Resident concerns about proposed Dorrigo Plateau set out in letter to the editor

From The Coffs Coast Advocate on 24 February 2012:

Mining dangers

AS CONCERNED residents of the Tyringham area we would like to bring to the attention of your readers some facts regarding proposed mining on the Dorrigo plateau. Anchor Resources, a 90% Chinese-owned mining company, has been doing exploratory drilling at sites on the plateau and have found gold, copper and antimony.
They are proposing to proceed with open cut/underground mines. It is important that the following points be made known.
The Dorrigo plateau has been identified as a "refuge" for native wildlife under threat from climate change (mapped in the Northern Rivers Regional Biodiversity Management Strategy, a strategy that has been adopted federally).
The Mt Hyland Nature Reserve is directly adjacent to one of the prospective sites currently under license to Anchor. These mines will be between two World Heritage areas (will our tourists share the Waterfall Way with mining trucks and swim in polluted waterfalls/rivers?)
The plateau is located in the overlap zone of the New England Tablelands and NSW North Coast bioregions. Because of this, the area contains higher biodiversity values than those typically encountered in either of the bioregions when considered individually. It is also situated at the center of the McPherson-Macleay overlap, an area that supports a mix of species from subtropical and temperate Australia. As a result of these, the region is recognised internationally as a biodiversity hotspot.
The plateau is also the catchment for the Coffs Clarence Regional Water Supply and, I believe, the Bellingen area, providing drinking water for probably more than 100,000 people. The minerals proposed to be mined result in cyanide and arsenic waste, along with other toxic substances which cannot be safely stored in ponds in one of Australia's wettest zones. Contamination of our waterways is totally unacceptable. The industry associated with the rivers (coastal fisheries, tourism) will be directly affected at huge economic losses
Financial and employment benefits to Australians from mining are minimal. Compare this to the benefits from tourism, and eco-tourism in particular.
I have a feeling we will be reassured and told of the strict, world's best standards that will be employed, and the range of safeguards Anchor will be forced to put in place. However, the same assurances were given for all the world's recent environmental disasters - Deep Water Horizon's Gulf oil spill, the Exon Valdez, and others. If you want evidence of what can happen when things go wrong with mining, New Guinea, Amazonia, and Indonesia have multiple examples.
In this region of Australia, we have unfixable pollution in the upper Macleay, Urunga Lagoon (from similar antimony), and the Mole River near Tenterfield from past mining. In more recent times we had a serious oil spill off WA a couple of years ago, the Barrier Reef was recently struck by a freighter, and I understand there have been literally hundreds of toxic spills from the uranium mining adjacent to the Kakadu World Heritage Area.

KATHY AND IAN REALPH

Tony Abbott's wet dream?

Ideas in The Guardian last month which I think privately get Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott all excited:

“They used to do it subtly; they don’t bother any more. Last week a column in the Telegraph argued that businesses should get the vote. Though they pay tax, Damian Reece maintained, they have “no say in the running of local or national government”(1). To remedy this cruel circumscription, he suggested that elections in the UK should follow the example set by the City of London Corporation. This is the nation’s last rotten borough, in which ballots in 21 of its 25 wards are controlled by companies, whose bosses appoint the voters(2). I expect to see Mr Reece pursue this noble cause by throwing himself under the Queen’s horse.
Contrast this call for an extension of the franchise with a piece in the same paper last year, advocating an income qualification for voters. Only those who pay at least £100 a year in income tax, argued Ian Cowie, another senior editor at the Telegraph, should be allowed to vote(3). Blaming the credit crisis on the unemployed (who, as we know, lie in bed all day devising credit default swaps and collateralised debt obligations), Cowie averred that “it’s time to restore the link between paying something into society and voting on decisions about how it is run.” This qualification, he was good enough to inform us, could exclude “the majority of voters in some metropolitan areas today”. The proposal was repeated by Benedict Brogan, the Telegraph’s deputy editor(4).”

Only your loving family reads your blog? Finkelstein thinks you're too dangerous to be left to your own devices

Despite the fact that your blog may have a little as 41 ‘visits’ per day (including bot scans) the Australian Government’s Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation advises that there is a need to regulate your website:

3.80 Internet users generally are much more likely to visit the websites of news organisations than news blogs for online news. More than 60 per cent of internet users in each age group reported visiting websites of news organisations, with the proportion rising to more than three-quarters for those aged 18–34. More than half of those aged 25–34 and 35–49 visited the news websites at least weekly. In contrast, significantly fewer people in each age group reported visiting news blogs. In each case, visits to news blogs were seldom more frequent than weekly. Only around one in 10 of those in the 18–24 and 25–34 age groups reported daily visits to news blogs.

11.67 The second change arises from the fact that there are many newsletter publishers and bloggers, although no longer part of the ‘lonely pamphleteer’ tradition, who offer up-to-date reflections on current affairs. Quite a number have a very small audience. There are practical reasons for excluding from the definition of ‘news media’ publishers who do not have a sufficiently large audience. If a publisher distributes more than 3000 copies of print per issue or a news internet site has a minimum of 15 000 hits per annum it should be subject to the jurisdiction of the News Media Council, but not otherwise. These numbers are arbitrary, but a line must be drawn somewhere.

Welcome to the bizarre world being created by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy.

More than Timber - one perspective on Australia's forestry industry

http://youtu.be/RbxWIG3gbHE

http://youtu.be/mybeo-uaYls

Meet Bob Carr, Australian Foreign Minister Presumptive

Given how much former NSW Premier Bob Carr likes the sound of his own voice, I wager conservative meeja types will be scouring his old lectures, talks, speeches and off-the-cuff remarks for months to come on the off chance that he will become an embarrassment for the Australian Prime Minister.

Here are the man’s views on a variety of subjects at his own blog Thoughtlines with Bob Carr:

Labor Leadership February 27, 2012The public reaction against Labor if leadership speculation is resumed will be catastrophic. It will be branded the “New South Wales disease”.
Uranium Mining in NSW February 15, 2012

Of course the O’Farrell Government is right to attempt legislation to permit uranium exploration in NSW. I said this two months ago.

The Federal Government has expanded uranium mining and opened exports to India. South Australia boasts what will become the world’s largest uranium mine. The ban for NSW reflected the anti-nuclear sentiment of the 1980s and it is irrelevant today when to beat global warming we urgently need every available source of carbon-free energy.

Shooters Party MPs and the Christian Democratic Party would be well-advised to vote for this legislation on common-sense grounds.

The Primary in Florida February 1, 2012
The victory for Romney confirms that dominance in money and organization still counts. So much for the Gingrich insurgency. They confirm the Republican establishment is not in fact on the run from whooping and hollering members of the Tea Party.
The Dumb Demo Looks Dumber: The Nostalgic Left at Work January 29, 2012
UPDATE. Oh my God, so Unions ACT was the tip-off party. No revelation could make my point below more apt. The myth of the demo. The bankruptcy of old Left culture – paint the placards, stoke the anger and abuse, confront the police, produce scuffles. Create a lovely day out for the local anarchists and Trots. For them, a picnic excursion. This is the point I have been making: this outdated, campus-days, Teachers Federation amateur politics helps the Right. It makes Abbott look good.
Tent Embassy Demo January 27, 2012
I agree with Tony Abbott and think his remarks entirely sensible. The tent embassy in Canberra says nothing to anyone and should have been quietly packed up years ago.
Guns and Bibles January 23, 2012

That Rick Santorum is polling double figures in Republican contests confirms this is a B Team contest. But I warmed to the line from his election night speech in support of Americans who live for their guns and Bibles.

It does inspire this thought, however.

Imagine if a senior Iranian politician – a candidate for leadership – said his people should rally around the Koran and their guns.

And imagine the huffing and puffing on Fox, the op eds from the neo cons, the grim faced commentary from the Washington elite that this confirms the threat from Teheran and that war was all the more likely as a result.

There is little sense in the great republic, the US, of how its domestic antics get projected in the wider world.

Why super injunctions are as leaky as a sieve

The Telegraph U.K. 29 February 2011:

A parliamentary committee published a document revealing the details of one of Britain's last remaining super–injunctions.

In the submission to the 26–member committee, Mark Burby, a businessman based in the Channel Islands, claimed that he had been gagged by the "ex–spouse of an Asian head of state" in 2009.

He said the "Asian head of state" – whom he does not identify – was a "substantial" backer of al–Qaeda, and had advance warning of the suicide bombings on London's transport system in 2005.

The ex–wife "and her solicitors have boasted to me and others that she 'owns' the courts in England and Wales and the Government", he said.

Mr Burby alleged the unnamed ex–spouse, whom he described as one of the wealthiest women in the world, had a sexual relationship "with one of her two solicitors"…..

Evidence presented under parliamentary privilege to the U.K. Parliament Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions here.

Neither the media article nor the written submission disclosed much more than what is quoted above. However, I’m of the opinion that a quick Google search based on the name of former air flight attendant Mariam Abdul Aziz would indicate that the silly court-imposed super injunction is not worth the paper it is printed on. This is supported by previously published legal judgments freely available on the Internet which allude to some of the pertinent facts.

If my supposition is in fact correct, then it might make one wonder why Archerfield Partners LLP and the British Courts continue to pursue the fiction that in today’s digital world a legal injunction can or will stop the flow of publicly available information.

Notice to Google Inc. 1 March 2012

As of midnight 1 March 2012 North Coast Voices has suspended displaying Google advertising due to the intrusive nature of the corporation's New Privacy & Terms Policy coming into effect on that day.

How sweet it is - far right politics in action

Well we all knew this was bound to happen as the media changed its focus in the hunt for political bloodletting……… 

Abbott plans cause Liberal dissent by Andrew Probyn in The West Australian on 29th February 2012:

“Fighting has erupted within Liberal ranks caused by old enmities and Tony Abbott's spending priorities.

Argument inside the coalition party room about the Opposition Leader's extremely generous paid parental leave scheme was yesterday temporarily interrupted by another blue.

When Victorian Liberal Senator Scott Ryan sided with consumers over the milk wars, citing WA supermarket prices at one point, Liberal headkicker and farmer Bill Heffernan called his colleague a "f…wit".

Others rounded on Senator Heffernan. Sophie Mirabella bellowed at the 68-year-old to "pop your Alzheimer pills".

And Mr Abbott had to fend off harsh criticism of his paid parental leave scheme which _The West Australian _ has been told is "practically friendless" in shadow Cabinet.

Victorian MP Russell Broadbent said the $3.3 billion scheme, part funded by a 1.5 per cent tax on big business, was the wrong priority when the Opposition should be looking to fund such things as disability services.

Queenslander Sue Boyce agreed, describing Mr Abbott’s proposal as a “Rolls-Royce scheme, when all we need is a Holden scheme”. Under the policy, a woman who takes six months leave to look after their baby will get six months income replacement, capped at $75,000 for women who earn more than $150,000. Despite being deeply unpopular with his entire economic team, the policy was vigorously defended by Mr Abbott who said it was a workplace entitlement and, though a tax on the biggest companies, would increase productivity. One senior Liberal said Mr Abbott was so wedded to the policy that if he was to forced to ditch policies “this one would survive”.  

Which idiot put Bob Carr's name forward?

So “Mr Carr released a statement yesterday confirming that "party officers had talked to him about the possibility of him filling the NSW Senate vacancy and be able to be considered for the office of foreign minister". But he added that "Prime Minister Gillard had definitely not made any offer about the foreign affairs ministry nor had any one on her behalf".

Now which idiot even considered this man as a suitable candidate?

This is the same man who - for no good reason other than he felt like it – quit mid-term as NSW Premier and Maroubra MP causing a state by-election.

The same man who - after talking a lot of guff about wanting to take time in retirement to enjoy the beauty of Sydney – parachuted straight into lucrative positions with major multinationals and placed himself on the corporate speakers circuit.

The same one-eyed adorer of all things American who if let anywhere near national policy would take us down the yellow brick road and into a disastrous U.S. style political system.

The very same opinionated man who in 2005 swore he had no intention of going to Canberra.

UPDATE:

"JULIA Gillard has dramatically asserted her authority as Prime Minister, naming former NSW premier Bob Carr as her new minister for foreign affairs....He confirmed he would seek re-election at the next election, saying he was a “natural senator”.
There goes the NSW vote in 2013!

A selection of Wikileaks' Stratfor emails for your edification and amusement

The Business of STRATFOR

After fifteen years in business it surprises me sometimes how many people wonder about who we are, who funds us, and what we do.  The media refers to us as a think tank, a political risk consultancy, a security company and worse--academics. The Russian media calls us part of the CIA. Arab countries say we are Israelis. It’s wild.  The only things we haven’t been called is a hardware store or Druids.  Given this confusion, I thought it might be useful to occasionally write to our members about the business of STRATFOR, on topics ranging from our business model to how we gather intelligence. 

Let me start with basics.  STRATFOR is a publishing company and it publishes one product—our online intelligence service.  STRATFOR focuses on one subject, international relations.  It uses intelligence rather than journalistic methods to collect information (a topic for a later discussion) and geopolitics as an analytic method for understanding the world.

Stratfor currently has about 292,000 paying subscribers, divided between individual subscribers and institutional ones.  This inflates our subscriber base.  There are many organizations that buy site licenses for all or many of their employees.  We know that most of them never read us.  From a strictly factual point of view, 292,000 paid readers is the number.  Practically it is less but we don’t know how much less.  On the other hand, our free material, two weekly pieces that are sent to our free list and then circulates virally as they say, has been estimated to reach about 2.2 million readers each week.  Where our paid subscription is certainly increased by an unknown degree, this is probably and accurate number. 

The reason that I can be so casual about these numbers is that we do not allow advertising in Stratfor.  If we did, we would be obsessed by the accuracy.  But we don’t for two reasons, one of which is not that we are concerned about advertisers skewing our objectivity.  We are too ornery for that.  The reason is business.  We are in the business of gathering intelligence and delivering it to readers.  Being in another business, selling our readership to advertisers is too complicated for my simple brain.  Plus we would wind up not only depending on my dubious business acumen, but on the acumen of our advertisers.  Second, advertising on the internet doesn’t come close to paying for the cost of content production.  Content aggregators like Google take free content from others and advertise against that.  That’s great business.  But when you are actually producing content, advertising simply won’t cover the costs.

We are therefore one of the few original content producers to be making money by simply selling subscriptions on the web without advertising.  I’m pretty proud of that, in a world where experts say it can’t be done, and I wish I could take credit for that, but it actually is something our Chairman, Don Kuykendall, came up with in 2000.  His view was simple: if you can’t sell at a profit, you don’t have a business.  So we asked people to pay and to my stunned surprise, they did.  So we had a business.

Until that point we were a consultancy.  Only we weren’t a consultancy because a consultant is an expert drawing on long experience to give answers.  Its nice work if you can get it. But we never were a consultancy really. We were a service provider—we would find out things in foreign countries for our corporate clients, usually expensive work in unpleasant countries.  The problem here was profit margin. It costs a lot to gather information in foreign countries, so the nice fat contracts looked very skinny by the time we were done.  We do some intelligence for companies who have been clients of ours for a long time, but at this point about 90 percent of our revenue comes from publishing—you subscription. That supports over 100 employees in the U.S. and sources around the world.

So think of us as a publishing company that produces news using intelligence rather than journalistic methods.  That means that we have people in the field collecting information that they pass on the analysts who understand the information who pass it to writers who write up the information, with any number of steps.  This division of labor allows us the efficiency to produce the product you pay for.  And it has to be a quality product to earn your continued subscription get you to continue to pay. Still gets the point across but sounds less cavalier about it…

The nice part of all of this is that we really aren’t beholden to anyone except our readers, who are satisfied by what we produce, since we have one of the highest renewal rates in the business.  Our goal is simple—to make the complexity of the world understandable to an intelligent but non-professional readership, without ideology or national bias.  Dispassionate is what we strive for, in content and in tone.  In a world filled with loud noise, speaking in a subdued voice draws attention. With over one-quarter of our readers coming from outside the U.S. and Canada, and that percentage growing, these are essential things what are?.

We are more aware than our readers of our shortcomings—everything we do comes under scrutiny from whoever wants to take a shot—including everything I write.  Knowing our shortcomings (I will not tell you about them until we fixed them in the event you missed it) is the key to our success. Fixing it is our challenge.   We are now in a six month surge focused on increasing quality and staff.  The two seem contradictory but that’s our challenge.

Hopefully this gives you some sense of the business of Stratfor that will help you understand us.  I’ll be doing these very few weeks (I don’t want to be tied down on a schedule since I travel a lot—heading to Indonesia at the end of this month).  But its probably time to make sure we aren’t thought of as a think tank—a term I really hate.  When you think of it, think tank is a really bizarre term.

Not for Pub --
We have a sealed indictment on Assange.

Pls protect

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

It is possible to revoke citizenship on the grounds of being a dickhead except in Australia, where all of Queensland and a good part of South Australia, along with all of Sydney Uni would lose their passports.

On 12/05/10 22:42 , Chris Farnham wrote:

Is it possible to revoke some one's citizenship on the grounds of them being a total dickhead?
I don't care about the other leaks but the ones he has made that potentially damage Australian interests upset me.
If I thought I could switch this dickhead off without getting done I don't think I'd have too much of a problem.
BTW, close family friend in Sweden who knows the girl that is pressing charges tells me that there is absolutely nothing behind it other than prosecutors that are looking to make a name for themselves. My friend speaks rather disparagingly about the girl who is claiming molestation.
I also think the whole rape thing is incorrect for if I remember correctly rape was never the charge.

One other point is this. Ferreting out his confederates is also key.
Find out what other disgruntled rogues inside the tent or outside. Pile on. Move him from country to country to face various charges for the
next 25 years. But, seize everything he and his family own, to include every person linked to Wiki.
Marko Papic wrote:
Nate makes a good point. The arrest is not necessarily the end of Julian Assange. He could become a martyr in jail, particularly a Swedish jail, which I imagine has better amenities than my house.

Assange is going to make a nice bride in prison. Screw the terrorist.
He'll be eating cat food forever, unless George Soros hires him.

The following email exchange involves retired Nationals Senator for Queensland Bill O’Chee.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "William \"Bill\" O'Chee"
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 21:57:49 +1000
To:
Subject: Re: Julian Assange arrest
Sadly he didn't have a car accident on the way there.
William Oa**Chee
aa**aa"*aa>>*
Partner
Himalaya Consulting
Australia: +61 422 688886
China mob: +86 1365 1001069
On 07/12/2010, at 9:52 PM, burton@stratfor.com wrote:

Thx

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Nationals keep up their reputation of telling whoppers to NSW North Coast electorates

The whoppers, pork pies, downright lies being told by State and Federal Nats MPs to NSW North Coast voters are becoming so frequent and predictable that by the time the next general elections roll around their reputations won’t be worth a brass farthing.

Here’s one of the latest efforts found in The Daily Examiner on 29^th February 2912 which left Andrew Stoner with egg on his face:

“THE CURRENT 50/50 funding model may make the 2016 deadline for the Pacific Hwy duplication unachievable, according to NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner.

The NSW Nationals leader and Minister for Regional Infrastructure and Services said a return to the previous 80% federal, 20% state funding model could see the 2016 deadline met.

He said by the Gillard Labor Government walking away from the previous 80/20 funding model in favour of the current 50/50 model, the dual carriageway duplication of the highway by 2016 was in serious jeopardy.

"Every other piece of the national land transport network in NSW has been funded at 80% or better by the Federal Government," he said.

"For the Gillard Labor Government to suddenly walk away from a historic funding split of 80/20 is not only disappointing it really jeopardises the 2016 completion date."

But it appears Mr Stoner may have his facts wrong when it comes to previous funding arrangements, with the federal ALP claiming it was not responsible for implementing the current funding arrangement.

Federal member for Page Janelle Saffin hit back at Mr Stoner, saying the 50/50 funding model for the highway was introduced by the federal Coalition and not by federal Labor, as Mr Stoner claimed.

"50/50 funding was first established not by Labor but by the former Howard government back in 2004," she said.

"It was established to reach the goal of the full duplication of the highway by 2016…."

More from the Cansdell-Gulaptis Roadshow

Cartoonist Jules Faber joins in electorate-wide laughter in the 29.02.12 issue of The Daily Examiner.

While Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis also tries for a humorous response to his politically co-joined twin status being accidentally recognised in Hansard:

"It's a bit of a dent to the ego, actually," Mr Gulaptis said yesterday.
"Steve's copped a couple of knocks to the head and had a few other bumps and bruises along the way.
"I thought they might have noticed the difference.
"It seems like it might be a bit like the Australian cricket team a few years ago - once you get in you'll never get out."

NSW Parliament 2012: The Ghost Who Votes

When political tragics in the NSW state electorate of Clarence started to call the new member of parliament ‘Steve’ Gulaptis MP (because there appeared to be less than a finger width difference between disgraced former Nationals MP Steve Cansdell and his replacement Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis) it was a bit of an ‘in’ joke which grew organically on Google.

However, the joke seems to be on the O’Farrell Government for the identity confusion has spread farther than expected.

Although Cansdell resigned in September 2011 and, is awaiting the outcome of a police investigation into his own actions, he is still voting in the NSW Legislative Assembly in 2012 according to Hansard in proof edition on 22 & 23 February.

I understand that now the joke is very public there is a bit of a scramble to correct the record to show that it was actually parliamentary novice Gulaptis who was voting. However, these snapshots preserve The Ghost Who Votes for posterity.

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/hanstrans.nsf/V3ByKey/LA20120222?open&refNavID=HA1_1

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/hanstrans.nsf/V3ByKey/LA20120223?open&refNavID=HA2_1

Click on images to enlarge

Although the transcription error possibly originated with tellers on the floor of the Chamber, one has to wonder if Premier O'Farrell's relentless pursuit of cost-cutting and industrial reform within the public service may be having a demoralising effect on Hansard staff.

How many police are assigned to the NSW North Coast?

When individuals on the NSW North Coast become dissatisfied as a result of their interactions with police, they often point to perceived low police numbers in their area as one of the reasons for any failings with regard to law enforcement.

Excerpts from the MINISTERIAL AUDIT OF THE NSW POLICE FORCE: Version 2 – October 2011 below appear to indicate that, although authorised and actual local police numbers compare favourably with other regional areas, these numbers are disproportionally impacted by the level of sick leave occurring across North Coast area commands.

At the beginning of the 2011-12 financial year the combined personnel shortfall in these northern commands totalled 145 officers, with 172 officers being on long-term sick leave for 45 days out of the previous 60 days.

Northern Region Local Area Command Strength Figures at 31 July 2011:

Coffs/Clarence Authorised 193 Actual 194 Operational 153 Variance –40

Mid North Coast Authorised 174 Actual 171 Operational 141 Variance –33  

Richmond Authorised 197 Actual 196 Operational 165

Variance – 32

Tweed/Byron Authorised 172 Actual 171 Operational 132 Variance -40  

  

Long term sick (LTS) does not impact on LACs in the Central Metropolitan Region as it does on the country Regions. The LAC with the highest number of staff not available due to LTS is Sutherland with 5 - compare this with Newcastle City (33) & Tweed/Byron (15) - Northern Region; Wollongong (21) & Lake Illawarra (16) - Southern Region; and, Oxley (Tamworth)(14) & Chifley (Bathurst)(14) - Western Region.

Northern Region has the highest percentage variance of operational strength versus authorised strength of the six Regions

 The most occurring category for unavailability is Long Term Sick

 172 officers in the Region as at 31.6.2011 had been recorded as having been off duty on Long Term Sick 45 days out of the previous 60 days

 124 officers in the Region were unavailable due to having been placed on "restricted duties‟ - this includes permanently restricted (37); temporary

restricted (65); pregnancy-related protocols (21); and, disciplinary (1)

 46 officers were officially classified as "Medically Overstrength‟ (awaiting discharge)

In Northern NSW the top five LACs for Long Term Sick are - Newcastle (33); Tweed/Byron (15); Richmond (14); Coffs/Clarence (12) and, Mid-North Coast and Port Stephens (Both 11).

WetlandCare Australia's 14th Annual Cane Toad Roundup at Yamba NSW - Sunday March 4, 2012

Click on poster to enlarge

 
Be there!

WHERE: Yamba Golf & Country Club
WHEN: Roundup begins after sunset and registration starts at 6.30pm
WHAT TO WEAR & BRING: Covered footwear, clothes appropriate to the weather, gloves, torch, net and insect repellent
CHILDREN: Under 18 year-old participants must be accompanied by an adult. At least 1 adult for every 4 children.
FOOD: Sausage sizzle on the night

Finally, Labor factional warlord and Australian Senator Mark Arbib resigns

One of the more poisonous features of the Australian political sub-culture are those operators who think it's all about the influence and power held by their own ideological 'tribes'.

Thankfully, one of the most destructive examples of these narcissistic warlords NSW Senator Mark Arbib has finally resigned.
But not until after he had followed up his whiteanting of NSW Labor with a four-year long attempt to bring Federal Labor to its knees.

Snap of Arbib from The Age

Former Member for Clarence, Steve What's-his-name, gets an unfavourable mention in Hansard

On 22 February the former MP for Clarence, Steve 'Stat Dec' Cansdell received a mention in the Legislative Assembly but it was not one that he is expected to obtain a copy of and paste in his scrap book.

Craig Baumann, the member for Port Stephens (he's a member of the Liberal Party) remarked to the current MP for Clarence, Christopher Gulaptis:

As one who sat next to Steve in this place for four years, I think Steve held the record for being late for question time. I think you, Mr Assistant-Speaker, would agree.

Source: Hansard, NSW Legislative Assembly, 22/2/12

Federal MP for Page Janelle Saffin's statement on the Labor leadership ballot of 27 February 2012

Janelle Saffin’s statement on the leadership ballot

Today the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party held a leadership ballot. The Caucus chose Julia Gillard, who will continue to lead our party in Parliament and lead the country as Prime Minister of Australia.

I have worked in the past with both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard as Labor Prime Ministers, and have done so to the benefit of the Page electorate. Both have been good friends to our electorate and this relationship will continue.

Like Kevin Rudd, I’ve been a member of the Australian Labor Party for 30 years. I believe the ALP is the best vehicle to achieve fairness and justice in Australia society and I’ll continue to represent the people of Page in an effective, strong and independent way.

I am heartened by the comments of both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard today after the vote, and their gracious recognition of each others’ strengths, abilities and achievements.

I know people may be disappointed, as like me, we all get to love our leaders. I know some would like to directly vote for leaders but we don’t. It is not our law or tradition. The party that secures government does so.

I congratulated Prime Minister Gillard on her success and I congratulated former PM Kevin Rudd for his contribution to Australia and the Labor Party.

As Prime Minister, Kevin did Australia proud and is widely recognised as being right up there with the best. I want to say that he has left us a great legacy -- leading us through the Global Financial Crisis, the Apology,  the pension increases, paid maternity leave and more.

Julia as Prime Minister built on these and is building her own leadership legacy.

For me, I can say I am relieved that this is over as I stepped in a small way on to the national stage through the media as this was an important discussion.

I had declared publicly my support for Kevin Rudd and I stated my reasons. I pleased some and disappointment others, but I spoke truthfully as I do with my electorate.

I thank all the thousands of people who made their views known to me and say that I shall now continue to do what I do best -- be a feisty local Federal Member and in my words, get things done, for the people of Page.

Media contact:  Lee Duncan 0448 158 150

Wikileaks begins release of Stratfor Global Intelligence files on 27 February 2012

Wikileaks on Stratfor and the The Global Intelligence Files:

LONDON—Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example:

"[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control... This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase" – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.

The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the "Yes Men", for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.

Stratfor has realised that its routine use of secret cash bribes to get information from insiders is risky. In August 2011, Stratfor CEO George Friedman confidentially told his employees: "We are retaining a law firm to create a policy for Stratfor on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I don’t plan to do the perp walk and I don’t want anyone here doing it either."

Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality. The emails show that in 2009 then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman hatched an idea to "utilise the intelligence" it was pulling in from its insider network to start up a captive strategic investment fund. CEO George Friedman explained in a confidential August 2011 document, marked DO NOT SHARE OR DISCUSS: "What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like". The emails show that in 2011 Goldman Sach’s Morenz invested "substantially" more than $4million and joined Stratfor’s board of directors. Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff: "Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral... It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor... we are already working on mock portfolios and trades". StratCap is due to launch in 2012.

The Stratfor emails reveal a company that cultivates close ties with US government agencies and employs former US government staff. It is preparing the 3-year Forecast for the Commandant of the US Marine Corps, and it trains US marines and "other government intelligence agencies" in "becoming government Stratfors". Stratfor’s Vice-President for Intelligence, Fred Burton, was formerly a special agent with the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and was their Deputy Chief of the counterterrorism division. Despite the governmental ties, Stratfor and similar companies operate in complete secrecy with no political oversight or accountability. Stratfor claims that it operates "without ideology, agenda or national bias", yet the emails reveal private intelligence staff who align themselves closely with US government policies and channel tips to the Mossad – including through an information mule in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Yossi Melman, who conspired with Guardian journalist David Leigh to secretly, and in violation of WikiLeaks’ contract with the Guardian, move WikiLeaks US diplomatic cables to Israel……

David Pope put Labor leadership challenge into perspective - with a sweep sheet

davpope David Pope Here's a handy form if you're running a sweep at work this morning: http://t.co/8s70AxRe #respill 

Last week in pictures and today's Australian leadership ballot live coverage.....

As the nation waits for the Labor leadership announcement

Leadership Cartoons from news.com.au

ABC NEWS 24 live cover (without international geoblock)

from approximately 5am Monday 27 February 2012 AEST

Ballot expected shortly after 10am

National Times live blog

The Sydney Morning Herald live updates with video

UPDATE:11.19am Labor Caucus ballot result:
Gillard 71
Rudd 31

How the U.S. Embassy saw the Rudd-Gillard relationship in December 2009

Apparently Kevin Rudd may not have been as surprised by Gillard’s 2010 challenge as he now claims……………

09CANBERRA1123
SUBJECT

RUDD GOVERNMENT REPORT CARD 2009
DATE

2009-12-23 00:00:00

CLASSIFICATION

CONFIDENTIAL 
ORIGIN
Embassy Canberra

TEXT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CANBERRA 001123

“9. (C) Rudd has unprecedented power for a Labor leader; one MP told us he had never seen a Labor Caucus as subservient to its leader, noting Rudd's control over promotions.

Another told us she was surprised at marginal seat holders' acquiescence on the ETS.

However, powerbrokers confide the factions will assert themselves when Rudd's popularity wanes.
Possibly aware of this, Rudd in 2009 further courted New  South Wales factional heavyweights Anthony Albanese (New South Wales Left) and Mark Arbib (New South Wales Right) and elevated Senator Joe Ludwig (Queensland Right - Swan's faction) to a more senior position in Cabinet. Ludwig is the son of powerful Queensland Right union official Bill Ludwig.
One theory is that Rudd is developing a "praetorian guard" based on the historically powerful New South Wales Right to head off any challenge from GILLARD; that it was no accident that Rudd promoted Arbib, Bowen and Clare (all from the New South Wales Right). Bitar, who is close to Arbib and succeeded him as New South Wales General Secretary, became ALP National Secretary in late 2008……

14. (C) COMMENT: After two years in office, questions are being asked about the Rudd government's appetite for making tough decisions. Rudd will be scrutinized in 2010, accused by some of over-promising and under-delivering, particularly on health care issues. The Opposition will highlight Rudd's penchant for lengthy reviews and overseas trips….”

A short note to Kevin Rudd MP from one regional voter

Dear Kevin,

I’m not going to recap your past political victories or defeats here . Real though they may be, in many respects time has made them irrelevant to the present situation.

Nor am I going to dwell on any perceived failings of federal government from November 2007 until now – because government has been steady under trying circumstances over those four and a bit years.

What I am going to do is urge you to consider your own behaviour in either victory or defeat after next Monday.

Should you lose the ballot cast by your peers, I recommend that you do not challenge for leadership again before 2015 and foreswear any private contact with journalists  or political commentators until then.

Should you win through on Monday and become Australian Prime Minister once more, then I strongly recommend that you find a level of  personal and professional humility, tolerance, empathy and understanding which has so obviously escaped you thus far.

Regards,

A Regional Voter

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