Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham to visit the Orara Valley on 7 Nov 2012 to discuss CSG frack finding tour

 

 

MNC Greens Media Release:

An Hour in the Orara Valley With Jeremy Buckingham, Greens MLC

Jeremy Buckingham, Greens MLC, will be speaking about his recent frack finding tour to inspect coal seam gas in the United States and his Responsible Mining Bill (Protect land, water and communities) 2012 at the Upper Orara Valley Community Hall, Cnr Dairyville Rd and Upper Orara Rd between 12.00-1.00pm, November 7^th.

It is expected that many will travel from Coffs Harbour, the Clarence Valley, the Orara Valley, Bellingen and the plateau to hear the facts about mining in NSW. Those attending the meeting are encouraged to attend with posters and banners.

 

"The Greens Responsible Mining Bill will prohibit coal seam gas and mining in certain productive agricultural areas and other sensitive areas.  Additionally it will provide local councils with the power to prohibit coal seam gas and other mining in certain areas under their local planning provisions," said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.

 

A recent meeting in Coramba was attended by a large crowd seeking information. Altius Mining Limited is planning, according to announcements it has made to the ASX, to continue exploration in the area following the completion of its aerial magnetic survey in 2011.

 

It is reported that exploration targets include Mt Brown (directly south of Karangi), Illabo Mine north of Coramba (near Coramba Nature Reserve), and the Beacon Group of Mines halfway between Coramba & Central Bucca.

 

Download a map of EL 7332 from the  Dorrigo Environment Watch site

 

"Gold and antimony mines produce large amounts of pollution.  The sensitive environment, terrain and rainfall patterns in the Orara Valley mean it is not the place for such mines," said Mr Buckingham.

 

The forum will be of particular interest to property owners concerned about a drop in land values, visual pollution and river pollution, small business owners dependent on tourism and all users of local roads, especially parents of school children.

 

More information: http://mncgreens.blogspot.com.au

 

MNC Greens Media contact: John Vernon Ph: 0402 308 231

Media Contact: Max Phillips - 9230 2202  or  0419 444 916

UPDATE:

Wednesday November 7^th

• 10.30 to 11.30 am Coffee with Coffs Harbour Greens at the Happy Frog. Car pooling to travel to 12.00 to 1.00 rally-meeting at Upper Orara Community Hall cnr Upper Orara Rd and Dairyville Rd. All welcome.

• 5.00 pm Joint Coffs Harbour and MNC Greens meeting at the Alternatives Bookstore, Hyde St, Bellingen

• 6.30 pm Jeremy speaks at Lock The MNC event. Dinner included/Music/Bimblebox Film at 5 Church St, Bellingen ($20/head) Book at Kombu or No 5.

Thursday, November 8

• 10.00 -11.30 am Responsible Mining Forum (with video highlights of USA tour) at Dorrigo Memorial Hall (the Community Hall)

• 2.15 – 3.45 pm Responsible Mining Forum (with video highlights of USA tour) at the Seniors Citizens Centre Hall, Princess St, Macksville

• 5.00-6.00 pm Jeremy Buckingham Responsible Mining  Forum in Kempsey

Jeremy Buckingham will be sharing a ‘cuppa’. Hear how his Responsible Mining Bill can protect the Kempsey area from further destructive mining practices.

Where: The Oddfellows (Macleay Valley Arts Council) Cnr Kemps Street & Edinburgh Lane, West Kempsey

• 7.00 pm Three Rivers Greens Group Meeting in Wauchope (Wauchope Arts Society Hall - might also be called Wauchope School of Arts) with Jeremy.

How modest is the Member for Clarence?

The Member for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis, has had a very big week in the Legislative Assembly.

Tuesday:  " I make a modest contribution to debate ..."  Hansard, 23/10/12

Wednesday: According to Hansard, Mr Gulaptis did not speak in the chamber. (Hmmm, perhaps modesty prevented him from doing so. Then again, perhaps he was too busy practising his lines for Thursday - see below.)

Thursday: " As a member of the Committee on Economic Development I will make a modest contribution ... "  Hansard, 25/10/12

CNN withdraws online article which suggests a woman's vote is ruled by her hormones

 

Right in the middle of the final half of the 2012 US Presidential Election CNN committed an editorial blunder by apparently giving serious consideration to the concept of biological determinism as a political reality.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-hormones-drive-womens-votes/

 

Unfortunately CNN didn’t tell Fox2 Now in St. Loius which went to press with the very same article five minutes later.

 

It is reproduced here as part of the historical record of the U.S. political landscape in October 2012:

Study Links Women’s Voting Choices With Ovulation

Posted on: 8:20 pm, October 24, 2012, by Staff Writer
 

(CNN) — While the campaigns eagerly pursue female voters, there’s something that may raise the chances for both presidential candidates that’s totally out of their control: women’s ovulation cycles.

You read that right. New research suggest that hormones may influence female voting choices differently, depending on whether a woman is single or in a committed relationship.

Please continue reading with caution. Although the study will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Science, several political scientists who read the study have expressed skepticism about its conclusions.

A bit of background: Women are more likely to vote than men, other studies have found. Current data suggest married women favor Gov. Mitt Romney, in a 19% difference, over President Barack Obama, while Obama commands the votes of single women by a 33% margin, according to the study. And previous studies have shown that political and religious attitudes may be influenced by reproductive goals.

In the new study’s first experiment, Kristina Durante of the University of Texas, San Antonio and colleagues conducted an internet survey of 275 women who were not taking hormonal contraception and had regular menstrual cycles. About 55% were in committed relationships, including marriage.

They found that women at their most fertile times of the month were less likely to be religious if they were single, and more likely to be religious if they were in committed relationships.

Now for the even more controversial part: 502 women, also with regular periods and not taking hormonal contraception, were surveyed on voting preferences and a variety of political issues.

The researchers found that during the fertile time of the month, when levels of the hormone estrogen are high, single women appeared more likely to vote for Obama and committed women appeared more likely to vote for Romney, by a margin of at least 20%, Durante said. This seems to be the driver behind the researchers’ overall observation that single women were inclined toward Obama and committed women leaned toward Romney.

Here’s how Durante explains this: When women are ovulating, they “feel sexier,” and therefore lean more toward liberal attitudes on abortion and marriage equality. Married women have the same hormones firing, but tend to take the opposite viewpoint on these issues, she says.

“I think they’re overcompensating for the increase of the hormones motivating them to have sex with other men,” she said. It’s a way of convincing themselves that they’re not the type to give in to such sexual urges, she said.

Durante’s previous research found that women’s ovulation cycles also influence their shopping habits, buying sexier clothes during their most fertile phase.

“We still have the ovulatory hormones that have the same impact on female brains as across other species,” she said. We want sex and we want it with the best mate we can get. “But there are some high costs that come with it,” she said, particularly for women who are already in committed relationships.

This isn’t the first time hormones have been looked at in connection to voting. Last year Israeli researchers published a study in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology examined the stress hormone cortisol in voters in Israel. Levels of this hormone were higher in people right before they were about to vote than in the same people when they were not voting.

Durante’s study on women noted that liberal attitudes favor social equality and tend to be less associated with organized religion. Conservatism is more about traditional values and is linked to greater participation in organized religion.

The most controversial part of the study is not only that hormonal cycles are linked to women’s preferences for candidates and voting behaviors, but also that single women who are ovulating are more likely to be socially liberal, and relationship-committed women are more likely to be socially conservative, said Paul Kellstedt, associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University.

One of the major caveats this paper fails to address is that men also have biochemical changes, Kellstedt said.

“The reader may be left with the impression that women are unstable and moody in ways that extend to their political preferences, but that men are comparative Rocks of Gibraltar,” Kellstedt said in an e-mail.

Kellstedt does not study biology, but he has been involved in research suggesting that men’s political preferences are even more volatile than women’s.

“There is absolutely no reason to expect that women’s hormones affect how they vote any more than there is a reason to suggest that variations in testosterone levels are responsible for variations in the debate performances of Obama and Romney,” said Susan Carroll, professor of political science and women’s and gender studies at Rutgers University, in an e-mail.

Carroll sees the research as following in the tradition of the “long and troubling history of using women’s hormones as an excuse to exclude them from politics and other societal opportunities.”

“It was long thought that a woman shouldn’t be president of the U.S. because, God forbid, an international crisis might happen during her period!” Carroll said.

A better explanation for the divide in voting preferences between single and married women is the difference in economic status, she said.

One expert gave it a little more credence: Israel Waismel-Manor, a political scientist at the University of Haifa in Israel, who did the cortisol study last year.

He’s not sure that this hormonal effect Durante found among women isn’t real, but offered an alternate explanation too: Research has shown women prefer more “manly men” when they are in their most fertile phases of the cycle. Obama and Romney are both handsome, in good physical shape and could fit the type of “provider of the family,” so either could fit the ideal, depending on a woman’s preference.

Assuming there is some hormonal explanation, the effects could cancel themselves out, since different women will be on different cycles when they vote, and the candidates have a similar level of physical attractiveness, Waismel-Manor said. A more elaborate research design is needed to examine it further.

“Even if the finding is correct, there’s a chance that it won’t have a cumulative effect on the electorate,” he said.

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2012 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Metgasco amnesia

ABC North Coast NSW: Henderson at a Casino test drill site

Metgasco’s reply in The Northern Star on 20^th October 2012 conveniently forgets to mention the wining and dining of local government councillors it also does in an effort to sway decision makers on the Northern Rivers. Nor was there any mention of its surreptitious entry onto council land at Rock Valley last year before it had met Lismore City Council’s consent conditions or the fact that it was fined $5,000 for dumping "more than 1.3 million litres of waste water".

“I RESPOND to a letter to the editor on 19 October (entitled Big 'no' to CSG). Metgasco is open and transparent and we do consult with the community.
Our industry is safe and established and has the support of the NSW Government. We are proud of the contribution we make to the Northern Rivers region and will make in the future.
We are accessible to the local media and regularly attend community events talking about our industry and our company.
We have been based in Casino for almost 10 years and with our Casino-based staff driving around in Metgasco-labelled utes it would be hard to hide even if we wanted to.
Our constant presence at community forums was a fact recognised last year by activist, Ian Gaillard, in which he commended us for "turning out to everything". Also Joanne Shoebridge on ABC local radio this week acknowledged our accessibility to talk about industry issues.
A key part of our community relations strategy is getting out and speaking to as many people as possible.
The events we organise include one-on-one meetings, presentations to small groups, conducting tours of our operations, addressing large membership-based gatherings, attending numerous community events (like Beef Week and Primex) and participating in community debates. Just last week we presented to Southern Cross University's regular Environmental Science Series seminar. It is worth noting we must provide annual reports to government on our community consultation program.
In the past, Green activists have attended meetings with the primary goal to disrupt proceedings. There is no benefit of meetings when this sort of behaviour occurs.
We believe a large percentage of the community will take comfort in the knowledge the NSW Government has closely assessed our industry and given it a tick of approval. We are aware however, that there is a small but vocal element of the community that is ideologically opposed to development and the fossil fuel industry, irrespective of its demonstrated safety and importance to our society.
We ask that the community accepts that strong regulations and processes are in place and allow them to be observed.
Peter Henderson
Managing Director and CEO, Metgasco”

Renison Consolidated Mines exploring within the Clarence River catchment in 2012

 

From A Clarence Valley Protest 24 October 2012: 

 

RENISON CONSOLIDATED MINES (formerly known as Sirocco Resources NL, Kakadu Resources Ltd, Gerrod Ltd and Avillion No 4 Ltd) a Brisbane-based corporation first registered in 1986 and primarily involved in gold and coal exploration, has been granted an exploration license in the Timbarra Plateau region on the NSW North Coast.

 

According to the Colong Foundation for Wilderness:

 

The plateau is detached from the Great Dividing Range, apart from a narrow connecting ridge in the north, and has hence been able to provide a significant refuge for wildlife from human impacts and feral predation. The plateau falls away steeply into the valleys of the Timbarra River and Demon Creek.

The area is a biodiversity hot spot. In the forests of the western sector of the nominated area, 29 endangered species are known to occur. These include: mammals (Hastings River Mouse, Yellow-bellied Glider, Tiger Quoll, Rufous Bettong, Golden-tipped Bat, Greater Broad-nosed Bat and Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby); birds (Glossy Black Cockatoo, Powerful Owl and Sooty Owl); and amphibians (Stuttering Frog, Glandular Frog and recently discovered Peppered Frog). The wilderness contains a major overlap of biogoegraphic zones, with faunal representations of coastal, inland, temperate and sub tropical regions converging. The area is the only single site able to provide key habitat for the threatened Hastings River Mouse, Eastern Chestnut Mouse and Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby.

 

The 98 blocks in this license surround the old Timbarra Gold Mine which was permanently closed in 2001-02 due to persistent cyanide contamination from mine tailing dams which overflowed after rain.

 

The licence also covers part of the Timbarra River catchment which falls within the larger Clarence River Catchment Area.

 

In 2011 the Clarence River catchment supplied fresh water to an estimated 52,816 residents living in the Clarence Valley local government area and, to another 73, 296 residents in the Coffs Harbour local government area which is located outside the catchment and historically is provided with a significant measure of water security by the Clarence Valley [Clarence Valley Council,Clarence Valley Economic Monitor,June 2012 and Coffs Harbour City Council,Community Profile,June 2011].

 

Renison’s current chair, Stephen Grant Bissell, is also a director of Bizzell Capital Partners, Renaissance Uranium, Armour Energy Ltd, Titan Energy Services Ltd, Dart Energy, Diversa Ltd, Stanmore Coal, Hot Rock Ltd, Bow Energy, Celamin Limited, Apollo Gas Limited, a former director of Arrow Energy and a member of the Queensland Coal Seam Gas forum.

 

ELA 4513 (1992) 28-Mar-2012 98 UNITS About 51km WSW of GRAFTON RENISON CONSOLIDATED MINES NL Group: GROUP 1

Click on map to enlarge

Teh Parrot Eats Crow

The Sydney Morning Herald 24^th October 2012:

‘BARBARA RAMJAN, the woman who accused Tony Abbott of intimidating her physically at Sydney University, is suing the Victorian Liberal Party powerbroker, Michael Kroger, and The Australian newspaper, over comments during the recent fallout from the saga.

The defamation action, lodged in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, has the potential to reopen the debate over the alleged wall-punching incident.

It relates to comments Mr Kroger made about Ms Ramjan on the Bolt Report television show on September 23, two articles that appeared in The Australian the next day, and an interview Mr Kroger gave to Alan Jones, in which he called Ms Ramjan "a nutter" and "a nobody".’

Tuesday 25th September 2012

Alan Jones publicly apologizes to Barbara Ramjan

http://podcasts.mrn.com.au.s3.amazonaws.com/alanjones/201209-ramjan.mp3

Protecting Our Water, Protecting Our Land: Be the difference!

 

The Illawarra joins the fight against Coal Seam Gas mining in New South Wales.

 

 

http://vimeo.com/stopcsg

 

Illawarra Mercury 21 October 2012