There always was a suspicion that Senator Fielding would eventually spin out into the troppo-sphere

Watching the nightly news this week and observing Senator Steve Fielding attempt to buttonhole Al Gore and then quickly pop up in front of a television camera, it was easy to see that this particular senator no longer had his feet planted firmly on the ground.

So it was hardly a surprise to find his website now featured this graph:

I'm sure people are becoming quite tired of pointing out to Steve Fielding that his use of surface temperature over so short a period is bound to be a trifle misleading.

Looking at near-surface temperatures over a longer period it is obvious that although global temperature may drop over a relatively short period there has been a pronounced rising trend for over a century and a half:

U.K. Met Office/Hadley Centre

It is hard to feel sympathy for Steve Fielding's alleged dilemma, when faced with data for May 2009:

U.K. Met Office/Hadley Centre

Perhaps this lone representative of the Family First Party (who only made it into parliament on the back of preference votes) needs to re-read a simple 2007 fact sheet from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Favourite tabloid headline of the week

From the U.K. Guardian on 14 July 2009 and worth a read:

Is Goldman Sachs a blood-sucking vampire squid?

Now who were Australian Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's former business partners again?

Turnbull's unfortunate turn of phrase

This is vintage Malcolm Turnbull.
Nursing home resident Joan Ashcroft, 79, got the jump on the trailing media with a blunt question to the alternative prime minister. "Are we going to live long enough for you to get back into government?" she asked. The answer, was "assuredly, yes". "You only have to live long enough for the next election," Mr Turnbull replied.
Does that mean we oldies are worth nothing to Malcolm after the election?
Still laughing at how unconsciously offensive that man can be.

Upriver Bill
Northern Rivers

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.
Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Tony Abbott touts his book

If anything was needed to convince that the Liberals' Tony Abbott talking up a return to fault-based divorce on the statute books was a cynical effort to puff up the recent publication of his book Battle Lines, this is it:

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop said she was willing to talk about Mr Abbott's proposal if he wanted it to become the party line.
"What Tony's doing is putting forward, I gather, his personal views on a particular matter and we'll debate them if he wants them to become part of our policy," Ms Bishop told ABC Television on Sunday.
Mr Abbott had not brought the suggestion to the party room and there would be a "healthy and robust debate" if he did, she said.

Translation - this Federal Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs is not serious and wouldn't be taken seriously if he did push for a return to the bad old days.

If you want to hear more of Tony's outrageous book touting, he will be the guest speaker giving the National Press Club Address on 30 July 2009.

By then he should have garnered a few advance sales from those hopefully few Neolithic males still hiding out in our midst.

Queensland made a clean sweep of 2009 State of Origin ... well, that's what The Daily Telegraph told its readers

Queensland 28, NSW 16!
What game did Steve Jancetic watch?
No, Steve, NSW 28 defeated Queensland 16.

The image above was captured a few minutes after the game finished.

Steve, get yourself one of those T-shirts that carries the slogan

"Is that true or
did you read it in
The Daily Telegraph?"

Image credit: The Daily Telegraph

All's well with the world as the rich keep getting richer

Sometimes it is hard to fathom how inequitable the global distribution of wealth is, particularly as the current economic crisis is affecting the relatively little advanced economies give to the hungry, ill and dying across the world from Africa and Asia through to the Americas.
Ordinary people who more often than not live on less than two dollars a day.

Or why the UN Millennium Project does not appear to be meeting its goals.

But never fear, the world is righting itself and greed is once again triumphing as a Goldman Sachs recent media release attests.

Yesterday the Goldman Sachs Group reported that total assets were worth $890 billion, total capital as of end June 2009 was $254.05 billion, with net revenues of $13.76 billion and net earnings of 3.4 billion for the second quarter of 2009.

Compensation and benefits (including salaries, severance expenses, bonuses, payroll tax etc.,) for the same period were $6.65 billion.

On 17 June it even repaid the $10 billion is borrowed from the U.S. Government and taxpayers in that over-the-top bankers feeding frenzy at the beginning of the global economic crisis.

Goldman Sachs Group media release, 14 July 2009

New York Times article, 12 July 2009

Photo: Google Images

Jules loves Mr. Squiggle & Mr. Squiggle loves Jules

Well done, Jules!

Images from The Daily Examiner

Big Ben's birthday reminds me that almost every event has an anniversary

On the weekend both radio and television were constantly reminding me that Big Ben (that very large clock in London) was 150 years old on 11 June 2009 (or 12 June if you were across the odd dateline) because it first struck time on that day.

Which had me thinking of what else happened in the ninth year of past centuries.

Here's my potted selection, with apologies to The Book of Key Facts (1978):

8009 Harun al-Rashid dies but the Book of a Thousand and One Nights gives him a good review
9009 The King of Wessex kicks Northumbrian Danish butt
1009 Persian poet Firdausi is almost finished his epic and is possibly running an early spell check to make sure history is suitably impressed with his efforts
1109 Lois of France and Henry of England diss each other and go to war
1209 Cambridge University is founded with an advanced undergraduate degree in punting
1309 The papacy moves from Rome to Avignon and a whole lot of religious angst is goin' on
1409 Teh English recapture Harlech Castle from those dastardly Welsh rebels
1509 Spain establishes the city of San Sebastian in Columbia as part of a bloody colonisation of South America
1609 Galileo Galili improves his telescope
1709 Afghan state wins independence from Persia and continues down history's page until she is owned by the Coalition of the Willing
1809 Napoleon divorces his Josephine but remains silent about his hemorrhoids
1909 Bakelite is born thereby making a whole collectors' genre for 21st century Australians
2009 Malcolm Bligh Turnbull 'discovers' an email and loses his 'judgment'

Want to shop locally for GM-free food?

So you want to shop for GM-free food? Well, good luck, because there is still no reliable product labelling in place across Australia.

The next best thing is to access the True Food Guide which at least broadly points concerned consumers in the right direction.

The guide now lists alcohol products.

Download updated 16-page True Food Guide here.

If you are blessed with a comfortable income, then Santos Wholefoods of Byron Bay and Mullumbimby offers an online GM-free, organic and natural produce shopping service.

Coastal erosion, land slips, seawater innundation, storm surges which may occur due to climate change - not covered by residential property insurance

Graphic at Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Evidence given by Karl Sullivan of the Insurance Council of Australia to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Climate change and environmental impacts on coastal communities in June 2009 confirms that coastal residents are on their own when in comes to property damage from coastal erosion, land slippage, sea water inundation and storm surges and, in the future insurance premiums may be higher or insurance unavailable if there are no or insufficient climate change impact mitigation measures built into coastal residential properties.

This position has been well-known for some years now and yet the NSW Government and local councils continue to give rezoning, concept and development consents for urban growth in vulnerable coastal areas.

It is past time that all tiers of government stopped merely talking about climate change impacts and passed legislation which severely limits coastal development within at least a half kilometre of the coast.

Inquiry transcript for 4 June 2009

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

An Easter Bunny musing:

It was a bit of a shock to the Easter Bunny when on Easter Sunday the ABC TV Landline program ran not one but three stories on rabbits - involving killing by poisoning, trapping, blowing up burrows and preparing for the pot.

Who won't be getting a chocolate egg next year?

A New Puppy musing:

Finally those Obama girls are getting that dog. A 6 month-old Portugese Water Dog that they are thinking of naming Frank or Moose.

An escapee musing:

Yakini is a 9 year-old gorilla living at Melbourne Zoo.

In early April 2009 he managed to take an unsheduled stroll around the pathways of this zoo before being lured towards waiting zoo keepers by a bunch of bananas. Next stop Africa if this young gorilla can resist the fruit in future!

A Very Happy Ending musing:

A big welcome home to four year-old Aussie blue heeler cattle dog Sophie Tucker who has been found and reunited with her owners after being swept overboard from the family yacht and surviving for 2 months on a tropical North Queensland island. Story and video here.

Dewey Readmore Books musing:

Clarrie Rivers sent me this link leading into a loving tribute to a ginger library cat called Dewey Readmore Books, who was found in the books return shute one morning and lived for 18 years at Spencer Public Library in the USA. Dewey's bio.

Iz ded wiv shames musing:

In the middle of the night Clarencegirl saw me running away from a big, fat cane toad which hopped into the living room.

At first I tried to pretend that I didn't see the warty monster, but then in jumped on me. Eeeewwww!

I was brave enough though to watch my hero put that toadie in the freezer for a painless death.

A quiet victory over adversity.....

From Biddle and Taylor's 2009 working paper Indigenous Population Projections, 2006–31: Planning For Growth:

Between 2006 and 2031 the Indigenous population is projected to grow from just over 517,000 to almost 848,000 (Fig. 3). This growth is reasonably steady over the period and it represents an annualised rate of 2.00 per cent. By way of comparison, between 2001 and 2006, the Indigenous population was estimated to have grown from 458,500 at an implied annual growth rate of 2.43 per cent (ABS 2008a). Clearly, the model projects a decline in the rate of growth. Over the same period to 2031, the non-Indigenous population is projected to increase from around 20,179,000 to around 25,621,000. This represents a lower growth rate compared to the Indigenous population, resulting in an increase in the Indigenous share of total population from 2.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent (Fig. 3). An interesting point to note from Fig. 3 is that a continuation of the growth trend shown would result in one million Indigenous Australians by 2040.

Nudists want undercover female police officer to flush out perverts

Today's Northern Star reports that a nudist beach near Byron Bay has become a haunt for perverts and weirdos, and locals want to see it cleaned up. ..........

Women say they no longer feel safe to walk there alone because of the atmosphere and the unwanted advances they receive from men.

Less than two weeks ago a woman had to call police after a man began to follow her and act suspiciously.

“It used to be a family-friendly nude beach, but in the last few years it's got a real seedy element,” Tyagarah resident Cyd Saunders said.

The mother of two regularly takes her children, two and five, to the beach but said it was becoming impossible to relax..........

Mitra Ardron said he would like to see more enforcement from police and rangers to 'catch people in the act'.

“If they sent a female officer down there undercover that would fish them in straight away,” he said.

“And you don't have to catch many for the word to get around.”

Inspector Owen King, of Byron Bay police, said officers from Mullumbimby and Brunswick regularly patrolled the beach and with greater frequency in the summer months.

He said the recent complaint from the woman at Tyagarah Beach had been followed up immediately, but police were unable to locate anyone on the beach that matched the description given.

Inspector King encouraged anyone who witnessed offensive behaviour to report it to police.

Cyd Saunders agrees.

“The community needs to make more of an effort to report (offensive behaviour) to police and to be proactive in telling these people to move on. I am not against nudity on the beach. I just want to feel safe,” she said.

Source: The Northern Star

North Coast Voices Administration: Apologies for changes made to this post after publication. Unfortunately the original Northern Star article contains words which are often blocked by filtering software.

And the winner is - Stephen Conroy!

Surfing the Net earlier today and thought North Coast Voices might be interested in this.

Among the British ISPA Awards 2009 winners was:

Internet Villian: Stephen Conroy and the Australian Government

The Internet Villain category recognises individuals or organisations that have upset the Internet industry and hampered its development - those who the industry loves to hate.

Maudie's Ex
Yamba

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Nationals desperate to erode Saffin's Northern Rivers electoral base?

Out of federal government and obviously hurting, the National Party of Australia is rumoured to be making a concerted effort to undermine Labor's sitting Federal MP for Page, Janelle Saffin.

To that end the Nationals have suggested to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) that it undertake a little tidying up of the current boundaries between Page and Cowper which is currently held by Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker.

It is no accident that the town it wants to tidy up into Cowper is Yamba, which co-incidentally strongly supported Saffin at the 2007 election and predominately voted Labor consistently over the last few state and federal elections.

The exchange the Nationals are suggesting to compensate for Yamba's removal is to include in the Page electorate a couple of areas with what are believed to have traditional Nationals profiles.

The Nationals seem to believe that Luke Hartsuyker would easily win over Yamba hearts and minds if Yamba voters were to find themselves in his electorate at the next federal election and, that Janelle Saffin would find it difficult to maintain her seat in light of such a voter loss.

It is interesting to note that the Liberal Party submission proposes no changes to the electoral boundaries of Cowper, Page and Richmond. This flies directly in the face of the Nationals wish list for the NSW North Coast.

Unsurprisingly the Labor Party's counter move, to the Nationals attempt to place more Nationals-leaning areas in Page, is to lobby for Maclean to be removed from Cowper and placed in the Page electorate.

National Party of Australia submission to the AEC, May 2009
Liberal Party of Australia submission to the AEC, May 2009
Australian Labor Party submission to the AEC, undated
Full list of submissions on proposed 2009 federal electoral boundaries redistribution
Comments on submissions

Woke up with a vacant sensation between your journalistic ears? Then publish a viral email!

Click image to enlarge

The editor of that APN newspaper The Daily Examiner of Grafton in the Clarence Valley was obviously having a lazy day when he decided that those paying top price for the Saturday issue should be treated to the re-publication of one version of a hoary old copyright article from last century, which has become over time one of those ever-adapting viral emails which clog our PC inboxes from time to time.

At the time of writing this it had last turned up on a blog on 18 June 2009 in what appears to be the version Peter Chapman used.

Unfortunately a hard copy newspaper doesn't have a handy delete button, so a prolonged groan rang out across the valley from the many who had already read the supposed London Times obit in various forms over the years.

Common sense may not actually be dead but there is certainly a dearth of it at The Egg Timer these days.

2009 NAIDOC Awards

Awards encompassing Elders, youth, art, education and training, and sport were announced at the National NAIDOC Ball in Brisbane on Friday night.

Professor Larissa Behrendt (above, left) was named 2009 Person of the Year while Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue (above, right) received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The other award winners were:

* Doris Eaton of Perth and Elsie Heiss of Sydney - Female Elders.

* Frank Lampard from Adelaide and Reginald Knox of Brisbane - Male Elders.

* Chelsea Bond (below, left) of Brisbane - Scholar of the Year.

* Gemma Benn (below, right) of Darwin - Youth of the Year.

* Danny Sebasio of Thursday Island - Apprentice of the Year.

* Andrew McLeod of the AFL Adelaide Crows - Sportsperson of the Year.

* Wayne Quilliam of Melbourne - Artist of the Year .

Image credits:
http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/cie/community/Alumni/alumni.html
http://www.crcah.org.au/educationandtraining/chelsea_bond.html
http://www.koorimail.com/
http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/generations-torn-apart-by-indifference/2007/02/16/1171405447732.html

A warning sign for the Rudd Government?

Choice online poll status 11 July 2009

Choice the consumer advocacy group is running a poll on the question; Do you think the government is doing enough to drive competition in the grocery sector?

With straightened economics time still ahead of us all, it might be wise for the Rudd Government to take heed of community sentiment.

The now defunct GroceryChoices as set up by government may have been doomed to disappoint the consumer, but that doesn't mean that the big supermarket chains should be able to continue dominating market/pricing policy in the same manner as they have in the past.

If Choice goes forward with its reported 'war' on Coles and Woolworths, I suspect that it will quickly garner more sustained support than these corporate giants and, a wise politician would be looking now to effect a compromise that would allow an non-industry based price comparison website to go ahead with some government funding involved.

Save the Children says no to Rudd Government's Internet censorship plan

Cute Kittehs from The Hughes Family

Save the Children (Australia) celebrates its 90th anniversary this year and has joined the National Children's and Youth Law Centre, Civil Liberties Australia, Australian Library and Information Association, Dr Alex Byrne FALIA, UTS University Librarian, GetUp!, Liberty Victoria, National Association for the Visual Arts, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and the QLD Council for Civil Liberties in opposing the Rudd-Conroy scheme to impose a national mandatory ISP-level Internet filtering scheme which will censor Australian access to the Internet.

Joint Statement on Internet Censorship
We oppose the Government’s plan to censor the internet through mandatory ISP-level internet filtering technology.
While we wholly support measures that effectively prevent the distribution of material refused classification under laws that properly respect free speech, this proposed filter does not meet that aim.
The proposed filter fails to meet the test of an effective child protection measure that respects the rights of children. Mandatory internet filtering curtails our human rights without offering any effective protection for children.
The proposed scheme will also block a range of material that it is perfectly legal to view both online and offline. It will be shrouded in secrecy: there will be no effective oversight of the secret blacklist of banned material. The content to be blocked is currently sites that are ‘refused classification’; it could easily and covertly be expanded to include any material that a Federal Government wishes to suppress.
Any limits on the rights and freedoms of Australians must be accompanied by rigorous transparency and scrutiny; this proposed system does not allow for either.
The filter will be easily circumvented by those with even a basic understanding of information technology or the content providers. It will also miss the vast majority of unwanted content, normally shared using email or file-sharing networks – not through web traffic.
We argue that the tens of millions of dollars that such a scheme will cost should instead be diverted to appropriate child protection authorities and police to prevent the abuse of children, and towards effective community-based education strategies that give children and parents the skills to protect themselves.
Further, PC-level filtering software should be promoted to and provided to parents that wish to protect their children from inappropriate internet content.
No other Western democracy has mandatory ISP-level internet filtering. Australians should not have to sacrifice their freedoms to make Australia a world-leader in ineffective Internet censorship.

Save the Children opposes internet filter

ICANN says Web filters will "embarrass" Aussie Govt

Final departures

Letter writers in The Oz have put THAT event held in the U. S. of A. this week in perspective.

The phony cacophony

I THOUGHT the world had gone mad but was reassured when I read so many letters (Most Talked About, 10/7) questioning the ridiculous adulation of Michael Jackson and the phony cacophony heard in much of the media. Graham Pascoe’s letter was interesting; I thought I knew just about everything about Bing Crosby, until I read how quietly he departed this world. It was a similar situation with his buddy Bob Hope. No fanfare, just resting in hospital at the end, in the presence of his wife Dolores. A comic to the end, his reply to his wife’s question “Where would you like to be buried?” was a simple, “Surprise me”.

Frank Bellet
Petrie, Qld

Okay, so you'd like to know what Graham Pascoe had to say in his letter. Read it below.

THE Hollywood-style hoopla surrounding Michael Jackson’s memorial service contrasts with another Hollywood funeral almost 32 years ago. Great as he was, Jackson’s accomplishments are dwarfed by Bing Crosby, who had the most number one pop music hits ever (38), was the number one movie box-office attraction five years in a row (1944-48) and in the top 10 a total of 15 times and was a major US radio star from 1931 to 1954.

Believing a man had a right to “die in privacy”, Crosby was buried at 6am (when the blue of the night meets the gold of the day) on October 18, 1977. Only his immediate family and closest friends were allowed to be present. Crosby revolutionised popular music in the 1930s but is now largely forgotten. Will Jackson’s achievements suffer the same fate?

Graham Pascoe
Bathurst, NSW

Source: The Australian

It's Enrol To Vote Week across Australia from 27 July - 2 August 2009

From Australian Electoral Commission media release on 30 June 2009:

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is encouraging more secondary schools to register for national Enrol to Vote Week to be held from 27 July to 2 August this year.

Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said over 1550 secondary schools and colleges across Australia had already registered to participate in Enrol to Vote Week and there was still time for other schools to get involved.

"Enrol to Vote Week involves the AEC working in partnership with Australian secondary schools to encourage 17- and 18-year-old students to enrol to vote."

Mr Killesteyn said Enrol to Vote Week last year received strong support from over 1700 participating schools, with over 20,000 enrolment forms collected as part of the initiative.

"Currently one in five 18 to 24-year-olds is not enrolled to vote, increasing to around one in two 18-year-olds not enrolled. In addition, many 17-year-olds are not aware that they can enrol now so they are able to vote as soon as they turn 18," he said.

"This year the focus of Enrol to Vote Week is to encourage and assist 17-year-olds to enrol so they are automatically able to vote as soon as they turn 18. Our message is that enrolling to vote is not something you have to wait until you're 18 to do."

Mr Killesteyn said AEC officers would be available for in-school visits during Enrol to Vote Week and would support students in completing their enrolment forms at school.

Schools can register to participate in Enrol to Vote Week 2009 by visiting www.enroltovoteweek.aec.gov.au or by calling 13 23 26 and selecting the Enrol to Vote Week option.

The website has more information about the initiative, as well as a search feature to enable anyone to see which schools in their local community are participating.

Website: http://www.enroltovoteweek.aec.gov.au/
Hotline: 13 23 26 (select the Enrol to Vote Week option)

For all those who grew up in 1950s Australia and.......

.......had a little difficulty reconciling Beatrix Potter's cute anthropomorphized English rabbits with the annual rabbit drive down on the grandparent's farm.

The distance of years rekindles the enchantment.

LOL from I Can Has Cheezburger

Clarence Valley Council's 'man in the kilt' retiring

Happy retirement, Bob!

The Maclean office of the Clarence Valley Council just won't be the same after today. Its happy meet-and-greet face, aka Bob Nicoll, is taking his leave from that place today.

Bob is well known for his work attire - in fact he is very readily identified because he dons a kilt. Well, Maclean does claim to be Australia's Scottish town!

Bob's attention to local ratepayers and other visitors to the council's Maclean office has been A-1 and he'll be sorely missed.

Well done, Bob!

Read a piece about Bob in The Daily Examiner here.
Images from The Daily Examiner.

Lower Clarence Art & Crafts Spectacular

The Lower Clarence Art & Crafts Association presents its
44th open competitive original arts and crafts exhibition.

Art & Craft Spectacular 2009

at the Maclean High School
9am- 4pm, 17-19 July 2009
Refreshments available
Admission $3.00
Children under 16 - no charge

For further information, contact LCACA on (02) 6645 3700 or

http://www.ferryparkgallery.org.au/

Indigenous peoples and climate change

From the Australian Human Rights Commission Native Title Report 2008 - Chapter 5 Indigenous peoples and climate change:

Indigenous peoples have a 'special interest' in climate change issues, not only because through their physical and spiritual relationships with land, water and associated ecosystems, they are particularly vulnerable to climate change; but also because they have a specialised ecological and traditional knowledge relevant to finding the 'best fit' solutions.

How many local government shire and city councils across New South Wales have made serious approaches to traditional owners and the organisations who manage their land holdings?

Tells us what you think invites News Limited. Oh, the temptation!

A rather obscure website called the News Limited Reader Panel came to my attention this week.

Make a difference....Have your say and help shape the future of your newspaper is the invitation on offer.

After News Ltd Ceo John Hartigan's recent foray into newspaper phantasy land, the temptation is almost irresistible!

By Email: support@readerpanel.com.au

By Phone: 1300 736 100

In a galaxy far, far way..........

Sometimes when meandering down the digital highway one comes across the trace of a Google search by another intrepid traveller.

Last week I stumbled upon one lonely soul in Chevy Chase (Washington DC) who in the wee small hours of the morning appeared to be idling wondering if Australian Senator Eric Abetz was a nastie type.

As Senator Abetz was a postwar baby who arrived in Australia at a very young age he can hardly be blamed for the actions of Nazi Germany. So perhaps his demeanor when travelling overseas is so similar to his bullying behaviour during Senate inquiries that it gives rise to this sort of speculation?

Something from the "What were they thinking?" file

Last Wednesday I was emailed this copy of a Queensland Government advertisement concerning state-wide electricity rebates which was published on page 8 in The Daily Examiner that day.

Now this newspaper has a catchment which is some hundreds of kilometres south of the NSW-QLD border and a daily circulation of around 17,000 copies.

So what on earth was the Queensland Government doing spending good money to advertise so far from its intended target population and with so little effect?

Plucky little Bundanoon and the Rees Government to ban bottled water from the premises

At last New South Wales is getting serious about the amount of one-off use, energy intensive, disposable containers for bottled water which are ending up in landfill or too frequently litttering our waterways and streets.

Much of this commerically packaged water is drawn from springs and aquifers already under pressure due to the gradual drying of the southern half of the Australian continent over the last decade.

According to a Radio Australia report it takes two litres of water to manufacture one litre of bottled water.

The small town of Bundanoon in the NSW Southern Highlands and now the NSW State Government are set to ban bottled water, the former from all town shops, cafes etc. and the later from government departments and offices.

Well done, Bundanoon - you are a real trail blazer.

Turnbull's recycled debt truck shows a lack of imagination

A recycled debt truck for heaven's sake!
It's hard to believe that Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is so desperate at the moment that he would revisit 1995-96 and risk aligning himself with the unpopular ghost of former Australian PM John Howard in this way.

This revamped debt truck is likely to breakdown long before in reaches the Hume Highway.

Turnbull continued to put his foot in it when on his blog on 7 June 2009 he posted the Launch of the Debt Truck and sent the same out on Twitter.

In that particular post he stated Mr Rudd is fond of doing media stunts while wearing hard hats.

This gem is on the very same blog page which shows him wearing a hard hat during his recent visit to West Australia.


Definitely a pot calling the kettle black.
Who looks foolish now?

Local doctor shows a surprising level of intolerance - wonder how full his waiting room is this week?

Lengthy waiting times to see specialists practicing on the NSW North Coast and longer waiting lists for surgery are apparently not the fault of an ailing public health system, it's really the patient who is to blame.

Here are a few quotes from the owner of Iluka's Wellness Centre in How to avoid the long hospital queue:

"Diseases like diabetes, bowel cancer, heart disease and the affects of smoking are illness that are often brought on because people made bad choices,"....

"People are entitled to eat junk food and smoke cigarettes, and sit on their backside and not exercise but if you want really good health I believe you've got to make some contribution yourself.

"And because this is such a lovely place to live we've got a huge influx of people coming here, and the queues to see specialists are getting bigger and bigger.".....

"The other thing important since I graduated is life expectancy. It has probably increased 20 years," ....

"So those people who aren't attending to health issues now aren't going to have a very pleasant last 20 years."....

"If you can afford to smoke and eat sausage rolls and fish and chips, then you can afford private health insurance."

To be fair The Daily Examiner also reports:

Dr Richards said the medical industry in the 20th century promoted dealing with the symptoms instead of preventing the illness in the first place.

He said this was convenient for doctors who were more concerned with 'paying off their mortgages'.

Still, it irks somewhat to find that this Iluka gentleman appears to believe that all would be well with the health system if there were either less people using it or more people paying to use it.

As to his claims about the affordability of health insurance - single aged pensioners in Iluka (with no other assets) who rent their homes for around the current average weekly cost and who get maximum rent assistance will still only have about $142 to $162 left each week to provide themselves with groceries, clothing, footwear, travel, medicines, et cetera even if they manage to keep their utility and telephone accounts at or below the low government subsidy.

Providing themselves with rather basic health insurance is likely to reduce that weekly amount in the pocket by another $15 to $30 per week and would likely see such pensioners have to do without a range of healthy foods or adequate clothing.

It was with some amusment that I noted the absense of alcohol consumption from the doctor's list of unwise lifestyle choices. But then quite a few in his profession are known to like a quiet drink or two.....

Image from Wikimedia

Marohasy's out of a job and hawking her pottery collection

According to Jennifer Marohasy's blog on 6 July 2009:

My second three-year contract with the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) ended with the financial year and is not being renewed.........

I had great hopes for the planned collaboration between the IPA and University of Queensland on evidence-based environmentalism but the University proved too timid and conservative - at least for me........

I have also left the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF) Executive....

I am going to have to find a new job, or perhaps start a small business (If anyone is interested in antique Asian pottery I have a collection for sale.)........

I will be kind and refrain from further comment.

Oops! Where did that soldier come from? Another reminder that News Ltd is not quite the bastion of journalistic integrity it likes to proclaim it is.

In the wake of News Ltd CEO John Hartigan's attack on blogs and praise of newspapers, a number of bloggers have pointed out that newspapers from this stable are not renown for factual reporting of late if one remembers the Steve Lewis-sanctioned 'scoop' report on that government email (quickly proven to be faked) and publication of those equally fake revealing photographs of a certain political candidate.

Here is another little gem to add to the list. The Herald-Sun getting rapped over the knuckles by the Australian Press Council for doctoring a photograph - Adjudication No. 1420 (May 2009).

Trickle down effect more an ideological leap of faith than an economic reality

Core Economics has posted a link to a recent paper on inequality and growth; Do Rising Top Incomes Lift All Boats?

This thoughtful research eventually leads to conclusions that the poor intuitively know well - that any claims that economic growth which benefits the haves will always flow though to a similar benefit for the have nots is not supported by available data.

There appears to be some trickle-down effect in the long run, but since the impact of a change in inequality on economic growth is quite small, it is difficult to be sure from our estimates whether the bottom 90 per cent will really be better off or not.

Core Economics continues to prove that it is a blog well worth visiting.

Watching the watchers

The week began with Kevin Rudd being reported as lobbying for an Australian sainthood (such a mind numbingly stupid misstep that it deserves no further comment) and a media beat-up on the new head of Britain's MI5 being outed by his wife on Facebook (conveniently ignoring the fact that Sir John Sawers image opposite is all over the world wide web due to his previous high profile government positions).

Which had me musing on what other smiling spooks might be found out there in hyperspace. A quick search revealed the following.

Leon E. Panetta, CIA Director 2009 [Google Images]

David Irvine, Director-General of ASIO 2009 [Google Images]

In the private sphere watchers such as the Global Edge Group Pty Ltd / National Open Source Intelligence Centre, which was outed by The Age sometime back as one of the contractors used by various Australian government departments and agencies to gather information on activist groups, websites and blogs, are a little more circumspect.

No hard information on the current doings of the Global Edge Group is out there apart from the fact that some NOSIC staff spent time attending an SMX Presentation held by Synergy Limited in Sydney and, participated in strategic discussions with regards to penetration of high-security markets in Australia and overseas.

Wildlife SOS: Helium balloons - when the party's over

The use of helium balloons has become common at festive occasions and promotional events. The balloons are colourful, fun and carry messages. Unfortunately, these balloons that rise so gracefully into the sky come back down as litter. What is very scary is where these balloons come down, and the problems they pose for wildlife.

Large numbers of balloons are being found on our local beaches on a regular basis. The balloons in this photo were collected from one beach, in just one hour. Some balloons printed with advertising logos have been found to have originated several hundred kilometres away.

Some people think that the balloons burst into tiny pieces when they rise high into the atmosphere. This is not the case. These balloons that are washing up on our beaches are not tiny pieces – some are still partially inflated. Most have their ribbons still attached. Helium balloons drift long distances with the prevailing wind. When they fall into the sea they travel on the current.

Marine wildlife feed on items that float in the sea. Sadly that can include plastic rubbish that cannot be digested. Dead turtles, shorebirds and dolphins have been found with plastic in their gut.

We need to be more aware of the rubbish that is ending up in the ocean, and take steps to prevent it. It is so very easy to prevent helium balloons littering the ocean and washing up on our beaches.

• Use balloons filled with air, not helium. Air filled balloons do not escape so readily.
• If you must use helium balloons make sure they are anchored very securely so they don't fly away.
• After you have finished with the balloons throw them in the rubbish bin.

Think of other ways to display your message.

Helium balloons may carry a death sentence for some of our native animals – and that is not a good message.

Imelda Jennings, Wildlife SOS

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Another alternative 'scientific' explanation for Senator Fielding to believe in

Image: I can haz cheezburger

Fielding unconvinced after climate change lesson

Fatal flaw in Turnbull's climate compromise

NSW Register of Lobbyists and media as lobbyists

If you are in the mood to look at a list, here is the NSW Register of Lobbyists and the accompanying NSW Government Lobbyist Code of Conduct.

If you are in the mood to have your jaw drop at how the mainstream media is beginning to morph, have a peek at this; Washington Post cancels lobbyist event amid uproar.

And then he drove me mad

There is no excuse for domestic violence and even though we all know this such violence often goes unaddressed by families and communities alike.

So it was interesting to come across the website He Drove Me Mad: our traumatic experiences shared.

This is a safe place that we hope will make you feel that you are not alone, where we can share our experience of "madness" in the aftermath of domestic violence and can heal from our experiences. A portal through which we can support one other as we navigate through the effects of trauma with shared stories, personal experience and information.

This site offers you a way to

• affirm your experiences
• involve you in conversation with people who have similar experiences
• provide a forum where you can feel listened to
• enable you to share your experience in order to help and support others
• get information and have your questions answered
• help you find support, encouragement and ideas to help you heal

The sites contains a number of forum and information sharing pages for people who have experienced domestic violence and, although a New Zealand-based site is available to Australian women.

If it's July it must be time to mention Monsanto again....

Another month has passed and the big biotech companies continue their push to dominate the basic mechanism of food production - seeds, fertiliser and chemical weed eradication/suppression.

Each month that passes highlights Monsanto & Co's abysmal safety record.

From the Idaho Business Review, June 29 2009:

Federal regulators say an Idaho mine that Monsanto uses to make Roundup weed killer has violated federal and state water quality laws almost since it opened, sending selenium and other heavy metals into the region's streams. The Environmental Protection Agency says problems at the St. Louis-based company's mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border were documented starting in April 2002, 15 months after it won Bureau of Land Management approval.
The mine recently has failed to halt metals-laden water seeping from a waste dump.
Eva DeMaria, an EPA enforcement official in Seattle, says, "The measures they have implemented aren't working.''
The disclosure comes as Monsanto Co. wants federal officials to approve a new mine in the region.
Monsanto lobbyist Trent Clark says his company has remedied some EPA concerns and continues to work to fix violations at the waste dump.

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

Celebrating NAIDOC Week in the Clarence Valley

Images from naidoc.org.au and The Daily Examiner