For once Murdoch's minions of doom give us a good news story - both car and dog recovered!

News Ltd Breaking News 18^th June 2012:

“A SAUSAGE dog stolen along with his owners' car has been found laying on the dashboard of the recovered vehicle.

The dachshund named Tau was inside a sedan stolen from the scene of a Mermaid Waters car crash on Saturday.

His owners had pulled over to help two women hurt in the smash, only to have their car - with their beloved pet inside - stolen.

Police say Tau was lying on the dashboard of the stolen vehicle when officers found it in a Tweed Heads car park about 9.30pm (AEST) last night.

He has been reunited with his grateful owners.”

The Australian Bureau of Statistics intends to supply hours of fun on the NSW North Coast in 2016

This is what the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) told the nation in 2011:

Home internet access is more common in households with higher incomes. The proportion of households in the highest income quintile with internet access was 95%, compared with 55% for households in the lowest income quintile.

Twenty-nine per cent of those aged 55 to 64 years of age and sixty-three per cent of those 65 years of age and older do not access the Internet.

In June 2010 there were 1.2 million people aged 55 to 64 years of age in Australia and most lived outside capital cities.

There were 3.01 million people aged 65 years and over in Australia at June 2010 and between 17% to 20% of these live on the NSW North Coast.

This is what the ABS told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2012 about the next national census:

In 2016 all that will be delivered is a letter, which will include details of web access and a password. Only if someone is determined not to complete the census online will they be posted a form, after phoning a 1800 number. Only if nothing is returned will an ABS employee visit.

Oh my goodness! Of course I promise to keep a suitably upgraded home PC and Internet connection no matter how expensive that becomes and, yes I’ll go online and type in the circumstances of my life and income. What fun to be personally available to nasty or just plain curious hackers in this way – along with my assigned password details and IP address.

However, by 2016 I along with many of my friends and neighbours will be that much older and perhaps a little more forgetful. We may just decide that negotiating an online survey is now too difficult. There will be little in the way of departmental budgetary savings flowing from us I suspect.

Bazza gets it in the neck from Anne the Voter

One voter from somewhere outside Sydney gets all shouty on NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s official Facebook page on Friday 15^th June 2012:

Anne Taylor

Mr O'Farrell

Your Government is doing nothing to help the most Vulnerable in our Community being Tenants in Public Housing.

Tenants who live in a Separate House have to pay for a Full Water Bill compared to Private Renters who only pay the for the Excess Water they use. There is No Concession and you don't even get The Actual Water Bill from Sydney Water to show you how much a Tenant has actually Used ! Instead Tenants rely on The Department Of Housing to tell them as there is No Proof at all, which means Dept. Of Housing could make any figure up !
I am sure Mr O'Farrell you would want proof of a Bill if you paid for it ?????
Tenants are living in Public Housing because they can not afford Private Rental But they are paying higher Water Costs than Private Renters ! Maybe your Minister Prue Goward should be aware of all this !!!

Now your going to put Rents up again ! Because The Federal Government will give people/Families some extra money to help with the Carbon Tax. One Department gives it out and you guys take it Back !!! Your Party Is a Disgrace !!

You are just keep taking money away all the time from the Battlers instead of giving them some extra help. Why don't you cut some of your Bureaucrats to help cut Costs. There are plenty of them not doing their Jobs properly !

I have a Daughter with Down Syndrome and a large Beautiful Family to look after and Like others have enough on my plate, worrying about the cost of living going up, Bills and now The Electricity ! Without you guys Stressing Tenants all the time and just " Money Grabbing" at whatever you can get !!

Wake Up To Yourselves ! Mr O'Farrell Remember TENANTS VOTE AS WELL and a lot are NOT HAPPY as some were also Effected by your Stupid Education Minister who Stuffed up the Special Needs Transport for Kids with Disabilities getting to School.

Another Slap In The Face By Your Government to the Most Vulnerable !! I am sure yourself and other Politicians would not like Cut Backs on your Big Fat Pensions when you all leave your Posts !
What goes around, Comes around Mr O'Farrell and when the next Election Comes, myself and a lot of others will be giving your Party the Pea Beu fly spray to FLICK Off !! !!

Has Clarence Valley Council finally abandoned all pretence of openness and transparency with Mayor Williamson and General Manager Greensill at the helm?

On 12 June 2012 there was a workshop for Clarence Valley shire councillors on the matter of proposed staging of the Yamba Road Bypass and shortly afterwards Council’s own Civil & Corporate Committee met to decide on its recommendation to the forthcoming Ordinary Monthly Meeting of 26 June on this issue.

The first red flag which went up in the Yamba community was the realisation that councillors, residents and ratepayers were being inaccurately advised at the workshop and in business papers/minutes that there were only three endangered species in the path of the proposed road works – an unidentified orchid, the Grey Crowned Babbler and (very inaccurately) the Sugar Glider.

The second red flag was the discovery that a flora and fauna report (commissioned by Council in February 2012 which assessed possible negative environmental impacts along less than half of the Bypass stage under consideration) was not included as an attachment to any of the business papers.

By and large the Yamba community remained in the dark concerning this public document when a local resident made a deputation on 12 June.

To date the document continues to be unavailable for viewing on Council’s website and is not included as an attachment to the 26 June business paper.

The report clearly indicated that in the proposal before Council there were up to eight scheduled threatened species which may be impacted by land clearing associated with the Bypass route between Shores Drive and Deering Street alone.

It also properly identified the Squirrel Glider, Grey-Crowned Babbler and Scented Acronychia tree as being under particular threat by road construction in that area.

These species are respectively listed by the NSW Government as Vulnerable, Vulnerable and Threatened.

The Commonwealth also respectively lists these three species nationally as Vulnerable, Near Threatened and Threatened .

All in all the field survey revealed a total of 191 flora species, comprising 112 native species and 79 introduced species and Eight plants of significance were identified during the field survey including Umbrella Cheese Tree, Willow Primrose, Pink-flowered Doughwood, Scented Achronychia (also endangered), Queensland Silver Wattle, Zornia, Swamp Lilly and Narrow-leaved Cumbungi....

Results of a desktop search of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Wildlife Atlas identified thirty two threatened fauna species as occurring within a five kilometre radius of the proposed activity site.

As matters now stand, next week Clarence Valley councillors will also be making further decisions concerning the Bypass between Shores Drive and Coldstream Street without any information on biodiversity values in the other half of this Bypass stage, which would have to pass through what appears to be forested Crown land.

In the interests of the openness and transparency which Clarence Valley Council’s Mayor, Executive and Management appear to have abandoned, here is a transcript of North Coast Environment Planning’s Flora and Fauna Report: Proposed Construction Freeburn Street to Yamba Road*.

Clarence Valley Council Flora and Fauna Report 14 March 2012

* I apologise for the fact that Page 4 Contents did not upload successfully.

Coal seam gas industry's one man PR team

Adrian Nygaard aka Sealbasher & Rigpig

This Big Oil PR dynamo into red cars, guns and huntin’ gets a guernsey in The Daily Examiner on the 18th June 2012:

“HE'S not terribly worried about a locked gate - Adrian Nygaard has a gun.

At least that's what you might think if you'd been following some of Mr Nygaard's Facebook activity of late.

Mr Nygaard, who also goes by the name Seal Basher, has taken to the social network in support of the coal seam gas industry and has branded those opposed to the industry as brain dead oxygen thieves.

Alongside a photo of himself with a pistol aimed to the side of camera, Mr Nygaard wrote on Sunday: "You picked the wrong people to go to war with!!! LMFAO (laugh my f'ing a-off)".”

Having since pulled both the photo and the Coal Seam Gas Drilling Support page from Facebook, Adrian blames CSG protesters for causing him stress. But I have to wonder if what really made him fold the tent and slink away was this Facebook graph showing a growing lack of interest in what he and his mates had to say:

All we’re left with are little nuggets like this on his personal page:

Seal Basher

August 15, 2010

Thank God for wars, arms build ups, industrial nations, planes trains and big ass automobiles. I love our hydrocarbon sucking world, it keeps my beloved oil and gas drilling industry going, and when our rigs are drilling, my garage gets more and more toys parked in it!! THANK YOU OIL BURNIN WORLD!! THANK YOU!

Barry O'Farrell robs around 1,400 pensioners living in the Page electorate

Saffin calls on O’Farrell Government to stop slugging pensioners

Page MP Janelle Saffin has slammed the O’Farrell Government for taking part of the Federal Government’s recent pension increase away from public housing tenants.

Premier O’Farrell has announced a hike in public housing rents from March next year.

Ms Saffin said the NSW Government is using Labor’s pension increase as an excuse to hit public housing tenants.

“This cash grab will affect about 1400 public housing tenants in Page.

“The Federal Labor Government is delivering a boost for pensioners to help them make ends meet, but Barry O’Farrell wants to take a slice of it for himself.

“Local pensioners are sick and tired of seeing the NSW Government hit pensioners every time the Federal Labor Government gives them a bit of extra support.

“All pensioners in Page have received a lump sum payment from the Federal Government in recent weeks of $250 for singles and $380 for couples. From next March they will get a permanent boost to their regular payments.

“But Barry O’Farrell’s decision means a maximum rate single pensioner in public housing will be paying an extra $84.50 in rent a year.

“Federal Labor is delivering the pension increase as a separate, stand-alone supplement. The accepted practise is to leave pension supplements alone when public housing rents are calculated.

“In 2009 when the Australian Labor Government brought in the biggest ever increase to the pension, I lobbied the then State government to quarantine the increase from public housing rent rises,” Ms Saffin said.

“Barry O’Farrell has betrayed local pensioners.”

June 15, 2012

Media contact:  Lee Duncan 0448 158 150

Whale Meat FAIL

ABC News June 13 2012:

Japan's whaling research body has failed to sell the bulk of meat harvested from its last round of what it calls research whaling, despite inviting bids months ago.

A report released by Japan's Dolphin and Whale Action Network reveals there have been 13 rounds of public auctions for the whale meat, but 900 tonnes of it has failed to sell.

That is three-quarters of all the meat harvested from the last round of so-called scientific research whaling in the north-west Pacific.

The meat sales are supposed to help cover the cost of the whaling fleet.

Japanese taxpayers have been subsidising the fleet for years because few people eat the meat, complaining it does not taste good

Whale meat photograph from Google Images