Clarence Valley environmental groups get their dander up over water resources

From A Clarence Valley Protest on 11 August 2009:

Clarence River dam proposal slammed as deceptive

Local opinion continues to firm on the Region 6 Murray Darling Association proposal to request that the Federal Government only undertake yet another investigation of a Clarence River catchment freshwater diversion, but also give consideration to a larger scheme involving what is perilously close to being a mega-dam.

In The Daily Examiner today it was reported:

ABSOLUTE misinformation, unacceptable, highly misleading, a great lie, half-baked, inordinately expensive and of negligible benefit ... these are a few of the terms environmental groups have been using in response to the latest proposal to divert the Clarence to the west.

The Clarence Valley Environment Centre's John Edwards was particularly scathing in his assessment:

He said if the proponents were seeking 24 per cent of flows, it would equate to a dam of 8,000,000 megalitres.“The largest dam ever proposed for the Clarence had a capacity of 5,000,000 megalitres,” he said.“That dam would have seen the inundation of Jackadgery and the Nymboida village, require re-routing of the Gwydir Highway and Armidale roads totalling 60km and the complete closure of the Old Glen Innes Road between Buccarumbi and Dalmorton.“The claim that no pumps would be required and that water would flow downhill through a 22 kilometre tunnel is the greatest lie of all. The water would need to be pumped more than 800 metres upwards through a minimum 60km tunnel to reach the Beardy River.“This half-baked plan has most likely been dreamed up by an engineer wanting to build something, who has not the faintest link to reality.”

People who eat junk food have too much time on their hands?

I dips me lid to Stilgherrian who did a tweet recently on a post of the history of a fast food fad:
The McGangBang: a McChicken Sandwich Inside a Double Cheeseburger [a chronicle]
Yep, all that supersizing really get the old brain cells jinking 'n' jiving.
Pity about the waistlines........

I sent the link to Maud up the Street and she reckons that whoever thought up the McName must have minute danglely bits.

Just can't please some people

Pic from Google Images

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

A fly in the sky musing: One slick English kitteh.

"My cat is awesome at catching flies. He will be laying down when an unsuspecting fly will buzzes past him, he simply plucks it out the air - admittedly when he lifts his paw up it flies away, but it's still impressive".

James Embleton of Peterborough commenting on a BBC online news website

Fatty flying home musing: Fatty an 10 yr old Staffie was found wandering in Yamba and after being missing from his original Sydney home for most of the last eight years was flown home by Rex Airlines in June 2009.

An Itty Bitty Kitty Committee musing: Out in the blogosphere they know how to promote kittehs needing homes. Good website, good work! Charlene Butterbean - I lurvs u...

Departed pet musing: The deddie word has raised its head in a blog. The Orstrahyun mentions hearing about a psychic who charges at least $100 an hour for speaking to departed pets and conveying messages.
Darryl thinks that all cats would say from the great beyond is "Feed me".

I don't think we would be less chatty than before - I'm sure we would also say "Let me in", "Let me out", "Just scratch behind my ear will you", "Why is the dog in my bed?", "Take it away - it's not up to my culinary standards"and "Is Malcolm Turnbull STILL moaning?"

Senator Abetz gives dissembling apology to the Prime Minister, Senate and Australian people

Liberal Senator Eric Abetz rose to his feet in the Senate on 11 August 2009 and denied any wrongdoing in the OzCar matter.
His apology may be to his own satisfaction, however it may not be seen as a redemptive by others.

According to the Commonwealth Hansard:

Senator ABETZ (Tasmania) (12.44 pm)—Mr President, I seek leave to make a statement not exceeding three minutes.(Tasmania) (12.44 pm)—Mr President, I seek leave to make a statement not exceeding three minutes.
The PRESIDENT—Leave is granted for three minutes.—Leave is granted for three minutes.
Senator ABETZ—I thank the Senate. A lot has been said and written about my involvement in what—I thank the Senate. A lot has been said and written about my involvement in what has now become known as the OzCar affair. I have already publicly apologised, but I wanted to take this very first opportunity in the Senate to repeat that apology and in addition apologise for any perceived reflection on the Senate. I also want to briefly deal with the three assertions made against me: that I pressured a witness; that I misled a Senate hearing; and that I scripted a witness's evidence. All three assertions are
wrong. First, as the joint statement I made with the Leader of the Opposition on 4 August makes clear, the witness volunteered his information. When the witness approached us we listened because he was a person with direct knowledge of the matters in question. The second assertion is that I misled the Senate on 19 June by suggesting that a journalist had told me about the now known to be fake email and its contents. The simple fact is that a journalist did tell me this. He said he had been contacted by the witness, who had
shared his information including the contents of the email. The journalist then shared that information with me. As the joint statement made clear, the witness had previously shown me the email. Both statements are true; they are not mutually exclusive. Having received information from two separate sources it is quite appropriate to rely solely or partially on just one of those sources without exposing the other. The third claim is that I scripted the evidence, coached the witness and somehow interfered with the provision of evidence to the committee. This allegation is also wrong. Again, as spelt out in the joint statement, at no stage did I script the evidence, coach the witness or suggest what his answers might be. I would point out to the Senate that talking to witnesses before they give their evidence is common practice, so is asking questions provided by a third party. Every senator knows this is true. Indeed, ministers know beforehand many of the questions they will be asked in question time. I can even recall being given notice of questions the crossbenchers proposed to ask me. It is how the parliament works. However, improper influence of a witness is what the standing orders provide against, as they should. There was no improper influence. I repeat: I did not pressure a witness, I did not script a witness's evidence, nor did I mislead the Senate. Having said that, Mr President, I would like to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the Australian people and to the Prime Minister over this matter and again apologise for any perceived reflection on the Senate. I thank the Senate.

Hoyden Laurelhed quiet rightly expresses disquiet over Federal Government progression of a nationl e-health data base

Laurelhed over at Hoydens About Town looks at potential problems with the Rudd Government plan to create a national e-health data base, as a precursor to the national individual Medicare health information card.

The Commonwealth Dept of Health and Aging has posted these documents on its website:
Call for submissions: Healthcare identifiers and privacy legislative proposals
Health identifiers and privacy: Discussion paper on proposals for legislative support

Never be in any doubt - under the Rudd Government plan an individual will not own or control their personal or family medical record information (or any personal identifying data) and, medical personnel, agencies and hospitals will be able to deny an individual complete unfiltered access to these records.
As to the ability to correct inaccurate or misleading information held in the e-health data base - the system will lead you a merry chase.

My opinion. Paternalistic big brotherdom.

Concerns that Australia lagging in its formation of a national disaster response plan

From the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an August 2009 special report Hardening Australia: Climate change and national disaster resilience by Athol Yates and Anthony Bergin:

Evidence now suggests that the impact of climate change is being realised in Australia more rapidly than previously estimated.

The observed changes include more extreme events such as droughts and storms.

A new report from the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change suggests that these impacts will increase over time. 1

We should therefore immediately start adapting to the new environment.

Delays will only result in more costly disasters in terms of life and property.

In order to respond to climate change in Australia, this report offers some adaptation ideas for homeland security planners as well as other key domestic stakeholders such as our emergency services.2.........

Emergency services and disaster management organisations are now recognising the importance of integrating climate change into their activities, albeit to different degrees. There are many initiatives underway to assist them to do so, such as the development of a climate change action plan commissioned by the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management in November 2008 and a National Adaptation Research Plan for Disaster Management and Emergency Services.18 (See Box 5)

There's sometimes a limited awareness, however, by broader stakeholders of this work. A reason that's often advanced to justify limited consultation is that exposure of such material will raise public anxiety.

The 2005 government report, Review of Australia's Ability to Respond to and Recover from Catastrophic Disasters, for example, only became publicly available in May this year after the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission requested it.

Not surprisingly the community wasn't spooked by the report's disclosures: the only concerns raised were why the study hadn't been released earlier.19

A former head of Emergency Management Australia recently stated that the Commonwealth had still not acted on key recommendation in the 2005 Review of Australia's Ability to Respond to and Recover from Catastrophic Disasters.

The Federal Government states that it expects to complete a National Catastrophic Disaster Plan by the end of 2009.

This plan will be of particular interest to the NSW North Coast as it is clear from other documents that our region is one of many likely to feel the brunt of increased adverse weather events.

No two ways about it - this is a political hate crime

Image from Crikey 12th August 2009

This poster is a political hate crime in the making if ever there was one and it looks suspiciously like it was incited by a member of the Victorian arm of the Liberal Party, Federal MP Bruce Billson.
I'd like to say that the man is silly as a two bob watch - except he sounds too much like many other far right acolytes left over from the rabid JW Howard era version of them and us.
What are the Victorian Libs and the Federal Leader of the Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull going to do about it?
More to the point - what is the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Rapke QC, going to do about it?
It seems that the Howard era gave Aussie politicians 'permission' to be as openly racist as some of their constituents and the Rudd Government (along with its state counterparts) is doing little to reign in this ugly xenophobia.

What is particularly offensive about the Billson-led community campaign is that the increase in crime statistics the poster talks about cannot be slated solely to African residents - it's also due to the fact that the police have been more active in making arrests across the board in those areas in 2008-09 (big thanks to clarencegirl for this 2008 media release concerning the Wyndham Police Service Area, this webpage and this 9th August 2009 news story).

Billson's so-called political views are beneath contempt.