The Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin reminds Truss and Hogan that they are talking hypocritical nonsense

 

 

Federal Nationals should speak the truth about the Pacific Highway upgrade

 

“Quite frankly, I am fed up with Mr Truss flitting in and flitting out of our electorate, making glib promises which are not budgeted for, and for misleading statements about funding responsibility.

 

“It is galling to have to be involved in such negative debate, when so many positive things are taking place.

 

“If he wants to say we are funding it, say it and leave it at that.  He and Mr Hogan need to stop throwing dirt, especially when they have no credible ground to stand on.

 

“I stand on my record of hard work and securing major road infrastructure – the Ballina and Alstonville bypasses – the Glenugie part of the Pacific Highway upgrade, work underway on the Pacific Highway at Tabbimobile (Devil’s Pulpit) and my continued push for more highway projects like these to come online as the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade and planning works gather pace.

 

“Mr Truss’s record as Federal transport minister in the Coalition government was woeful; they spent just $1.3 billion on the Pacific Highway over 12 years compared with Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor’s investment of $4.1 billion over six years. 

 

“It doesn’t matter how many times he stands beside the highway and says there is some mythical 80:20 funding split, it doesn’t make it true. It has always been a 50:50 funding agreement.  When Mr Truss admits to this, then I shall treat him seriously. Until then, I shall ignore his nonsense.

 

“When Mr Truss was Federal transport minister, he wanted a 50:50 split:  In case he has forgotten, some of his quotes are as follows:

 

“… We required it and the NSW Labor government agreed to matching funding. The Pacific Highway will receive … an extra $160 million in 2005/06, with matching funds to be provided by the NSW Government, to accelerate the duplication works.” – Truss media statement May 9, 2006.

 

“Finally the State (Labor) government has agreed to match the Australian Government spending on the Pacific Highway and we will now work to increase the momentum of construction … with the objective of completing a continuous four-lane road to Tweed Heads by 2016.” – Truss media statement September 29, 2005.

 

“Mr Truss and Mr Hogan may have missed the news, but State Member for Ballina Don Page and I put out a joint media release last Friday announcing that soft soil treatment work was underway at Pimlico near Ballina to help lay the groundwork for the continuing upgrade of the highway.

 

“There is Federal Government money on the table and I shall secure our share for us, as planning work proceeds,” Ms Saffin concluded.  

 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013.

  

Smoke and mirrors didn't give Abbott the bounce he was probably expecting

 

The Essential Report for 14 January does not appear to show Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott receiving any bounce in this poll from his much publicized time on the containment line of one NSW bushfire this month.

 

Abbott only fared marginally better in the first Newspoll survey for this year - his satisfaction rating rose one point to 29 per cent while his dissatisfaction rating fell one point to 58 per cent for a net satisfaction rating of minus 29. An almost insignificant change since early December 2012.

'Climate results validate sceptics' screams The Australian

 

In the midst of searing temperatures and bushfire smoke on 12 January 2013 The Australian newspaper screamed this headline; Climate results validate sceptics in what appeared to be a perverse joke running counter to good journalism.

 

The article was accompanied by a graph which purports to confirm a slowing down of global warming and/or what many people have been saying for some time. Global warming effectively stopped 17 years ago and, if the new forecast is accurate, that "pause" will be extended to 20 years:

 

 

Unwillingly to hunt the Internet at the time, I waited for a welcome break in the weather to look for the truth I was fairly certain the dregs of the Murdoch media had ignored in its effort to support Nick Minchin et al in their climate change denialism.

 

Here is the UK Met Office explanation:

 

8 January 2013 - There has been media coverage today about our experimental decadal global temperature prediction, which is routinely updated in December each year.

 

The latest decadal prediction suggests that global temperatures over the next five years are likely to be a little lower than predicted from the previous prediction issued in December 2011.

However, both versions are consistent in predicting that we will continue to see near-record levels of global temperatures in the next few years. [my bolding]

This means temperatures will remain well above the long-term average and we will continue to see temperatures like those which resulted in 2000-2009 being the warmest decade in the instrumental record dating back to 1850.

Decadal predictions are specifically designed to predict fluctuations in the climate system through knowledge of the current climate state and multi-year variability of the oceans.

Small year to year fluctuations such as those that we are seeing in the shorter term five year predictions are expected due to natural variability in the climate system, and have no sustained impact on the long term warming.

In this case, changes in ocean surface temperatures in some parts of the world over the past year are understood to have made a key contribution to the difference between the 2011 and 2012 forecasts, but other factors will also have played a role.

Century-scale projections are less sensitive to natural variability and updates to the 2012 decadal forecast do not necessarily tell us anything about projections of climate change for the coming century.

The 2012 prediction is the first to use the Met Office's latest experimental decadal prediction system, based on HadGEM3. This includes a comprehensive set of improvements based on the latest scientific understanding.

HadGEM3 has been thoroughly tested and has more accurately reproduced temperature variations over the past few decades, suggesting it shows greater skill than was available from previous decadal forecast systems.

The Met Office routinely shares its research and this is often placed on our website, encouraging openness and transparency with our scientific colleagues and the public alike.

More information about decadal forecasts can be found on our website.

Contact information

Met Office Press Office: +44 (0)1392 886655

E-mail: Press Office

Met Office Customer Centre: 0870 900 0100

If you're outside the UK: +44 1392 885680

 

Liddle Kevvie Hogan pops his head above the parapet

The Nats candidate for this year's federal election in the Page electorate Kevvie Hogan has been rather quiet since his Northern Rivers blooper.
But he put his head up this week in a tweet and press release bagging the Gillard Government for not rolling over and playing dead for Big Bazza O'Farrell's benefit when it comes to future funding of 125kms of the Pacific Highway upgrade on the North Coast.
Pity Kevvie still hasn't learned how to spell as this snapshot shows.

The 'costs' associated with catching crabs ...

The main topic discussed at the table of knowledge at the local watering hole today was a story doing the rounds about a prominent Clarence Valley legal beagle and a fisheries inspector having different points of view about trapping crabs in the local area. Names, locations and details are still very sketchy at this stage ...

Wonder who it was ...

Wonder where the 'deed' took place ...

Wonder where it will all end ...

Federal Opposition's Parliamentary Secretary For Indigenous Health demonstrates why he's unfit for this position

 

This was the Liberal Party’s Dr. Andrew Laming, Coalition spokesperson for Indigenous Health and Regional Health Services, late at night on 14 January 2013. Demonstrating just how proudly and crudely offensive he can be:

 

 

This was his 'third person' reaction to a relatively low-key response from an Australian twitterverse going to sleep for the night:

 

While his response to initial media coverage of his tweets went like this:

Yet another good reason to be thankful I live in Australia and not America - no inchoate death star cult

 

At the time of writing this post these two petitions accepted by the U.S. White House had a combined total of 6,844 signatures:

we petition the obama administration to:

Assign NASA to do a feasibility study and conceptual design of the Gen1 USS Enterprise interplanetary spaceship.

We have within our technological reach the ability to build the 1st generation of the USS Enterprise. It ends up that this ship’s inspiring form is quite functional. This will be Earth’s first gigawatt-class interplanetary spaceship with artificial gravity. The ship can serve as a spaceship, space station, and space port all in one. In total, one thousand crew members & visitors can be on board at once. Few things could collectively inspire people on Earth more than seeing the Enterprise being built in space. And the ship could go on amazing missions, like taking the first humans to Mars while taking along a large load of base-building equipment for constructing the first permanent base there.

For more information see BuildTheEnterprise.org.

Created: Dec 22, 2012

we petition the obama administration to:

rapidly develop and deploy a nuclear thermal rocket for both manned & un-manned space missions.

Harness the full intellectual and industrial strength of our universities, national laboratories and private enterprise to rapidly develop and deploy a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) adaptable to both manned and un-manned space missions. A NTR (which would only operate in outer space) will jump-start our manned space exploration program by reducing inner solar system flight times from months to weeks. This is not new technology; NTRs were tested in the 1960s (President Kennedy was a guest at one test). The physics and engineering are sound. In addition to inspiring young Americans to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, a working NTR will herald a speedy and economical expansion of the human presence in the cosmos.

Created: Jan 03, 2013

 

However, this earlier petition had 34,435 signatures:

 

we petition the obama administration to:

Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.
By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

Created: Nov 14, 2012

 

The official White House response:

White House Response to

Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.

This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

·     The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

·     The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

·     Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be   exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Paul Shawcross is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.