NSW public underwhelmed by Premier Keneally?

From The Daily Telegraph this morning

When will we ever be able to respect them in the morning?

 

When the Liberal Party allowed John Howard to trail his feeble political dementia through the last Australian federal election campaign, I thought surely things couldn't get any worse.

 

When a defeated Liberal Party elected failed former defence minister Brendan Nelson as its new leader, I hoped that there was nowhere to go but up for the party after that obvious blunder.

 

When the very rich ex-merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull plopped his rear in the leader's chair after Nelson's demise, I feared that the Liberal Party had plumbed to previously unimaginable depths.

 

Then the Liberal Party elected the rabidly conservative Tony Abbott as its leader going into the next federal election campaign and I discovered that the situation could indeed get much, much worse.

 

Upriver Bill

Northern Rivers

 

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.
Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

The Townsville Bulletin objects!

On 7 November 2009 the Townville Bulletin published a sports article; A-League is no sprint.

On 10 November it sent a takedown notice to Google Inc. complaining about the blog North Queensland Fury FC: the journal taking liberties with the newspaper's copyright exactly twice in around 939 posts about this football club.
The second time being on that 7 November Saturday.

Seems this News Ltd rag with a circulation of between 27,000-42,000 plus is toeing Rupert Murdoch's line with a vengence.

Though I have to admit that posting an entire newspaper column (using an identical banner headline) on a blog the very same day the print and online edition of the paper carried it was stretching patience a bit too far.

Rees acts on iconic River Red Gums - but is it now too late?

Unfortunately this scheduled post was overtaken by events and yesterday Nathan Rees was ousted as Premier by the right-wing faction of the NSW Labor Government. Planning Minister Kristina Keneally is now the state's 42nd premier and during her time in Parliament is yet to prove that she has a real
understanding of environmental issues or sustainability.
I hope that she might confound her critics by honouring the commitment set out below.

Image from River Red Gum Rescue

Some welcome news in the NSW Premier's media release of 3 December 2009:

Premier Nathan Rees today announced he would save River Red Gums in the state's south-west by declaring 42,077 hectares of the Millewa Group Red Gum Forests as National Park.
Mr Rees also announced the government would move immediately to implement a structural adjustment package for industry.
"Successive Labor governments have an unparalleled record of protecting natural resources in NSW and providing support to protect jobs and communities," said Mr Rees.
"Over eight percent of NSW is now protected in perpetuity in the form of national parks and reserves.
"These are areas that deserve preservation and protection for future generations. Part of that legacy is my commitment that mining and hunting will not be permitted in national parks.
"I add to that legacy today by acting to save the habitat of our precious River Red Gums in the Riverina.
"We will create a new National Park in the area currently covered by the Gulpa Island, Millewa and Moira State Forests. The new National Park will adjoin the Barmah National Park in Victoria, creating a huge protected area for River Red Gum habitat.
"Already under attack from the drought and climate change, this habitat is fast approaching a tipping point where we risk losing it for ever.".........

Political hypocrisy wears a skirt in New South Wales...

Kristina Keneally is NSW Premier as of late yesterday I see. HHMMM.......what a difference a few weeks make.

iPrime Woollongong 16/11/2009 11:58 AM
NSW Planning Minister Kristina Keneally has rejected suggestions that Premier Nathan Rees will suffer retribution over the dumping of Joe Tripodi from the ministry.
Ms Keneally praised her friend Mr Tripodi on Monday as a "hard working, loyal minister" who had demonstrated his loyalty by resigning when he asked by Mr Rees on Sunday.
She said Mr Tripodi's axing as finance and ports minister was unexpected, but she denied there would be any payback over the axing of the Right faction powerbroker.
"That's a ridiculous claim," Ms Keneally said when asked about possible retribution.
"There is no plan for that at all."
PM Thursday, August 27, 2009 18:38:00
"We have one Premier of New South Wales, his name is Nathan Rees and I want him to be the Premier that takes us to the March 2011 election."

Pavlov's Cat observes the Liberal Party debacle and other comment

Pavlov's Cat observes the death of common sense in the Liberal Party of Australia when faced with the political as well as environmental reality of catastrophic climate change:
There's a moment at which ego investment in a position becomes so entrenched that the stand being taken becomes indistinguishable from the sense of self, and not even the person in question -- especially not the person in question -- can see or understand where and how that shift happened. But everyone else can see the results. Especially on a 47 degree day in early November.

LarvatusProdeo tweets the words of a green-eyed monster with the text Tony Abbott: "I'm all in favour of PM's looking good internationally, just not this one, he wants to be king of the world."

The Rudd Government puts the boot straight in via a video piece Taking Australia Backwards from Australian Labor on Vimeo

"They are lying through their teeth": James Hansen speaks out on UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

Extract from Dr. James E. Hansen's opinion piece Never-Give-Up Fighting Spirit: Lessons From a Grandchild

Any Hope of Cutting Global Carbon Emissions?

Absolutely. It is possible – if we give politicians a cold hard slap in the face. The fraudulence of the Copenhagen approach – "goals" for emission reductions, "offsets" that render even iron-clad goals almost meaningless, an ineffectual "cap-and-trade" mechanism – must be exposed. We must rebel against such politics-as-usual.

Science reveals that climate is close to tipping points. It is a dead certainty that continued high emissions will create a chaotic dynamic situation for young people, with deteriorating climate conditions out of their control, as described in my book Storms of My Grandchildren.

Science also reveals what is needed to stabilize atmospheric composition and climate. Geophysical data on the carbon amounts in oil, gas and coal show that the problem is solvable, if we phase out global coal emissions within 20 years and prohibit emissions from unconventional fossil fuels such as tar sands and oil shale.

Such constraints on fossil fuels would cause carbon dioxide emissions to decline 60 percent by mid-century, or even more if policies make it uneconomic to go after every last drop of oil. Improved forestry and agricultural practices could then bring atmospheric carbon dioxide back to 350 ppm (parts per million) or less, as required for a stable climate.

Governments going to Copenhagen claim to have such goals for 2050, which they will achieve with the "cap-and-trade" mechanism. They are lying through their teeth. Unless they order Russia to leave its gas in the ground and Saudi Arabia to leave its oil in the ground (which nobody has proposed), they must phase out coal and prohibit unconventional fossil fuels.

Instead, the United States signed an agreement with Canada for a pipeline to carry oil squeezed from tar sands. Australia is building port facilities for large increases in coal export. Coal-to-oil factories are being built. Coal-fired power plants are being constructed worldwide.

Governments are stating emission goals that they know are lies – or, if we want to be generous, they do not understand the geophysics and are kidding themselves.

Is it feasible to phase out coal and avoid use of unconventional fossil fuels? Yes, but only if governments face up to the truth: as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, their use will continue and even increase on a global basis. Fossil fuels are cheapest because they are not made to pay for their effects on human health, the environment, and future climate.

Governments must place a uniform rising price on carbon, collected at the fossil fuel source – the mine or port of entry. The fee should be given to the public in toto, as a uniform dividend, payroll tax deduction, or both. Such a tax is progressive – the dividend exceeds added energy costs for 60 percent of the public. Fee-and-dividend stimulates the economy, providing the public the means to adjust lifestyles and energy infrastructure.

Fee-and-dividend can begin with the countries now considering cap-and-trade. Other countries will either agree to a carbon fee or have duties placed on their products that are made with fossil fuels. As the carbon price rises, most coal, tar sands and oil shale will be left in the ground. The market place will determine the roles of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and nuclear power in our clean energy future.

Cap-and-trade with offsets, in contrast, is astoundingly ineffective. Global emissions rose rapidly in response to the Kyoto Protocol, as expected, because fossil fuels remained the cheapest energy. Cap-and-trade is an inefficient compromise, paying off numerous special interests. It must be replaced with an honest approach, raising the price of carbon emissions, and leaving the dirtiest fossil fuels in the ground.

Are we going to stand up and give global politicians a hard slap in the face, to make them face the truth? It will take a lot of us – probably in the streets. Or are we going to let them continue to kid themselves and us, and cheat our children and grandchildren?

Intergenerational inequity is a moral issue. Just as when Abraham Lincoln faced slavery and when Winston Churchill faced Nazism, the time for compromises and half-measures is over. Can we find a leader who understands the core issue, and will lead?

Full text here.