverted the Snowy River inland destroying much of it, created severe salinity issues, took the sustainable dairying industries from the Northern Rivers to irrigated land in the
Murray basin, created huge wealth for some and drove many Victorians to suicide when the grand ideas fell over.

After 5,000 kilometres of dragging and paddling a kayak, with decades of engineering experience in the water industry, I have been humbled. I came to realise that a river is much more than we were taught at university. The link between ground water and surface water is inextricable. The effect of taking any water out of a river can be profound.

But people don't seem to get it. They think that we can carry on with even more arrogance. Look at what has been destroyed already by our attitude and still we do not learn.

There is one thing the people of the Darling understood. "You can divert the Clarence over my dead body," l told them.

They didn't like it but they understood.

There are plenty of us who will fight for the river but be warned, the issue will never die. We just have to be ready - always.

STEVE POSSELT

Grafton resident 1952-1969
Author of Cry Me a River

One of the lesser known international celebrations listed on a government website

From the South Australian Government Women's Information Service:

International Whores Day Invitation Friday 5th June

International Whores Day celebrates the birth of the sex worker rights movement in 1976 Lyons, France. In 2009, more than 30 years on, South Australian sex workers are still fighting against discrimination, criminalisation and victimisation. This year please join sex workers, other sex industry employees, health and welfare workers, supporters, friends and families, to show your support for sex workers in South Australia as we continue to fight for our human rights.

The Scarlet Alliance has details of events in SA, NSW, Vic and the ACT

Want to know which 'real' pollies are tweeting across Australia?

Want to know if the tweets you're reading are coming from fair dinkum pollies or their evil twins?
Go to ozpollietweeters (which also helpfully lists the fakes) or tweetMP*

Want a dirty weekend next weekend?

Then get down and get dirty at the Australian Singles Marbles Championships next weekend in Brunswick Heads.

The Championships are part of the Brunswick Heads 9th Old and Gold Festival.

Players are advised that "Brunwick Heads" Rules will apply, with the Championships being played “FOR FAIR”, so all marbles will be returned to their owners.

Other significant rules include:

* Glass Marbles are to be no bigger than 3/4” (three-quarters of an inch). Agates & Steelies are banned.

* The order of shooting will be determined by “lagging”. Closest shoot or toss to designated line.

* Players can either shoot with their “TAW”(their shooting marble) off the ground or knuckled down outside or on the edge of the ring.

* Fudging is a foul shoot & next player takes turn.

* Shooters are not permitted to step/walk inside the ring.

REFEREE & TOURNAMENT ORGANISER’S DECISIONS ARE FINAL.

Click here for more information about the Old and Gold Festival.