It's an exciting time for black politics in Australia. The genie is out of the bottle and her name is Marion Scrymgour**

Picture: National Indigenous Times

Marion rocks!

Scrymgour quits and throws Henderson government into chaos

**Post title is taken from the final paragraph of a 5 June 2009 Crikey article by National Indigenous Times editor Chris Graham.

Noel Hart and the radiance of birds

Blue Eared Lorikeet 2009

Byron Bay artist Noel Hart with the assistance of glass blowers, Johnathon Westacott & Greg Royer, along with cold worker Earl Sullivan, has created blown glass art inspired by the vibrancy and colour of parrots.

This artist's work is featured on his own website and at Retrospective Galleries Jonson Street, Byron Bay NSW.

Media has fun with the Federal Opposition

Tongue-in-cheek media headlines the Federal Opposition has generated recently:

PARLIAMENT FARCE: Joe runs with scissors - LiveNews

Snippy Hockey props up Question Time - ABC Online

Turnbull 'disappointed' over press gallery stoush - The Age

Why didn't we hear about 'grateful dead' under the coalition? - Crikey

Turnbull gets big bickies with his morning tea - Brisbane Times

Turnbull coyness is a bit rich - The Daily Telegraph

Want to be a millionaire? - Townsville Bulletin

Plaque blowback - Crikey

One very solemn one:

Widow slams Opposition over cash comments - The Age

And a piece of pure mischief:

Turnbull denies plan to quit politics - WA Today

What gripe does the Daily Examiner have with PNG?

After Wednesday night's State of Origin the Examiner's editor, Peter Chapman, called for all NRL video referees "to be taken to the docks for a one way trip to Papua New Guinea".

Many people will agree with Chapman that the video referee in Wednesday night's NRL State of Origin went way too far when deciding 'No Try' after Blue's Jarryd Haynes had flirted with the touch line.

However, sending all the video refs to PNG is stretching things a bit too far. What on earth have PNGers done that caused Chapman to decide they should have to host the refs?

Chapman admitted that he "bunkered down at home for the match complete with freshly-ordered pizza and a cold drink by (his) side".

Perhaps, Chapman had one cold drink too many. Then again, perhaps the pizza was off.

Political incompetence in the Senate: surely it is no coincidence............

Heartland Institute scale of fees

The Senate seats of Bill Heffernan, Barnaby Joyce, Stephen Conroy and Steve Fielding all expire on 30 June 2011.

Surely this is heaven's way of giving Australia the chance of a brief respite from over-the-top political incompetence.

Senator Fielding in particular is excelling himself on the subject of global warming as first this statement showed:

We've all bought this idea that man is the problem with carbon emission and therefore man has to change what they do with carbon emissions. That's where we're at the moment. But there are some questions now being asked: is man the problem? And if not, then what are we doing?

And then this exchange revealed on ABC TV Lateline on 4 June 2009 after the senator had attended a Heartland Institute conference:

STEVE FIELDING: ......And I'll be coming back to Australia to sit down with the - Senator Wong and the Rudd Government to share with them and to just to see what their thoughts are and what I've heard from here. Now, what they did say yesterday, the scientists - and, look, I'm not saying that they're right, but they've actually put a very big question about the link between carbon emissions and global warming. Now, what they put forward yesterday was that in fact over the last 10 years, carbon emissions have gone up, but and global - or the temperatures, global temperatures have not gone up. Now, that obviously ...

TONY JONES: Well, I mean, yes, that is their claim, that since 1998, when there was a peak in temperatures, it hasn't gone up. But you'd be aware of the other evidence on that, wouldn't you, I dare say? That Britain's Hadley Centre, ...

STEVE FIELDING: Yes.

TONY JONES: ... which is one of the most respected organisations involved in measuring global temperature has data for global mean temperatures that says 1998 was the hottest year on record; 2005 the second hottest year on record; the third hottest, 2003; the fourth, 2002; the fifth hottest, 2004 and the sixth hottest, 2006. They're saying they're the hottest temperatures ever measured since temperatures were first taken in 1880.

STEVE FIELDING: And so that puts a question on it. But, Tony, you know, you've got to actually look at the facts and figures, which you've put forward a case. I'll need to (inaudible) just to make sure that what I heard yesterday, what are the arguments against it. You've put them forward, but I need to check today with the Obama administration, and I may even check with the Bradley area as well and just to make sure because this is too big an issue to get wrong. And what's worst, if we make the wrong decision, what's worse than that is if we make the right decision too late. And so the issue is that if you look at the graphs, if you look at the temperatures over the last 10 years, yes, they've gone up and down, but they've actually, if you look at the average, it stayed reasonably level, and CO2 emission over that time have gone up drastically. So, the whole idea about that there's a direct link between CO2 ...

If we make the wrong decision, what's worse than that is if we make the right decision too late - no Senator, the wrong decision or the right decision too late are equally disastrous for Australia and I rather suspect from the aforementioned exchange that you have entered the essentially 'anti-science' la-la land inhabited by Heartland members and backers.

What is worse, Senator Fielding, is that the right-wing free market advocate Heartland Institute (partly funded by coal, oil, nuclear energy companies and a water privatisation and big tobacco apologist) obviously targeted you as a gullible fool long before it extended its invitation.

This is what the Heartland Institute says about its relationship with donors and the targets it picks:

The Heartland Institute has discovered a way to get the attention of busy elected officials. We package research and commentary on public policy issues as news, in the form of monthly public policy newspapers.

As a courtesy to donors, we share with them advance copies of the studies they helped fund, and we often solicit their advice on what audiences to target during promotional campaigns.

Steve Fielding could have saved himself those overseas travel costs by either: a) allowing his mouse to do the walking on the Internet and so easily acquire the type of information he is allegedly seeking; b) requesting the Parliamentary Library provide him with research; c) arranging to meet with the CSIRO which might objectively give him an insight into global warming science; or d) visiting communities on the NSW North Coast where coastal erosion and seawater inundation is not a maybe but a very real occurrence for some families.

Saffin highlights problems with Maclean Hospital senior management staff cuts

On 3 June 2009 the Labor Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, stood in up the House of Representatives and spoke on behalf of the people of the Lower Clarence:

While Maclean District Hospital sits just outside my electorate of Page in Cowper, thousands of my constituents in the Lower Clarence rely on it. Many constituents hold real fears about the future of their hospital, particularly if the EO/DON is transferred to Grafton Base Hospital 45 kilometres away to become the DON for both Clarence Valley hospitals. Ordinarily such a centralisation proposal, obtained by the Daily Examiner newspaper, might make sense. However, coming at the same time as the North Coast Area Health Service is deleting a total of 400 positions from Tweed Heads to Port Macquarie for budgetary reasons, my constituents see this hospital management restructure as a body blow to their smaller hospital. The ladies of the Maclean Lower Clarence Hospital Auxiliary have written to me saying they cannot see how one director of nursing can be expected to provide fair management to two hospitals. Neither can I. They say:

This could well be a precursor to our hospital being downgraded even further and therefore jeopardising the level of service provided to our community, which continues to grow steadily, thus putting more pressure on the hospital and its staff.

While I understand the need for belt tightening in the context of responding to the global recession, I share the community concerns that the target of 400 positions will put too much pressure on front line health workers and potentially affect the quality and viability of hospital services. As a starting point, I am asking that the existing management arrangements for Maclean and Grafton hospitals remain in place and unchanged. I note in today's Northern Star, the newspaper at the other end of my electorate, that the editorial heading is 'Health system needs injection of sense'. I agree.

On a positive note I report that two of my major election commitments from 2007—redevelopment of Grafton Base Hospital's operating theatres and emergency department and the fast-tracking of Lismore Base Hospital's radiotherapy unit—are progressing well. At the end of budget week I returned to Grafton to see the North Coast Area Health Service Lodge a DA for three new operating theatres with the Clarence Valley Council. This was a milestone event for everyone who supports the hospital, particularly its Medical Staff Council Chair, Dr Allan Tyson; Grafton Community Health Committee Chair, Shirley Adams; Area Health Service Advisory Council member, Sandra Woods; and Clarence Valley Mayor, Councillor Richie Williamson. The council is expected to approve the planning application within weeks. The main building works tender will be let in September 2009. Construction is due to be completed in December 2010.

In this year's budget there was an announcement from Minister Roxon that the government would invest in a $560 million network of state-of-the-art regional cancer centres with associated accommodation centres. I am encouraging the Lismore district's medical fraternity and other community leaders to work with me to secure one of up to 10 such centres, enhancing the one that we have under development. We could have our PET scanner and accommodation service.

If you have not yet signed the petition to the NSW Minister for Health asking for reconsideration of these senior staff cuts, contact Jim Agnew on (02) 6646.1685 after 5pm each day for current locations of this petition.

You little ripper, Janelle!

According to The Far North Coaster the Labor Member for Page, Janelle Saffin has secured inclusion of horticultural wind damage losses in the Commonwealth-State flood assistance grants available to those affected by May 2009 NSW North Coast storms and flooding.
Again, Janelle shows she is worth the confidence voters showed in November 2007.