New native title claim in the Clarence Valley being considered

The Daily Examiner reported on 22 June 2010 that a new native title claim may be lodged over the Clarence Valley coastal zone from Woody Head to Red Rock.

Currently there are approximately 3,925 sq kilometres under active native title claim from Evans Head and its hinterland to the Grafton area, as well as the waters of the Clarence River.
These claims are on land within Clarence Valley Council, Lismore Shire Council, Richmond Valley Council, Tenterfield Shire Council, Glen Innes Severn Shire Council local government areas.

If the media report is correct then this proposed application would be a logical progression of the sincere efforts of Northern Rivers traditional owners to gain a measure of protection for the environmental, cultural and spiritual values of this land.

I wish them well in their endeavours.

Come orf it, Mendoza!

I'd be the last person to support the proposition that the Oz public health system is working for everyone anyone, but I have to wonder about the motives of John Mendoza, former chair of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health.

This is John last Friday in the Ballina Shire Advocate:

"He said Mr Rudd failed to listen to him, snubbed today's summit at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and ignored a petition signed by 80,000 Australians calling for $500 million boost to mental health funding."

This is John in a GetUp! email doing the rounds:

"On Thursday, I and over 60 mental health organisations from across Australia intend to present a letter to Kevin Rudd with a plan of action for mental health. But so far, the Prime Minister has declined to receive it, and so too has the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon."

WTF?
A couple of weeks ago a letter is sent and the PM hadn't yet replied? Yep, a scandal of the first magnitude.

Rudd and Roxon refuse to have this letter re-presented to them (presumably by the doughty John) for the benefit of the media? A shocking abuse of power I tell you!

Rudd ignored a GetUP! petition which is apparently only a few days old and delivered to Canberra last Thursday? My gawd, that defies belief.

John - take two aspirin tabs and lie down - your ego is out of control.

Pic of the boofhead from GetUp! website

New Matilda will be missed when it closes its doors today

Best wishes for the future to all New Matilda

management, staff, journalists & assorted others

from all of us here at North Coast Voices

Take an utterly random trip down memory lane as New Matilda ceases publication today:

2010

So Long, Sussex Street By Andrew Elder

Mungo MacCallum: Serial Killer By Mungo MacCallum

The New Adventures Of Old Matilda By Robbie Swan

Someone Lend This Man An Economics Textbook By Ben Eltham

2009

Get Ready For These Nuclear Fallacies By Mark Diesendorf

What Makes Climate Sceptics Tick? By Lyn Bender

2008

Rudd Has Betrayed A Generation By Anna Rose

The 10 Worst Cock-Ups Of 2008 By Ben Eltham

2007

Cops Hit the Front Page By Sam Davies

Leaks and Whispers By Bruce Haigh

Brown's Got Soul By Tim Soutphommasane

2006

A Senate Majority Was Meant to Be Easy By Michael Brissenden

Time to Point the Bone? By Michael Brissenden

Minamata 50 Years On By Christopher Reed

2005

Our greatest addiction By Daniel Donahoo

Federal Labor - dealing with its economic mistakes By Kirk McKenzie

2004

Lady in waiting? By Christine Wallace

The sticky pole of nationalism By Maria Kunda

Speak no evil - security law on the books By George Williams

Waterlines Report June 2010: how much water does Australia use?

Australian Government Waterlines report 30 - June 2010:

This report documents:

• the location of significant intercepting activities that fall outside the current entitlement framework
• the potential rate of expansion of each activity over various time periods
• estimates of water usage of each activity in water management areas used in the Australian Water Resources 2005 report.

The report includes a definition and description of activities that intercept surface water and groundwater and identified the following activities for further analysis:

• overland flows
• farm dams
• stock and domestic bores
• plantations
• peri-urban development

The report shows that the total volume of water unaccounted for as a result of land use activities outside our current water entitlement regimes and planning frameworks equates to almost one quarter of all the entitled water on issue in Australia.

Or to put it another way - a combined volume of at least 5,600 gigalitres of fresh water is intercepted annually across the country. Which is around 10 Sydney Harbours worth of water according to my calculations and, much is apparently being siphoned off outside of current government-endorsed management plans.

Surface and/or groundwater interception activities: initial estimates (7.26MB)

Executive summary (141KB)

Petticoats rule!

Back in the 1950s I'd never have thought it possible.
We New South Walers now have a female head of state (Her Maj), a female representative of the Crown (teh G-G), a female Prime Minister (all hail Gillard!), a female State Governor (hat tip to Marie B) and a female Premier (K-K-Keneally acting on behalf of her hair).
This has to be the ultimate hat trick.

Federal Labor and Peter Garret keep promise to protect whales

Yes! Yes! Yes! A win for the whales.
The International Whaling Commission at its Morocco meeting has not endorsed the breakway whaling nations push to end the moratorium on commercial whaling.
Now the case Australia has brought against the Government of Japan in the International Court of Justice on 31st May 2010 alleging that; "Japan's continued pursuit of a large scale programme of whaling under the Second Phase of its Japanese Whale Research Programme under Special Permit in the Antarctic ("JARPA II") [is] in breach of obligations assumed by Japan under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling ("ICRW"), as well as its other international obligations for the preservation of marine mammals and marine environment" can proceed and hopefully all whaling will end in the Southern Ocean in the foreseeable future.
Go, Migaloo!

As the road toll mounts we're still waiting, Kristina..........

As the annual road toll on the NSW North Coast leg of the Pacific Highway steadily mounts, local mayors and the media are still waiting for Premier Kristina Keneally or her designated ministerial representative to undertake an inspection by car along the worst of this route.

The invitation has been on the table since early February this year and the Premier appears to have committed her minister to a full inspection according to a March 2010 media report.

The inspection is overdue to say the least.

A short visit to Coffs Harbour in late March by Regional Development Minister Ian McDonald trying a snow job on the mayors and burbling on about "cost-benefit analysis" being needed before highway upgrades can occur just doesn't cut the political mustard - especially as scandal has since seen him go from office and parliament.

The NSW Government has been responding to these road deaths with sad shaking of heads for years now.

In 2005 Keneally's mentor, then Roads Minister Joe Tripodi, was telling ABC TV Stateline:

I am very conscious of the many tragic deaths on the Pacific Highway. One death on our roads is one death too many, and my heart goes to the families and friends who have suffered this terrible loss.

The NSW road toll for 2010 as of 16 June was 213 deaths. As in past years, too many of these were on the Pacific Highway.

In certain quarters local tempers are becoming rather frayed and we are still waiting, Kristina.........

Photograph of 2007 Coffs Harbour area fatality at The Sydney Morning Herald (top left ) and 2010 Tabbimobile area fatalities at The Daily Examiner (bottom right)