Free TV fails bush viewers

Techno dinosaur Southern Cross Television's viewers don't rate

Channel Ten has been crowing about its fantastic new 24/7 sports channel, Channel One .

Fantastic?

New?

Well, it might be IF viewers live in metropolitan areas.

Channel Ten's programs in the bush are broadcast by the techno dinosaur Southern Cross Television, which reckons it will have things together by July.

Here's a tip: Given Southern Cross's track record, punters should take the odds that it will start showing One programs after Christmas ... perhaps!

How serious is local government about protecting against climate change impacts? Not very it seems, if it is Clarence Valley Council

On 17 April 2009 The Daily Examiner ran a front page article about Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River on the NSW North Coast; Yamba Prone to Disaster?

Yesterday it posted online a letter to the editor on the same subject:

YAMBA is a town of approximately 6000 residents sitting on predominately low-lying land surrounded on all four sides by tidal bodies of water and tethered to the mainland by a strip of land approximately 1.25 kilometres wide, according to a scaled map.

On April 17, The Daily Examiner published a front page article Yamba Prone To Disaster?

This article pointed out that Yamba will have difficulties coping with the predicted bigger floods of longer duration and increasingly severe storms accompanied by storm surges.

Part of this difficulty is the limited evacuation options open to residents should Yamba Road be cut by floodwater in any of the three to four places it has been cut in the past, thereby denying access to high ground at Yamba Hill for a considerable number of residents and/or preventing movement inland towards Maclean or the Pacific Highway.

Floodwater in certain side roads or across Angourie Road will also cause problems for residents seeking high ground.

The Daily Examiner article went on to say that the State Emergency Service (SES) was concerned about this situation and that its submission to Clarence Valley Council regarding proposed large-scale urban development in Yamba recommended in effect that the Maclean Local Environmental Plan 2001 (LEP) amendment for West Yamba be deferred pending further study.

The SES were right to draw council's attention to the problems which may be experienced as severe weather events become more common.

According to Clarence Valley Council documents, Yamba flooding can occur because of a combination of high river flows, high ocean levels, wind-wave action along the foreshore or from intense rain over the local catchment (Webb, McKeown and Associates, 2009, 'Yamba Floodplain Risk Management Plan').

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a storm surge is a large amount of water pushed towards the shore, which combining with the existing tide and/or floodwater, raises the mean water level by 15 feet or more depending on the inclination of the underwater shelf leading to the foreshore.

Wind-driven waves are superimposed on this surge and the total effect is often swift and destructive flooding of coastal areas ( www.nhs.noaa.gov, April 18, 2009).

It is easy for the average person to recall that in the last decade storm surges have caused loss of life in America, India, South-East Asia and New Guinea.

It is also easy for Yamba locals to recall that severe 'east-coast lows' are sometimes preceded by days of rain and have been known to follow close on the heels of a Clarence Valley flood.

So here we have a town, with a large retiree population, two aged-care facilities and more than a few people without a car, faced with the probability that from now on it will be more vulnerable in floods and severe storms and, that there may be some risk to life as well as anywhere between $1.9 million to $113.7 million worth of property damage from any one severe adverse weather event (Webb, McKeown and Associates, 2009, 'Yamba Floodplain Risk Management Plan').

What does Clarence Valley Council do when faced with this risk scenario?

Does it look at the recent reports from reputable CSIRO researchers which state that sea levels are rising faster than was thought (University of Copenhagen, 2009, Climate Change International Scientific Congress) and move to protect existing residents by immediately beginning to organise a co-ordinated emergency evacuation plan? No, it does not.

What is does is decide to progress the proposed development of West Yamba (based on what appears to be 2007 predicted sea-level data), thereby eventually adding another 2000 to 2500 people to an already vulnerable population and taking away yet another section of local flood storage land, at the same time deciding that it will ask for money from a cash-strapped NSW Government to put together some sort of plan with the help of emergency services at some indefinite point in the future.

Why does it do this?

Well, on reading council's February 24, 2009 ordinary monthly meeting minutes and attachments, it appears that it has accepted the argument that to defer the LEP amendment would not be 'considered reasonable'. So intent are our nine councillors on appeasing a select group of property speculators and so determined are they to widen the Yamba rate base, that these same councillors are willing to ignore their duty of care and the risk to residents' lives in favour of being 'reasonable'.

Clarence Valley Council obviously has not taken note of the fact that should individuals in the expanded Yamba population experience property loss or loss of a family member as a result of predicted flooding/surges, it would be within the realms of possibility that council would face both individual litigation and a class action.

Our nine councillors should also remember that, in certain circumstances, they do not have full indemnity for the resolutions they pass. Or perhaps they do remember and that is the reason for the deafening silence on the subject of Yamba since they passed the West Yamba amendment?

JUDITH M. MELVILLE
Yamba

Biotech: the unmet promise of genetically engineered crops?

In the face of a review of GM crop yield studies which concluded that there was no appreciable difference between crops grown from conventional and genetically modified seed, talk of herbicide resistant weeds being associated with land used for GM crops and the banning of GM maize MON 10 by Germany on environmental grounds, the big biotech companies are pretending that is still business as usual.

And if you are a large multinational corporation like Monsanto, with lobbyist tentacles reaching into so many national or state governments around the world, I expect that it really is business as usual.

So usual that it is thinking of starting yet another court case in its pursuit of the 'golden' apex of a global agricultural food chain.

Still it doesn't hurt if you also create a slice of corporate propaganda like this:











View and Download this Ad
from Monsanto website











* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Dear Mal, Get a life!

Is it just me or does anyone else feel thoroughly browned off with Aussie Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull's constant carping?

Fair Work Australia is wrong, the stimulus packages are bad, the ETS is a disaster, giving extra money to the poor is a waste of dollars, a budget in deficit is the end of the world as we know it, Rudd is a villain and Swan an idiot, the country's being invaded by boat people, we should be told why SEIV 36 blew up before the police investigation is finalised, there's a conspiracy under the bed and its name is Labor, blah, blah, blah............

Malcolm
Turnbull
Mal -
Content

Fred Nile's mob shaft Gordon Moyes

A fraction too much friction between NSW Upper House Members

Years of mud slinging and arm wrestling in the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) reached a climax on the weekend when Fred Nile's mob expelled Gordon Moyes from the party.

While many seasoned political observers have thought the two CDP members would finally settle their differences using the pistols-at-dawn way of doing things, Nile's mob moved against Moyes at a meeting of the CDP state council over the weekend. The council voted to uphold the decision made in March to expel Dr Moyes.

The Age reports that Moyes has had discussions about becoming the state's first Family First parliamentarian after being expelled from the Christian Democratic Party (CDP).

In a statement posted on his website Moyes said he would remain in NSW politics despite his expulsion.

“I was expelled not because of any moral, sexual, financial or any other kind of unacceptable Christian behaviour but because I have some different views to the leader and believe the Management committee to be dysfunctional. Differing with our Leader is regarded as disloyalty and being critical of our Management Committee effectiveness is regarded as grounds for expulsion.”

The CDP accused Moyes of many things at Saturday's meeting, but perhaps a couple of the more interesting charges were that Moyes was:

1. a Freemason (Moyes: "I was not and had never been a freemason.") and

2. involved in witchcraft (Moyes: "For the life of me I cannot think what that was for. Did I once quote Macbeth?")

EFA 2008 political donation and election expenditure disclosures published online today at 10 am

Declarations disclosing political donations and electoral expenditure lodged under the Election Funding and Disclosures Act 1981 will be made available to the public on Monday 20 April, 2009.

The Election Funding Authority (EFA) will publish the declarations and disclosure data live on its website http://www.efa.nsw.gov.au/ at 10.00am.

The disclosures cover the reporting period from 1 July 2008 – 31 December 2008.
This reporting period includes the September 2008 NSW Local Government election activity.

All disclosure data will be searchable by category and will be downloadable.

Data entry is based on information as provided in the declarations of disclosures lodged with the EFA.
Under new reporting rules, declarations of disclosures must be lodged with the EFA every six months.

Campaigning for 2010 starts early in one US state

Believe it or not, it seems America is beginning to gear up for the campaign trail leading to 2 November 2010.
This email from Massachusetts showed up in my Inbox this week.

Dear Friends:
Please join Governor Deval Patrick at a grassroots organizing meeting for supporters and volunteers today, April 16th at 3:30 at Rachel's Lakeside Restaurant on Route 6 in Dartmouth. The Governor will be speaking about his upcoming governing agenda in 2009 and some of his long-term priorities. We will also be discussing ways for you to get involved and help the Governor now and looking toward 2010 and the re-election campaign. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks, Clare Kelly
Clare Kelly
Deval Patrick Committee

The Democrat governor has his own website and Twitter and, of course he's asking for political donations.
Given he was elected with about 56 per cent of the vote last time, it is puzzling to find his campaign committee kitty virtually empty at $3,200 and other campaign funds only reaching somewhere in the vicinity of $500,000.
Is it the tough economic climate or is he an inept governor?
The fact that he appears to be campaigning in far away Australia among people ineligible to vote in US elections may give a hint.