Saffin welcomes tax support for providers of ethics classes

Media Release 9 April 2013

Saffin welcomes tax support for providers of ethics classes

Page MP Janelle Saffin has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement that organisations running ethics classes in government schools will be eligible to receive tax deductible donations.

Ms Saffin said people had lobbied her about the issue and she took it up with Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury.

“Currently the tax laws contain general deductible gift recipient (DGR) categories for organisations which provide religious lessons in government schools to receive tax deductible donations, but there is no category for providers of ethics classes.

“The Australian Government wants to support ethics classes in government schools through the provision of the DGR tax concession.

“Minister Bradbury contacted me directly this week to tell me of the Government’s announcement.

“Under the changes, the Government will amend the DGR categories in the tax laws to include organisations approved by state or territory governments to provide ethics classes in public schools.

“This means organisations running ethics classes, such as Primary Ethics, will get the same benefits as organisations running special religious education classes in government schools.

“This is great news for these organisations, who will find it easier to collect donations because of these changes.

“It’s also great news for many parents as these classes give them more choices about the education opportunities for their children.”

Anglican Church to vote on coal seam gas investments this weekend

“Why would the Church be interested in what we're doing in the first place?” Once again the coal seam gas industry fails to understand what a social license entails.

ABC News 11 April 2013:

The State Council of the Uniting Church will vote to exclude investments in coal seam gas and coal mining at this weekend's Synod in Sydney.

Four-hundred delegates are being asked to consider a motion that places corporations engaged in the extraction of fossil fuels on the Church's Excluded Stock List.

It also calls for an immediate freeze on new investments, and the sale within 12 months of existing holdings, in CSG and mining companies.

Uniting Church Minister in the North West Plains, the Reverend Robert Buchan, says increasing numbers of his parishioners are raising concerns about CSG expansion.

"There is an application that is on the table at the NSW and ACT Synod where there will be a vote taken about the Uniting Church's attitude towards coal seam gas and coal mining, particularly in areas that are ecologically sensitive, sensitive in terms of food production and particularly where there are significant aquifers," he said.

Moree-based Reverend Buchan says congregations are calling on the Uniting Church to engage in the debate.

"A mining executive said, 'Why would the Church be interested in what we're doing in the first place?”……

UPDATE

Channel 9 News 16 April 2013:

In a meeting held in Sydney on Tuesday, 400 synod council members from the Uniting Church in NSW and the ACT voted unanimously to divest from companies engaged in fossil fuel extraction and place them on its `excluded stock list'. The synod said investments in mining companies contradicted its ethical investment principles, which require it to shun companies involved in `substantially changing the environment'.

Leaving the Clarence River dam-less

Letter to the Editor The Daily Examiner 25 March 2013:

Leave river dam-less

I ADMIRE Mr Ibbotson for having the conviction and resources to restart the debate concerning dams on the Clarence in such a bold way. I learnt some things from his interesting opinion piece, but feel I must correct a number of points and state some facts that have been omitted.
Most of us here in the Lower Clarence floodplain live below the 10m contour and are at the mercy of floods - the price we pay for the benefits I guess. No doubt a structure could be built on the Clarence that would mitigate the impacts of some floods, but not without irreversible consequences. Despite whether Ibbo's dam could stop the floods we experienced this year or not, there are a number of ecological considerations that were not covered in his advert. These relate not only to his dam but any dam proposed for the Clarence.
What he and his supporters fail to appreciate is the Clarence River is a sum of its whole. The Clarence River needs floods. From its headwaters to the mouth it is one functioning ecosystem that has provided and will continue to provide directly and indirectly to the livelihoods and wellbeing of generations of floodplain farmers, fishers and communities of the Clarence Valley. The still functioning Clarence brings essential nutrients, carbon and sediment to the lower river, the estuary, the floodplain and the ocean from upstream.
It does this mostly in times of flood. With a dam we irreversibly cut this flow and impact on the function of the whole river system and its floodplains, both upstream and downstream. Flooding is an essential process of our still-functioning river.
Mr Ibbotson states that his dam will create a "pleasant lake". A look at a topographical map shows that this will be a very large "pleasant lake". About 65km in length if the 80m contour is flooded and over 100km if the 100m contour is flooded. A 100km artificial lake to replace 100km of natural functioning river habitat, home to local fish species found in numbers not known anywhere else in the world. Local fish such as the endangered eastern freshwater cod, bass, eel-tailed catfish, freshwater herring, eels and mullet along with platypus, birds and water plants are all dependant upon on this section of the river and access through it.
The fish are mostly migratory species and are dependent on the natural freshes and floods to move between spawning and breeding and feeding grounds along the length of the river from the estuary to around 800m elevation.
Mr Ibbotson's assertion that "lakes are great" because they attract more wildlife diversity, people and achieve environmental outcomes is difficult to support in the case of his dam.
To raise water levels to the 80m contour a dam of 30m height would be required. To dam to the 100m contour a dam 50m high would be required. The Clarence river gorge, located approximately 150km upstream of the Clarence River mouth, has seven waterfalls of between two and 8m in height and is a natural barrier to these migratory fish on their long (up to 300km) return trips from the estuary. The Clarence Fishtrack study has shown that Australian bass are only able to pass upstream of these falls during flood events that occur on average every 1.25 years when the falls are drowned out.
The legacy of inappropriate land use and clearing in the upper catchments, particularly the Timbarra catchment has provided a huge amount of sediment into the Upper Clarence which is now making its way downstream.
Unfortunately the volumes are so large upstream of the gorge that they are likely to pose a limit on the capacity of Ibbo's dam over time. This sediment, while damaging to our river's deep waterholes, is vital to replenish that which is washed out to sea. If it is trapped behind Ibbo's dam then we could expect increased erosion downstream.
Mr Ibbotson's claim that the tidal section "belongs to the sea" is false. It is simply the tidal portion of the Clarence River, a connected part of the Clarence River ecosystem accessed by some marine and estuary species moving upstream including sharks and dolphins who come up to feed, and freshwater species such as bass, mullet and eels which migrate downstream at times in their life cycle.
To function as the healthy productive estuary that it is, our river relies almost entirely on inputs from upstream. The replenishment of silt, sediment, nutrients and organic carbon and of course fresh water all comes from upstream, most of which would be trapped behind Ibbo's dam and therefore denied to the estuary, floodplain, wetlands, farms, soils, in-stream plants and animals that depend upon this input to replenish that washed out to sea naturally as part of the functioning river.
I hope Mr Ibbotson, after living in our Valley for a bit longer, will grow to appreciate the wonder of the east coast's most pristine large river system. He could use his creative skills and resources to promote a greater understanding of its ecology, its unique species and habitat and its existing tourism opportunities.
The advert points out accurately that the river is stressed through many human interventions. But despite this, it still supports NSW's largest fishing fleet, a viable cane industry, internationally recognised wetlands, a vast diversity of threatened species and a community which is proud of its river.
No other NSW river still does this like the Clarence, but they all used to. The main reason we are lucky enough to live alongside one of the last healthy large river systems in Australia is simply because it has been allowed to run free, to flood and to function as a river should - without dams.

Nigel Blake
Grafton

Come on down, Luke 'Mañana' Hartsuyker!

The ever laid back Nats MP Luke Hartsuyker told The Coffs Coast Advocate this month that "We're not in fantasy land, a dream sci-fi world. We have to deliver affordable broadband to people quickly" and the cost of bringing fast broadband into the house will be "addressed as time went by".

Come again?

Labor will give me free fast broadband connection into my house by 2021.

Luke will give me slower broadband to a junction box somewhere into my street by 2019 and I will have to pay for every metre of cable laid from that box into my house.

If - and it’s a big if – I can afford it.

And if I move house I bet I’ll be paying again under Luke’s plan.

So till the day I win Lotto Luke expects me to get his broadband to my PC via Telstra’s 100 year-old copper wire phone network which in 2003 even that telco said was within "five minutes to midnight" of its deathbed.

I could almost hear fellow voters falling off their chairs when they read Hartsuyker’s comments.

No wonder many techies fell about laughing when he said the Coalition broadband scheme was a win for regional areas. They know that sending broadband to a computer along old copper wire will never give the fast download speeds of fibre optic cable.

What Hartsuyker is really offering the North Coast is a souped up version of this:

For which he expects us all "to pay up to $5000" each to upgrade if Labor's Janelle Saffin is right.

Pic from the folks at CSIRO

When a newspaper sets itself up as a quasi-court meting out punishment

Every so often the Clarence Valley’s largest newspaper catches a bout of righteous indignation and does this:

The Daily Examiner will resume publishing the details of drink drivers who front Grafton and Maclean local courts.

The paper will collate the names, age and town of residence of the offenders, the location, time and date of the offence, the PCA reading and the penalty handed down.

This list will appear in the paper after local court hearings at Grafton or Maclean.*

Obviously ignoring the fact that NSW courts have rightly imposed specific legal penalties (which cannot include further public 'naming and shaming'), it wants to punish drink drivers a second time by further stigmatising the offender and, in the Clarence Valley’s small communities also potentially penalising or socially isolating the now easily identifiable innocent parents, partners, siblings or children of these offenders.

If as suggested His Honour Magistrate David M. Heilpern supports this secondary victimisation of persons not before the court (who quite rightly have an expectation of privacy) then I am seriously disappointed in both the man and his office.

That any community interest in naming and shaming has a less than noble side is shown by this remark by a NSW North Coast resident last year when the Coffs Coast Advocate broached the subject of drink driving:

Who knows we might see some local identities and characters that are our neighbours.

Neither The Daily Examiner nor the magistrate appear to have considered that the newspaper’s actual print edition containing these name and shame reports is replicated on the Internet in perpetuity.

Additionally, I have yet to find any reputable study which demonstrates that naming and shaming drink drivers lowers the NSW drink driving rate or affects which convicted drivers reoffend, so there is no excuse for The Daily Examiner’s latest effort to boost newspaper sales.

I am not alone in believing that a return to primitive responses is no solution. Here is Dr Lauren Rosewarne from the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne:

Drunk drivers, of course, is a much more complicated problem. But to suggest that naming an offender in the paper is the answer is laughable. If a person is stupid enough to drink and drive at any time, let alone repeatedly, they are not someone who makes decisions with any clarity. If the thought of killing oneself or others was not enough to prevent them sticking their key in the ignition in the first place, their name in the paper will hardly guide them better next time.

Rather than serving as a deterrent, the name and shame will simply embarrass those people around the drunk. Humiliating children and parents and spouses. 

* 10 April 2013 issue

Looking back on Tony Abbott

Malcolm Turnbull in The Sydney Morning Herald 7 December 2009:

While a shadow minister, Tony Abbott, was never afraid of speaking bluntly in a manner that was at odds with Coalition policy.

So as I am a humble backbencher I am sure he won't complain if I tell a few home truths about the farce that the Coalition's policy, of lack of policy, on climate change has descended into.

First, lets get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage is all going to cost money.

To get farmers to change the way they manage their land, or plant trees and vegetation all costs money.

Somebody has to pay.

So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, "bullshit." Moreover he knows it…..

Has the Australian small business community stopped listening to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's doom and gloom?

 

It would seem that by the first quarter of 2013 Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s scare tactics may have ceased cutting though when it comes to how people starting new businesses see the economy and their chance of success as they are still registering in high numbers.

 

These are the active Australian Business Numbers in 2013, of which 3,557,412 are individual/sole traders, 1,354,105 are private companies and 513,116 are family partnerships:

 

 

Here are the number of new business numbers registered so far this year, of which 74,574 are individual/sole traders, 24,596 are private companies and 3,578 are family partnerships:  

 

 

This is the number which also registered for the Goods & Services Tax for the first time:

 

Click on tables to enlarge

O'Farrell Government to launch CSG propaganda website in mid-April 2013

Should readers find misleading/inaccurate information concerning coal seam gas or broken links etc. on this new O’Farrell Government website www.csg.nsw.gov.au, coming online sometime in April 2013, then you can complain to the following:

Hon. Andrew Stoner MP

Deputy Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment

Level 30 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000

Phone (02) 9228 5209

Fax (02) 9228 5970

Email office@deputypremier.nsw.gov.au

Mr Mark Paterson AO 

Director General

Department of Trade and Investment

MLC Centre
Level 47, 19 Martin Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000

Phone: (02) 9338 6600

Fax: (02) 9338 6950

Malcolm Rofe Digital Project Manager at NSW Trade & Investment

Phone: (02) 9338 6600
Fax: (02) 9338 6950

John Pavey Strategic Communications at Department of Premier and Cabinet
Phone: (02) 9228 3437
Email: domainadmin@dpc.nsw.gov.au

Andrew Callahan Digital Services

Phone: +61.0402849352

andrew.callaghan@business.nsw.gov.au

Whois Record

Domain Name: csg.nsw.gov.au
Last Modified: 24-Jan-2013 02:39:00 UTC
Registrar ID: Finance
Registrar Name: Department of Finance and Deregulation
Status: ok

Registrant: NSW Trade and Investment (DTIRIS)
Eligibility Type: Other
Registrant Contact ID: GOVAU-PAJO1213
Registrant Contact Name: Malcolm Rofe
Registrant Contact Email: Visit whois.ausregistry.com.au for Web based WhoIs
Tech Contact ID: GOVAU-PAJO1211
Tech Contact Name: Andrew Callaghan
Tech Contact Email: Visit whois.ausregistry.com.au for Web based WhoIs
Tech Contact ID: GOVAU-PAJO1212
Tech Contact Name: John Pavey
Tech Contact Email: Visit whois.ausregistry.com.au for Web based WhoIs
Name Server: maitproddns.dpi.nsw.gov.au
Name Server IP: 203.11.159.13
Name Server: oranproddns.dpi.nsw.gov.au
Name Server IP: 148.145.48.70

In the days when Rupert didn't pretend he wasn't about regime change

2. MURDOCK [sic], BY SWINGING HIS NEWSPAPER CHAIN BEHIND THE ALP, PLAYED A SUBSTANTIAL ROLE IN THE LABOR VICTORY OF DECEMBER 1972. HE IS SATISFIED THAT HE TOOK THE CORRECT POSITION AT THAT TIME, SINCE IT WAS ESSENTIAL TO HAVE A CHANGE AFTER 23 YEARS. LIBERAL/COUNTRY LEADERSHIP HAD BECOME INCREASINGLY WEARY INTELLECTUALLY. HOWEVER, MURDOCK IS DISAPPOINTED BY LABOR'S PERFORMANCE. HE EXPECTS TO SUPPORT THE OPPOSITION IN THE NEXT ELECTION.

Full U.S.Embassy cable text here.

What Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told his true believers at the Institute of Public Affairs

Click on image to enlarge http://bit.ly/ZbCzzN

The people of Ulmarra, Glenreagh and Iluka need to act now if they wish to keep their local public pools or establish a new pool

The Clarence Valley Aquatic Facility Strategy, a Strategic Leisure Group draft report commissioned by Clarence Valley Council, has been released and will be considered at the Civil & Corporate Committee Meeting (C&CC) on 9 April 2013.

This report recommends closing both the Ulmarra and Glenreagh public pools rather than upgrading infrastructure or continuing routine maintenance.

This would force Ulmarra residents to brave the Pacific Highway and travel to South Grafton if they want regular aquatic exercise or a dip on a hot day and, send Glenreagh locals into the next local government area if they want to use the closest public pool.

Iluka is not well served by this report either as it recommends that a public pool capable of servicing the community far into the future not be established there at this time. Instead it suggests that Clarence Valley shire councillors might either look at a smaller pool option or send residents on a circuitous drive to Maclean’s public pool to take advantage of vaguely proposed discounted entrance fees.

When it comes to Yamba, the report also missed the golden opportunity to put forward the idea of creating a competitive-level pool which would attract state and interstate sporting events to the Lower Clarence.

While across the board it would appear that; Pool patrons indicated very strong satisfaction with existing pool managers and staff. Recommendations in relation to future management arrangements have been made including continuation of the existing contractor model but with reconsideration of the revenue sharing process.

Which flies in the face of contrary opinions held by some council staff, who may have possibly been too vigorous in pursuing their personal views.

Departing staff members have made their feeling known about one pool in tomorrow’s C&CC business paper as it states; Unfortunately Ulmarra pool is already on the priority list for significant works (resolution 13.036/11) and has $150,000 identified in the Delivery Program as a starting point… [my red bolding]

While admitting that; Glenreagh pool, by contrast, has recently had significant refurbishment which places it in a favourable position for at least 10 years.

Anyone interested in swimming as a recreational or sporting activity needs to make their own positions known to councillors as soon as possible or by the end of any public exhibition period should Council decide to place the draft report on public exhibition.

Abbott's Young Lib Army shows its true colour again

Abbott's Young Lib Army shows its true colour again - White Supremacist Gloss.

https://twitter.com/SydneyUniLibs

What navigating a former war zone looks like from the air

Something to think about if you are ever on a Dubai to Paris flight……….

Flying in what looks like an old wartime convoy line over Iraq in the late afternoon of 31 March 2013 ADST according to FlightRadar24:

More Abbott hypocrisy

Nine News 7 April 2013:

"The prime minister shouldn't use an overseas trip to make domestic political comments," he [Abbott] said.

The Australian 18 July 2012:

Mr Abbott told the Heritage Foundation, a leading [American] conservative think tank, that he was concerned Australia's defence spending had fallen to its lowest level as a percentage of GDP since 1938.

The West 5 April 2012:

The Federal Opposition plans to retain a key part of Labor's mining tax package, convinced it will generate billions of dollars in the decades ahead.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has confirmed to The West Australian that the coalition would keep the Government's extension of the petroleum resource rent tax to onshore projects.

Until the introduction of the mining tax last year, the PRRT was restricted to offshore oil and gas projects including the North-West Shelf and Bass Strait.

By extending its footprint to onshore reserves, the PRRT will capture massive amounts of tax from the expanding coal seam gas sector in Queensland and NSW.

Mr Hockey said the coalition still intended abolishing the minerals resource rent tax and insisted the decision to keep the expanded PRRT would not come as a surprise to the mining industry. "The coalition has been consistent in its message that our abolition of the MRRT will not automatically extend to the PRRT," he said yesterday.

Abbott’s pre-election ‘discussion’ about absconding with GST revenue assigned to Labor states and giving the billion plus to Liberal mates:

Only one way that Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott will ever fix their budget deficit and that’s strong revenues from the mining industry and the mining industry’s basically Western Australia….

He made comments to me along the lines that, ‘I don’t think it’s sensible to hold back strong parts of the economy to simply prop up weaker parts of the economy’…..

*Abbott photograph found at Google Images

Twitterverse in 2013: Kath doesn't heart Mark the MP

Kath Crosby on her blog Begin Rant:

Mark Coulton had no right what so ever to tell me to go call my father if I didn’t like that the entire executive of the Warialda Branch of the National Party were members of his family. Was I stirring by alerting the Inverell Times to the situation? Yes, but I wasn’t the idiot who tweeted it in the first place – that was his daughter – and I wasn’t the idiot who didn’t make sure there was some diversity on the executive – that would be him.

Desperate to stem the downward trend to its share value Metgasco sneaks into the media 2,000km away from its coal seam gas tenements

 

Coal seam gas company Metgasco Limited on 4 April 2013 trying to talk itself up on Page 51 of The Advertiser in Adelaide, approximately 2,000km away from its NSW exploration tenements:

 

COAL seam gas miner Metgasco says it has been asked to consider gas projects outside New South Wales after new government regulations led to it suspending its operations in the state.

A day after CSG player Dart Energy announced it would suspend its NSW operations and sack 70 per cent of its staff, Metgasco chief executive Peter Henderson said his company is receiving invitations to invest in projects in other parts of Australia and overseas.

 

This company’s 5.5 cent share price at close of Australian Stock Exchange trading on 5 April 2013 does not support Henderson’s hype:

Remember when the Australian coal seam gas industry admitted it would contaminate aquifers?

The Sydney Morning Herald 3 August 2011:

THE coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association told a fiery public meeting in Sydney that good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them.

''Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers,'' said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. ''The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question.''

The face of a future discerning voter?

wondog1 BillB

A young girl watching Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

Champagne corks are popping all over the Clarence Valley today!

The Daily Examiner 5 April 2013:
 
Rob Donges will end 16 years of local government work before June 30....
 
assets manager George Kriflick...has tendered his resignation.....

Cause and effect Abbott-style?

CAUSE?

Democracy4Sale:

Donations to the state branch of the Liberal Party by tobacco companies totalled $588,796 between 2007-2010.

Donations to the Federal Liberal Party by tobacco companies totalled $959,140 between 1998-2008.

EFFECT?

The former federal health minister and Federal Liberal Party Member for Warringah (NSW) Tony Abbott in June 2009:

One cigarette I am told does you damage but it does you so little damage. It is only when you start smoking a lot of cigarettes for a long time that it starts doing very serious damage. So being hard hearted to your kids, not encouraging them to be their best, I think are probably much more serious parental crimes and so I personally would not get hung up on something, in my view, as trivial as smoking while the kids are in the car.

Stranger Than Fiction: In 2012 the Gillard Government tried to protect Tony Abbott's back by amending legislation

 

Last year the Gillard Government quietly attempted to rectify a blunder on the part of the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott stemming from his time as federal health minister.

 

However, the Australian courts remain unimpressed and Abbott’s famed lack of attention to the finer points of law and legislative detail may yet see the Commonwealth held liable.
 
Lee v Napier [2013] FCA 236 (20 March 2013):

 

Conclusion
I therefore conclude (subject to the separate question of whether the amending legislation survives the Constitutional challenge so as to cure the problem) that the purported appointments on 24 January 2005 of Dr Robyn Napier, Dr Rodney McMahon and Dr Huy An to be Panel members were invalid because there had been a failure to consult the AMA about those appointments within the meaning of s 84(3) of the Act. The consultation was still under way when the appointments were made. The Minister pre-empted the outcome. It follows that the purported appointment on 27 March 2006 of Dr Robyn Napier as a Deputy Director of Professional Services Review was also invalid because Dr Napier was not at that time a Panel member. I will list the second separate question for directions on Monday 25 March 2013. I reserve the question of costs.

Brisbane Times 2 April 2013:

 

Dozens of doctors penalised for allegedly rorting Medicare may seek compensation following a Federal Court ruling that the appointments of certain members of the disciplinary panel they faced were invalid.

Doctors suspended between 2005 and 2010 on the advice of the general practitioner members of the Professional Services Review are affected.

Judge Anna Katzmann ruled that these GP members had not been validly appointed because the then health minister Tony Abbott had not consulted the Australian Medical Association before appointing them……

Last year the federal government enacted legislation that retrospectively validated the appointments to the committee, but Dr Lee plans to challenge the validity of that legislation.

If successful, his action would open the floodgates to claims by doctors dealt with by the committee - about 50 a year.

How the Murdoch media spins its web

Crikey 27 March 2013:

The Tele's article invoked some heavyweights to back up its case, including Saul Eslake, who told Crikey he'd been taken a little out of context in the piece. According to Eslake, Rolfe had contacted him to ask if Australia faced a debt crisis. Eslake's reply was that Australia didn't, and he compared us with Canada, which will not return to surplus for some years and will likely have a debt approaching 30% of GDP, compared with 11.5% for Australia. Over time, Eslake suggested, Australia might develop a problem due to the actions of a number of governments, including the John Howard government. This prompted Rolfe to ask how soon it would become a crisis, which Eslake answered by noting a debt crisis can come on very quickly — "the lights don't turn amber, they turn red". This, said Eslake, was portrayed as him saying a debt crisis was around the corner and it was entirely the fault of this government.

Public Forum on Coal Seam Gas, 8 April 2013 at the University of New England Armidale

At this forum supporters of coal seam gas mining and those opposed to this form of mining will be speaking.

The gentler, caring side of Tony Abbott in 1987?

Excerpts from an article by Tony Abbott in The Bulletin 18 August 1987 via Australians for Honest Politics:

*A little earlier, I had been appointed college infirmarian. This post was a legacy from quasi-monastic days and involved supervising the medicine cabinet and ensuring that the ill were not forgotten in their rooms.

But during winter, when up to 30 percent of the college would be down with “flu” at any one time, the infirmarian spent much of his day ferrying food and aspirin to the rooms of the sick. My view was that I knew nothing about medicine and that those too sick to eat in the dining room ought to be in hospital.

Anyway, I thought, most were malingering. So I encouraged “self-service” of medicines and suggested that meals would be better fetched by the friends of the sick. Many deeply resented this disdain for college’s caring and communitarian ethos. And, I confess, I did not have the courage to refuse room service to members of the seminary staff.

*I missed the glittering company of Oxford and the student burly­ burly. But mostly l felt “had “by a seminary that so stressed ”empathy” with sinners and “dialogue” with the Church’s enemies that the priesthood seemed to have lost its point.  

So determined are some journalist to see Labor in a negative light that they often get it gloriously wrong

The latest Australian journalist to get it gloriously wrong is Alex Easton writing in The Northern Star on 2 April 2013:

Snapshots 2 April 2013

The Financial Review addressed the very same subject three days earlier on 31 March 2013:

Federal Labor has created the first viral ad of the election campaign with a graphic about government net debt that has now been seen by more than 844,500 Facebook users since late Monday night.

To put that figure into perspective, it is more than the capital city audience that watched the ABC evening news on Friday, according to OzTam estimates.

This is the graph in question:

Dart Energy withdraws from the Northern Rivers and Australia

 

Dart Energy media release 2 April 2013:

 

Company restructures, cuts costs, cancels international IPO

 

Focus on near term value creation

 

Dart Energy (ASX: DTE, “Dart” or the “Company”) advises that it has instituted a restructuring, cost cutting and refocusing program. This comes in response to current market conditions, a reassessment of the Company’s priority projects, recent decisions in Australia by the NSW and Federal Governments relating to Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and shareholder feedback.

 

In summary, the Company’s forward strategy is focused on maximising the value of the company's UK portfolio, and taking those assets into cash flow on a 12 – 18 month view, while reducing the cash draw from the balance of the portfolio.

The following are the key features of the changes. Additional details are included in the separate presentation.

 

Strategy – Focus on UK

 

• The Company’s strategy in the short term will be to focus on its attractive CSG projects in Scotland, and on the company’s extensive shale assets in England, specifically the Bowland basin, which has to-date seen encouraging exploration and appraisal results. The Company believes that within its portfolio these assets offer the best prospects for near-term value creation, especially given the clear UK Government policy promoting the development of that country’s unconventional gas resources.

• Despite the lifting of the court injunction at Fullerton Cove on March 28th, field operations in NSW will be suspended until NSW and Federal policies are in place to support the industry in being able to meet the needs of projected natural gas demand.

• Operations in Indonesia to assess the Company’s high quality projects will continue, albeit at a reduced pace. The near-term focus will be securing an off-take partner and establishing commerciality for the Company’s South Sumatra assets.

• In China, the focus will be on securing regulatory approvals for its shale gas PSC, and finalising the associated farm-out to fund that exploration program.

• Other operations (India, continental Europe, certain assets in Indonesia and China) are considered non-core, and will be scaled back substantially, with a view to partnering, farming-out, selling, or exiting, in a manner that best maximises the return to the Company. Additional capital will not be deployed to these non-core operations.

• The Board and management team continue to acknowledge the long term strategic value of the Company’s portfolio. However, the revised strategy better matches the company’s immediate opportunities with available resources.

 

Cost Reductions

 

• To reflect the changed focus of the Company, the Company’s global staff base has been reduced to c.50 people, a total reduction of 70%.

• The Company’s global office infrastructure is in the process of being reduced. Offices will be downsized or shut, as appropriate.

• Following completion of all changes, overall overhead cost savings, including at the Board level, will be in the region of 60%.

• The company's “burn” rate will reduce to approximately $12m pa (approximately $1m per month), of which 50% is G&A and 50% is costs directly attributable to projects.

• The Company currently has approximately $17m in cash and liquid assets, and in the coming six months an additional $5m will become available as cash-backed guarantees are released. Net of an estimated $2m in restructuring costs, the Company’s immediate cash availability is thus approximately $20m.

 

Board & Management

 

• The Dart Energy Board will consist of Nick Davies - Non-Executive Chairman, and Shaun Scott, Stephen Bizzell and Simon Poidevin - Non-Executive directors. UK based Norrie Stanley will join the Board as a Non-Executive director. Norrie has extensive UK and international energy / gas industry experience, and was formerly a senior executive at BP.

• John McGoldrick (currently CEO of Dart Energy International) will assume the role of CEO of Dart Energy Limited. Duplicate executive functions throughout the Company have been eliminated.

 

Funding and Dart International IPO

 

• The proposed IPO of Dart Energy International has been cancelled.

• This reflects the Directors’ view that recent NSW and Federal government decisions have materially impacted on the short-term prospects for the Company’s assets in Australia. Had an IPO of DEI progressed, the short-term viability of the Australian assets as a stand-alone business would not have been assured.

• The Company’s revised strategy and reduced cost base will provide time for the Company to pursue and secure its longer-term capital needs, including in particular via farm-outs, asset sales, and strategic partnerships.

 

Commenting, Nick Davies, Chairman, said:

 

“The Board of Dart has taken aggressive steps to respond to market conditions and shareholder feedback. We have done so in a comprehensive fashion.

With the changes we are implementing, and with the 2013 planned work programme now focusing primarily on the UK, existing funds will meet the company’s needs for the next 12 months. Value-adding joint ventures of the UK assets and other project sell-down initiatives are underway and attracting significant interest.

The Board of Dart is extremely disappointed with the uncertainty created by recent NSW and Federal government decisions in relation to CSG development in Australia. The consequence is that investment is leaving the country, field operations are being suspended, Australian jobs are being lost, and the impending energy crisis in New South Wales is not being addressed, and indeed, will only get worse. This is in direct contrast to the United Kingdom, where the Government is actively seeking to support the responsible development of unconventional gas resources.

It is with regret that Robbert de Weijer, CEO of Australia, will be leaving the Company. I would like to thank Robbert for his excellent leadership and his dedicated and passionate efforts to take the CSG industry forward in NSW. Until his departure, Robbert will lead an initiative to identify consolidation and farm-out opportunities for the Australian assets.

We have taken steps to reposition Dart so as to focus on building value in the UK in the near-term, through our CSG projects in Scotland and our shale gas assets in England. In the mid-term we still see considerable value in our Indonesian assets, the shale gas opportunity in China, and through preserving our high quality blocks in Australia until Government policies are reformulated”.

 

For and on behalf of the Board

Paul Marshall, Company Secretary

For further information contact:

Nick Davies Chairman Tel: +65 6508 9840

Di Brookman Investor Relations Manager Tel: +61(2) 9146 6336