Growing dirt pile is getting closer to NSW O'Farrell Government Resources and Energy Minister, Chris Hartcher - Part Two

Is this the clumsiest political cover up on record? What does it say about the veracity of the Minister for Resources and Energy generally? Should the NSW North Coast bear this (and other questionable issues surrounding the Minister) in mind when they weigh his undertakings regarding mining in this state?

The NSW Parliament Hansard for the Legislative Assembly records these questions on 23 May 2012:

Ms LINDA BURNEY: My question is directed to the Minister for Resources and Energy, Special Minister of State, and Minister for the Central Coast. Why does the website of the lobbying firm Waratah Advisory list the Minister's chief of staff, Andrew Humpherson, as its principal with a contact number leading directly to his mobile phone?

Mr PAUL LYNCH: My question is to the Minister for Resources and Energy, Special Minister of State, and Minister for the Central Coast. Can the Minister guarantee that the mobile number listed for his chief of staff, Andrew Humpherson, on the lobbying website www.waratahgroup.net.au is not taxpayer funded?

After refusing to answer either question, the NSW Minister for Resources and Energy, Special Minister of State, and Minister for the Central Coast, Chris Hartcher, later the same day sought leave to make this statement to Parliament:

Mr CHRIS HARTCHER: I seek to give a supplementary answer to a question I was asked earlier. My chief of staff, Andrew Humpherson, worked in his own consultancy business for seven months up to March of 2011. His website has been dormant and was not switched off due to an administrative oversight. He transferred his mobile phone number when he commenced as my chief of staff. His LinkedIn profile confirms that his government relations business discontinued in March 2011.

This is the LinkedIn entry to which the Minister referred:

In the Google Index on 24 May 2012

This is what that same entry looked like when the Google search engine cached it for posterity on 5 May 2012 18:18:03 GMT:

Google Cache retrieved on 24 May 2012

Humpherson’s company Waratah Advisory was still displaying on the Internet on 11 May 2012 at 13:30:58 GMT according to Google Cache and stated on one page; As the Principal of Waratah Advisory, Andrew Humpherson has over 30 years experience in politics and public affairs roles.

Whois listed www.waratahgroup.net.au as being owned by PRATTENMOORE PTY LIMITED** with the contact person being Andrew Humpherson.

Unsurprisingly on 23 May 2012 at 05:03:55 UTC Humpherson appears to have requested deletion of this record below – less than an hour (EST) after his Minister gave that highly misleading supplementary answer to Parliament.

Snapshot taken on 24 May 2012

According to The Sydney Morning Herald on 24 May 2012:

A spokeswoman for Mr Hartcher said Mr Humpherson changed the profile after it was raised in question time because it was incorrect.

Thereby admitting that the alterations were made before Parliament adjourned for the day and a Hansard proof had been posted online which would have alerted NSW Voters to what was afoot.

Updated on 16 June 2011, approximately two months after commencing as Hartcher’s Chief of Staff, Humpherson still had this entry online at Zoominfo:

** Rather interestingly, Prattenmoore Pty Ltd with its registered office listed in Chatwood NSW is elsewhere described as an investment company. Waratah Advisory appears to be one of the business names under which this company operates.

Background:

Growing dirt pile is getting closer to NSW O'Farrell Government Resources and Energy Minister, Chris Hartcher, 15 May 2012

The Tony-Abbott-Andrew Bolt-Alan Jones Army out in force? WARNING: Coarse and explicit language

Finally, courtesy of ABC TV Media Watch some of the abusive emails sent to two scientists in Australia are reproduced with identifying details redacted.

Click on images to enlarge

U.S. Presidential Election 2012: Down and dirty in Romneyville

Although Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is publicly disavowing the 'battle plan' of the GOP-aligned super PAC, one gets the general impression that this tactic to smear Obama during the Carolina Democratic Convention being held 3-7 September 2012 falls well within the campaign strategy of the Romney camp.

Expect to see a significant Internet and social media presence by this pac then - starting with teasers hinting of dark clouds to come before a dénouement concerning the metrosexual black Abe Lincoln Barack Obama's past association with the African-American preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wright was used as a character attack issue in the previous election campaign which saw Obama become U.S. President.

Full transcript of the Hollywood-based Strategic Perception Inc plan here.

Down Under: Yes, we are causing our own climate change

 

ScienceDaily (May 17, 2012) — In the first study of its kind in Australasia, scientists have used 27 natural climate records to create the first large-scale temperature reconstruction for the region over the last 1000 years….

Lead researcher, Dr Joelle Gergis from the University of Melbourne said the results show that there are no other warm periods in the last 1000 years that match the warming experienced in Australasia since 1950.

"Our study revealed that recent warming in a 1000 year context is highly unusual and cannot be explained by natural factors alone, suggesting a strong influence of human-caused climate change in the Australasian region," she said…..

 

American Meteorological Society Journal of Climate 2012 ; e-View:

Evidence of unusual late 20th century warming from an Australasian temperature reconstruction spanning the last millennium

Joëlle Gergis,¹ Raphael Neukom,¹ Steven J. Phipps,^2,3 Ailie J. E. Gallant,¹ David J. Karoly,¹ and PAGES Aus2K Project Members^†

1 School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia

2 Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

3 ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

This study presents the first multi-proxy warm season (September-February) temperature reconstruction for the combined land and oceanic region of Australasia (0°S-50°S, 110°E-180°E). We perform a 3000-member ensemble Principal Component Reconstruction (PCR) using 27 temperature proxies from the region. The proxy network explained 69% of the inter-annual variance in the HadCRUT3v SONDJF spatial mean temperature over the 1921-1990 calibration period. Applying eight stringent reconstruction 'reliability' metrics identified post A.D. 1430 as the highest quality section of the reconstruction, but also revealed a skilful reconstruction is possible over the full A.D. 1000-2001 period.

The average reconstructed temperature anomaly in Australasia during A.D. 1238-1267, the warmest 30-year pre-instrumental period, is 0.09°C (±0.19°C) below 1961-1990 levels. Following peak pre-industrial warmth, a cooling trend culminates in a temperature anomaly of 0.44°C (±0.18°C) below 1961-1990 levels between A.D. 1830-1859. A preliminary assessment of the roles of solar, volcanic, and anthropogenic forcings and natural ocean-atmosphere variability is performed using CSIRO Mk3L model simulations and independent palaeoclimate records. Solar and volcanic forcing does not have a marked influence on reconstructed Australasian temperature variations, which appear to be masked by internal variability.

In 94.5% of the 3000-member reconstruction ensemble, there are no other warm periods in the past 1,000 years that match or exceed post-1950 warming observed in Australasia. The unusual 20th century warming cannot be explained by natural variability alone, suggesting a strong influence of anthropogenic forcing in the Australasian region

^† Aus2K project member data and other contributions from Kathryn Allen, Patrick Baker, Gretel Boswijk, Brendan Buckley, Matthew Brookhouse, Edward Cook, Louise Cullen, Mark Curran, Rosanne D'Arrigo, Pavla Fenwick, Anthony Fowler, Ian Goodwin, Pauline Grierson, Erica Hendy, Braddock Linsley, Janice Lough, Andrew Lorrey, Helen McGregor, Andrew Moy, Jonathan Palmer, Christopher Plummer, Chris Turney, Tessa Vance, Tas Van Ommen and Limin Xiong.

Corresponding author: Dr Joëlle Gergis, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, AUSTRALIA. Email: jgergis@unimelb.edu.au

20.500 ways to feel the Earth move

Click on image to enlarge

Edge-on View of Near-Earth Asteroids

New results from NASA's NEOWISE survey find that more potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are closely aligned with the plane of our solar system than previous models suggested. PHAs are the subset of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) with the closest orbits to Earth's orbit, coming within 5 million miles (about 8 million kilometers). They are also defined as being large enough to survive passage through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

This diagram shows an edge-on view of our solar system. The dots represent a snapshot of the population of NEAs and PHAs that scientists think are likely to exist based on the NEOWISE survey. Positions of a simulated population of PHAs on a typical day are shown in bright orange, and the simulated NEAs are blue. Earth's orbit is green.

The diagram shows that the orbits of the PHAs tend to be more closely aligned with the plane of our solar system, or less tilted above and below the plane, than the NEAs. This characteristic of PHAs was known before the NEOWISE survey. Now, NEOWISE has found the PHAs to be about twice as likely to have these "lower-inclination" orbits than previously thought.

To make these estimates, the NEOWISE project observed a small portion of the total PHA and NEA populations. The survey not only looked at the objects' orbits but also their total numbers and physical properties such as size. The latest results provide the best count yet of the total PHA population, finding about 4,700 plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). These numbers are in loose agreement with prior, rougher predictions. The NEOWISE team estimates that about 20 to 30 percent of the PHAs thought to exist have actually been discovered to date.

In an earlier study, NEOWISE estimated that there are about 20,500 near-Earth asteroids larger than 330 feet, fewer than previous estimates.

NEOWISE is the asteroid-hunting portion of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, mission, which scanned the entire sky twice in infrared light before entering hibernation mode in 2011.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Was Bronwyn having another bad hair day yesterday?

Not content with getting her marching orders from the House of Representatives earlier in the day, Bronwyn Bishop (the Member for Mackellar and former Minister for 'Kerosene Baths') fiddled with the truth when she spoke in the chamber later in the day yesterday.

Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar) (18:49): ... I have had conversations with people who had abided by the previous scheme and kept their receipts and claimed them. They actually got more money back than they will get out of the cash splash, which the government has dressed up as an education bonus but requires no evidence of being spent on education at all.

Bishop was referring to the SchoolKids Bonus and what she failed to do was tell the whole story.

In a previous post clarencegirl pointed out:

"the federal government website states; The Education Tax Refund provides up to 50% back on a range of children's education expenses.

For the 2010–11 tax year refunds may be as much as $397 for every child at primary school, and up to $794 for every child at secondary school. The amount of the refund increases each year by the Consumer Price Index. In the 2011-12 tax year your refund could be as much as $409 for primary kids and $818 for secondary students.

While Budget Paper No. 2 states; From January 2013, every family with a child at school will be guaranteed $410 per annum for each primary school student and $820 per annum for each secondary school student. All eligible families will receive the full rate of payment and will no longer need to keep receipts as proof of expense, or wait until tax time. Eligibility for the payment will remain open to families with children enrolled and attending school who are in receipt of Family Tax Benefit Part A (FTB A) or other qualifying income support payments or allowances under a prescribed educational scheme that precludes the family from receiving FTB A. [my red bolding throughout]

Seems Ms Bishop was speaking with well-heeled constituents who are going to miss out on the bonus because ... are you ready for the truth? ... they don't qualify for it. And why don't they qualify for it? Their earnings are such that won't get it because they don't need it.

Really, what Bishop was doing was speaking to prop up middle class welfare spending that should be given the drop-kick more often.

When political spin turns to reputation shred

From the sharp eye of Jonathan Green and Ash's Machiavellian Bloggery on 18 May 2012:

Kelly O’Dwyer and Senator Abetz started their spin cycle early. Kelly tweeted this with the caption “A picture paints a thousand words”.
@KellyODwyer: A picture says a thousand words twitpic.com/9m6no4 (pic below)

.

Terrible isn’t it? On the surface it looks like another small business struggling in the patchwork economy. Another black mark for the government?
Kelly went on to tweet more “detail” to this picture.
@KellyODwyer: Business downsizes from 2 shops to 1. reduces staff from 3 to 0. Owner unhappy with Gillard Gov policy IR, Super and Carbon Tax
Well thankfully a little check of a website by one @greenj revealed a little different picture. And it seems Kelly has been a little negligent with the truth.
http://allpress-antiques.com.au/documents/2031-Shop2

Shop2

Please click on any of the photos below to see all of the stock in Shop2
Recently my original showroom, three doors down (1425 Malvern Road), became available again and as I hold the lease I’ve stocked it until relet.
Over the last four years I’ve been wanting to open another shop but not in Malvern as the mix of industrial, retro, glass and unusual items doesn’t quite fit this area.
I have called it Shop2 and will until further notice.

Shop2 is closing down as most stock is sold and now subletting, so having a clearance sale!

“Over the last four years I’ve been wanting to open another shop but not in Malvern as the mix of industrial, retro, glass and unusual items doesn’t quite fit this area“. That’s what he said. Nothing about the carbon tax, IR policy, or Super. More about location, location, location!
Yeah that’s right! The shop is not ‘closing’ down, but having a clearance sale because business has been so good, they have run out of stock!
Thank you Julia!
And yes Kelly. A picture really does say a thousand words. A thousand words for fake come to mind.