Thursday, 3 January 2013

Australian Broadcasting Corporation may be in for a rocky ride in 2013

 
In 2012 the Australian Communications and Media Authority  investigated approximately fifty complaints against the television arm of the seventy-five year old Australian Broadcasting Corporation and, eleven complaints against its radio stations.
 
Only three of these television program complaints were either partially or fully upheld - two of the broadcasting standards breaches involved the absence of captioning and one involved insufficient opportunity to respond to allegations.
 
Of the radio program complaints investigated only one breach concerning accuracy was found to have occurred.
 
What is fascinating about the investigated complaints list is the unusually high number which allege bias/lack of impartiality in a news or current affairs program.
 
When one compares this list with the smaller list of complaints against commercial television and radio stations last year and the even fewer allegations of bias contained therein, one begins to wonder if what appears to be a sustained politically motivated campaign questioning the ABC’s own standards (which has been played out in the media by the likes of journalist Andrew Bolt and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott) has not created a well of suspicion within the community about the public broadcaster’s motives.
 
In this federal election year, the ABC may be one of the first casualties in the right wing campaign to recapture The Lodge.

"Operation Zero Tolerance'' underway in the Southern Ocean


Website banner for 2013 in the Antarctic whale wars
 
With the Japanese Government sponsored whaling fleet reported to be heading towards its designated Antarctic killing zones (which includes the 50 million square kilometre Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary established by the International Whaling Commission), the 2013 battle in the whale wars is now underway.
 
Japan is said to have a kill target of 935 minke whales and up to 50 endangered fin whales this season under the guise of industrial scale lethal 'research'.
 
 

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

"I could" not a good start to an election year for Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

 
Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Member for JagaJaga, Jenny Macklin, may live to regret how easily this I could tripped off her tongue:
 
 
 
 
What she must regret right now is the silly attempt to hide both question and response in the 1 January 2013 doorstop press conference transcript available on the ministerial website:
 
 
The weak explanation supplied to mainstream media for this omission compounds the problem for Ms. Macklin and provides Nick McGowan, the Liberal candidate in Jaga Jaga who was raised by a single parent, with an unexpected free kick at the start of this federal election year:
 
Last night, her office claimed its recording had been affected by a revving car.

UPDATE:

The Minister appears intent on making the situation worse by failing to directly respond to a Fairfax Media request for a copy of this recording.

Someone's saying No To Tony Abbott

 
 
“I hereby pledge to do my utmost in 2013 and beyond to ensure that Tony Abbott never becomes the Prime Minister of Australia.
I will engage on the issues, on matters of character and on the facts that demonstrate that Tony Abbott is unsuitable to be Prime Minister of Australia. I know that any government lead by Tony Abbott, or any government that follows his lead, would inflict deep and lasting damage to the fabric of Australia that we trust and depend upon. I will expend any and all energies required to ensure Tony Abbott and his values are kept from The Lodge and the government benches in Parliament.”
 
Disclosure:
This site has no affiliation with the Australian Labor Party. Any claims to the contrary are false.
The only partisanship this site has is with those who never want Tony Abbott to be Prime Minister and who want to see Australia prosper and progress into the 21st century and beyond.
 
 
This site appears to have gone online on the last day of 2012 and is beginning to attract attention.

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Joe Hockey on the subject of broken promises


As of 7.21am on 31 December 2012 Opposition Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey is still tweeting after saying he wouldn’t be back until 2013…..
 

Metgasco ended the year in the news for all the wrong reasons


The Northern Star 5 December 2012:
 
Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin (far right) visits Glenugie in the Clarence Valley on 23 December 2012:
 
https://mobile.twitter.com/CSGFreeNR/status/282738159157129216

The Northern Star 28 December 2012:

Gasland valuation

IF destroying life as we know it won't wake the people of the Northern Rivers / Clarence Valley up from their superficial slumber, then a sharp Metgasco shot to their their hip pocket might jolt them into reality.
I recently received this statement from a very concerned Northern Rivers Real Estate Agent - specialising in rural landholdings: "I am a Northern Rivers Real Estate Sales Agent and have strong connections with rural property owners and dealings with rural sales in the region.
"I believe that if a landholder permits a well to be situated upon their landholding (be it exploratory or productive), that there would be a significant decrease in the market value of that property and neighbouring properties.
"It is my view that should a property have a gas well upon it (or a waste water holding Pond/Transfer Pond), then the particular property would be extremely difficult to sell, as would neighbouring properties.
"I have already had comments from prospective purchasers who do not wish to inspect or purchase property in areas of current or future exploration. So the negative effects are already evident in the community."
M Mizzi, Lismore
 
The Northern Star 29 December 2012:
 
AQUATIC animal health expert Dr Matt Landos of Ballina says the coal seam gas industry will be another hit for aquatic life.
He said it was very likely ground water on the Northern Rivers would be contaminated when the mining industry was in full swing.
"Drilling fluids can contaminate aquifers. Sooner or later it will find its way into waterways," he said.
"Some of the compounds have never been tested on fish."
Also, fish and oyster larvae were sensitive to the hydrocarbons which could be released from the sub-strata when drill casings failed…..
His comments come at the same time the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training said it was possible contaminated ground water could get into oceans.
The water flows into the ocean underground through old river channels that have since been buried, known as "wonky holes", said the centre's Professor Craig Simmons.
"If there's any contamination in the ground water ... they intersect with one of these wonky holes, they're definitely going to take out the chemistry as well as the water," Prof Simmons said.
"It's certainly not impossible that something like that could happen. I've not heard of it yet but there are certainly nutrients that are taken into the ocean so there is that possibility."
Prof Simmons said more research needed to be done.
 
Excerpt from a letter to the editor published in The Daily Examiner, Grafton, on 28 December 2012:

To me it’s commonsense, you only need to look at the landscape of towns such as Tara and Chinchilla to realise that this is going to have a detrimental effect on our lives.
This is what is planned for the Northern Rivers region and I’d be dammed if I am not going to fight for it.
Kym Benson, Lawrence Road  
 
Australian Stock Exchange records for Metgasco Limited at 8am 30 December 2012. This mining exploration and production company intends to commence drilling at Glenugie near Grafton early this month:
Closing prices
Closing prices are displayed for the last 5 days on which the security traded on ASX within the last 6 months.
Date
Vol *
28 Dec 2012
0.190
11.76%
0.195
0.170
736,007
27 Dec 2012
0.170
3.03%
0.170
0.165
129,808
24 Dec 2012
0.165
-2.94%
0.165
0.165
100,000
21 Dec 2012
0.170
9.68%
0.180
0.160
803,400
20 Dec 2012
0.155
-3.12%
0.160
0.155
235,050
* Volume of shares shown represents only those shares traded on ASX.
Metgasco daily share prices for the last twelve months as traded on the Australian Stock: Exchange
 
 And highly misleading advertising found on Google 31 December 2012:
 

****Happy New Year To All from North Coast Voices****