Punters who backed Obama should front up to their bookies now

Some of the punter who backed Barack Obama to win the US Presidential Election can front up to their bookie right now and collect their winnings.

In what is indeed a most magnanimous gesture (well, that's how the bookies probably describe it) punters who wagered on Obama with Australian bookmaker Centrebet can get in the queue and collect their winnings now.

Yes, that's correct! Punters do not have to wait until Inauguration Day on 20 January 2009 to collect their winnings.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Centrebet announced it would today begin paying out more than $2 million in winnings to punters who backed Senator Obama to win the US election.

This comes after Centrebet was one of two bookmakers that yesterday told media that it would not pay out until the inauguration in January as part of a long running condition.

Sadly, the news for punters who put their hard-earned on Obama with Sportsbet is not so exciting.

Sportsbet said it would not pay out until the January inauguration and this was clearly stated on its terms and conditions.

Centrebet media director Neil Evans said that it had decided to change this long-running policy and begin paying out successful punters from today because it was "the right thing to do''.

The Herald reported Sportsbet could not be reached for comment.

Rugby League's Centenary Year - a year to forget

Oh boy! Australia's National Rugby League has had, to put it mildly, a shocker of a centenary year.

We don't need to go anywhere near the many and varied indiscretions (and that's putting things very politely!) that players have committed to remind ourselves that rugby league in Australia is in the horrors.

And, what about the monumental stuff-ups that have plagued rugby league's centenary year! The farce of having a rugby league world cup that has just ten nations taking part in says it all.

But wait, there's more. This latest stuff-up takes the cake.

The Sydney Morning Herald has published a piece by Andrew Moore, who teaches Australian history at the University of Western Sydney and is a co-organiser of the Centenary Conference of Rugby League at the Powerhouse Museum, in which Moore reveals yet another stuff-up.

Moore describes the NRL's move to established an award that recognises the significant contribution of indigenous Australians to rugby league "as an admirable initiative" but says there's one big problem with it.

The award, which goes to a rising star of indigenous background playing his rookie year in the NRL or the Toyota Cup, is the George Green Medal, but it has been named after the wrong man.


Certainly the surviving photographs of Green, a highly regarded hooker-forward with the North Sydney RLFC in their premiership years of 1921-22, establish he was black, as well as extremely handsome, with immaculate hair always parted neatly in the middle.

Almost every sports historian and rugby league website, from Wikipedia to the highly respected Colin Tatz and Douglas Booth, claim that George was Aboriginal.

If, however, anyone had bothered to research George Green's background, they would have established that his pedigree is a little murky. George's birth certificate establishes he was born at Dalmorton, near Grafton, in northern NSW, (not in the strongly indigenous Emmaville, as some have claimed) on December 17, 1883, the son of Thomas Green and his wife, Hannah McMahon, of Bulli. His full name was Edward George Green.

While being born near Grafton may well add credence to the view that George was Aboriginal and a member of the large Bundjalung community, it is important to remember that in the 1880s Grafton was a major port. Thomas Green's occupation as a master mariner is not surprising.

Revealing about George's father is his place of birth. On George's birth certificate Thomas Green recorded his birthplace as St Kitts, West Indies. Though Thomas was not consistent in recording his personal details - on his marriage certificate he suggested he was born in England - it is likely, nonetheless, that George Green was of Afro-Caribbean background.

Nor did George's maternal line establish any claim to Aboriginality. Hannah McMahon arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1860 as a 13-month-old baby, part of a Donegal family emigrating in the wake of the Great Famine.

George muddied the issue further by telling various people he was a Pacific Islander or Maori. Denying Aboriginality was normal in those less enlightened times. Some see this as strengthening the claim he was Aboriginal. If George had come clean about his racial origins, so the argument goes, he would have been expected to have had no further contact with his family and former community. Therefore he prevaricated about his ancestry.

The mystery, however, can be solved. It seems there were two George Greens from northern NSW, born six months apart. The NRL named the medal after the wrong one.Another George Green was born at Emmaville, north of Glen Innes, on June 24, 1883, the son of Chas Green, a miner, and his wife, Annie Coltern, formerly of Ipswich.

This George Green was indigenous. The Green family is still well known among Bundjalung people around Emmaville.

Most certainly, however, he was not the E.G. Green who appeared in Rugby League News.

Consider this in the context of the times and the deep racism shaped by social Darwinism. Being black then would have impeded a footballer's career, and impeded a lot more too. Yet E.G. Green secured work as a mechanic with the Postmaster-General's Department in April 1911, two years after theNSW Protection Act began breaking up Aboriginal communities by forcibly removing children - the origins of the stolen generations. While the rugby league press of the time frequently commented on the "dusky" origins of players, no comment was made about George, other than that he was an extremely talented footballer and something of a gentleman.

In modern cliche, Edward George Green was a rugby league role model deserving of a place in history, an esteemed footballer with an honourable reputation. In all aspects apart from his lack of Aboriginality he deserved to have the NRL medal named after him.

Genetically modified stupidity rules, K.O.?

A group of Australian farmers are once again proving that they don't give a toss about anything except their own bottom line, as they plough ahead with GMO cropping regardless.

Farm Online's Stock and Land section reported last Thursday:

Monsanto has outlined the procedure for the sale of Roundup Ready canola hay after widespread confusion within the industry surrounding the protocols of cutting GM hay.
Roundup Ready crops have not been immune to the big dry that has hit the cropping belt in southern Australia and some farmers with Roundup Ready canola have decided there is a better return to be had by cutting the crops for hay.
Monsanto corporate affairs manager Mark Buckingham said growers who cut their GM crops for hay were required under their technology users agreement (TUA) to notify Monsanto if they planned to cut the crop.
Then, if they plan to sell the hay, and not feed it to their own livestock, they have to provide details of the buyer to Monsanto.
The buyer, obviously, must also be notified that the hay is from a GM crop.

What is not being said is that the poor buyer is going to have to expend dollars on a suitable herbicide to eliminate any GMO seed which germinates from the use of this hay and of course will have some difficulty in identifying GMO seedlings from millions of other seedlings in the paddock.
Otherwise Monsanto and Co. will be coming after the buyer for copyright or contract infringements.

Just before I finish - a big hello to Monsanto's blog monitor busily beavering away out there in hyperspace.

Saffin urges NSW North Coast business to take advantage of 'green' funding

The Far North Coaster online magazine reports:

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin says local commercial building owners can take advantage of the Rudd Government's new $90 million Green Building Fund which offers dollar-for-dollar support up to $500,000.

Ms Saffin said the fund will help businesses tackle climate change by reducing the energy consumed in the existing commercial office buildings.

"I know local people are serious about tackling greenhouse gas emissions," she said.

"After the Government announced its Green loans and grants for households in the Budget, I had a number of people asking about green initiatives for businesses.

"The Green Building Fund is aimed at owners of existing commercial office buildings, and will support retro-fitting projects that reduce energy consumption.

"Eligible projects can include upgrades to common area lighting, and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems and improvements to building fabric through glazing and shading."

It's good to see Ms. Saffin making use of the media to inform her electorate.

The North East Waste Forum in conjunction with local government in the Northern Rivers also offers residents and business an opportunity to reuse, recycle or rent to reduce the high turnover of goods:

Repairing goods, from shoes to computers, is no longer seen as an option when times are good and we are cajoled by advertising to believe that products are obsolete as soon as they hit the shelves.

The result of this is the increased depletion of resources, particularly metals, and the problems of disposal of electronic and electrical equipment.

There are over 45 million major appliances — 9 million computers, 5 million printers and 2 million scanners — in households and businesses across Australia, of which 2.5 million are being discarded each year.

Of these 2.5 million discarded units, 1.4 million are computers; of which more than half, equating to almost 20,000 tons, are sent to landfill.

The Reuse Directory online

Out demn spot!

This turned up in my Inbox this week. Have to admire the blinkered fevour of those Jesus freaks.

Image comes from TinyPic

Rees Government not covering itself in glory on the NSW North Coast

There are few instances where the Nationals MP for Clarence actually does something positive for his electorate while on his feet in the NSW Legislative Assembly.
This may be one of those few.

PACIFIC HIGHWAY UPGRADE

Mr STEVE CANSDELL (Clarence) [1.51 p.m.]: Sadly, today I raise in Parliament the occurrence of another death on the Pacific Highway between Coffs Harbour and Ballina. According to Roads and Traffic Authority [RTA] figures this notorious stretch of road claimed over 52 lives between 2003 and 2006. Tragically, in the past two years more lives have been lost on that road and those fatalities have to be added to the tally. The Pacific Highway from Sydney to Tweed is roughly 850 kilometres. The notorious 200-kilometre stretch between Coffs Harbour and Ballina, about 23 per cent of the highway, is responsible for 33 per cent of the deaths. One wonders why the Roads and Traffic Authority formula for fast-tracking funding for Pacific Highway upgrading is based on traffic volume rather than fatalities. This traffic-based approach to road upgrading should be changed to ensure that the safety of lives is paramount. Following those 52 deaths between 2003 and 2006, a 79-year-old man died north of Ulmarra on an undivided highway; a 13-year-old Broadwater youth died after being struck by a north-bound utility on a single-lane highway; a 46-year-old Queensland man died at Woodburn on a single-lane highway; and last year two priests were killed on a single-lane highway. The list of deaths on this highway specifically details that all occurred on undivided or single-lane sections of the road.

I could talk all day about these horrific road toll figures. It reminds me of the Vietnam war, when the increasing number of body bags resulted in a change in government policy. Perhaps the increasing number of body bags being used in road fatalities might change this Government's policy to enable fast-tracked upgrading of the notorious section between Coffs Harbour and Ballina from a single lane to a divided double lane highway at least. The recent 2008-09 budget allocated $7 million for the section from Wells Crossing to Ballina, for road planning only. That paltry amount would not even cover insurance for one year, let alone go towards essential road improvements to save people's lives. It is time this Government accepted the simple reality that this section of the highway is dangerous.

Minister Roozendaal's announcement two years ago as Minister for Roads to fast-track the highway upgrading appeared in a newspaper article under the headline "Highway Death As Fast-Track Plan Announced". The article states, "The Minister says he will cut red tape to speed up the highway upgrade after a man was killed in a crash at Knocknow." Once again, more spin from a Government that is out of control and not addressing the realities. I urge the Government to fix the Pacific Highway problem. All the spin in the world can be thrown at the public, and everything can be covered up, but the tragic and unnecessary deaths that occur week after week on the roads are ruining families and communities. The NRMA continued its pressure on the Government when it put out a release last year highlighting the danger of this notorious section of the Pacific Highway and the need to upgrade it. Director Wendy Machin and Ernie Bennet, head of the Northern Rivers Regional Organisation of Council [NOROC], toured the North Coast and saw the hot spots and the dangers of that highway, and they also saw the roadside crosses marking the tragic deaths of families' loved ones that increased the road toll statistics. I hope the Government remembers that. The previous Minister would not tour the highway, but I ask the current Minister for Roads to visit this region. I will take him along the highway and we will look at the crosses and inspect the dangerous bends and the lanes of undivided highway that cause these accidents. We all agree that most road accidents result from human error. Divided highways were designed to help eliminate human error, prevent loss of innocent life, and make travel safer for families and for truck drivers doing their daily jobs.

In 2003 I made a private member's statement at the request of an ambulance officer who was sick of attending tragic truck accidents every week. The following is an excerpt from what he told me. He said, "On arrival at the accident scene there was a semitrailer on fire, a section of the vegetation on the roadside was flattened." He said he walked past a lady, who was critically injured, and her husband. He walked over to another couple. The man was cradling his wife in his arms and he was covered in her blood. He was rocking backwards and forwards saying, "She was the love of my life, the love of my life." Sadly she was deceased. Let us stop the barrage of road deaths and do something about this highway urgently.

Mrs KARYN PALUZZANO (Penrith—Parliamentary Secretary) [1.57 p.m.]: I thank the member for Clarence for his contribution. He should contact the Federal member regarding funding for upgrading a Federal road. I remind him also that the standing orders require that private members' statements contain information on members' electorates. I trust the information he gave the House was pertinent to his electorate.

Reading between the lines, the Federal Member was not amused by the hamfisted response from Ms. Paluzzano and in The Daily Examiner this week reminded all that:

Ms Saffin agreed the Pacific Highway was not a federal responsibility but confirmed the Federal Government was jointly funding road work.

"The Parliamentary Secretary can be assured that Mr Cansdell has been in touch with me, his Federal Member, on the issue of the Pacific Highway, which both the State and Federal Governments contribute funding for," she said.

"I can reiterate that the Rudd Government has significantly increased the level of federal funding with a commitment of $2.45 billion for the Pacific Highway for 2009-2014, with some of that brought forward to the current financial year."

Our enduring national shame - the Murray Darling Basin

From The Daily this month:

An extra 31,000 dams were built in the Murray-Darling basin in the decade to 2005, as the region grappled with severe drought.
Federal government experts studied satellite imagery of the basin's eastern areas to map the proliferation of water storages, largely farm dams.
The number of dams increased by 31,000, or six per cent, a result described by the experts as "seemingly large".
Many of the new dams were built around cities and towns. Dam hot-spots included Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Bathurst, Tamworth and Toowoomba.
In some areas, the number of dams increased by 20 per cent.
The Murray-Darling Basin Commission released the report, called Mapping the Growth, Location, Surface Area and Age of Man Made Water Bodies, including Farm Dams, in the Murray-Darling Basin.

For all that unsustainable dam building here is the on-the-ground reality of what little remains in either private or public storage:

“In the two years ending August, Murray system inflows were 3,540 GL – a new record low.
“Storage levels are extremely low. Active storage in the Murray system is only 1,690 GL or 20 % of capacity. This is well below the August long term average of 5,600 GL or 62 % capacity. (Active storage is water which can be released using only gravity).
“Persistent low rainfall during the past seven years, particularly in the alpine areas, has been the main cause for the record low inflows to the Murray system, with above average temperatures exacerbating the situation.”

Table of storages:
Basin Water Storages less commitments and not factoring in future inflows - 31 August 2008
Drought Update for September 2008