Business Council of Australia in 2008: Irresponsiblity Unlimited

Thursday's press release from the Business Council of Australia let the cat out of the bag - business is not interested in doing anything about climate change and especially not interested in an effective national emissions trading scheme.

Ever since we set up our first crude commercial efforts at Botany Bay in the late 1700s, business big and small has been producing consumable goods and services laced with a good measure of pollution.
In 2008 this peak body still wants business to get a free ride to continue polluting with greenhouse gases.

BCA President Greig Gailey today launched the BCA paper, Modelling Success: Designing an ETS that Works, incorporating research from Port Jackson Partners Limited (PJPL) examining the impacts of the proposed emissions trading scheme on 14 businesses across a range of sectors including minerals processing, manufacturing, oil refining, coal mining and sugar milling.
Mr Gailey said: “In releasing its Green Paper the government has invited input into the final design of its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). The BCA fully supports adopting a comprehensive emissions trading scheme as the best way to reduce emissions, but getting the design detail right is critical”.
“The Green Paper puts Australia on a path to addressing climate change challenges through a partnership between business, government and the community. But the scheme must send the right signals to businesses,” he said.

The "right signals" Mr. Gailey speaks of are apparently for government to essentially change nothing, except for a bit of window dressing which would allow business to be 'paid' for doing nothing and fully pass on the supposed cost of this inaction to the consumer.

I'm predicting that the Business Council of Australia will suddenly discover the vital necessity of a nuclear power industry to ensure that they can all point to something which would allow, by misdirection, their 'big bag of nothing' to continue.

The 'study': Modelling Success: Designing an ETS that Works
Tip - page 3 starts the real laughs coming.

Obesity epidemic? What obesity epidemic?

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in training to join Health Minister Nicola Roxon's obesity 'epidemic'?

So you think you can run a council....(2)

Life is full of not so gentle ironies.

The Clarence Valley has been fighting off irrational water raiders for years, due to the terminal decline of the Murray Darling Basin river systems and the ongoing greed of irrigators from within this basin.

Now former Queensland Goss Government Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Rev. Pat Comben (who held that ministerial post during a period when the rapacious Cubbie Station was allowed to continue sucking the northern basin dry) wants to be elected to Clarence Valley Council this September.

Somehow I don't think Reverend Comben will be getting the 'green' vote within the electorate.

Crikey yesterday on the subject of Cubbie Station here.

US08: Would you buy a used car from these men?

Last week both U.S. presidential candidates fronted the Saddleback Church and shovelled manure in an attempt to become America's 'pastor-in-chief' [Transcript of proceeding here].

With McCain blatantly stealing gulag memories and Obama doing his best to out-Christian Christos, I thought I would look at other aspects of both candidates.

Republican presidential candidate, John McCain

McCain has a history of telling pork pies about his first marriage. Here is the latest from Yahoo! News

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - An old lawsuit on record at the city courthouse reveals a moment of friction between John McCain's mother and his ex-wife. Years later, McCain and his former wife presented a united front in a lawsuit of their own.

McCain, the Republican candidate for president, calls the first lawsuit a mistake and says he never authorized the second. Both legal actions were settled out of court before they went to trial.

Curiously, although the records clearly list the plaintiffs, McCain's campaign says his mother's 1980 lawsuit was filed "unintentionally" and that the Arizona senator didn't know about or authorize the 1990 lawsuit with his ex-wife, Carol. And McCain's 96-year-old mother, Roberta, says she never sued Carol.
Others involved dispute those assertions.----
In his e-mail, Bounds said McCain "had no knowledge of the suit: He did not authorize the suit or participate in its filing."
But the lawyer who represented the McCains said she did indeed speak to McCain and get his permission to sue on his behalf.
"You can be sure that I talked to and got the permission of any client who is listed as a plaintiff," said attorney Barbara P. Beach.

McCain has been a U.S. senator since 1991 and in this Senate term he has missed 407 votes or 64% of all votes he could have cast.

His Senate voting record is here.

McCain raised $27 million in donations this July and is charging people $7 for one of his campaign posters for the front yard (comes with a free bumper sticker)

Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Obama

Obama's image of a fair fighter takes a bit of a blow. The pre-written email chain he has set up could get unwitting 'disciples' into trouble.

Inviting others to put their names to a letter calling one of the co-authors of a book a vile smear-peddler, religiously bigoted, a paranoid and hateful man is not the actions of a balanced individual.

Obama makes much of his commitment to liberty and justice for all and understanding of the struggles of 'ordinary' Americans. However, as a first term senator he has missed at least 290 Senate votes since April 2005 or 46% of the total votes in which he could have represented his constituents.

Here is his Senate voting record courtesy of The Washington Post.

Obama raised $51 million in donations this July and charges $8 dollars each for a campaign poster for the front yard.

U.S. opinion polls show that the race remains tight between Obama and McCain and it seems that Barack has finally been reduced to 'kissing' babies, while John remains old no matter where the photo shoot occurs.

Photos from Fox News and The Washington Post

Fatherhood Festival, Bangalow, 4-7 September 2008

Question, Share, Celebrate. The 2008 Northern Rivers Fatherhood Festival aims to do all this with its rich, three day program of concerts, comedy, art and conversations. These events will touch your heart and stimulate your mind.

Performers this year include Australian Idol winner, singer and writer Damien Leith along with Blues and roots master guitarist Jeff Lang.
A special highlight this year will be two talks on Friday September 5 and Saturday September 6, by world best selling author and speaker Steve Biddulph.
Steve's books include Raising Boys, Manhood, The Secret of Happy Children and more.

Tickets cost $12 or $10 concession and can be purchased through Southern Cross Credit Union, Barebones Artspace at Bangalow and Mullumbimby Bookshop.

Inquiries: (02) 6684.2309.

'Mr. Monsanto' bravely soldiers on through hyperspace

It seems that biotech/chemical giant Monsanto just can't help itself recently. It has to have a daily peek at North Coast Voices.

Not once, not twice, but three times it visited in the early hours of yesterday morning our time.

And, bless its sweet little toes, even some of those commenting on our posts were pursued back through hyperspace to see where they came from.

What is fascinating about Monsanto's obsessive blog monitoring is that it is inadvertently networking Australians who have concerns about genetically modified crops and food, but who haven't sought to contact others before.

North Coast Voices remains very happy to indulge 'Mr. Monsanto', so here is a little something for the 'employee extraordinaire' to read today.

Monsanto's U.S. website helpfully provides a little financial information on share performance.

In the spirit of ethical investing, perhaps readers world-wide might check their portfolios for Monsanto stock and adjust accordingly.

One has to wonder if Monsanto will continue to enjoy investor confidence, in light of the fact that not only has consumer resistance obliged it to try and off-load its dairy synthetic hormone business this year - last year the U.S. Patent Office reviewed and rejected four of its existing GM patents and the European Patent Office revoked a GM soyabean patent.

See here for previous post about Monsanto's monitoring.

Crikey takes a tilt at political opinion polls

From Crikey yesterday.

Today's Crikey poll has revealed that almost 20% of Australian voters would like to see A Presentable Fellow With A Nice Hat as the next leader of the federal Liberal Party.
The poll, which closed at 9.30am today, sampled the views of 588 respondents, with A Presentable Fellow With A Nice Hat garnering 19.2% of the vote, just ahead of Kevin Rudd's Cat with 18.7%

Poor Brendan Nelson's hair only scored 5.60% of the vote, thereby coming in second last.

Full poll table here.