Shell targets polar bear's home for drilling. We're suing says NRDC

Help us stop Shell in court! Shell is moving full speed ahead with its plan to drill off the coast of the Arctic Refuge, the polar bear’s favorite onshore birthing ground. Help send NRDC to court to stop Shell! Important news: We have filed suit in federal court to stop Shell from drilling off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge next summer. We can’t wage and win this courtroom battle without your help. Please make an online donation right now that can help us stave off Shell’s latest assault on Arctic wildlife. As you know, the Obama Administration recently gave Shell tentative approval to begin exploratory drilling near the Arctic Refuge, the polar bear’s favorite onshore birthing ground. Shell’s rigs will operate in wildlife-filled waters -- home to vulnerable populations of seals, whales and migratory birds. An oil spill in this fragile and sensitive ecosystem would be devastating. Any polar bears swimming in thickly-oiled waters will most certainly die, and an oil spill offshore could blanket the coast of the Arctic Refuge with a layer of thick, toxic oil for generations to come. Help NRDC fight in court and make sure this tragedy never happens. Shell’s oil spill response plan reads like a fantasy. The oil industry still has no proven method for cleaning up spills in ice-filled waters. Yet Shell is claiming that more than 95 percent of spilled oil will be recovered before it hits shore. Only five percent of the oil unleashed by BP in the Gulf was ever captured. Thanks to your support, we’ve been fending off Shell’s repeated attempts to drill near the Arctic Refuge since 2008. But with the Obama Administration now paving the way for Shell’s latest plan, we need your help more than ever before. Shell has vast resources to bring to this fight. We, on the other hand, rely entirely on Members and activists like you to help ensure the survival of America’s polar bears and other Arctic wildlife. And unlike Shell, we can’t afford to lose even once. Your tax-deductible donation will allow us to wage and win this courtroom battle against Shell’s scheme and defend our environment in the most effective way possible. If we’re going to stop Shell before it sinks its first drill bit into Arctic water next summer, we have no time to waste. Please let me know that I can count on your support today. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council

OMG! It's Judgement Day and I'm still here

Way back in May (after Harold Camping bombed by yet again predicting The Rapture that never was) it was somehow decided that today was going to be Judgement Day.
Universal Doomsday for all the world's inhabitants? Well not if I'm any indication.
Sitting here very much alive and earthbound - munching toast and drinking tea without a care.

Pic from judgementday2011.com

Please, in case I forget, remind me NEVER to contact this North Coast solicitor

The solicitor for the Ramsey Group of companies is reported to have said:

"Whilst the move from Grafton is regretted, and not the preferred option by the Ramsey Group, it appeared inevitable certain Government Departments were single minded in their efforts to achieve the closing of the abattoir business at Grafton."

Fair dinkum! So, it's government departments that are responsible for the predicament employees of Stuart Ramsey or whatever shonky bodgey employment mobs that have been orchestrated to be the workers' employer should carry the can, is it?
 The solicitor representing Ramsey is, among other things, the chairman of the board of the major local private hospital in the Richmond valley.

Credit: The Daily Examiner, 21/10/11

The Greens candidate in Clarence by-election speaks out against mining risks

NSW Greens media release October 18, 2011:

The Clarence Greens today confirmed that Janet Cavanaugh would be running as their candidate in next month’s by-election for the seat of Clarence. A resident of the area for more than 20 years, Ms Cavanaugh was the Greens candidate for the March State Election.
“The Greens view this by-election as an opportunity for the electorate to cast a vote of ‘no confidence’ against both major political parties,” Ms Cavanaugh said.
“It is time to clean up NSW politics,” she said. “The Greens have a history of maintaining ethical stands across a range of issues. By acting with integrity, The Greens offer a better way of doing politics and this will result in better outcomes for the electorate.
“One of the key issues we are worried about is the threat posed by mining to our precious water supplies. There is the risk posed by antimony mining on the Dorrigo Plateau to the Coffs-Clarence regional water supply and our estuarine fisheries, and the potential for coal seam gas exploration to drain and poison groundwater reserves as well as wreck important farming land and wildlife habitat.

Stuart Ramsey ordered to compensate sacked workers

It has been a long time coming for those eleven South Grafton abattoir workers sacked in November 2008, but yesterday in Fair Work Ombudsman v Ramsey Food Processing Pty Ltd and Stuart Ramsey (19 October 2011) the Federal Court of Australia found in the workers favour and ordered compensation for termination without notice, severance pay or annual leave entitlements.

Full transcript of the judgment here.

Update:

The Daily Examiner today offers this summation:

In effect, the court found Mr Ramsey and his company Ramsey Food Processing established shelf labour-hire companies and used them as a mechanism to hire and fire who he wanted, while avoiding paying entitlements.
It found that when the company wanted to get rid of employees without paying entitlements, it moved the employees it wanted to retain into another labour hire company then starved the original company of funds. That company would then become insolvent, leaving neither money to pay the employees nor money to which they were rightly entitled.
That is what the workers claimed when they were sacked and their claims have now been vindicated.
It has not been a great week for Mr Ramsey. Last Thursday he was found guilty of contempt in the NSW Land and Environment Court.

Byron turned out to say no to coal seam gas mining

Photograph from Northern Rivers Guardians website

Byron Bay makes its views known on the subject of coal seam gas mining as part of the Lock The Gate /Defend Our Water National Day of Action on October 16 2011:

Photographs from Facebook and Common Ground Byron Bay

The O'Farrell Government is not listening as it endorses fraccing in its submission to the NSW Inquiry into Coal seam gas.

Best Tweet of the Week

Queensland Liberal MP Andy Laming successfully aping his leader The Rabbitt on Twitter this week:

@AndrewLamingMP Andrew Laming

@slabb0 Bad luck. My job is to annoy people just like you.

13 Oct via web

You might remember that this backbencher is the son of former Queensland state Liberal MP Bruce Laming and supposedly factional ally of Senator George Brandis.

Pic from The Age