Kevin Rudd returns to NSW North Coast to inspect flood damage

Having Labor's Justine Elliot and Janelle Saffin as federal MPs for Richmond and Page seems to be paying dividends.
Kevin Rudd has again visited the North Coast and yesterday, as Prime Minister, he inspected flood damage in the Kyogle area.
Locals are hopeful that this on-the-spot look around will result in more funding for flood damage repairs to infrastructure, roads and businesses.
With Elliot and Saffin on the case I expect a shoe-in. On ya!

Japan's gory 'science' in pictures

http://www.theage.com.au/

Photos taken by Australian Goverment of the 2008 Antarctic whale kill.

Australian Government to extend its surveillance after seeing whale mother and calf kill

Japan's whalers managed to shoot themselves in the foot after Australia's hunt monitoring vessel observed the whaling vessel Yushin Maru 2 dragging a slaughtered Minke whale and calf onboard.

 

The Australian Government now intends to extend its Antarctic surveillance and evidence gathering.

 

"Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the pictures released today support Australia's position.

"I think it's explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," he said.

"To claim that this is in anyway scientific is to continue the charade that surrounded this issue from day one."

ABC News article and video link.

2008 Australian society snapshot makes for interesting reading

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released Yearbook Australia 2008.

It shows that half of the Australian population is on the wrong side of thirty-nine years of age.

That we are living longer, are reasonably healthy, often a bit overweight, are mostly not having enough babies to replace ourselves once we die, care more about the state of our neighbourhoods than the big issues and continue our love affair with the family car.

Economic inequalities haven't really been reduced, renewable energy is still marking time, and even though most of us now recycle, we still have a long way to go to reduce the amount of household waste we produce.

For all the details on everything from natural hazards through to government and the economy go to:

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/1301.0?OpenDocument

 

 

I'm mad as hell, Mizz Bishop

In the long lead into the November 2007 federal election the Labor Party promised that if it were elected to govern it would abolish Australian Workplace Agreements.

Every Labor candidate (old or new) repeated that promise.

Opinion polls taken during the same period showed that most voters were concerned about existing industrial relations law.

Now Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop, her leader and a long conga line of Coalition hacks are saying that the Rudd Government doesn't have a mandate to abolish AWAs and that they will use their Senate majority to block any legislation to remove these agreements.

Mizz Bishop, you are either the most cynical of MPs or you are seriously deluded.

Either way, you better not pass my way or you'll get a bl**dy ear full.

Isn't it enough that your mob stuck taxpayers with an $1,111 election loss booze-up bill.

Do you have to act like addled drongos in Federal Parliament as well? 

A Japanese perspective on Antarctic whaling

UPI Asia Online reported yesterday on Antarctic whaling and the Japanese perspective.
It appears that there is some domestic questioning of the right to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean, but the Government of Japan is holding out for concessions which allow it to increase its coastal whale kill elsewhere.
By canvassing a suggestion of concessions, the US-based Pelham Charitable Trust has opened Pandora's Box and encouraged the intransigence of Japan's whalers.

An Australian perspective can be found in The Daily Telegraph today.
Along with this article and photo of a slaughtered female Minke whale and calf.

The Australian Government continues to monitor Japan's Antarctic whale hunt with a view to taking legal action.
It should be noted that Japan is not conducting indigenous subsistence whaling in the Southern Ocean. This is a large-scale commercial kill for profit under the guise of 'scientific' research.

The Barack Obama 'Super Tuesday' dog and pony show

In 2007 I found myself on the Obama for America campaign team's electronic mailing list.

Since then I have received innumerable e-mails from almost everyone associated with Democrat presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama, except his family dog.

I have even been thanked for my 'help' in the Massachusetts primary. Which came as a complete surprise as I had no idea that I had been so busy!

At the end of Super Tuesday I received this e-mail from an obviously exultant team.

 

E-mail text

"The votes will be counted into the night and into tomorrow, but today we won states and we won delegates in every part of the country.

As of right now, we have won more states and delegates than Senator Clifton. It's a remarkable achievement we can all be proud of.

Tonight, we know one thing for sure -- our time has come, our movement is real, and change is coming to America.

At this moment in history, the stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result.

This time must be different.

There will be those who say it cannot be done. But we know what we have seen and what we believe -- that when ordinary people come together we can still do extraordinary things.

Yes, we can.

Thank you so much,

Barack"