A tick of approval for Northern Rivers folk

 
Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner  6 February 2013:

Thanks, Yamba

I would really appreciate if you would afford me a few lines to thank a few people in the Yamba area following an accident that my son, Charlie aged 10 years, suffered a couple of weeks ago.
My family and I first started coming to Yamba about 10 years ago.
At first it was just a stopover visit on the way to the Gold Coast but from the moment we stayed our first night in Yamba we knew that it was a special place that hopefully one day we could call home. We have been coming here for three weeks in January ever since, never missing a year. A recent bit of misfortune highlighted some of the reasons why we think this town is special and why we will keep coming back.
Our son Charlie, who is 10, was hit by a car after only a couple of days of being here on holiday in Yamba. He sustained a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg. He was immediately taken by ambulance to Maclean Hospital from where he was taken to Lismore Base Hospital for emergency surgery.
With Charlie not being able to travel back to our home town of Bourke after a couple of days at Lismore Hospital we returned to our holiday destination Yamba for the remainder of our holiday, with Charlie bedridden for the first week before being able to get about in a wheelchair.
The great work done by the local ambulance officers and police officers at the scene was terrific. The care and attention that we got from both Maclean and Lismore Hospital was exceptional. On returning to Yamba and where we were staying at the Moby Dick Resort, the managers Rod and Leanne and the owners, Russell and Belinda, have been nothing short of amazing with Charlie and all our efforts in looking after him.
Rodney and all his staff at BP servo and all shop owners as well as many locals have been very supportive; often going out of their way to help us and make Charlie's holiday enjoyable!
You have a very unique and friendly town with some VERY SPECIAL people in it. We look forward to many many more visits and one day a more permanent move from Bourke to Yamba.

Tanya Farrell

Bourke

 

Lock The Gate: Another Northern Rivers MP steps up to the plate

 

The Northern Star 4 February 2013

 

______________________

 

Richmond MP Justine Elliot says she has relinquished her role as Parliamentary Secretary for Trade as it conflicted with her fight to stop coal seam gas mining on the North Coast.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that Ms Elliot was stepping down from the position on Saturday during the press conference in which she also announced that Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Leader of The Government in the Senate Chris Evans would not contest the next election.

Ms Elliot was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Trade after the last election.

 

________________________

 

"I'll always stand up for locals on the issues that are important to us, like calling for a moratorium on CSG mining in our region," she said.

"In contrast, all the National Party MPs and candidates on the North Coast support harmful CSG mining in our area.

Mrs Elliot said it was time to draw a line in the sand on the environmental issue of CSG mining.

"We know the community's view," she said.

"It is clear.

"Our community does not want CSG mining.

"I call on the National Party state MPs to tell the O'Farrell government that our community demands a moratorium on CSG.

__________________________

 

Coal Seam Gas: NE Queensland and Northern NSW on the international stage

http://youtu.be/amyJVu34G3w

Truth in advertising and the coal seam gas industry

 

So confident is the coal seam gas industry of widespread political support across all three tiers of government and  so certain of the fickle attention span of the mainstream media, that its spokespeople knowingly utter falsehoods as easily as they breathe in and out.

 

They film an industry employee on land they don't have permission to enter in an effort to mislead the general public into believing that the employee is a farmer standing on his own land extolling the virtues of coal seam gas.

 

They make a blatantly false statement in print that has to be rebutted by CSIRO scientists:

 

CSIRO rejects claims made by APPEA regarding groundwater and coal seam gas

 

CSIRO rejects the claim made in a television commercial aired on Sunday 2 September that ‘CSIRO [and government studies] have shown that groundwater is safe with coal seam gas’.

• 4 September 2012

At no time has CSIRO made such a statement, and nor do the results of CSIRO research support such a statement.

CSIRO continues to undertake research to better understand the impacts of coal seam gas extraction on groundwater quality and quantity.

CSIRO has stated on the public record that coal seam gas extraction is likely to pose a ‘low risk’ to groundwater quality through contamination. CSIRO has also indicated that groundwater levels will fall as a consequence of coal seam gas extraction. In some places this could see aquifer levels subside by tens of metres for tens of years; in others it is likely to reduce aquifer levels by several metres for several hundred years.

CSIRO continues to undertake research to better understand the impacts of coal seam gas extraction on groundwater quality and quantity.

CSIRO became aware of the advertisement produced by Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) via a scan of social media on Friday 31 August and requested for the commercial to not be aired.

 

Because of this whatever-it-takes business culture which is loose with the truth, one has to question copies of print advertising the industry has displayed on one of its websites www.wewantcsg.com.au.

 

Who is this woman pictured below? Does she really come from Casino on the NSW North Coast? Is she a genuine school teacher or is she an industry employee or even a paid advertsing model? Is she related to someone who works for a mining company? Is she on the staff of a politician who is pro-coal seam gas?
Does she really want CSG?

Perhaps an NCV reader can answer these questions.

 

Donges does it again

If ever a bloke has a knack of raising hackles and putting whole communities off side, it would be Clarence Valley Council Deputy Manager and Walking Disaster Rob Donges.

Here he is at it again in The Daily Examiner.
 

“GETTING WET: Fry St resident Aaron Hancock took this photo of water spilling into his yard.
 

AFTER witnessing floodwater pouring over the Grafton levee wall into their yards and homes on Tuesday, residents near Fry St were gobsmacked to read it hadn't happened.

One resident, Aaron Hancock, was incensed when a friend pointed out comments from Clarence Valley Council deputy general manager Rob Donges that the water in his yard came from "wave action".

"Water was pouring over the top of the wall until we put sandbags along the wall," he said.

"Then the water looked like it was going to come over them as well, so we put another layer on.

"And we had two big petrol pumps going for four hours to keep the water out of our homes."

Mr Hancock said in addition to the water spilling over the top there was water spraying through seams in the levee wall.

He said water was coming over the wall at about 10 properties from the bridge side of Fry St through to Dobie St.”

The Fry St. levee had begun to buckle under the pressure of flood waters and here's proof the Clarence Valley Review published of the running repairs required to stop it collapsing.

Ethical investors need to be aware of what JPMorgan Chase is supporting in Australia

 

JPMorgan Chase & Co claims to be one of the oldest financial institutions in the United States. With a history dating back over 200 years. It is certainly one of the largest.

 

This wealthy multinational corporation with global assets worth $2.3 trillion asserts; Our integrity and reputation depend on our ability to do the right thing, even when it's not the easy thing.  

 

Further it states that it; believes that responsible corporate citizenship demands a strong commitment to a healthy and informed democracy through civic and community involvement.

 

JP Morgan Chase also has a 100% owned subsidiary, JPMorgan Nominees Australia Ltd which just happens to be the eighth largest shareholder in Metgasco Limited with a 5.4 million share parcel as at 21 September 2012.

 

Metagasco is a coal seam gas and exploration company currently operating on the NSW North Coast in the face of sustained opposition by local communities, such as Glenugie in the Clarence Valley and Casino in the Richmond Valley.

 

In the Lismore local government area alone the September 2012 plebiscite resulted in 86.26 per cent of the 25,595 electors who voted saying “No” to coal seam gas exploration and production in their districts.

 

If JPMorgan Chase genuinely believes in democratic processes and doing the right thing, one wonders why it is financially supporting a coal seam gas mining company with a spotty regulatory compliance history and no social license.

 

If you are an investor trying to act in an ethical manner, then perhaps you need to reassess any financial interaction you might have with JPMorgan Chase.

Remembering the deeply weird side of Mr. Rabbitt - Part Six

Mr. Rabbitt is caught showing his caring side....

*Found on Twitter

A Fractured Fairy Tale From The Kingdom of Agrariae Socialismi

Once upon a time the Lord High Chamberlain of Emperor Mellifluous in the Kingdom of Agrariae Socialismi became worried about the number of scribes living in the land.

He worried, not for his emperor, but for himself. He did not think the peasants were suitably in awe of him or that the emperor's inner council looked up to him and he suspected that the scribes' pens were often dipped in irony.

Believing that no-one knew what he did to neuter the scribes in another land in the distant past, he decided that he would beg his master to employ a lowly scribe for him, who would sign the parchments on which his own words were written and who would convince the other scribes that they should never seek an audience with Emporer Mellifluous or anyone on his inner council.

In this way the Lord High Chamberlain hoped to keep information secret close to his chest and control all the news across the land.

Unfortunately, his first scribe from those long ago days had talked - and the people of the Kingdom of Agrariae Socialismi had listened well to travellers' tales.

So they won't be drinking the cold mead.

to be continued...

Aunty goes off the rails

Mornings, 23rd November 2012

Summary published: 1st February 2013

Complaint:

Several audience members complained about interviews on 774 ABC Melbourne which covered allegations against the Prime Minister in relation to her involvement in an AWU slush fund. Complainants said that interviews with Mark Baker, Editor-at-Large at The Age and Michael Smith, former 2UE talkback host, lacked balance, were conducted aggressively, and that the presenter demonstrated bias.

Complaint Finding Status: Upheld

Upheld against 4.1 ABC Editorial Policies (11 April 2011)

Audience and Consumer Affairs response:

Audience and Consumer Affairs found that the interviews were in breach of the ABC’s editorial requirement to gather and present news and information with due impartiality. The argumentative style of the interviews, combined with a pattern of strongly stated personal opinions by the presenter that at times oversimplified the issues at hand, was not in keeping with the ABC’s rigorous impartiality standards for news and information. Seventeen complaints were upheld.

Complaints finalised January 2013.

http://about.abc.net.au/complaints/mornings-17/

Sadly, some things never change

Letter to the Editor,
The Daily Examiner,
Grafton

This is a letter that asks a stark, grim question and is addressed, in part, to whoever left two little kittens on the street on New Year's Eve. Why did you dump two little kittens, just putting them in a box and leaving them in the street, not caring if they had shelter or food? There's a skinny dog that prowls by the garbage bins and around the park seats and if he finds a bone or a crust he is having a lucky day. If you are worthy to own a dog, it is your decent duty to feed him and give him the best you can.

Mrs D Rowlands,
RSPCA

Source: The Daily Examiner, 6/2/1963

(reprinted in " Backward Glances: From The Daily Examiner, Fifty Years Ago",

compiled by Chris Nield, 6/2/2013)

CSG mining company Metgasco now throwing Githabul elders off their own land?

Officials close the Eden Creek State Forest
adjoining the Doubtful Creek coal seam gas drilling site yesterday afternoon

In order to assist Metgasco Limited in its battle with Northern Rivers protestors, officials have closed Eden Creek State Forest.

Therefore Metgasco needs to explain why an elder apparently in the forest as part of his cultural duties and obligations found himself in the middle of this incident reported in The Daily Examiner on 6 February 2013:

Earlier, two Githabul elders were arrested in two separate incidences while police secured the site.

Witnesses said one of the men was conducting a Githabul initiation ceremony when he was arrested within the Eden Creek State Forest for allegedly spitting.

Eden Creek State Forest was handed back to the Githabul people under the Native Title Act in 2007.
 

Northern Rivers Talking Turkey 31 January 2013

UPDATE:

The Echo Net Daily 6 February 2013.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteers will no longer feed police at an anti-coal-seam gas (CSG) protest at Doubtful Creek near Kyogle after an outcry from local firies opposed to CSG.

The 'alleged' defamation that NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell is now trying to spin

 

Premier O'Farrell appears to believe that saying "alleged" absolved him of all blame in this report by ABC News 2 February 2013:

 

Mr McCardle is demanding an apology from Mr O'Farrell and says his client will take him to court for defamation if he does not.

But Mr O'Farrell says he does not see any need to apologise.

"I hasten to explain to Mr McCardle, who is a lawyer, that I did use the word allegations," he told Macquarie Radio.

"I didn't prejudge the allegations."

 

The Premier’s original statements

 

Snapshot from The National Times article Thomson's lawyer demands O'Farrell withdraw comments 1 February 2013:

 

 

"I think Mr Thomson and his lawyer need to calm down a bit - after all, the allegations surrounding Craig Thomson is that he was all too ready to take his clothes off in front of strangers in exchange for money."

 

And at 4.17 minutes into this YouTube video when he had to quickly bite his tongue just before "in front of strangers" in an effort to avoid mention of money:

 

 

http://youtu.be/8Gj6trSfuo0

 

O'Farrell has been very silent since NSW Police had to admit that its statment to the media concerning the need to publicly arrest Federal Independent MP Craig Thomson at his electoral office had been incorrect.

 

Yamba versus McDonalds revisited

[Tiley, Dr. Ian (2012) Divided We Fall: An Insider’s Perspective on Local Government Amalgamations]

Click on image to enlarge text

The Nannas gently chide Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis over his tacit support of coal seam gas mining

Clarence Valley Review 30 January 2013

The body language is telling. NSW Nationals MP for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis, is obviously not comfortable with the message. Which is unfortunate.

Given that the alleged $1.4 billion in direct expenditure Metgasco claims it will be contributing to the Northern Rivers economy over 20 years pales in comparison with the more than $1 billion tourism contributes each year to the region and, an initial 1,000 well wide gas field will inevitably have a negative impact on this section of the regional economy.

Taking the mickey out of Abbott's relentless self promotion

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's crass attempt to ride on the back of last month's devastating bushfires across New South Wales drew an almost Where's Wally? response across the Twitterverse.

His image was inserted into a good many photographs.

This happens to be my personal understated favourite. It may be the only time James Hunter Ashby and Abbott are ever sighted together.

The Libs in action when last in federal government

If you didn't sound like the average Lib then twas off to jail for you.

“It was understandable authorities would think mentally ill Australian woman Cornelia Rau was an unlawful citizen, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said today.

Ms Rau, a 39-year-old permanent resident who came to Australia when she was a baby, was released from Baxter immigration detention centre in South Australia on Friday.

She had spent six months in a Queensland jail before being sent to the centre, where she spent four months after telling authorities she was a German woman named Anna Schmidt.

That was despite the former Qantas flight attendant being listed as missing in August last year.

The federal government announced it would investigate the incident, but Ms Vanstone today said it was "a pretty fair understanding" authorities would believe she maybe an unlawful citizen.--
(she) spoke German, said she was German"

{Sydney Morning Herald 7^th February 2005}

 

A disturbing scene from The Age of Stupid (2009)

From the opening scenes of The Age of Stupid

a film about failure to address the causes

of climate change

 

It may be a camera shot straight out of a Hollywood film studio's box of special effects, but are climate catastrophes becoming more than a movie script?

If Australia in 2013 is any indication, the world is still doing too little to keep this imagined Sydney scenario safely in the realms of fictional scenarios.

In the week ending 3 January 2013 the total combined greenhouse gas emissions of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania was 24% higher than the 1990 total, according to The Climate Group and by 10 January was 34% higher.

In the week ending 16 January the total combined greenhouse gas emissions of these same five states was 36% higher than the 1990 total.

While by the week ending 24 January 2013 the total combined greenhouse gas emissions had risen yet again to 37% higher than the 1990 total and, was still 8.2% higher than the year 2000 total - the last Kyoto Protocol reference year on whose national greenhouse gas output Australia pledged (under the Cancun Agreements) an unconditional 2020 target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels.

It's time to name and shame investors placing Clarence River catchment water at risk

 

Metgasco Limited is actively exploring for coal seam gas in the Clarence Valley with a view to eventual production if successful and Anchor Resources Limited has identified both gold and antimony potential in the upper reaches of the Clarence River catchment on behalf the Chinese multinational mining corporation which owns it.

 

Commercial mining activity by these companies will have the potential to contaminate ground and/or surface water systems which supply fresh water to an estimated 150,000 people living in the Dorrigo Plateau, Coffs Harbour and Clarence Valley regions of New South Wales, as well as place sustainable water for agriculture and livestock at risk.

 

Metgasco Limited Top 20 Shareholders in 2011-12

 

 

Anchor Resources Limited Top 20 Shareholders in 2011-12

 

Channel 10 gets caught by the Streisand Effect

 

On Monday 28 January 2013, in a month which saw Australia wracked by bushfires and floods, @TenLateNews tweeted this…..

 

Once the fingers stopped typing the Channel 10 crew apparently had second thoughts and deleted this monumentally inappropriate tweet. Thereby ensuring it was going to be picked up and amplified by the Twitterverse.

 

Hers is a small sample:

 

tim_stew Timothy Stuart

. @TenLateNews what happened to that ridiculous tweet? Why delete? We all know it happened. #auspol #ausmedia

2 days ago Reply Retweet

 Favorite 7

 

cartwheelprint Cartwheel Printing

“@FakeChrisPyne: Hey @TenLateNews, I think you misplaced your tweet. Lucky I saved a copy for you! #auspol http://t.co/NT0YVITf” What the?

23 hours ago Reply Retweet Favorite 9

msjuju8 Julie/Juju

@bernymcatlady @TenLateNews @nickjatan .. nothing disappears from cyberspace

2 days ago Reply Retweet Favorite 5 more

 

noplain Jane

Oh. Look at @tenlatenews deleting tweets like they never happened. New to the internet, are we? #tenlate

2 days ago Reply Retweet Favorite 5

 

geeksrulz The Geek Rulz

In a sea of @AndrewLamingMP derp, @TenLateNews still leads the pack at 48.59% Add your vote now http://t.co/0bdKCwCk#DumbestTweet2013

2 hours ago Reply Retweet Favorite 5

 

http://stopthestunts.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/poll-for-the-dumbest-tweet-of-2013-so-far/