Exclusive Brethren off the hook, again!

The move in the Australian Senate by The Greens to have a wide-ranging inquiry into the activities of the Exclusive Brethren religious sect was blocked today (28/08/2008) by the combined vote of Government (Labor) and Opposition (Liberals and Nationals) senators.

The only senator to side with The Greens was the Independent Nick Xenophon.

How sad!

news.com.au reports

The Australian Greens, who proposed the inquiry, said the Brethren was preventing its young members from undertaking tertiary education courses and forcing young women into arranged marriages.

"The light of day needs to be shone onto the activities of the sect," Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said.

Those activities included making large political donations to the Coalition.

Costa the Political Thug is out-of-control

NSW Labor Government Treasurer, Michael Costa, has gone so far over the line he is now a mere dot on the horizon.

Costa the political thug, the ultra bully, has been sprung according to The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.

"MICHAEL COSTA has been threatening Labor MPs that their electorates will be starved of funding unless they support the Iemma Government's bid to privatise the power industry."

It seems that the foul-mouthed Dr. Evil just doesn't understand that these sitting MPs were not elected by voters to represent the Iemma Government.
Voters elected them to represent the will of their electorate and the majority of people in NSW appear to be against the privatisation of NSW electricity assets.

Costa is quick to complain when others mention his bi-polar disorder, but slow to recognise that he is obviously not always in control of his impulses.

Right now those impulses are leading him to subvert the democratic process.

Question Time In Canberra. Did my eyes deceive me?

During yesterday's televised Parliament Question Time did I really see Federal Minister for Ageing and Member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, get to her feet and say that the Commonwealth Dental Scheme had been reintroduced for teens and aged Australians?
What is it with Aussie pollies? Do none of them consider Disability Support pensioners worthy of automatic inclusion in dental, health and welfare policy.
Why do they always have to be shamed into it?
Justine, I expected better of you!

How deeply is Monsanto embedded with the Australian Government?

It has been reported that Monsanto spent $ 1.3 million in the first quarter of 2008 on lobbying in the U.S.

Monsanto also appears to have embedded at least one employee of a lobbyist firm it uses, Ogilvy Government Relations, in the Obama for America campaign team.

Given the flurry of lobbying activity which usually surrounds any new regime such as the Rudd Government, one has to wonder exactly who is lobbying for Monsanto in Australia besides those farmer groups that the GM seed monolith is currently fostering.

While that question remains unanswered everyone on the newly updated Australian Government Lobbyists Register remains suspect.

Slyest comment on Obama-Biden so far

A tonsorial political comment from the folks at The Huffington Post

One facinating fact about this week's U.S. Democratic Convention is that it reportedly has A budget of some 60 million US dollars, 50,000 participants, including 15,000 journalists.

It is hard to imagine a more profligate political system than the one which has evolved in America.

Bread and circus rules.

Senator Brown moves to have Exclusive Brethren examined

Finally, someone in Australia's Federal Parliament has been shown to have sufficient gumption to have the Exclusive Brethren examined in relation to its shady operations.

ABC News has reported that the Leader of the Greens, Senator Bob Brown, has moved a notice of motion to refer a number of matters concerning the Exclusive Brethren Christian sect to the Senate's Community Affairs Committee.

Senator Brown wants the Committee to examine public funding and tax arrangements which may advantage Brethren members.

He says the inquiry would examine the education opportunities for Brethren children, who are not allowed to attend tertiary institutions.

"It would also perhaps look at the $10 million paid to five Brethren schools around Australia in January this year, those schools have a population combined of just 2,000 students," he said.

So you think you can run a council....(3)

This letter to the editor published in The Daily Examiner, Grafton, says it all.

NSW local government election time has rolled round again and local candidates are beginning to come out of the woodwork.

I see that the Nationals Jeremy Challacombe has publicly put up his hand and declares that almost obligatory commitment; "Mr Challacombe singled out the Clarence River for special attention. "I believe our river is the focus of our Valley," [DEX online,5 August 2008].

Unfortunately for Mr. Challacombe, many in the Clarence Valley have a longer memory than he obviously gives credit for and, it doesn't take long to hunt up his real attitude to the river catchment and our economic dependence on its continued health.

For instance in "The Daily Examiner" a couple of months back, Mr. Challacombe was careful not to mention how he voted (or if he voted at all) on the motion passed by that Nationals NSW party conference, a conference which coincidentally saw him installed as vice-chair of the state party [DEX,June 18,p.3].

In this article he apparently sought to misdirect the reader to the dissenting vote by his wife on the motion to "support greater efforts to reduce the amount of eastern water lost to the ocean and campaign for more in-depth investigations into finding ways to turn this water inland." [ibid]

This motion was nothing more than another bite at the Howard Government's 2006-07 proposal to rob the Clarence River catchment of its vital freshwater flows.
Despite Mr. Challacombe attempting to portray it as "more about better water management than about river diversion." [ibid]
Something he would have known was not the true story given his past employment by North Coast Water.

As vice-chair Mr. Challacombe has an obligation to support this successful Nationals state party resolution on water diversion and, his candidature at the forthcoming Clarence Valley local government election is a clear case of a conflict of interest given Clarence Valley Council's longstanding and well-documented resolve to protect the Clarence River and its tributaries from both further damming and diversion.

If it's any comfort to Mr. Challacombe, I'm not too impressed either by local Anglican Reverend Pat Comben thinking it might be a good idea to marry church and state by being elected to local government. [http://graftondiocease.org.au,7 August 2008]

I would have thought the dismal showing of faith-based parties at the November 2007 federal election might have indicated to the good reverend just how disenchanted the electorate might have become to priests in politics.

Judith M. Melville
Yamba