Queensland Election 2012 on the night - links to live coverage

For everyone fascinated with politics north of the Rio Tweed. Links which will be live at close of polls in Queensland on 24 March 2012.

Queensland Electoral Commission - provisional polling results begin to be posted after 7pm.

The Courier Mail newspaper online - Queensland Votes 2012

ABC News online - listen live or stream. Election 2012 webpage
ABC News Radio - results from 7pm
ABC Radio Brisbane

Website

goldcoast.com.au - live election updates from 10.30am

Twitter

http://twitter.com/antonygreenabc
http://twitter.com/abcelections

Hashtags
#qldvotes
#yourvote12

Let's put Lindsay on the front page

This morning while yarning with a couple of mates outside the paper shop Tweedy, who was/is an avid reader of the Tweed Daily (warning: don't ask him what he thinks about APN's decision to virtually take his favourite read out of circulation - it's no longer a daily, hence the website's title), remarked about a letter in today's edition of his paper. Read the letter below.


Lindsay yet to make front page

I was having a cold ale with an old bloke who's 87 (don't worry Lindsay, I won't mention your name) when a friend on his way out tapped Lindsay on the shoulder and said "Be good." Lindsay muttered under his breath, "If I could be bad, I would want it on the front page of the Daily News".

George Kelly, Terranora

Photograph & video of the rare Australian Featherless Drongo

Australian Featherless Drongo

Parasitus palma

Family: Cuculidae
Sparse plumage

Usually solitary but sometimes seen with Noisy Miners

Natural habitat is degraded land and open cut mines

Call is similar to that of the European Common Cuckoo

Recognizable by its clumsy flight

Untidy nest construction

Frequently lays eggs in nests of other avian species

Aggressive feeder
Has been the subject of an international banding program by

LaRouche Movement

Citizens Electoral Council

Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

Nominated for protected species status by
Liberal and National Parties of Australia

Video of the Featherless Drongo in the wild


http://youtu.be/TryXOPcLW2A

Australian health professionals are sometimes a bitter pill to swallow

Symptom of a very unhealthy relationship?

News.com.au:

“DRUG companies spent more than $40 million in six months on events to "educate" Australian medics last year.

The money was spent on a range of "education events", with wining and dining of doctors, and some nurses and other health professionals….

The $40 million - up more than $8 million since 2008 - includes $18 million for hospitality alone for more than 18,000 events drawing 423,000 attendees, with other costs including the hire of venues and speakers.”

According to Medicines Australia in 2011:

Currently the medicines industry is:

> the largest high-technology exporter from Australia—$3.8 billion in 2010-11;

> the highest manufacturing industry investor in R&D—$1.0 billion in 2009-10; and

> one of the largest employers of science graduates in Australia.

A word on the subject of divorce

The Dawn Magazine, Tuesday 15 May 1888, on the Divorce Extension Bill:

Tasmanian marine environment Red Map to go national at end of 2012

This year Red Map goes national. Congratulations to the Red Map team and their project partners.

Hopefully, the NSW North Coast will get behind this worthwhile project.

About Redmap

Each year over 120,000 Tasmanians go fishing at least once. Imagine ....120,000 potential 'citizen scientists' collecting valuable data about the marine environment! We did. Welcome to REDMAP.

Redmap invites the Tasmanian community to spot, log and map marine species that are uncommon in Tasmania, or along particular parts of our coast. The information collected is mapped and displayed on the site, demonstrating, in time, how species distributions may be changing; it does not require extra fishing – just remember to log your sighting. Please always follow the correct rules and regulations outlined in the in the Recreational Sea Fishing Guide when fishing and there is also valuable information in the Recreational Marine Fishing Code of Practice.

Sightings are divided into two categories – those with a photo that can be ‘verified’ by a marine biologist, and sightings without photos that we call community sightings (anecdotal). All the information collected, with and without photos, is mapped and will be used in the following years to map the ‘story’ of what changes are occurring in our marine environment.

Redmap also provides educational resources on Tasmanian marine environments, marine species and climate change. Tell your school about the resources here on the website or tell us what else you’d like to know that isn’t here and we’ll add it to our ‘wish list’!

How much did NSW Nats Steve Cansdell's 2011 six month term in office cost?

It cost the NSW National Party $77,889.71 and donors $2,000 to get Steve Cansdell re-elected as the Member for Clarence on the Far North Coast in March last year.

It also cost state taxpayers one general election ballot and one by-election ballot in the Clarence Electorate in 2011, because he suddenly resigned.
Based on the NSW Electoral Commission’s cost projection for the 2011 state election, the total for two Clarence ballots would be in the vicinity of $903,000.

Add to that parliamentary salary paid between March and September 2011 which comes in at around $68,000, and it’s likely Steve the Speeder cost all and sundry at least $1million.

One million is a lot of moolah to spend because a less than honest politician had to admit to an offence committed in 2005 and resign when outed in September 2011.

Pic from The Northern Star in March 2011