Roxon, Super Spy

Granny Herald 21st July 2012

Australian Attorney General Nicola Roxon, not content with creating a national database for all Australians when she was Federal Health Minster which collates everything personal and intimate a government agency has ever known about each and every one of us in the riskiest way possible, now wants to keep copies of all our online browsing and phone conversations for a two-year period. And it looks as though we will all be personally paying for this gratuitous government spying.

Her obsession with digital data is becoming pathological. Will someone call her GP – urgently.

Petitioning Premier O'Farrell: Don't cut community organisations

Twenty-six vital community organisations, including the Welfare Rights Centre, Lifeline (Sydney and Sutherland), Redfern Legal Centre's financial counselling service and the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service and Twenty10, are at risk of having their funding cut by the NSW Government.

Megan Clement-Couzner of Woolloomooloo writes:

I'm a young woman who lives in Sydney. I know the value of community organisations. I recently had a young queer friend from Western Sydney approach me, asking for help to deal with issues of homophobia and severe depression. I knew she was at risk of self harm. Having community services in NSW meant I could help her access free counseling and a support group. She would never have been able to afford these services otherwise. Without organisations like the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service, I wouldn't have known how to help her.

Megan is calling on concerned citizens to sign the petition and have Premier O'Farrell not cut funding of community organisations.

Sign the petition here.

Premier O'Farrell is on Twitter here and Minister Pru Goward is here. Use the hashtag #BOFcutswebleed to tweet about this petition!

Vote One for Paul Parkinson, the candidate with the 'flexible' curriculum vitae?

This is what candidate at the 2012 Clarence Valley Local Government Election,  Paul Parkinson, had to say about his time at Kempsey Shire Council on his campaign website http://www.paulparkinsonclarencecouncil.com/:

Served 3 terms as a Councillor on the Kempsey Council (14 yrs)

He stated the same at the Maclean Meet the Candidates Meeting on 20 August and again in The Daily Examiner on 30 August 2012.

When Mr. Parkinson lodged his sworn statement with the NSW Electoral Commission on 30 July 2012 he also wrote:

This is what Kempsey Shire Council had to say about Paul Parkinson on 23 March 2004:

That Standing Orders be suspended to allow Councillor Parkinson to address Council prior to leaving this his last meeting in his term on Kempsey Shire Council.
At this stage Councillor Parkinson addressed the meeting concerning his 12 year term as a Councillor and the great privilege it has been for him in this role and thanked Councillors and staff he had worked with during this time.

It would appear that either Kempsey Shire Council keeps highly inaccurate official minutes standing uncorrected  for over eight years or Mr. Parkinson cannot count.

Somewhat magically, he has served three terms whose lengths were around 4.66 years apiece.

I leave it to readers to make up their own minds.

The Australian Minke Whale Project

The Minke Whale Project

Dwarf minke whales visit the northern Great Barrier Reef each austral winter, forming the only known predictable aggregation of these whales in the world. Growing up to eight metres and weighing several tonnes, they are exceptionally inquisitive and often approach boats, divers and snorkelers closely, sometimes interacting for extended periods.

The MWP (based at James Cook University, North Queensland Australia) conducts multi-disciplinary research into dwarf minke whale biology and behaviour, the social and economic values of the whales and the sustainable management of swim-with-whales tourism. The MWP research team works collaboratively with the GBR swim-with-minke whales tourism industry, Reef managers and wildlife conservation NGOs…….

More here.

Now the news is to be tailored?

Now the news is to be tailored to your age, gender, income and living arrangements to make it more 'relevant'?
Now I think I've heard everything from the MSM. Boutique news!

Or is this just another way to gain info which helps in targeting the advertising?

Scam Alert

Woolworths is advising that email, survey, website and Facebook scams are currently doing  the rounds using the Woolworths name & logo. Some of the scam attempts include a ‘Customer Satisfaction Survey to get $50’ and a Facebook competition to win $500.

The survey asks for information that should never be divulged - see the image below.

What this blog is not

There has been some discussion in the Northern Rivers recently about blogs versus mainstream media and, it is obvious that many people have contradictory expectations of regional blogs.

So this is what North Coast Voices both is and is not.

It is not a newspaper or a news aggregate website.

It is a group site which offers local opinion on issues usually relating to government, international affairs, society or the environment.

Its authors are all older residents of the NSW North Coast and they openly lobby for causes which are dear to their hearts or are matters of  concern.

North Coast Voices also seeks to inform and that is why its posts frequently contain links to publicly available primary sources and documents.

It employs no-one, has no journalists on its contributor list and has no money in the kitty for expensive research. Since early October 2007 it has posted seven days a week without fail – except between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  

This blog was created at a time when Australian regional blogs were rare and those commenting on society and politics were even rarer still. It was meant to fill a perceived need for local voices to be heard on the Internet.

We here at North Coast Voices believe we have succeeded in this aim.