McDonald's Yamba - only open days and the littering of surrounding streets begins

Maud up the Street wants to know if she has the first 'official' pic of branded litter from the newly opened McDonald's hamburger joint in Yamba.
Maud reckons on the third day of Maccas opening its door she followed a trail of tossed litter down one of the streets leading straight to this store.

Hot on the heels of Maud's pic came this one from a Yamba resident who picked it up in Admiralty Park - at least half a kilometre away from Macca's new outlet.

Clarencegirl sent me evidence of this bit of branded litter picked up from the vacant lot opposite McDonald's fast food outlet and she tells me that she has heard that clusters of Macca's litter are now turning up in front yards on the outskirts of Yamba.
Well done, Ronald McDonald - you're living up to your lousy and very messy reputation!
And please write a reminder note in block letters on your Neanderthal foreheads, all those Clarence Valley shire councillors who voted to impose this architectural and social eyesore on a very reluctant Yamba community.

UPDATE:
This cluster of branded litter ran in a trail from outside McDonald's in Treelands Drive, Yamba and on through to Telopea Steet at about 10.30 am on Sunday 19 December 2010 according to the Yamba resident who picked it up.

Question: Can you put a name to this face?

My money says the average Joe and Josephine Blow living in NSW cannot put a name to this character. In fact, when I undertook a quick check of the good folk in my neighbourhood not a single soul knew who this bloke is.
Okay, the poll that was undertaken didn't have the status of Roy Morgan Research, but nonetheless its result says a lot about how NSW been  governed for the last decade and a half.
This fellow has been haunting the corridors in Macquarie Street since, officially, September 1991.
Sad, but true!
This bloke has carried more clout than he deserves. He's figured in the behind the scenes appointments of premiers, cabinet ministers and sundries of other appointments.
Okay, so who is this power broker?
Answer: Click here

Finally! ICAC publicly states something everyone already knows - Kristina Keneally 'wrong'

In The Australian on 14 December 2010:

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally was wrong to water down independent planning controls introduced by her main rival, Frank Sartor.

The state's corruption watchdog, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, yesterday called for the powers of the independent Planning Assessment Commission to be widened, along the lines originally projected by Mr Sartor when he was planning minister between 2005 and 2008.

ICAC media release on 13 December 2010 concerning its report on the exercise of discretion under provisions of two NSW planning acts: EXERCISE O) CISE OF

Monday 13 December 2010

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) recommends that the NSW Minister for Planning refer private sector applications under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, which exceed development standards by more than 25%, to an independent quasi-judicial body for determination.

The Commission recommends that this role be assumed by the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC). In view of the important functions the PAC would assume, the Commission makes recommendations to strengthen its independence and to ensure that it is composed of appropriate persons, on a full-time basis but with a limited tenure.

The Commission's report, The exercise of discretion under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and the State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Development) 2005, released today, makes altogether 20 recommendations to more effectively manage and mitigate potential corruption risks in the Part 3A process.

Commencing in 2005, Part 3A consolidates the different assessment and approval regimes for "major" projects in NSW determined by the Minister for Planning. The State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Development) 2005 (the MD SEPP) identifies several classes of Part 3A projects including significant private developments (for example, residential flats and commercial developments), and public sector infrastructure projects (for example, desalination plants and pipelines).

The ICAC recognises that it is appropriate that in many of these classes the Part 3A discretion should continue to be vested in the Minister. Nevertheless, in other situations there is a risk that perception may arise of corrupt influences playing a part in the Part 3A decision-making process. The key issue is the adequacy of safeguards when such Part 3A discretions are exercised. The need for adequacy of safeguards applies to elected or unelected officials at every level of government.

"The Part 3A system is characterised by a lack of published, objective criteria," the report says. "There are also various elements of Part 3A that are discretionary, particularly as regards residential and commercial development, which are prohibited or exceed existing development standards. The existence of a wide discretion to approve projects that are contrary to local plans and do not necessarily conform to state strategic plans has the potential to deliver sizable windfall gains to particular applicants. This creates a corruption risk and a community perception of a lack of appropriate boundaries."

While there are no established examples of the corrupt use or manipulation of discretion under Part 3A there is, nonetheless, considerable discretion built into Part 3A. Similar kinds of discretion have been the subject of several Commission investigations and investigations in other jurisdictions and beyond.

Under the current system, the Minister has the discretion to declare a project to be a Part 3A project by Ministerial Order. It is the loose criteria and the broad discretion that potentially give rise to perceptions of undue influence. The risk of this occurring is heightened by the Minister not being bound by the provisions of local environmental plans (and SEPPs generally, in the case of critical infrastructure projects).

To limit discretion and improve safeguards, the ICAC recommends that the NSW Government amend the EP&A Act to limit the application of Part 3A to projects that are permissible under existing planning instruments. The Commission also recommends that the PAC perform a gateway role, by way of independent scrutiny, in reviewing proposals to call in private sector projects via specific Ministerial Order.

The Commission and the NSW Department of Planning established a joint task force this year to examine whether there were corruption risks attached to Part 3A and to develop measures to address any of the identified risks. The Commission acknowledges the valuable assistance provided by the Department in participating in the task force.

However, the report has been prepared in its entirety by the Commission, and consequently its recommendations are those of the ICAC.

Full Report

Gillard finally honours her own words

Onya , gurl!

“THE federal government has bowed to union and community sector anger and signed back on to support equal pay for women.

A letter by Workplace Minister Chris Evans has changed a government submission to the equal pay test case being heard by Fair Work Australia.

A dispute erupted in the final sitting week of Parliament as unions and the Australian Council of Social Services accused the government of abandoning a deal to support the case covering 153,000, mostly women, community-sector workers.

The commonwealth provides half the sector's funding, and its original submission had said any pay rise awarded by the tribunal would lead to cuts to other government services, because it needed to bring the budget back to surplus.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard took personal offence at the ensuing backlash and ordered the problem be fixed.

{The Age on 14^th December 2010}

Wikileaks starts to fill Gillard's inbox

First Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard received this letter taking her to task over the matter of Australian citizen Julian Assange and then the Walkley Foundation weighed in with this:

13 December 2010

The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Prime Minister,

STATEMENT FROM AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER EDITORS, TELEVISION AND RADIO DIRECTORS AND ONLINE MEDIA EDITORS

The leaking of 250,000 confidential American diplomatic cables is the most astonishing leak of official information in recent history, and its full implications are yet to emerge. But some things are clear. In essence, WikiLeaks, an organisation that aims to expose official secrets, is doing what the media have always done: bringing to light material that governments would prefer to keep secret.

In this case, WikiLeaks, founded by Australian Julian Assange, worked with five major newspapers around the world, which published and analysed the embassy cables. Diplomatic correspondence relating to Australia has begun to be published here.

The volume of the leaks is unprecedented, yet the leaking and publication of diplomatic correspondence is not new. We, as editors and news directors of major media organisations, believe the reaction of the US and Australian governments to date has been deeply troubling. We will strongly resist any attempts to make the publication of these or similar documents illegal. Any such action would impact not only on WikiLeaks, but every media organisation in the world that aims to inform the public about decisions made on their behalf. WikiLeaks, just four years old, is part of the media and deserves our support.

Already, the chairman of the US Senate homeland security committee, Joe Lieberman, is suggesting The New York Times should face investigation for publishing some of the documents. The newspaper told its readers that it had ‘‘taken care to exclude, in its articles and in supplementary material, in print and online, information that would endanger confidential informants or compromise national security.’’ Such an approach is responsible — we do not support the publication of material that threatens national security or anything which would put individual lives in danger. Those judgements are never easy, but there has been no evidence to date that the WikiLeaks material has done either.

There is no evidence, either, that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have broken any Australian law. The Australian government is investigating whether Mr Assange has committed an offence, and the Prime Minister has condemned WikiLeaks’ actions as ‘‘illegal’’. So far, it has been able to point to no Australian law that has been breached.

To prosecute a media organisation for publishing a leak would be unprecedented in the US, breaching the First Amendment protecting a free press. In Australia, it would seriously curtail Australian media organisations reporting on subjects the government decides are against its interests.

WikiLeaks has no doubt made errors. But many of its revelations have been significant. It has given citizens an insight into US thinking about some of the most complex foreign policy issues of our age, including North Korea, Iran and China.

It is the media’s duty to responsibly report such material if it comes into their possession. To aggressively attempt to shut WikiLeaks down, to threaten to prosecute those who publish official leaks, and to pressure companies to cease doing commercial business with WikiLeaks, is a serious threat to democracy, which relies on a free and fearless press.

Yours faithfully

Clinton Maynard, news director, 2UE
David Penberthy, editor-in-chief, news.com.au
Eric Beecher, chairman, Crikey, Smart Company, Business Spectator, The Eureka Report
Gay Alcorn, editor, The Sunday Age
Garry Bailey, editor, The Mercury (Hobart)
Garry Linnell, editor, The Daily Telegraph Ian Ferguson, director of news and programs, Sky News Australia/New Zealand
Jim Carroll, network director of news and public affairs, Ten Network
Julian Ricci, editor, Northern Territory News
Kate Torney, director of news, ABC
Mark Calvert, director of news and current affairs, Nine Network
Melvin Mansell, editor, The Advertiser (Adelaide)
Megan Lloyd, editor, Sunday Mail (Adelaide)
Michael Crutcher, editor, The Courier Mail,
Mike van Niekerk, editor in chief, Fairfax online
Paul Cutler, news director, SBS
Paul Ramadge, editor-in-chief, The Age
Peter Fray, editor-in-chief, The Sydney Morning Herald
Peter Meakin, director of news and public affairs, Seven Network
Rick Feneley, editor, The Sun-Herald
Rob Curtain, news director, 3AW
Rod Quinn, editor, The Canberra Times
Sam Weir, editor, The Sunday Times
Scott Thompson, The Sunday Mail (Queensland)
Simon Pristel, editor, Herald SunTory Maguire, editor, The Punch
Walkley Advisory Board
Gay Alcorn
Mike Carlton
Helen Dalley
John Donegan
Peter Meakin
Laurie Oakes
Jeni O'Dowd
Alan Kennedy
Malcolm Schmidtke
Fenella Souter

The full letter sent to Prime Minister Julia Gillard can be viewed here.

You can also read statements made earlier this month by the Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) concerning WikiLeaks here.

Now which drongo said that? Abbott?

Granny Herald tattled on this week about a November 2009 US diplomatic cable:
"A cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald says an unnamed "key Liberal Party strategist'' told US diplomats in November last year that the issue of asylum seekers was ''fantastic'' for the Coalition and ''the more boats that come the better''.
Methinks this member of the diplomatic service was being a bit coy in the description of his informant.
Notice how often the current Leader of the Opposition Tony Mad Monk Abbott uses the word "fantastic"?
Hmmmm...........

"Yep, again, I accept that but what we, what we do here has got to be affordable and I might want a really fantastic car, but I’ve got to buy the car that I can afford, not necessarily the car that in a perfect world I would like…"

"Oh, okay. Oh fantastic. Oh great. Okay."

"He might be a fantastic author of children's books. The fact is he is my opponent so I am not in the business of looking at his good personal qualities. I am in the business of exposing his poor political qualities."

"Do they now? Fantastic."

"Well that's, that's fantastic and look it's very important for our democracy that we have a good contest and I think it is a good contest but it's now coming down to the wire. This is decision time."

"She’s smiling in response to that and look, Lou Lou, our eldest daughter has been with us for the least couple of days as well and it’s been fantastic to have her on the campaign trail."

Is there an annual award for foot-in-mouth journalism?

Mr Whale also advised the inquiry the Clarence catchment area was responsible for approximately 20 per cent of the state’s agricultural produce – the value of which exceeded $70 million per annum – and the commercial fishing fleets of Yamba and Iluka were the largest in New South Wales. [The Daily Examiner, 14 December 2010,Clarence groups fight river plan]

Nothing in life is certain, but there is one thing which can almost be guaranteed – any article by one particular regional journalist is highly likely to use language which leaves the reader open to doubt about what the person allegedly quoted actually said.

Who could forget ( :-D) the chagrin created by one recent example of quote confusion which upset both a sitting and a former shire councillor?

This time it is a spokesperson for a Clarence Valley community group who found himself the subject of outright misquotation, as an exchange in online comments below the relevant story in The Daily Examiner highlights:

Posted by indefatigable from Maclean, New South Wales

14 December 2010 11:13 a.m.

In my books this is just an inflated fairy tale, a norm amongst the greenie. As a point, the Clarence 20% of the states agri production, who the heck pulled this one out of la la land. The building of the Jackadgery Dam was mooted about the time the elder of this mob was born, and had the government of the day woken up to the hype and carried on we would now have a complete dam able to help people in the south, north AND the west and our river would be intact. This is a very serious and extremely selfish attitude of Brown's Bunch.

Posted by bertson from Yamba, New South Wales

15 December 2010 10:22 a.m.

You'll be pleased to know, indefatigable of maclean, that the Valley Watch submission does not make the claim attributed to it by the journalist Graham Orams.

What it actually said was “most of the Clarence catchment falls within the 100 km wide coastal strip of New South Wales, an area which supplies approximately 20% of the state’s agricultural produce”. This can be checked online, with all the other submissions, at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee...

In response to Sensible from Tenterfield, the Valley Watch submission also challenges the idea that water is ‘wasted’ if it flows out to sea. The river’s natural rise and fall is never wasteful.

Their submission includes the statement "Floods rejuvenate ecosystems, especially the floodplains and wetlands, ‘freshes’ expand habitat and provide food sources vital for breeding, and the low flows are needed to prevent those species which do best in stable conditions from dominating and creating an imbalance".

Let's get some clear thinking into this debate instead of name-calling and sloganeering.

The Queen B#tch and her court of balfastards

Queen Kristina and her court held a fire sale in the middle of the night and yesterday we woke to find that vital NSW state infrastructure had gone for a peppercorn.
From Nine MSN Money:
"Origin Energy Ltd and Hong Kong-owned TRUenergy have emerged as the winning bidders in the NSW government's $5.3 billion power sell-off......
Origin says it paid a "fair price" for its $3.25 billion share of the state's electricity assets......
More scorn was heaped on the privatisation on Wednesday after directors of state-owned electricity generators quit in protest at the sale.
Investors clearly favoured Origin Energy as the overall winner, with shares rising 30cents, or 1.79 per cent, to $17.10......
Under the deal, signed at midnight on Tuesday, Origin will spend $2.3 billion to acquire the retail arms of Integral Energy and Country Energy.
Origin will pay a further $950 million to secure the output from Eraring Energy, which operates a coal-fired power station near Newcastle, and the Shoalhaven hydro-electric power scheme south of Sydney.
TRUenergy is spending $2.035 billion to pick up EnergyAustralia's retail business, electricity trading rights from Delta Electricity and three power station development sites.
Several Delta and Eraring board members quit in protest overnight, forcing NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to hastily replace them so the transaction could proceed.
One departing director, Tony Maher, from the Eraring board, told ABC Radio the $5.3 billion sale was a "dud deal" and a "mad dash for cash"...."

Antony Green does the sums on NSW MPs

Antony Green’s calculations show that this avalanche of political ‘retirements’ is getting to the point of being ridiculous.
The next NSW Government will be run on training wheels.......
“2011 NSW election is set to see a record number of MPs retire from the Legislative Assembly, and depending on the result, could also see a record number of new MPs.
So far 24 MPs have announced they will not re-contest their seats at the 2011 election, 17 Labor MPs, 5 Liberals and 2 Nationals. There are also 3 Upper House Labor's MPs retiring, and a 25th lower house MP seems certain to pull the plug. Labor has announced it will not re-endorse the sitting Labor MP for Drummoyne, Angela D'Amore, who has recently had an adverse finding made against her by the ICAC. More than a third of Labor's lower house MPs will not be contesting the election.
This is the highest rate of retirement since 1901, when 25 MPs also did not re-contest election. The high rate in 1901 was due to 18 MPs having been elected to the first Commonwealth Parliament earlier in the year.
There were 125 members of the Legislative Assembly in 1901 compared to 93 today, so proportionally the rate of retiring MPs is much higher at the 2011 election.”

Graphic from Funky Motors

Update on the Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Regional Australia

From A Clarence Valley Protest on 11 December 2010:

Bravo, Clarence Environment Centre and Valley Watch!

To date there have been only eighty-seven submissions to the Australian Parliament House of Representatives Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Regional Australia.

Ever mindful of the reported remarks of various vested interests and those of the Inquiry's Chair, the Clarence Valley community responded.

Clarence Environment Centre (CEC) made one of the earliest submissions pointing out valid reasons why the Clarence River catchment was not for the raiding.
The complete CEC 33 page submission in PDF file can be viewed and downloaded here.

Valley Watch also made a succinct formal submission which is found here.

I have to say that these submissions were part of only a handful which attempted reasoned argument supported by data. Most submissions simply registered opposition to the Murray Darling Basin Plan on the basis of emotion and supposition.

Unfortunately it would appear that at least twenty-seven of the eighty-seven submissions supported the idea of investigating interbasin water transfers and/or new dams, although only four of these made specific mention of possible water diversion from the Clarence River and/or NSW coastal rivers generally.

What was evident in the bulk of these submissions is that many of those individuals who live in the Murray-Darling Basin would apparently rather kill off that river system entirely before they will concede one litre of the water entitlements they currently possess.

Possum and others all a-Twitter in December

A brief Twitter round-up of tweets which informed, confused or amused my tiny mind over the last 7 days or so.


Pollytics

Tim Wilson thinks that "Climate change treaty is a waste of energy" http://bit.ly/f8rv2R I know! Bet that shocked the shite out of you!

..such as principle component/factor analysis. Pair-wise based state-space distance is a polling noise sponge

If you understood a word of that - drink more, or go to bed

Dear Julia Gillard - protect Julian Assange or your fucked 3%. Signed - Mr Obvious

NewtonMark

Pfizer used dirty tricks to avoid compensation payout over meningitis drug clinical trials in Nigeria. http://arseh.at/2mc #cablegate


DarrylMason

The Celtic War Helmet Man http://tinyurl.com/2uyh5tn and other b&w images from Sydney's #Wikileaks rally http://tinyurl.com/2u3bbrn

Interesting that @KevinRuddMP looks more feisty, opinionated & less subservient to the Americans with every Australian #CableGate release.

Journalists might like to ask Clive Palmer & other mining magnates how many meetings they had with US diplomats before RuddCoup. #Wikileaks

LeslieCannold

The next time someone insists your taxes aren't paying for chaplains to evangelise in gov schools, send 'em here http://tinyurl.com/26swoxf

BernardKeane

better hope they don't come for you like you're urging them to come for your fellow media outlet, @TheEconomist

Jeff_Sparrow

Nice piece by @jayrosen_nyu on media shark-jumping http://bit.ly/f3qXOf

Is it dark enough to sleep?

Rally for Equal Pay at Lismore on 15 December 2010 - Noon

The Australian Services Union rallying call:

The ASU's Equal Pay Case is the most important case for the rights of women in the last 20 years.
We need the support of all ASU members to give women the equal pay they been denied up to now.
This case is about justice and equal rights. With your help we'll win...........

The fight for Equal Pay continues. In recent years the gap between the pay of men and women has actually increased. The ASU is currently running the first case of its kind under the Fair Work Act to argue equal pay for work of equal value.

This Wednesday, 15 December at midday, there will be rallies held across Australia to send the message it is time for equal pay. These rallies will be on the same day as submissions will be made in the case by those employer groups that have fought every pay increase for our sector. We need to make a noise and show them that Australians are willing to fight for Equal Pay

The Lismore rally will be held on the corner of Magellan and Carrington Streets. We encourage everyone to come out in support of Equal Pay. Our local Member of Parliament Janelle Saffin and our Mayor Jenny Dowell will both be speaking and there will be cupcakes.

Support your community. Support equal pay.

Many Australian journalists appear to think their work is below par

The recently released LIFE IN THE CLICKSTREAM: THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM (December 2010) makes some interesting observations concerning mainstream media.

Including this chart based on an Essential Media survey question asked of the profession: How do you rate the quality of Australian journalism compared with 5 years ago?

An assessment from within the profession which is harsher than that of readers when asked a similar question about news journalism:

Asked whether the quality of news journalism had improved or deteriorated over the past five years, 30 per cent of people said they thought it was better or much better, while 33 per cent thought it was worse or much worse.

Unsurprisingly Life in the Clickstream additionally observes that readers remain unwillingly to pay for news online and notes a disparity in how journalists and readers view the same profession:

Not surprisingly, journalists overwhelmingly believe that what they are doing provides a public good and that without their work, society would be worse off. Our survey of journalists found that 93 per cent agreed with that statement, 66 per cent of them strongly.
But when we asked the same question in a survey of the general public about their attitudes to journalism and their news consumption habits, only 63 per cent agreed, only 16 per cent saying they “strongly agree”. Some 8 per cent either “disagree” or “strongly disagree”.

The report also helps explains why APN newspapers on the NSW North Coast sometimes publish shocking bloopers when reporting on local identities and well-known Northern Rivers families:

Similarly, APN formed a centralised subbing unit known as Centro in late 2008, with subbing of their 14 daily papers in NSW and Queensland being centralised on the Sunshine Coast….

Local sub-editing based on local knowledge is apparently a thing of the past for this newspaper group.

* Media Alliance commissioned Essential Media to conduct two surveys. One was a public poll of attitudes towards journalism in Australia and examined how and why people access news, their levels of trust in various platforms and their willingness to pay for news content online.
The other survey was of journalist members of the Media Alliance and asked about working conditions, pay, levels of training and morale.
[LIFE IN THE CLICKSTREAM: THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM,Introduction,p4]

Mirror, mirror, on the wall......

Google has posted Australia’s top searches in 2010. Not much on the question asking are we? And where the heck did that confusion about democracy come from?

Top questions people ask Google - ‘What is …?’
1. What is love
2. What is energy
3. What is twitter
4. What is depression
5. What is bullying
6. What is democracy
7. What is Skype
8. What is Pi
9. What is veal
10. What is probate

Memo to Gillard and Obama: So what is the precise difference?

Try and pick the “anti-American” “terrorist” ”traitor” who should be prosecuted and deserves to die from the reputable newspaper which is reporting on foreign affairs.
Yes, it’s the Australian citizen and Wikileaks editor who should be assassinated.

Where is the logic when both editors have published identical material on the same day from the same original source?

Well, there is no logic being applied by Prime Minister Gillard and President Obama as heads of their respective governments.
Nor is logic something being practiced by sections of the international media, as evidenced from the U.S. Fox News excerpt above where it is very evident that none of the speakers have actually read any of the cables they mention.

It is becoming increasingly hard to believe that current Swedish legal moves against the Wikileaks editor are not now perverted by design so as to eventually see him extradited to the United States.

Something which will eventually involve the reputation of British Prime Minister David Cameron and his government:

Informal discussions have already taken place between US and Swedish officials over the possibility of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being delivered into American custody, according to diplomatic sources.
Mr Assange is in a British jail awaiting extradition proceedings to Sweden after being refused bail at Westminster Magistrates’ Court despite a number of prominent public figures offering to stand as surety.
His arrest in north London yesterday was described by the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates as “good news”, and may pave the way for extradition to America and a possible lengthy jail sentence.

Examples of the published cables:

The New York Times published online, Executive editor W. Keller, 2 December 2010:

Date 2009-08-06 05:28:00 Source Embassy Kabul Classification SECRET S E C R E T KABUL 002246 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SRAP, SCA/A, INL, EUR/PRM, INR, OSD FOR
FLOURNOY, CENTCOM FOR CG CJTF-82, POLAD, JICENT KABUL FOR
COS USFOR-AE.O. 12958: DECL: 08/01/2019
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, MARR, AF
SUBJECT: COMPLAINTS TO GIROA ON PRE-TRIAL RELEASES AND
PARDONS OF NARCO-TRAFFICKERSREF: REFTEL KABUL 02245 Classified By: DEPUTY AMBASSADOR FRANCIS J. RICCIAR DONE FOR REASONS 1.4
(B) AND (D)1.

(S) SUMMARY: On numerous occasions we have emphasized with
Attorney General Aloko the need to end interventions by him
and President Karzai, who both authorize the release of
detainees pre-trial and allow dangerous individuals to go
free or re-enter the battlefield without ever facing an
Afghan court. On July 29th, Legal Adviser Harold Hongju Koh
and Deputy Ambassador Frances Ricciardone demarched Attorney
General Muhammad Ishaq Aloko about our concern over pre-trial
releases and presidential pardons of narco-traffickers
(Reftel Kabul 02245) In Spring 2008, Post had previous
demarched National Security Advisor Rassoul about our concern
over pre-trial releases. Despite our complaints and
expressions of concern to the GIRoA, pre-trial releases
continue. END SUMMARY

Wikileaks published online, Senior editor J. Assange, 2 December 2010:

VZCZCXYZ0001OO RUEHWEBDE RUEHBUL #2246 2180528ZNY SSSSS ZZHO 060528Z AUG 09 ZDKFM AM EMBASSY KABULTO SECS TATE WASH DC IMMEDIATE 0662S E C R E T KABUL 002246SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SRAP, SCA/A, INL, EUR/PRM, INR, OSD FORFLOURNOY, CENTCOM FOR CG CJTF-82, POLAD, JICENT KABUL FORCOS USFOR-AE.O. 12958: DECL: 08/01/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR AF SUBJECT: COMPLAINTS TO GIROA ON PRE-TRIAL RELEASES ANDPARDONS OF NARCO-TRAFFICKERSREF: REFTEL KABUL 02245Classified By: DEPUTY AMBASSADOR FRANCIS J. RICCIAR DONE FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D)

¶1. (S) SUMMARY: On numerous occasions we have emphasized withAttorney General Aloko the need to end interventions by himand President Karzai, who both authorize the release ofdetainees pre-trial and allow dangerous individuals to gofree or re-enter the battlefield without ever facing anAfghan court. On July 29th, Legal Adviser Harold Hongju Kohand Deputy Ambassador Frances Ricciardone demarched AttorneyGeneral Muhammad Ishaq Aloko about our concern over pre-trialreleases and presidential pardons of narco-traffickers(Reftel Kabul 02245) In Spring 2008, Post had previousdemarched National Security Advisor Rassoul about our concernover pre-trial releases. Despite our complaints andexpressions of concern to the GIRoA, pre-trial releasescontinue. END SUMMARY

Looking for Mr. Good Stork

The Australian Federal Government’s My Hospitals website is up and running and I decided to see what is said about hospitals on the NSW North Coast.

With a bit of nudging the lists from the mid to far North Coast came up here and here. Then the fun began when linking to hospitals in the Clarence Valley.

According to the new website there were no births at Maclean District Hospital in the financial year 2008-09, which was to be expected as its maternity section was closed down years ago despite community protests.

Grafton Base Hospital had 478 births + <10 births in the same financial year. Again something to be expected as it is the only relatively large hospital in the area and it usually records births it the vicinity of four hundred or so.

Wondering how these figures compared with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) regional profile for the Clarence Valley local government area I went looking.

I found that birth numbers didn’t quite add up when one compares My Hospitals and ABS data, even when the former is operating on financial year dates and the latter on calendar year dates.

The ABS has 278 births recorded in Grafton Statistical Area for year ended 31 December 2008 and no births recorded for the Clarence Valley Local Government Area in the year ending 31 December 2009.

An official 2009 zero birth rate was taking things a bit too far, so who isn’t keeping accurate records? The ABS, local court houses, someone else? Or did bad weather blow The Stork off course?

Well Clarence Valley residents may actually in part be the culprits when it comes to accurate record keeping. Because it appears that Australians don’t always promptly register the births of those little bundles of joy.

Elsewhere on the ABS website it states:

Of the 295,700 births registered in Australia during 2009, 88% occurred in 2009. A further 9% occurred in 2008, and the remainder (3%) occurred in 2007 or earlier. It is expected that some births, particularly those that occur in November and December, may not be registered until the following year.

Now in New South Wales parents are responsible for registering the birth of their newborn within 60 days.
However, somewhere in Australia in 2009 (presumably including NSW) over 8,000 people probably turned up at the court house or registry office with a one and a half to three year-old child in tow and told the clerk that the toddler holding their hands actually existed. Others obviously went in after the Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties were over to inform the world that their family had grown.

How long will The Reject Shop last in Yamba?

Maud Up The Street tells me that yet another bargain store is trying its luck in Yamba Fair shopping centre. This must be at least the fourth such store which has parked itself in the same spot in the last ten or so years.
Maud reckons it’s losing customers already because it assumes that everyone coming through its door is a potential shoplifter – ‘let me look in your bag’ seems to be the mantra - and not a month into this store’s life media reports are also saying the whole chain is just not drawing a big enough crowd:
“THE worst Christmas "for a very long time" has seen The Reject Shop slash its profit forecast - and its shares savaged. Investors wiped more than 20 per cent off the low-end retailer's share price, while the shock profit warning sent shudders through the nation's retailers and weighed on the shares of other retailers.
Reject Shop chief executive Chris Bryce blamed the Reserve Bank of Australia's increase in interest rates in early November for a sudden drop in customers through its 195 shops.”

Very interesting Abib titbits......

This has not been Australian Senator Mark Arbib's week for positive media coverage. Abib is the current duty senator for the NSW North Coast seat of Lyne, which must - ahem - reassure the sitting federal member and his electorate.

• In recent months there have been media reports that Senator Arbib has been undermining Ms Gillard but Labor insiders deny this.
  
  
• Secret US embassy cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available exclusively to The Age reveal that Senator Arbib, one of the architects of Kevin Rudd's removal as prime minister, has been in regular contact with US embassy officers.
  His candid comments have been incorporated into reports to Washington with repeated requests that his identity as a ''protected'' source be guarded.

• Mark Arbib: otherwise known as CIA Agent 007.
  Visitors to the senator's Wikipedia page this morning may have been surprised to learn his role as Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness, among other portfolios, had been usurped by some decidedly more colourful titles.
  CIA agent, US Mole, Traitor, and US Embassy Hero were listed below the right-wing Labor powerbroker's photograph on the popular online encyclopedia following revelations by WikiLeaks today that Mr Arbib was as a confidential contact of the United States embassy in Canberra.
  
  Which leads one to wonder - did then U.S. Ambassador to Australia Robert McCallum, who had such a negative opinion of the Australian prime minister in office, encourage Arbib to consider deposing Rudd?

TwitDef: Getting close to checkmate?

TwitDef continues in the Land of Oz and Mitchell appears to have lost his queen and be close to having his king in mate........

From Posetti’s legal rep to Mitchell’s legal rep on 9^th December 2010:

“We are instructed to act for Ms Julie Posetti in relation to the matters raised by your client, Mr Chris Mitchell, in your letter dated 29 November 2010 sent to our client on 1 December 2010.

Our client denies Mr Mitchell's assertion that she has defamed him.

The Twitter posts by our client about which your client complains were a fair and accurate summary of matters stated by Ms Wahlquist at the Journalism Education Association Conference on 25 November 2010. Whether or not the matters stated by Ms Wahlquist were right or wrong, they were matters that nevertheless related to a matter of public interest, namely, the conduct of journalism and the editorial policy of a major national newspaper in relation to climate change, being in itself a significant question of public interest, especially in the lead up to a Federal election. Our client in her Twitter posts gave a fair summary of the matters stated by Ms Wahlquist and clearly held out those posts as being reports of statements attributed to Ms Wahlquist and not our client's own views.

Your letter does not attempt to suggest that the Twitter posts were not a fair summary of what Ms Wahlquist said and, indeed, your client acknowledges that his initial conclusion that the posts did not reflect Ms Wahlquist's statements was a conclusion that he was misled into adopting. We note also that, while we appreciate that what is published in The Australian (of which your client serves as editor in chief) may not necessarily always reflect your client's own personal views and is not determinative of the position, it is nevertheless somewhat telling that the "Media diary" article titled “The Posetti tapes” appearing in the online version of The Australian on 30 November 2010 suggested that the "Tweets are a fair summary of what Wahlquist said".

As a fair report of proceedings of public concern (in particular, proceedings of a public meeting held in Australia related to a matter of public interest - see section 29(4)(l) of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) and its equivalents in other states), our client is entitled to the defence available under section 29(1) of the Defamation Act.

For similar reasons, our client is likely also entitled to a defence of common law qualified privilege.”

Copy of entire Posetti 9 December letter here in PDF

Copy of Mitchell 29 November letter here in PDF

Jonathan Holmes on the subject of TwitDef

Good news for the frail aged and carers in the NSW Northern Rivers region

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin’s media release on 9 December 2010 brings some good news for older residents in the Northern Rivers region and their families :

Older people in Page will benefit from a total of 80 new aged care places allocated across the electorate by the Australian Government.

Page MP Janelle Saffin said the new places allocated under the Aged Care Approvals Round for 2009-10 include 39 residential care places and 41 community packages for care in the home.

“The new allocations reflect the need for varied types of aged care in our local community.

“While there is a growing demand for residential places, there are also many people who prefer to remain in their own homes.

“The allocations are for 32 high care residential places, 7 low care residential places, and 41 community aged care packages,” Ms Saffin said.

Local providers receiving the new allocations:

Baptist Community Services Northern Rivers: 5 Community Aged Care Packages

Ex-Services Home Ballina; 32 Residential Places High Care

Southern Cross, St Catherine’s Villa, Grafton: 2 Residential Places Low Care

St Michael’s Apartments, Casino 5 Residential Places Low Care

Frank Whiddon Homes Grafton 13 Community Aged Care Packages

Frank Whiddon Homes Kyogle 13 Community Aged Care Packages

Uniting Care Yamba 10 Community Aged Care Packages

The Aged Care Approvals Round for 2009-10 for Page is worth an estimated $2.34 million.

In addition, the Australian Government will provide the aged care sector nationally with $147 million in zero interest loans to build 819 places, along with more than $41.6 million in capital grants.

One perspective on the Great Information War of 2010

From The Human Network in The Blueprint post on 5 December 2010:

A few months ago I wrote about how confused I was by Julian Assange’s actions. Why would anyone taking on the state so directly become such a public figure? It made no sense to me. Now I see the plan. And it’s awesome.

You see, this is the first time anything like Wikileaks has been attempted. Yes, there have been leaks prior to this, but never before have hyperdistribution and cryptoanarchism come to the service of the whistleblower. This is a new thing, and as well thought out as Wikileaks might be, it isn’t perfect. How could it be? It’s untried, and untested. Or was. Now that contact with the enemy has been made – the state with all its powers – it has become clear where Wikileaks has been found wanting. Wikileaks needs a distributed network of servers that are too broad and too diffuse to be attacked. Wikileaks needs an alternative to the Domain Name Service. And Wikileaks needs a funding mechanism which can not be choked off by the actions of any other actor.

We’ve been here before. This is 1999, the company is Napster, and the angry party is the recording industry. It took them a while to strangle the beast, but they did finally manage to choke all the life out of it – for all the good it did them. Within days after the death of Napster, Gnutella came around, and righted all the wrongs of Napster: decentralized where Napster was centralized; pervasive and increasingly invisible. Gnutella created the ‘darknet’ for filesharing which has permanently crippled the recording and film industries. The failure of Napster was the blueprint for Gnutella.

In exactly the same way – note for note – the failures of Wikileaks provide the blueprint for the systems which will follow it, and which will permanently leave the state and its actors neutered. Assange must know this – a teenage hacker would understand the lesson of Napster. Assange knows that someone had to get out in front and fail, before others could come along and succeed. We’re learning now, and to learn means to try and fail and try again.

A letter to The Guardian editor on the British legal response to Assange allegations

 

From guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 December 2010 21.02 GMT:

Many women in both Sweden and Britain will wonder at the unusual zeal with which Julian Assange is being pursued for rape allegations (Report, 8 December). Women in Sweden don't fare better than we do in Britain when it comes to rape. Though Sweden has the highest per capita number of reported rapes in Europe and these have quadrupled in the last 20 years, conviction rates have decreased. On 23 April 2010 Carina Hägg and Nalin Pekgul (respectively MP and chairwoman of Social Democratic Women in Sweden) wrote in the Göteborgs-Posten that "up to 90% of all reported rapes never get to court. In 2006 six people were convicted of rape though almost 4,000 people were reported". They endorsed Amnesty International's call for an independent inquiry to examine the rape cases that had been closed and the quality of the original investigations.

Assange, who it seems has no criminal convictions, was refused bail in England despite sureties of more than £120,000. Yet bail following rape allegations is routine. For two years we have been supporting a woman who suffered rape and domestic violence from a man previously convicted after attempting to murder an ex-partner and her children – he was granted bail while police investigated.

There is a long tradition of the use of rape and sexual assault for political agendas that have nothing to do with women's safety. In the south of the US, the lynching of black men was often justified on grounds that they had raped or even looked at a white woman. Women don't take kindly to our demand for safety being misused, while rape continues to be neglected at best or protected at worst.

Katrin Axelsson

Women Against Rape

WikiLeaks: a tale of two U.S. Government positions on one issue

It would appear the United States Government has one rule for dealing with powerful media organisations (whose editorial stances could affect its political standing both internationally and domestically) and another for dealing with Wikileaks.

According to The New York Times on 28 November 2010:

About 11,000 of the cables are marked “secret.” An additional 9,000 or so carry the label “noforn,” meaning the information is not to be shared with representatives of other countries, and 4,000 are marked “secret/noforn.” The rest are either marked with the less restrictive label “confidential” or are unclassified. Most were not intended for public view, at least in the near term.

The Times has taken care to exclude, in its articles and in supplementary material, in print and online, information that would endanger confidential informants or compromise national security. The Times’s redactions were shared with other news organizations and communicated to WikiLeaks, in the hope that they would similarly edit the documents they planned to post online.

After its own redactions, The Times sent Obama administration officials the cables it planned to post and invited them to challenge publication of any information that, in the official view, would harm the national interest. After reviewing the cables, the officials — while making clear they condemn the publication of secret material — suggested additional redactions. The Times agreed to some, but not all. The Times is forwarding the administration’s concerns to other news organizations and, at the suggestion of the State Department, to WikiLeaks itself. In all, The Times plans to post on its Web site the text of about 100 cables — some edited, some in full — that illuminate aspects of American foreign policy.

Letters sent and received according to Foreign Policy and Public intelligence on 26 November and 28 November 2010 respectively:

From Assange to U.S. Government representative; Subject to the general objective of ensuring maximum disclosure of information in the public interest, WikiLeaks would be grateful for the United States Government to privately nominate any specific instances (record numbers or names) where it considers the publication of information would put individual persons at significant risk of harm that has not already been addressed. WikiLeaks will respect the confidentiality of advice provided by the United States Government and is prepared to consider any such submissions made without delay.

From U.S. Government to Assange legal representative; We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained U.S. Government classified materials.

Background:

CNN in Public Intelligence on 25 October 2010; An initial comparison of a few documents redacted by WikiLeaks to the same documents released by the Department of Defense shows that WikiLeaks removed more information from the documents than the Pentagon.
CNN accessed the Department of Defense versions from the official U.S. Central Command website, where it posts items that have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Something for New Sou' Welshies to think about as the year ends.....

I’m told that once-upon-a-time in regional New South Wales you could find yourself locked up in a secure mental health facility just on the say so of a family member backed up by the word of a GP who hadn’t actually seen or talked to you.
The only hope you had of getting out from under this form of domestic violence (if the trick cyclist on duty didn’t believe you) was to speak with the visiting magistrate.
Now it seems the bad old days are returning:
“You, or anyone in NSW, could be picked up by the police and held in detention for up to one month without any form of judicial review. This could happen at any time, even though you have committed no crime. These are not the latest draconian anti-terror laws nor are they laws targeting asylum seekers. This is a legal framework that is directed at you and me, or it will be if we are unlucky enough to occasionally suffer a severe mental illness…. The act places restrictions on psychiatrists' power. It says that "as soon as practicable" after someone is admitted involuntarily to hospital, their case must be heard by an independent umpire. Until June, the umpire was a magistrate who came to the hospital every week. The magistrate saw every patient who had been detained and psychiatrists had to justify that deprivation of liberty to the magistrate. In June though, the umpire became a lawyer from the Mental Health Review Tribunal and, instead of visiting the hospital, he or she started appearing by audiovisual link. Whereas patients detained in hospital would previously have an automatic review within a week or so, now that would not happen until they had been locked up three or four weeks. The words "as soon as practicable" were suddenly interpreted to mean "within about a month" and many patients would now be involuntarily admitted and eventually released without ever having their detention independently checked.”
Shame, Premier Keneally, Shame!