Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett does something right for native plants and animals, but will he stand up to Japanese pressure over whaling?

The Age yesterday on the nation's land reserve system.

 

AUSTRALIA'S National Reserve System will get its biggest injection of funds — $180 million over five years — since its establishment by the Keating government.

The money will expand the system of national parks and private reserves for native plants and animals.

The Government will commit $2 for every dollar advanced by state, local government or private sources, ensuring at least $370 million is available.

"It will mean that private conservancy organisations, those private investors who want to get in and protect important parts of bush — say for example in Cape York that connect with existing national parks — will have access to investment funds," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said.

Mr Garrett said priority would be given to regions of sub-tropical savannah, the Mitchell grass country of north-west Queensland and arid central Australia, all of which had a low level of protection.

 

It's good to see that Peter Garrett is capable of positive action, although he does not appear to have fully taken onboard the contents of the latest OECD assessment.

The trick for Garrett will be in making sure that this money is spent on land areas large enough to provide sustainable habit and ecosystems and not frittered away on small parcels which are unlikely to provide generational protection for Australian flora and fauna or on wildlife corridors which are not hectares wide.

 

The Government of Japan continues to push for an extension of its coastal right to hunt whales.

Its bloody-minded and expensive 'scientific' hunt in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary appears to be an attempt to blackmail the international community into lifting the whaling moratorium in the Pacific Ocean.

 

The National Geographic reported last week.

 

But the possibility now exists that a deal will be struck allowing Japan to take as many as 400 minke whales from its own waters, provided that its whaling fleet leaves the Southern Hemisphere for good.

"It would be very similar to aboriginal subsistence whaling, but not identical," Palmer said.

"What we might look at is some possibility that scientific whaling be abandoned in return for some sort of concession."

Chris Howe, executive director for the New Zealand office of the international conservation group WWF, said that any deal should include an end to scientific whaling.

"Japan would whale coastally for a small number of minkes and only for domestic use, and quotas must be based on the [Revised Management Procedure] alone."

The procedure is a set of rules developed by the IWC that determines allowable catch limits based on estimates of whale numbers and catch figures past and present.

No matter what terms they might eventually discuss, many anti-whaling delegates are optimistic simply about what they see as Japan's willingness to negotiate.

Palmer says Japan may have realized that it went "a step too far" by threatening to kill humpbacks, the basis of many whale-watching operations in the Pacific.

In addition, violent encounters between whalers and protestors in Antarctic waters last month won Japan no public sympathy. (Read "Japan Denies Shooting Anti-Whaling Activist" [March 7, 2008].)

 

When examining the details of any negotiations with Japan Peter Garrett needs to consider whether the ramifications of killing 400 Minke whales annually will lead to localised extinctions and how this would affect genetic diversity and species vigour.

This century in particular is not the time to accept second-best when it comes to species protection.

If this means staring down Kevin Rudd and Cabinet, the Environment Minister needs to do that also.

A new twist in the history of war - or is that the history war?

Jasus wept! Prime ministerial stand-in Julia Gillard told the media yesterday that the Rudd Government would be holding a lengthy and complicated investigation into the wartime sinking of HMAS Sydney, including calling overseas witnesses.

The Second World War is almost 63 years gone, this ship went down around 67 years ago, respective Australian and German governments of the day are no more, their defence force chiefs-of-staff are either dead or extremely old, many of the German Navy survivors would be gone to their rest, those that remain are unlikely to change their original evidence - so why is Terrence Cole QC heading up a formal and expensive commission of inquiry?

This is a matter best left to the historians, universities and philanthropic research donors.

After almost 11 years of Howard Government neglect, there is too much government 'catch-up' funding urgently needed in the areas of health, education and the environment as it is.

No-one wants to return to Howard's strange view of WWI & ll, but this latest Labor enthusiasm is history gone mad.

The new investigation makes my personal WTF list for 2008.

ASIC 2008 "Pie In The Sky" awards for best scams

This one is for all who have ever had their Inbox cluttered with spam and scams, especially on April Fool's Day.

 

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission today announced its 2008 winners of the Pie In The Sky awards.

This trophy will be awarded each year for the most outrageous financial scheme that's too good to be true.

 

Winner

This year the award goes to a disturbing 'advanced fee fraud' scam. This email scam pleaded with people to help a Togo barrister access US$17 million from the estate of a man who along with his family was killed in the Boxing Day tsunami three years ago. This outrageous offer was just too good to be true.

Runners up

The second-place getter is Instep Super.
Instep Super was advertising on television, radio and online offering returns on investment of superannuation funds between eight and 20 per cent.
The advertisements also claimed Instep Super was 'the best performing superannuation fund in Australia'.

The third-place getter is the Electroharvest.
This device supposedly recycled 'ambient electromagnetic radiation back into usable household energy' promising to cut ordinary Australians' power bills by 37 per cent.

 

How to nominate a scam for the 2009 Award
Win $100 prize money for an entry that wins an award.

Yorkshire in for a nasty surprise if it expects Howard to be 'facinating speaker'

Not to be undone by Australia's indifference, John Howard continues to court the unsuspecting overseas.

Now the good UK citizens of Harrogate are to play host to Howard the professional speaker during that city's International Business Convention in June this year.

The spin is that they expect him to be a fascinating speaker. 

But then Yorkshire's The Press  has Howard "losing to the Republicans last November".

Guy Rundle on US08: Rudd meets Bush, Howard forgotten

Crikey looked at that Washington press conference this week and Guy Rundle once more gave a pithy summation as shown in this extract.

 

US08: Rudd meets Bush, Howard forgotten

US correspondent Guy Rundle writes:

Well there are two things we can thank John Howard for (three if you count destroying the Liberal party's membership base) - the E-3 visa which gives Australians special treatment in getting a US work permit, and the fact that Americans have a vague awareness of our leaders, thanks to the fact that ours was hitherto permanently attached to the back of theirs.

The attention remains, but for an entirely different reason. Kevvie's tour through these parts and his joint press conference with Dubya got heavy rotation on the 24 hour networks, not only because it was a break from rehashing Bama's pastor problems, but also because it was a delicious moment to watch Bush squirm, a past-time which about 70% of Americans would now seem to enjoy.

In the good old days, Dubya could lean on Howard, not merely figuratively, vaguely patronise him and make the alliance look like it was more than the US and a bunch of bribed East European nations. Blair would always upstage Dubya and takeover when he was patently lost and though the Rodent was more articulate than Bush – the podium is more articulate than Bush – he was also more boring, so it wasn't a complete humiliation.

But this weekend, as the much-vaunted surge fell apart into a firefight that couldn't be assimilated to the idea of heading off Al-Qaeda, Dubya had to stand beside that coprophagic grin as the press lined up to jam Bush sideways with Australia's withdrawal from the fight.

Why is the number 17 such a political turn-off?

From all the media coverage and the number of times the teev features a Lib frothing at the mouth, you'd be forgiven for thinking that 17 was the Devil's number.

Specially when it has something to do with an Aussie prime minister.

 

Kevin Rudd is on a 17 day overseas trip, four months into his first term in office.

So what if that trip doesn't include Japan this time. He'll be there mid-year at the invitation of the Japanese Government - seven months after he was sworn in as prime minister.

Rudders is also talking to the UN and others about a seat on the Security Council.

He isn't the first PM to do that either.

 

For all those nay sayers out there - just a little reminder.

In 1996 John Howard made at least three overseas visits in his first six months in office.

One of which was to Japan at the end of that six months, but he didn't get round to China until March-April 2007.

 

History now records this take on those first months of the Howard years.

"During the last six months of 1996, the new Coalition Government faced some major foreign policy challenges. Australia's delicate relationship with China continued to deteriorate. Despite the announcement in July of closer military cooperation, and the abundant goodwill displayed during the Presidential visit in November, Australia-US relations were strained by a protracted trade dispute which, if nothing else, underlined some enduring sources of friction in the relationship. Australia's surprising failure to win a seat in the Security Council embarrassed the government."

 

So how 'bout leaving the new bloke alone. He isn't doing anything unusual with foreign affairs.

And his first 100 days were at least marked by an attempt at national harmony, unlike Howard's first days which were made noteworthy by his failure to pour cold water on the anti-Asian feeling stirred up by Pauline Hanson's maiden speech.

Byron Bay Writers Festival 25-27 July 2008: short story competition now open

The Northern Rivers Echo, in conjunction with the Byron Bay Writers Festival, has launched a competition recognising new writers by creating a short story competition of 1000 words with the winner receiving $500.
The competition is open to local unpublished writers with the subject matter relating to the Northern Rivers.
The entries will be judged by local writers selected by The Echo and Byron Bay Writers Festival. All entries need to be received by June 10, 2008.

Full details can be found by contacting the Northern Rivers Writers’ centre on (02) 6685.5115.
Stories should be emailed to editor@echonews.com with subject short story or typed and dropped into The Echo office at 218 Molesworth St, Lismore or sent to PO Box 37 Lismore 2480 by 10 June 2008.
Make sure you include a completed application form and read the details carefully. Copies of the application form will be able to be downloaded from The Echo website from next week www.echonews.com.