A message for Clarence Valley Council: "one person's junk is another person's treasure"

Like plenty of other Clarence Valley Council residents I've been waiting very keenly for council to undertake its annual kerbside cleanup. This annual event enables residents (and especially those who don't have access to a suitable vehicle) to dispose of items that either won't fit into the weekly garbage bin or are viewed as still having some redeemable features ... "one person's junk is another person's treasure".

So, I was more than a bit miffed when I found out, courtesy of a piece in The Daily Examiner, that 2010's pickup would not provide for the kerbside collection of e-waste. Prior to the 2009 cleanup residents were similarly told that e-waste should not be out for the February-March collection, but should instead be recycled during Council's second E-waste collection later in the year.

Sadly, the e-waste collection in late 2009 did not eventuate.

Consequently, small and not-so-small mountains of e-waste have been accumulating at many properties across Council's coverage area since at least early 2009.

As most residents (AND Council) know, the amount of material residents put out for collection and the amount of material council workers load on council trucks are two totally different amounts. Prior to the collection days scores of amateur and not-so-amateur recyclers and reusers "assist" Council and lessen the loads that have to be transported. In fact, many residents facilitate the work of the recyclers and reusers by sorting their material so that it can be readily identified as genuine junk/rubbish, useful junk/rubbish and possibly useful junk/rubbish.

Perhaps residents will ignore Council's advice and continue to place their e-waste out for collection. After all, seeing the e-waste go to good homes prior to the arrival of council workers and vehicles on the designated cleanup days is a darn lot better than having to resort to sending it to the tip in weekly instalments via the weekly red garbage collection.

Read Council's notice re the cleanup, including specific dates for local areas, here.









Regards,
Clarrie

Godless information technology or Why the minister doesn't like Apple Mac or the humble Platypus

What on earth can one say about this from Objective Ministries except why is the poor Australian Platypus dragged into the IT conspiracy against Christianity?

Hypnotically encased iMacs trick unsuspecting computer users into accepting Darwinism .
However, these propagandists aren't just targeting the young. Take for example Apple Computers, makers of the popular Macintosh line of computers. The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism! While they currently don't advertise this fact to consumers, it is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans. Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism. They try to hide all of this under a facade of shiny, "lickable" buttons, but the truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism.
But is this really such a shock? Lets look for a moment at Apple Computers. Founded by long haired hippies, this company has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural "values"². But there are even darker undertones to this company than most are aware of. Consider the name of the company and its logo: an apple with a bite taken out of it. This is clearly a reference to the Fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with an apple³ by the serpent. It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness⁴.
This company is well known for its cult-like following. It isn't much of a stretch to say that it is a cult. Consider co-founder and leader Steve Jobs' constant exhortation through advertising (i.e. mind control) that its followers should "think different". We have to ask ourselves: "think different than whom or what?" The disturbing answer is that they want us to think different than our Christian upbringing, to reject all the values that we have been taught and to heed not the message of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Given the now obvious anti-Christian and cultish nature of Apple Computers, is it any wonder that they have decided to base their newest operating system on Darwinism? This just reaffirms the position that Darwinism is an inherently anti-Christian philosophy spread through propaganda and subliminal trickery, not a science as its brainwashed followers would have us believe.

A Satanic, unevolvable chimera compels you to submit to Darwinism!

ADDENDUM: It has been brought to my attention that the Darwin OS mentioned above now has a cartoon mascot (no doubt to influence children) named Hexley (pictured above) -- a platypus dressed as a devil who performs occult magic, i.e. hexes. They're not doing a very good job keeping their ties to the forces of darkness a secret, are they?

"Hexley DarwinOS Mascot Copyright 2000 by Jon Hooper. All Rights Reserved.''

Barnaby gets a conspiracy theory all of his very own

After deciding that climate change was a giant global conspiracy, that governments across Australia were against the humble farmer and the Rudd Government determined to bring down Armageddon on our heads, Opposition Finance Spokesperson Senator Barnaby Joyce was finally given a dastardly plot all of his very own.

"Tony told me there was a campaign directed against me and it didn't matter if I got 99 per cent of what I said right: everyone would latch on to the 1 per cent that was wrong," Senator Joyce told The Australian.

What more could an Opposition Leader do for his faithful National Party sidekick?

Marieke Hardy over at ABC's The Drum sums him up well (with tongue firmly lodged in cheek):

Barnaby Joyce is wonderful and juicy and mental, he really is. If he's not pulling magical figures from the number-sky, ("Let's call it $1,400 million! No wait, $1,400 gajillion-zillion! Let's stop throwing money to the hungry brown people and just build a giant donut named Bettina we can all turn to in times of crisis!") he's shrieking about climate change and leading some frankly startling campaigns against women who dare purchase smaller than a B-cup.

NSW North Coast a winner in 2010 WetlandCare Australia National Art and Photography Competition

Nicholas Duckworth, Grafton - Open Photography Prize

Other North Coast winners were:
Anna Jackowiak-Hoare, Bonalbo - Open Art Prize
Oliver Lifford, Teven - Children’s Art Senior Prize
Isabella Laura Jones, Ballina - merit award Children’s Art Senior Prize
Blair Trigger, Byron Bay - merit award Children’s Photography

The winning works from the WetlandCare Australia National Art Competition 2009... are now on display at the Cooee Heritage Centre in Gilgandra, central west NSW. The Heritage Centre doubles as the information centre for Gilgandra, so there are plenty of visitors passing through who will get to enjoy the artworks.
The exhibition is hosted and sponsored by the Central West Catchment Management Authority, who sponsored the Children's Art Senior Category in the 2009 competition.
The works will be on display until August 31.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the competition.

Abbott leaves himself exposed by choice of shadow ministers

It was not a good week for Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott.

Former Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull rises to his feet and takes a scalpel to the Coalition's greenwash climate change policy and, in full election mode, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey declares to anyone who would listen;"There is a very clear message to the Rudd Government from the Reserve Bank: Stop spending so much money (or) interest rates will rise" only to be knocked down by every blogger capable of reading what the Reserve Bank had really said.

Tony Abbott weathered the very public Turnbull defection and that whopper from his #1 protegee only to be faced with this:

Let me see if I'm getting this right because, you know, things move by at pace. First up, shadow treasury spokesman Joe Hockey took the obvious course when confronted by a growing perception that the conservatives were losing ground in the revered 'preferred economic manager' category of the national polls: He appeared on commercial television clutching a pink tutu and a magic wand. This was an approach clearly designed to offer a point of colourful comparison that made 'maverick' opposition finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce look a little more greyly bankerish and restrained.

Just after Shadow Minister Finance and #2 boy Barnaby Joyce, red faced and almost incoherent, came out with a real jaw dropper when he claimed that Australia was in danger of not being able to meet its sovereign debt leading to this online new excerpt:
Economists have joined the Federal Government in branding Senator Joyce's comments irresponsible, especially at a time when financial markets are jittery and overseas investors might take his comments seriously.
Credit ratings agencies that monitor sovereign risk say the Opposition finance spokesman's assessment is nonsense.Brendan Flynn, who analyses sovereign risk for Standard and Poor's, gives the Federal Government the highest triple-A credit rating.......
"With the triple-A rating, that's indicative of the extremely strong ability to meet financial obligations and therefore in our opinion, very little chance of defaulting on debt," Mr Flynn said.
"We rate all of the Australian states triple A or double A-plus, and the double A-plus is our second-highest rating - our opinion of a very strong ability to meet debt obligation."

A number of voters are not amused with this from rod3000 out in the Twitterverse; "Sir Barney Bjelke-Petersen" I like it Emmo :-) #qt and this from no_filter_Yamba; Why is it that Queensland seems to throw up politicians with serious neurological deficits? Barnaby Joyce needs to be retired pronto!

UPDATE:

Another Hockey moment to make Abbott cringe; Coalition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey called for an end to the stimulus, saying the big issue was no longer unemployment but interest rates. ''It's time for the government to explain how spending money on school halls in 2012 is going to create jobs and help address the economic downturn in 2008,'' he said.
In the same The Age article Deutsche Bank answered his question; Since mid last year almost 8000 primary schools have been building halls and computer labs and libraries with $14 billion [of stimulus funding] … It looks as if in January, with school about to return, the tradies put on more blokes. ''It has to be the stimulus. Private non-residential construction is flat, private industry isn't investing outside the mining sector.''

Peter Martin laid it out in pictures for the economic theory-challenged Shadow Treasurer:

Hard to get the Premier's attention? Well life's like that in regional New South Wales

On 5 February 2010 The Daily Examiner proudly announced:

TODAY four North Coast mayors and the region's three main newspapers start a combined campaign to get much-needed improvements to the Pacific Highway accelerated. Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson, Coffs Harbour Mayor Keith Rhoades, Richmond Valley Mayor Col Sullivan and Ballina Mayor Phil Silver yesterday sent letters to the NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell inviting them on a highway road trip between Coffs Harbour and Ballina - a road most of us travel regularly.
It is the first step in what is likely to be an ongoing campaign to get the government to rethink its highway priorities and it is a campaign that has the strong support of this newspaper, the Coffs Harbour-based Coffs Coast Advocate and the Lismore-based Northern Star.
It is rare - most likely unprecedented - that four mayors and three daily newspapers have banded together to support a single issue and illustrates the level of concern in the region about preventable highway deaths.
Late last year the NSW Government told us there were no major upgrades planned for the area between just north of Coffs Harbour and just south of Ballina for at least the next five years because it was focusing on areas with higher traffic volumes and where pre-planning work had been done.

I'm sure a resounding cheer went up at breafast tables all over the North Coast that morning.

Five days later Premier Keneally had passed the ball to one of her ministers and the editor was reporting:

THIS is a transcript of part of a conversation yesterday between a Daily Examiner journalist and a representative of the NSW Minister for State and Regional Development, Ian Macdonald.
The representative was responding to an invitation the mayors of Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Richmond Valley and Ballina sent to the Premier, Kristina Keneally, to travel the Pacific Highway between Coffs Harbour and Ballina to see its condition for themselves.
Mr Macdonald was responding on behalf of the premier.
Reporter: "And he'll do the tour?"
Spokesperson: "He'll be doing that with the mayors, wouldn't he?"
Reporter: "Yeah, they're doing a drive from Coffs to Ballina. That's the idea, to highlight the problem areas."
Spokesperson: "Coffs to Ballina, that's, what, 18km?"
Reporter: "No, it's a reasonable drive ... about two-and-a-half hours. That was the thrust of the invitation, so they (the leaders) can see for themselves how bad it is."
Spokesperson: "Oh, it's a drive."
We don't want to crucify this spokesperson; they were trying to do their best to answer our inquiries. They may have just moved from interstate with little knowledge of the region.
Certainly the minister has a better understanding of the geography of the area after being here a number of times
But the exchange helps illustrate how difficult it can be to get the message across to political leaders about what is needed on the highway.
And it also illustrates why it is so important to get ministers and the premier here first hand to see the highway's condition and not rely on the advice of staffers.
'Coffs to Ballina, that's, what, 18km?'

According to yet another article it appears that the NSW Leader of the Opposition is overseas at present - what is your excuse for staying away Ms. Keneally?

Wibbling widgets, Clarencegirl!

Sometimes the moon and stars just don't align and blogging becomes an obstacle race rather than a pleasant ride through cyberspace.

This is one of those times.

Most of North Coast Voices' regular contributors are down for the count at present due to injury or illness and, that leaves me holding the fort for the next week or so.

However, my PC has taken full advantage of this opportunity to create mischief and become highly dysfunctional - my apologies in advance for any spotty postings over the next few days.

When politicians take to writing lines.....

Snapshot from Google Trends Australia for last 12 months at 9 February 2010

Click to enlarge

Blue CPRS

Red ETS

Yellow carbon tax

Green great big new tax

The phrase "great big new tax" is being used frequently by Coalition politicians and the media but doesn't appear to be cutting through on the Internet.
Google only lists it occurring 206,000 times world-wide and Google Trends has it running a very poor last in search terms across Australia over the last twelve months.

Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott is particularly fond of the phrase, but is it his own?

How about a great big new tax, to keep Earth cool, and government absolutely swimming in cash to spread around?

The highlighted phrasing sound familiar?

No, it's not Mr. Abbott speaking in parliament, talking with the media or posting on his website (where he remains strangely coy about using those exact words).
This quote comes from a post discussing U.S.cap and trade on an anti-climate change blog in April 2009 at a time when Abbott was more concerned with participating in Pollie Pedal for charity and discussing the appropriateness of the earlier national apology to the Stolen Generation.

Seems that Tony might have borrowed the phrase.
Anyone else come across an earlier use of great big new tax?

The news just keeps getting worse for Senator Conroy

First it was the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking out against the evils of Internet censorship in January and now it seems the U.S. courts are expressing a view on censorship by government.

From Australia Uncensored in Stephen Conroy swims against the tide:

"When Government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought." (U.S. Supreme Court on 21.01.2010)

I am confused about Federal Opposition policies

I am confused about the federal opposition policies and I hope someone, anyone can clarify them for me.

Mr Abbott is talking about being tough on boat people. It is as if one day the future refugee wakes up and thinks : “I am going to put my life into the hands of people smugglers where I'll be at their tender mercy to be ripped off, crowded onto unseaworthy boats, packed into airless shipping containers and have a very high chance of dying and for this privilege my parents are going to sell close to everything they own so I can have my great adventure.”

I know what I would say to any of my kids who suggested this to me.

If parents are willing to do this it makes me think these people are fleeing a very bad situation; no-one in their right mind would do this for fun. No parent worth their salt is going to place a child in danger.

If the indigenous population had been tough on boat people back in 1788 and employed the Opposition's policy, where would we be today?

Then I hear from Mr Barnaby Joyce that he would cut the amount of overseas aid Australia provides.
This is stupid in my mind, I would much rather money was spent overseas to help those countries that have a high refugee outpouring to fix their own problems at home.
Then perhaps their populations will not have to flee their countries and travel to mine.

Federal Election 2010: only women iron

A chapeau flourish to Malcolm Farnsworth at AustralianPolitics for uploading and Possum at Pollytics for spreading around this audio example of Tony Abbott's unrepentant chauvinism, which I cheerfully dedicate to all those Northern Rivers female free spirits who never iron!

Download Patriarchal Tony here.

Free Rice: improve your vocabulary and feed the world

The World Food Programme is possibly the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger world-wide.

Free Rice is a not-for-profit website run by this organisation at which you can play a game aimed at improving your vocabulary while accruing rice grain points which will increase the amount of food being given out to hungry people.

Start putting rice in a child's bowl here.

Current private sector donors to Free Rice and the World Food Programme.

Greg Hunt's rubbery CPRS figures presented to Parliament

The Opposition's Greg Hunt spoke to the Rudd Government's third reading of the CARBON POLLUTION REDUCTION SCHEME BILL 2010 on Thursday 4 February 2010:

The ABS lists 8.7 million Australian families.

You need to multiply 8.7 million by $1,100.

Multiplying 8.7 million by $1,000 gives $8.7 billion.

You then add another $900 million, let us call it, and

that gives you $9.6 billion. We are still $2 billion short

of making up Mr Rudd's tax. We are assuming that that

component will be met off the bottom line of business,

but if business passes that through it will be more than

$1,100 per family. So remember this: it is the 8.7 million

Australian families who are the ones that have to

make up the $11½ billion. We are giving Mr Rudd the

benefit of the doubt. We are saying that they will only

have to make up $9.6 billion and that business will cop

the other $2 billion and not pass the costs through for

that, but it is likely that it will be higher than $1,100

per family.

If anyone is wondering where Mr. Hunt found his $1,100 figure:

Where do we get the $1100 figure from? It is not
just us. Whether it was the Daily Telegraph in November
on the splash front page '$1100 per family the cost
of Mr Rudd's ETS', whether it was the work of the
Brotherhood of St Lawrence...

Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott apparently pulled the same number out of the air or from a Google News search (depending on who you believe) after The Daily Telegraph article was published and specifically applied it to middle income families. A fact which Hunt studiously ignores.

If Greg Hunt goes to a newspaper for some of his figures, where did he go to get his $11.5 billion great big tax and is it a per annum number?
We know that this figure is the estimated revenue from the proposed auction of CPRS carbon permits over two years because the Senate Economics Committee told us so in April 2009 and we also know from Frontier Economics that this original estimate is expected to fall under the revised CPRS currently before Parliament, but Hunt appears to be sticking with the original and now out-of-date projections which he insists on calling a tax on families, pensioners and small business.

Of course with this $11.5 billion being spread over two years that would mean that the spurious dollar amount Hunt is implying is an annual figure would have to be cut in half - that's $550 per family each year for the first two years of the emissions trading scheme.

Hunt is also being a trifle elastic when it comes to population numbers and needs to explain why he is distributing this 'tax' across 8.7 million so-called 'families' when he perhaps should be saying 'households'.
The $1,100 reverts to a per household basis in Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham's media release, so Greg Hunt cannot plead ignorance of what his 8.7 million represents.

Perhaps he thinks telling Parliament that it's all about Australian families reads better in Hansard and, after all the suspect $1,100 he is quoting appears to actually apply to middle-income families anyway according to other members of the Liberal Party.

And the $900 million or the Brotherhood of St Laurence and KPMG?
Well Hunt never explains where he drew that $900 million figure from.
While BSL-KPMG documents don't appear to mention the $1,100 per household but placed the additional costs at:

$494 per year additional expenditure for very low income (below $500 week gross income), high energy using households; and $478.40 for low-income (below $1000 per week gross income), high energy using households.

One rather suspects that Messrs. Hunt and Abbott have carefully included in their totals those projected cost of living price rises which are independant of any emissiosn trading scheme.

Rising to one's feet in the House of Representatives and knowingly building a dollar pyramid based on shifting sand is seen by simple folk as lying to Parliament.
Something Greg Hunt should remember before he goes any further.
Tony Abbott will of course totally ignore any parliamentary rules or conventions if it suits his immediate purpose.

ACMA snaphot of the Australian Internetz

Click on images to enlarge

ACMA Communications Report 2008—09 - released 12 January 2010

Key Indicators

Nats Luke Hartsuyker gets sprung or the local butcher gets an unfair hearing?

Sometimes comic relief is all there is in Question Time and the Nationals MP for Cowper shovels in on with a predictable response from the other side.
The question voters are left with - is the butcher an honest catalyst in this exchange?
I sorta think his use of the term "great big new tax" hints at a a more thhan passing acquaintance with the Coffs Harbour Nats.

Mr HARTSUYKER (2.40 pm)—My question is to the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy. I ask this question on behalf of Mr Russell Greenwood of Russell's Prime Quality Meats of Coffs Harbour, who said today:

My electricity bill has jumped from $5,600 per quarter to $7,400 per quarter in less than 12 months. A further electricity price increase as a result of Kevin Rudd's great big new tax will cause me to shed staff and drive up the cost of meat.

Further increases in the cost of electricity will cause extreme financial difficulty for my business.

Given that Mr Greenwood will receive no compensation for his business costs under the government's emission trading scheme, how does the minister expect him to keep his business afloat in these times of rising costs?

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The SPEAKER—Order! Before giving the call to the Leader of the House, he will withdraw his remarks.

Mr Albanese—I withdraw. Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I would ask that the member table the letter from which he was quoting.

Mr Hockey interjecting—

The SPEAKER—There is no provision for that. As I have said before, the past practice of people who have occupied the chair has been to take it on trust that a member, in quoting from a document or a case where they have actually identified a person, will substantiate that by their own word.

Dr EMERSON—Some mothers do 'ave 'em! For the member for Cowper to suggest that electricity prices have gone up in the last 12 months as a consequence of the CPRS is patently absurd. I am not suggesting—

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The SPEAKER—Order! The member for Sturt will withdraw his remarks and he should dampen his enthusiasm.

Mr Pyne—I withdraw, Mr Speaker.

Mr Hartsuyker—On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I think it would assist the House if I were to repeat the question, because the minister clearly was not listening.

The SPEAKER—No. The member for Cowper has asked his question.

Mr Hartsuyker—I think it would help. Just the last paragraph?

The SPEAKER—The member for Cowper has asked his question.

Dr EMERSON—I am not suggesting that the small business man in question has claimed that electricity prices have gone up over the last year as a consequence of the CPRS, but that is what the member for Cowper said. As we know, the author of the question is the Manager of Opposition Business, because he repeated the question. We are quite happy for you to ask the question again.

Mr Hartsuyker—Mr Speaker, it is essential that I read the question again, because he is misrepresenting the question.

The SPEAKER—I do not think it is essential.

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER—Order! The member for Cowper will resume his seat. If the member for Cowper feels aggrieved by comments that the minister has made in this response, there are other forums of the House which he can use. I am not dealing with making question time a debating session.

Mr Hockey interjecting—

The SPEAKER—The member for North Sydney, who seems to be bemused or amused by my comments, knows that I have a view that has not been adopted by the House in any changes to standing orders, but it would assist if the standing orders that apply to the questions applied to the answers. They do not, and the practice of the House has been that there are different interpretations of what is allowed. The minister is in order.

Dr EMERSON—I will wind up my remarks by saying that this is the most absurd question I have ever heard in this chamber. That the member for Cowper would read out a question written by the member for Sturt, the Manager of Opposition Business in the House, asserting that increases in electricity prices over the last year have been caused by the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is absurd. It is an absurd question. The member for Cowper has embarrassed himself and he should think twice about asking stupid questions in the parliament

CPRS Bills 2010: Turnbull trumps Abbott in climate change debate (transcript)

Malcolm Turnbull speaking today in Parliament on anthropomorphic global warming and an emissions trading scheme, in direct opposition to his leader's new policy position:

The White Paper estimates the CPRS will result in a one off increase in the CPI by 1.1% – compared to the 2.8% one-off increase in the CPI caused by the introduction of the GST. Most households are compensated for this increase in costs either in whole or in part.

I should note that the largest component of increases in electricity prices in NSW over the next five years is, in fact, additional network charges to recognise the increased investment in the security and reliability of electricity infrastructure. Those increases, unlike the CPRS element, are not the subject of any compensation.

But given we have an apparent bi-partisan agreement that emissions should be reduced by 5% of 2000 levels, is an Emissions Trading Scheme, at a general level, the best policy to achieve the desired reduction in emissions?

Believing as I do, as a liberal, that market forces deliver the lowest-cost and most effective solution to economic challenges, the answer must be yes.

Because more emissions intensive industries and generators need to buy more permits than less intensive ones, lower emission activities, whether they are cleaner fuels or energy efficient buildings, are made more competitive.

A brown coal fired power station, for example, pumps out four times as much CO2 as an efficient gas fired one. But gas is expensive and clean and brown coal is cheap and dirty.

If there is no cost charged for emitting carbon there is simply no incentive to move to the cleaner fuel.

Until 1 December last year there was a bi-partisan commitment in Australia that this carbon price, this exercise in reducing emissions should be imposed by means of an emissions trading scheme.

At their core these bills are as much the work of John Howard as of Kevin Rudd. The policy I am supporting today as an Opposition backbencher is the same policy I supported as John Howard’s Environment Minister.

And why did we, in the Howard Government, believe an emissions trading scheme was the best approach?

It was because we, as Liberals, believed in the superior efficiency of the free market to set a price on carbon......

The ETS allows Australian businesses to make their own decisions as to how to reduce their emissions – Government sets the rules and in part sets the cap on total emission and then lets the market work out the most efficient and effective result.

Schemes where bureaucrats and politicians pick technologies and winners, doling out billions of taxpayers’ dollars is neither good policy is neither economically efficient and nor will it be environmentally effective.

For these reasons, Mr Speaker, I will be voting in favour of these Bills.

Rather cleverly Turnbull has released his full speech here ahead of the Hansard transcript.

Shafting Abbott in this way must have given him much pleasure, with the added advantage that he appears steadfast in his views when compared to Abbott's recent volte face.

A little aromatic? No, Tony - you said cr@p and you meant cr@p

ABC TV The Insiders Sunday 7th February 2010:

"BARRIE CASSIDY: You see the credibility problem for you is that you're a conviction politician. You call it as you see it. And yet you seem to be slightly half hearted about it. And then of course you have to live with the comment that you made, that you think climate change is crap.

TONY ABBOTT: I think what I actually said was that the so-called settled science was a little aromatic. Now you don't have to accept the totality of the science to still think that there is a reasonable argument for taking sensible precautions against possible risk and that's what we're doing."

A little aromatic? No, Tony - you said "absolute cr@p" and you meant "absolute cr@p".

Your blunt opinion was very well documented, you didn't deny the words when directly questioned in December 2009 and trying to fib now only shines a spotlight on your slippery political nature.

Now I know you have all but admitted that when you said that the science around climate change was "absolute cr@p" you were fronting what you thought was a hostile Liberal Party audience in Beaufort Victoria, but (unless you always tell people what they want to hear to save yourself a lynching) you were actually voicing your own opinion.

In fact the Pyrenees Advocate editor who attended that party function got the distinct impression that you were quite serious and reported; "In a wide ranging speech, Mr Abbott talked about climate change, the Liberal political fortunes and Kevin Rudd. Quote - the argument on climate change is absolute crap," he said."

The editor was interviewed by ABC Melbourne's Steve Martin and it's online for posterity here.

Of course this "cr@p" attitude to global warming means that you were telling the biggest of political lies when you told Kerry O'Brien on the 7.30 Report last October:

"Well, there may be one or two, but I think if the Government substantially accepts our amendments, that will make Malcolm, in effect, the co-author of this ETS. I think that would be a good position. It would be a rare ... it would be a great win for an Opposition. Let's face it, it's quite unusual for Oppositions to effectively be co-authors of major legislation, and if they were to accept our amendments, if they were to accept that their bill was, in important respects, very gravely flawed, I think that would be a good deal for the country, and obviously a political win for the Opposition."
I think we can all recognise the lie because as I write you are in the House of Reps getting ready to vote down the Rudd Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme amended bills for the second time.

Download the audio file of Pyrenees Advocate interview.

Election 2010 - What's a lamb roast?

For days Tony Abbott's been popping up all over the evening tellie talking about the cost of food and shaking his head solemnly; calling lamb the "new lobster".
I couldn't afford to eat lamb chops in 2006 under Howard or in 2009 under Rudd - so why does 'Phoney Tony' Abbott expect me to believe that he will somehow make lamb affordable to poor people post-2010 if he's made Prime Minister.
Pull the other one, Abbott - those budgie smugglers are strangling your brain!

Lucky to afford mince
Maclean

The right-wing disinformation campaign is alive and well on the NSW North Coast

The political disinformation campaign is alive and well on the NSW North Coast in The Daily Examiner letters to the editor and what passes for the party faithfull are gearing up for the next federal election campaign:

Teaching, nursing students targeted

NOT so long ago when John Howard was PM and the state of our economy was actually 'state of the art', there were some anti-government voices in the Valley highly critical of Howard and the Coalition's policy on university funding through the Hecs scheme.

Where are those voices today, now that Julia Gillard, idol of their favoured political party, is forcing teaching and nursing students to pay up to 25 per cent more to gain a degree after dumping the subsidy put in place by the Howard government?

Why single out these two urgently necessary areas of university education to begin the clawback of some of the billions of dollars, mostly borrowed, that this Rudd government has squandered since 2007?

Billions tossed around like confetti at a wedding to feed not only Rudd's massive ego but the many rorts of the so-called Education Revolution. The myriad of enquiries, committees and no brainer 'Watch' programs that cost millions but amounted to absolutely nothing.

And then vital funding assistance for teaching and nursing students gets shafted.

Like the whales in the Southern Ocean, nursing and teaching students in this country have been cut adrift by this self-serving government.

FRED PERRING, Grafton

This is what the Federal Government actually put in place according to its Going to Uni website:

If you have a HELP debt, you start repaying your accumulated HELP debt when your HELP repayment income is above the minimum threshold, which is $41,594 in the 2008-09 income year and $43,151 for the 2009-10 income year.....

In the 2009 Budget, the Australian Government announced that students who graduate from an eligible education or nursing course of study from second semester 2009 onwards will be able to apply for a reduction in their compulsory HELP repayment if they work as a teacher or nurse.

From 1 January 2010 the maximum annual student contribution amount (previously called HECS) for commencing students undertaking education and nursing units of study will be increased from the 'national priority' rate to the band 1 rate [Rate 1 set at $5,310 p.a. maximum in 2010]......

Eligible education and nursing graduates (who graduate from second semester 2009 onwards) who take up employment in these professions will be able to apply for a HECS-HELP benefit which will reduce their Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) repayments. The benefit will be available for the 2009-10 income year. The maximum benefit for that year will be $1,558.50.

An education or nursing graduate is a person who has graduated from a course of study that is required for initial entry to teaching or nursing professions.

Further information will soon be available when guidelines for the benefit for teachers and nurses are finalised.....

The maximum HECS-HELP benefit you will receive as an early childhood education teacher [working in regional or remote areas, Indigenous communities or areas of high socio-economic disadvantage] is $1,600 for the 2008–09 income year, and $1,662.40 for the 2009-10 income year. This amount will be indexed in later years.

Find out if you're eligible

A bill to ban giving support to whaling fleets is before the Australian Senate

A private member's bill Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Prohibition of Support for Whaling) Bill 2010 was tabled in the Australian Senate and read for the first time on 4 February 2010.
The bill's aim is to create new offences and penalties related to providing service, support or resources to an organisation engaged in whaling.
Although no-one would doubt the motives of Greens Senator Rachael Siewert, her identified co-sponsor Eric Abetz raises the possibility that this bill might also be a long-shot attempt by the Liberal Party to embarrass the Rudd Government and increase any Australian-Japanese diplomatic tensions in the months before a federal election.
Since the 2007 election sent him to the Opposition benches I can't recall hearing all that much about whaling from Senator Abetz before this.

We're laughing now but......

We can laugh at the joke and say never happen or only in America, but.......

Murray Hill Incorporated is Running for Congress
Corporations are people too!

Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals. But today, thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. It was their dream to build the best democracy money can buy.

That's why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy's next step — running for Congress. Join us and build a vision for the future we can all be proud of. Vote Murray Hill Incorporated for Congress!
Vote Murray Hill Incorporated for Congress!

Get a load of the U.S. Supreme Court judgement which caused this tongue in cheek announcement that Murray Hill is fielding a candidate at the next American election.
Apparently the American courts have moved one step closer to according corporations full citizenship rights by giving companies the same First Amendment right of free speech as a person - therefore a right to unlimited spending on political advocacy during election campaigns.
Score in 'The Best Free Speech That Money Can Buy' Contest:
U.S. Government 0 Big Business 10

Snapshot : Murray Hill Inc video

Antarctic Whale Wars 2010: claim and counter claim in pictures

Institute of Cetacean Research photograph allegedly showing impact

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society photograph of the Bob Barker

An estimated 9,000 minke whales have been slaughtered as part of the Japanese annual Antarctic whale hunt since 1988 according to an Asahi Shimbun article on 23 January 2010.

In the latest war of words over interaction between the whaling fleet and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the Institute for Cetacean Research which runs the Southern Ocean whale hunts under the guise of 'scientific research' has claimed that its vessel Yushin Maru No. 3 was rammed by the anti-whaling boat Bob Barker and supplied photographs allegedly showing this encounter.

Sea Shepherd has released a counter claim stating that it was the Bob Barker which was intentionally rammed and damaged above the waterline.

Damage allegedly done to the Bob Barker during the collision

Land use in Australia and the 2010 federal election campaign

Certain rural landholders are trying to make land tenure an issue in the 2010 federal election.
These landowners are upset at state restrictions on their ability to clear land of native vegetation and hold an erroneous belief that the Australian Government has 'stolen' their ability to take advantage of any carbon credits this land might produce.
This drive to roll back state law by making the Federal Government politically uncomfortable in an election year may not be as easily undertaken as it first appeared, when the initial reaction to their announcement of a lead-off campaign rally was rather underwhelming in a regional area which has an established rural component in direct competition with a growing residential sector for occupation and use of coastal lands.

On 2 February 2010 The Daily Examiner published this editorial:

Farmers and land use

THE notion that farmers should be allowed to do whatever they like with 'their' land needs to be debunked.

The issue was highlighted during the past two months by Peter Spencer, who went on a hunger strike trying to get a Royal Commission into government policies preventing him from clearing vegetation from his land.

Without going into the rights and wrongs of his case, there are broader issues at play.

Forget vegetation for a moment and look at water.

If a water course runs through a farmer's land, does that give him or her the right to take whatever they like and leave other landholders downstream with nothing? Of course not. Water is considered a community resource and does not belong to any individual.

If a farmer or landholder proposed a toxic industry on their land, should no-one have the right to question that industry? Again, of course not.

All landholders, urban and rural, have to abide by local, state and federal government decisions that affect what they can do on 'their' land because what they do on 'their' land has an impact on others.

It is the same with land clearing.

No landholder should be able to clear swathes of vegetation from their land without first determining what effect that has on others around them.

That said, if a farmer buys land and the guidelines for the use of that land change, the community via its government should adequately compensate them for any commercial losses they suffer as a result of those changes.

But to suggest the community has no interest or right to determine what happens on private property is erroneous.

What farmers do on their land affects others.

And this letter to the editor in the same edition:

Giving credit to switched on farmers

A RECENT letter to the editor (January 23) asserted that Australian farmers don't receive any compensation for carbon credits sold here or overseas.

Now, I don't know what the writer had been told but this is not correct. Here is a simple explanation of the issue at hand.

"Carbon credits are a financial reward for activities that reduce the levels of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere. There are a large number of different carbon trading schemes in the world, some of which date back to as early as 1995. A carbon trade can simply be an agreement between two parties. For the term 'carbon credits' to be used, the emission reduction or biosequestration to which the credits apply must be subject to verification by an accredited certificate provider." [Dr Christine Jones, March 2007]

There are many registered Australian companies offering carbon credits for sale and some farmers on freehold land are participating in creating these credits and getting paid for their efforts. The farmers who are taking advantage of emerging markets in relation to national and international greenhouse gas abatement targets are those who have done their research and decided to involve themselves - not just sit back and whinge about how bad things are.

When it comes to any carbon sequestration total which is credited to the national ledger by the United Nations under the Kyoto Protocol, neither the Commonwealth nor Australian states receive any saleable credits from this at all because this particular total is a simple inventory accounting device to measure the nation's adherence to its international undertakings, however, government entities can buy existing carbon credits on the open market to offset their own activities.

As for the NSW Native Vegetation Act also mentioned in that same letter, a little diligent research will show that the matter is not as straightforward as any speakers at the Lismore Cooee Meeting might have suggested.

This year is an election year and it behoves us all to be careful of the political aims and aspirations of vested interests.

Judith M. Melville, Yamba

White Ibis stand up to be counted and you can help on Sunday 7 February 2010

There is a state-wide community survey of the Ibis underway today and NSW North Coast residents can help by keeping their eyes open.

National Parks & Wildlife information:

The Australian white ibis, Threskionis molucca, is a highly visible native water bird in New South Wales.

What do they look like?

• Like all ibises, the Australian white ibis has a large, curved beak designed for probing.
• Their heads and necks are featherless and black, except for horizontal lines on the back of the head that vary in colour from pale pink to red.
• Their bodies in contrast are mainly white, apart from black tips to the longest flight feathers, black lacelike wing feathers and highly visible bare patches under the wings and on the breast that also vary in colour from pale pink to red.
• The legs are reddish brown to black in colour.
• Prior to the 1970s, the Australian white ibis did not breed in the Sydney region but followed the non-permanent waters of inland lakes and rivers, due to the extensive droughts and changes in water regime they have sought refuge in the coastal wetlands. Ibises have adapted well to the constant water and food supply available in urban environments and they are now a common site in our parklands where they feed on invertebrates (beetles etc) and crustaceans (yabbies etc).

How many are there? Help us find out!

The National Parks and Wildlife Service is trying to get a better understanding of the distribution and abundance of Australian white ibis at a statewide level. This will help us to develop conservation practices for these birds. One of the questions we are attempting to answer is how many of these birds are actually in New South Wales?

Since 2003, we have been running community ibis surveys. The surveys have taken place on a single day in summer. We have asked members of the public to tell us about their ibis sightings in Sydney over the day. Information from community members will help us to understand and manage these distinctive birds.

The next survey is on Sunday 7 February 2010, and you're invited to participate! If you see any white ibis on this day, anywhere in NSW, please let us know.

We need to know how many birds you have seen, along with the location and time of day. Some birds may have coloured bands on their legs or coloured wing tags, as shown in the pictures. Please provide as many details as possible about the colour of the bands or tags and their location on the bird.

To send the information to us, you can:

• Use our online sighting form; or
• Phone the Environment Line: 1300 361 967 Mon-Fri only.

Anti-climate change reading list for those nights you can't get to sleep because of the heat/intense cold/severe storm/sea surge/flooding/worry about the drought

Having a browse across the blogosphere I found EliRabbett asking about world wide web links your grandmother warned you about.
Here are just a few of the sites mentioned by his readers as either lukewarm on the issue of anthropomorphic global warming or committed to an anti-science stand on climate change:

The Lavosier Group
Junkscience.com
Still Waiting for Greenhouse (A Lukewarm View from Tasmania)
Global Warming
Cato Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Greenhouse Warming: Fact, Hypothesis, or Myth?
Greening Earth Society
CO2 science. org
The National Centre for Public Policy Research
The Australian Environment Foundation
Institute of Public Affairs
Icecap
CO₂ and the "Greenhouse Effect" Doom
Science is Broken
International Climate Science Coalition
Bob Carter's webpage
Climate Police
Climate Audit
Australian Climate Science Coalition
The Marshal Institute
WattsUpWithThat?
Climate Observations
Joe Bastardi's European Blog
Denial Depot
CO2 and You

My contribution is to add the AgMates Community blog which gives house room to supporters of The Climate Sceptics Party and of course any party website which hosts the opinions of the Rt Hon. Tony Abbott would qualify.
Feel free to add to this list at your leisure!

Neutroodle green search engine is launched this month

Neutroodle has launched itself this month as a search engine with a green philosophy.
It is not the first or only Internet search engine which is advertising itself as green.
This is what this search engine promises:

Organisations should take responsibility for the entire impact of their online presence, including the energy used at the consumer end.......

Measure - each month independent climate change experts, CO2Stats, measure the impact of our website on the environment. They calculate the electricity used by all of the computers that view our website, the networks that transfer information around the world and the servers which host our data.

Manage - we take responsibility for the carbon emissions generated to produce all of this electricity as it represents the total footprint of our presence on the internet. CO2Stats determine the best way to offset this footprint, currently through the purchase of renewable energy certificates, effectively the entire process from end to end is powered by renewable energy.

Minimise - Having conducted a comprehensive analysis of our carbon footprint we then look for ways to reduce our emissions profile, not only will this help reduce emissions but it will save us money too.....

Iraq Inquiry damned in twenty sentences

AA Gill at The Times Online captures that moment when the British Iraq Inquiry chaired by Sir John Chilcot dropped its pants and flashed its flaws:

"Lord, I thought, he's finally gone and done it. He's left parochial politics and gone into intergalactic diplomacy and had a severe facelift. The skin was drawn tight, the mouth tugged into a morticised grin. It wasn't a good look.

Fear is nature's cosmetic surgeon. It had grabbed Tony Blair by the back of the neck, pulled and twisted.......

We were looking at a man who was looking at what he thought might just be his own personal Nuremberg trial.

Then Sir Roderic Lyne, one of the interrogating panel, stumbled into his warm-up question. Couched in the avuncular curlicues of academic politeness and mumbled deference, he propped himself up on the pillows of sub-clauses and caveats and something astonishing happened.

Across the table, like a CGI trick, a coup de théâtre: Blair's old face reappeared, emerging relaxed and confident, the eyebrows arched. It was the familiar mug the protesters outside in the rain were wearing as masks. The angst let go. Ladies and gentleman, fear has left the building.

He knew this wasn't going to be a war crimes tribunal: this wasn't even truth and reconciliation. This was the wine committee of his club, the senior common room of a honeycoloured college. He was on top of this. He was all over this......

The hours slid by and Blair grew more confident, flicking the pages of his notes, uncannily finding the date, the mot-juste he needed. The questions became woollier and thinner. Blair allowed himself the occasional smirk of disdain as he did keepy-uppies with the simpler lobs."

Sh*t happens....the sequel

The clouds are that fat that they are bumping along the tops of small hills and large tree tops, scratching their bottoms like wormy dogs.
The rain has been falling and, though welcome, has had one unfortunate result - the new toilet project has come to a sliding halt.
As soon as we empty the hole it fills up again.
Since we have an imposed halt to the project and all else failed we decided to read the instructions. It was a revelation.
The consensus was it might be a good idea to start following the installation instructions; I am not sure whether our mob will be able to resist the urge to improvise though!

Sh*t happens....a composting toilet story
Pic from Google Images