Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart loses WA Supreme Court case re rights of journalists and sources under that state's shield laws

Gina Rinehart pictured with Tony Abbott in April 2013

The Guardian 7 August 2013:

Gina Rinehart's attempt to force a journalist to reveal his sources was dismissed only on the basis of Western Australia's shield laws. All the other arguments from the newspaper's lawyers were rejected.

Rinehart subpoenaed the Walkley award-winning journalist Steve Pennells and the newspaper company he worked for to hand over all notes, recordings and communication in relation to her company Hancock Prospecting, her son, John Hancock, and the billion-dollar trust which is at the centre of a legal battle between Rinehart and two of her children……

Pennells and West Australian Newspapers (WAN) refused to do so, sparking a legal battle which ended on Tuesday in the first real test of WA's shield laws.

"I have reached the conclusion that if Mr Pennells, or an officer of WAN, were called to give identifying evidence of the same kind as is contained in the documents sought, then on the basis of the information presently available, it is very unlikely that they could be compelled to do so," Pritchard said in her judgment.

"To require the production of documents containing the same identifying information under a subpoena would negate the very protection that the parliament has sought to create ..

Full transcript of judgment in HANCOCK PROSPECTING PTY LTD -v- HANCOCK [2013] WASC 290

* Photograph found at Google Images

Portrait of a politically foolish young woman

To make matters worse Kath Crosby is quite emphatic in the the Murdoch meeja but leaves her options open on social media where she calls her intention to vote informal "a great big dare to all parties".
What an inflated sense of self-importance is at work here.

# HT to Clarencegirl for pointing me towards @kahoc

Australian Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook 2013

Australian Pre-Election Fiscal Outllook 2013

Saving the Ballina Plateau

Letter to the Editor The Northern Star 9 August 2013:

Buffer zone

FOR 30 years the villages of Alstonville and Wollongbar have been separated by an agricultural buffer zone. This land has resulted in the Plateau being seen as the rural heartland of Ballina Shire. In the past, attempts to rezone this land have been rejected by council.
A rezoning application is currently on exhibition with council that seeks to rezone part of the buffer, which is also State Significant Farmland, to industrial land. This time council appears to be supporting the rezoning.
One might ask why? Nothing has changed since the rejection of this application in 2002. It is still designated State Significant Farmland, and it is still zoned Urban Buffer. There is plenty of industrial land nearby.
If this rezoning is approved it will set a precedent for others who also want to rezone and before long our unique green belt between Wollongbar and Alstonville will be lost.
If you love the Plateau with its rural flavour please respond to this rezoning application immediately. The deadline for submissions is August 16.

Jane Gardiner

Past President

Alstonville and District

Ratepayers Association

Murdoch's minions labour to produce a little undergraduate humour

Excerpt from Sky AM Agenda transcript of interview with Federal Labor Trade Minister Richard Marles, 8 August 2013:

GILBERT: Finally, the Daily Telegraph's front page has Thommo's heroes Craig Thomson and, well, accompanied by Anthony Albanese as Sergeant Schultz and Kevin Rudd as Colonel Klink. This - even though he's on the front page would see this as humorous one, wouldn't they?

MARLES: Well, we can all have a laugh at it and this ranks up there with the Stephen Conroy front page. It gives all of those on the front page something to put in their pool rooms. And, look, it's funny. I think the point to be made here, Kieran, is that they're not editing Honi Soit; this is not a campus newspaper that they're putting together here. This is our largest city's biggest newspaper and so they can have some fun with it. It's perspective journalism; there's no sense now in which this is fair or balanced media. And, of course, it's a free country; they can do what they like. But I think they do need to remember what masthead they're actually editing here.

GILBERT: Okay. Richard Marles, thank you for joining us live from Geelong this morning.

Abbott's Army blots its copybook yet again

If this is what the Liberal Party parliamentary machine is like in Opposition, then heaven help us if it wins government on 7 September 2013.

Email transcript found at Stevej on NBN:

From: stephen.ellis.aph@gmail.com

Steve,

I mark your emails 'junk' (like your copy) so didn't see your note until Grahame replied.

Nobody challenges your numbers because nobody takes your psychotic rantings seriously.  Nobody. Nevertheless they are all wrong.  All of them - you don't have a clue about the existing deal, much less how it might be modified.  Given what you write is a delusional fantasy that exists only in your own mind, you can get fucked.

Since the NBN stands to be greatly modified under whoever wins, your serial lies and distortions will be exposed in due course.  In the meantime do not contact me again.

Have a nice life.

--
Stephen Ellis / +61 403 411 898

The Guardian UK 7 August 2013:  

Malcolm Turnbull has expressed "regret" after one of his senior staffers sent an email to a popular technology blogger that told him to "get fucked".

Stephen Ellis, a policy adviser for Turnbull, told Steve Jenkin, who publishes a blog called Steviej on NBN, in an email that "no one takes your psychotic rantings seriously. Nobody."

Ellis added: "Given what you write is a delusional fantasy that exists only in your own mind, you can get fucked."

In a blogpost detailing the exchange, Jenkin said he had been seeking information from Ellis on the wholesale costs associated with the Coalition's alternative National Broadband Network…...