Malcolm Turnbull opens his mouth and emits CH4

Federal Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, chose the Young Liberals Conference in Canberra this weekend to announce his party's new climate change 'policy', A Green Carbon Initiative.

After waiting months to hear what Turnbull would put up against the Rudd Government's climate change policies and proposed emissions trading scheme, we now find that he has laboured hard to produce a little gas.

It seems that all that is really needed to save Australia from the ravages of climate change is for the Liberal Party to promise delivery of the near-mythical Clean Coal, a little biochar in the soil, converting a building or two to greater energy efficiency and a few renewable energy odds and sods thrown in for good measure - all leading to a carbon reduction equivalent of 150 million tonnes annually.

That's around 7 million tonnes for every man, woman and child across the nation.

All in the name of 'risk management', because after all (according to many Liberals) there is a chance that human-induced global warming may possibly not exist after all.

As for emissions trading. Well never you mind about that just yet - we haven't prepared a policy response at this time.

If this effort is the best that the Liberal Party can do in 2009 then they are clearly not ready for government.

According to Stock and Land farmers are not too happy with Turnbull either:

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has been warned his plan to trap greenhouse gases in soil could end up costing farmers if it means agriculture is included under an emissions trading scheme.
According to today's Australian Financial Review, senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, Stefan Arndt, said if farmers were to benefit from biosequestration offsets being recognised under the ETS, they should equally be liable for their own emissions.
"We don't have enough evidence that soil carbon sequestration would outweigh the negative effects to farming, such as methane producing animals and the nitrous oxide emissions that come from putting fertiliser in the ground," Dr Arndt said.

While the Nationals are less than enthusiastic with his foray into biosequestration either.

Turnbull's A Green Carbon Initiative is found here.

Image from http://www.roberthkeller.com/

The ugly face of Australia Day on the NSW North Coast

While elsewhere on the NSW North Coast backyard barbecues were fired up, small street parties got underway and people travelled to see their local heroes honoured; young hooligans in the Coffs Harbour area drank too much and got into drunken fights for all the world to see on the teev nightly news.
Yelling insults and wildly swinging their fists while draped in the Australian flag - acting like prize nongs that their grandmas would disown if they could've seen them.
When did our so-called national day take on such an ugly face across the land?
Why do our youth appear to equate patriotism with violence or racism?
Do the young feel free to act like this because they grew up in the Howard years or is it something even darker?

Volunteers need help too...

We are all aware of our volunteer organisations and the splendid job they do; SES in storms and floods, RFS in the case of fire, NSW VRA and wilderness rescue, Life Savers on our marvellous beaches and many others.

It has come to my attention that St John Ambulance Australia has a Clarence Valley Division.
It has only been in operation for the last 2 years and is the latest in a proud 125 years of St John Ambulance service in Australia.

The organisation through its volunteers provides outstanding first aid services and also training for groups.
If you have been to a local community event, like the Surfing the Coldstream Festival, you may have seen them in the background providing this first aid.

Many events within the valley could not happen without St John’s attendance.
Like interschool sports days, local shows, polo cross and hockey carnivals - not to mention the Jacaranda Festival and many others.

This small band did over 1,000 hours of volunteer service last year.

It has also been brought to my attention that they are desperately in need of a new vehicle to transport their equipment to the many jobs they do in the Clarence Valley and beyond.

They were lucky enough to have been given the St John at Lismore’s old vehicle, but it has reached its use by date.

So if any reader would like to help this self-funded charity how, about donating to this worthy cause?

You can contact them at:
St. Johns Ambulance
PO Box 742
Grafton NSW 2460
or ring the District Officer Graham Waterbury on 66422734.

Maybe one of the local clubs would like to make this their fundraising project for this year?

Google Cache to save Australia?

On 25 January 2009 The Greens posted the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy's reply to four questions on notice submitted in November 2008.

Leaving aside the fact that Senator Conroy refused to answer seven vital questions in SQON0834 and gave nonsense answers in 831, 832 and 833 where it was politically convenient; one interesting fact emerged - Google Cache and Google Translate will not be subjected to ISP-level filtering according to the minister.

As most sites indexed by Google appear to be cached and all websites would have the ability to activate the cache function, this would virtually render most filtering ineffectual if one established a connection with an international version of a search engine.

So does this mean that the Rudd-Conroy plan to impose the Great Firewall of Australia is really an expensive piece of political theatre aimed at appeasing the religious right and certain lobby groups?
Or is Senator Conroy telling yet another political lie?

And why has the senator refused to give assurances that ISP-level filtering will not be used to block political, activist or creative content from view on the Australian Internet?

Answers to Questions On Notice:

sqon0831 Answer.pdf	395.8 KB
sqon0832 Answer.pdf	267.3 KB
sqon0833 Answer.pdf	488.45 KB
sqon0834 Answer.pdf	846.65 KB

We have less than a year to save the world? 'The Road to Copenhagen' Seminar, 3 February 2009, Ballina NSW

From The Northern Rivers Echo:

We have less than a year to save the world.
That’s the dramatic claim being made by many scientists and environmentalists in the lead-up to the major global climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen this December.

On Tuesday, February 3, the Ballina Environment Society and Ballina Climate Action Network are joining forces with the Northern Rivers office of the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO) to present “The Road to Copenhagen”, a public seminar on Australia’s role in responding to the rapidly escalating climate crisis.

It is timed to coincide with the Climate Summit in Canberra, a community initiative that will culminate in a human chain around Parliament House on the same day, the first day of sitting of federal parliament for the year.

The seminar will hear from Mark Byrne, the EDO’s Education Officer, and Dr Chris McGrath, a Brisbane environmental law barrister trained by Al Gore to give his multimedia climate change presentation.
“The government has set a target for emissions reduction of 5 per cent by 2020, or 15 per cent if a global agreement can be reached this year. But the science tells us the reduction needs to be at least 25 per cent. There are other problems with the government’s plan that will make it unlikely to reduce our national emissions,” Mark said.

As well as informing people about the latest science, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the progress of international negotiations, the seminar is intended to be a forum for local people to discuss how they can be involved in responding to this most urgent issue. School students will also tell the meeting about what climate change means to them.

The seminar will be held from 6-8pm in the Richmond Room, Regatta Ave Ballina.

G'day g'day on Australia Day

Found this at http://www.australiaday.com.au/ and thought you might like it.

G'day

Came the Dreamtime, came the Black Man, came the Serpent, came the Dingo
Came the Tears down from the Moon to give the Life.
Came the Emu, Kookaburra, came the love for one another
Came the White Man, came the Heartbreak, came the Strife.

Came the Sunshine, came the Harvest, came the Nation, came the Battle
Came the Famine, came another world-wide war.
Came the Migrants, came the Good Life, came the Power, Came the Present,
Come the Treaty. Unity for ever more.

So here we are in the two thousands and there's more of us than cows
And over half of us have come from foreign lands.
Jews and Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Bondi sheilas with big bosoms
And there's still one mob or two don't understand.

Multiculture as a standard means you must be even-handed
Say g'day and give a bloke a go.
You can lend him your lawn mower, if you think that he's a goer
And if you really truly like him let him know.

Ask him where he used to come from, before he was an Aussie
Fill your head with knowledge from his side.
Get to know him like a brother, till you're used to one another
And you'll find you'll start to feel good, deep inside.

Have him over on a Sunday, sit and watch as all the kids play
'Cause they're the answer to the game you see"
They don't know the past from Adam, knew no Hitler, Stalin, Saddam
As far as they're concerned the world is free.

But make sure in what you're doing, that those kids know what to do
In times when Hatred raises its great head.
Tell them stories of the Anzacs and of Auschwitz and the Race Acts
Say the Age of Evil Deeds is never dead.

Tell them; always keep a vigil, or the ghosts of Lone Pine Ridge will
Come to haunt them in the hour before the dawn.
We must keep the watch fire burning as the years keep slowly turning
'Lest We Forget' and darkness be reborn.

Tell your kids they share a great land, nurtured by the mighty Koori
And the Dreamtime is our true Eternal Flame.
Tell them thanks for all the wonders, in this wonderland Down Under
And say, 'Sorry that we once denied your name.'

Keep the billabongs and ridges far removed from kitchen fridges
Use the power of the wind to light your way
Guard the land with all your passion; make things plastic out of fashion,
Let the healing powers of Nature have their way.

Share this land with all who dwell here, let the world know we are well here
In this place of promise and diversity.
Shout 'G'day' and 'Howyagoin' 'neath our flag that's proudly blowing
O'er this land of peace and love and liberty.

Written by Bruce Venables who is one of Australia's most noted film and television writers.

Mike from Brooms

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak@live.com.au for consideration.

A lesson for Senator Conroy perhaps?

The Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, likes to think that the world is on his side when it comes to the 'rightness' of Internet censorship.

However, the real world has a habit of intruding..................

According to Computerworld: the voice of IT management this week:

The US Supreme Court has refused to resurrect a law requiring Web sites containing "material harmful to minors" to restrict access based on age, presumably ending a 10-year fight over whether the law violated free speech rights.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal by former President George Bush's administration, which asked that the court overturn a lower court's ruling against enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA). In July, the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit struck down the law, saying it was a vague and overly broad attack on free speech......

Opponents of the law, including the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Nerve.com, Salon.com, the Urban Dictionary and the Sexual Health Network, argued the law amounted to government censorship and was so broad that it would affect many Web sites, including those that included information on sexually transmitted diseases.

Opponents of COPA have successfully challenged it in court several times. In 2000, the 3rd Circuit upheld a lower court's injunction against the implementation of the law, and in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the injunction but sent the law back to U.S. district court. In 2003, the 3rd Circuit ruled that the law violated the U.S. Constitution.

Inconvenient facts also keep emerging in Australia...............

According to Crikey on Friday:

"Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there has never been any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content," intoned Senator Stephen Conroy on Tuesday.
Yet the very next day, ACMA added a page from what's arguably a political website to its secret blacklist of Internet nasties.
The page is part of an anti-abortion website which claims to include "everything schools, government, and abortion clinics are afraid to tell or show you". Yes, photos of dismembered fetuses designed to scare women out of having an abortion. Before you click through, be warned: it is confronting. Here's the blacklisted page.
Mandatory Internet filtering, says Senator Conroy, is only about blocking the ACMA blacklist. The blacklist, he repeatedly insists, is "mainly" child-abuse and ultra-violent material. He's protecting us from ped-philes, stopping terrorists, that sort of thing. It's like the regulation we have for TV, films and books. Except it's not. It's not even close.