Gillard is verballed. How many times is that now?

In 2005 then Treasurer Peter Costello said this:

“CANBERRA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by parliament. “If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you,” he said on national television. “I’d be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false. If you can’t agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practises it, perhaps, then, that’s a better option,” Costello said.”

Three years earlier an American had written a piece called “This is America. Like it or leave it”

By 2013 the Gillard haters had drawn inspiration from both these examples of xenophobia and put together this rubbish now being emailed round the traps:

Snopes.com

Sustainable Management for Horse Properties Workshop Series February 2013 - Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Casino, Grafton

Click on image to enlarge

Even the tourists are noticing that there is a coal seam gas mining corporation operating in the Clarence Valley

 
Letter to the editor in The Daily Examiner 14 January 2013:

Preserve wetlands
A holiday visit to the Clarence Valley area this new year has revealed unimaginable delights. After sighting a group of emus, a Google search revealed they are an endangered species - the coastal emu different to the inland variety.
Further searches revealed that many species of flora and fauna living in this remarkable area with its stunning wetlands and waterways have been listed as endangered or threatened.
The next sighting was of two brolgas. This sighting had to be confirmed by a local as I was not sure what they were, having only seen them in Kakadu National Park. The brolgas were within a couple of kilometres of the coal seam gas drilling ring at Glenugie. This is a significant area to be cared for and preserved for our grandchildren’s children. We can't afford to risk polluting these precious waterways with gas mining not even needed for Australian consumption.

Sandy Thompson

Sydney

 

Yamba's flood experience - guffaw!!!

The lads at the table of knowledge at the local watering hole had great trouble lifting themselves off the floor after hearing about a yarn that's doing the circuit in Yamba about how the local council is going to address the problem of removing the debris from Yamba's beaches.

The yarn might have some truth to it, then again it mightn't. Anyway, the lads have been splitting their sides laughing about it.

According to the local "talk" an individual who holds a reasonably high position at a north coast council was asked how much the clean up would cost. Apparently, the person said it'd be about $250,000.

"How was that figure arrived at?" asked someone.

No one knows for sure, but the "talk" is that the figure was plucked out of thin air. Then again, it might have been extracted from someone's derriere.

Time will tell.

An armed Japanese Government customs vessel entered Australia's exclusive economic zone without permission on 31 January 2013

Shonan Maru no 2

ABC News February 1, 2013:

 

The Federal Government has ordered a Japanese whaling vessel to get out of Australia's exclusive economic zone.

The Shonan Maru Number 2 - a Customs vessel which travels with the whaling fleet - entered the zone off Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean yesterday afternoon.

Environment Minister Tony Burke said he had made it clear to Japan that vessels associated with the whaling program "are not welcome in in Australia's exclusive economic zone or territorial sea".

"Our embassy in Tokyo has conveyed these sentiments directly to the Japanese government," Mr Burke said in a statement.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown, now the mission leader of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group, says he believes the vessel has armed Japanese personnel aboard.

 

On February 1 it was reported that the customs vessel was just outside of Australian territorial waters, but remains in Australia’s economic exclusion zone close to Macquarie Island, in direct defiance of the objections contained in the Australian Government’s formal notification to the Japanese Government.

 

World Heritage listed Macquarie Island forms part of the State of Tasmania.

 

The Hon Tony Burke MP

Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

 

Japanese whaling vessels nearing Macquarie Island

 

Media release
31 January 2013

 

The Australian Government has received confirmation that a Japanese whaling support vessel, the Shonan Maru No 2, has entered our exclusive economic zone near Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean.

The Government strongly objects to whaling vessels passing through Australian territorial seas or our exclusive economic zone.

Australia has made it clear to Japan on a number of occasions that vessels associated with its whaling program are not welcome in Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) or Territorial Sea.

The vessel is a non-whaling support ship which forms part of the fleet accompanying whaling vessels.

Our embassy in Tokyo has conveyed these sentiments directly to the Japanese government.

Threat to local Landcare across North Coast region

Local Landcare Network offices across the North Coast of New South Wales may not be here after June this year, unless there is some continuity of state government funding.

 

The NSW State Government announced major reforms to services for rural landholders late last year and these will have significant impacts on the local Landcare support organisation in towns throughout the region and the Landcare movement across the state.

 

North Coast Regional Landcare Network, Chair Neville Sloss explains:

 

"The reforms will mean that all our member networks' main avenue of funding —the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority— will disappear.  At this stage we understand that there will be no continuation of funding for our community support activities into the next financial year which seriously threatens our continued existence."

 

"It will mean no Landcare offices, no help for landholders looking for project funding, no natural resource management workshops and field days, no support for Landcare projects and the loss of a host of farming and habitat management information services."

 

The Government plans for new organisations called 'Local Land Services'  (LLS) to administer the merged services currently provided by the CMA, Livestock Health and Pest Authorities (LHPAs) and parts of NSWDPI from January 2014.

 

"A reference panel is overseeing the set up and structure of the new organisation and it is heartening that the NSW State body Landcare NSW is part of this process at the State level, but there are serious challenges ahead for all our 14 local member organisations, especially in the coming transition period whilst the LLS is being set up," Mr Sloss said.

 

The Landcare offices with Community Support Officers are in Tweed Heads, Mullumbimby, Old Bonalbo, Kyogle, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Wollongbar, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Nambucca Heads, Wauchope, Kempsey, and Armidale.

 

"Over the years Landcare funding has had a number of crises but none seem to be as clear and present as this one.  We will be making representations to our politicians and the relevant ministers in the coming months and asking the community for their support."

 

North Coast Regional Landcare Network believes:

 

 Local community based groups need certainty and continued funding to employ Landcare staff  to support their catchment's landholders from 1 July 2013 during the transition to the new LLS structure

 Ongoing financial support for the Landcare  community  must  be part of the LLS structure and this is best delivered by local community networks

 

"We also hope anyone who cares about Landcare's future will attend a LLS reference panel community consultation session.

 

Lismore: March 18 1-4 pm, Invercauld House, 161 Invercauld Road, Goonellabah

Coffs Harbour: March 19 9 am-12 pm, Ex-Services club, cnr Pacific Hwy & Vernon St

Scone: April 8 9 am-12 pm, Scone RSL, 71 Guernsey St.

 

Community Support Officer

Clarence Landcare Inc

24 January 2013

Liberal Party Lies: What is wrong with this graph?

 

This rather crude graph can be found in the Liberal Party’s Our Plan Real Solutions for all Australians: The direction, values and policy priorities of the next Coalition Government recently released by Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott.

 

I draw your attention to the fact that the left hand sidebar indicates the rankings are out of one hundred.

 

 

However, the World Economic Forum’s The Global Competitiveness Report 2012–2013 clearly shows that the ranking is out of one hundred and forty-four (up from one hundred and forty-two in 2011-12 and one hundred and thirty-four in 2007-2008):

 

Australia’s national economy ranks 20^th out of 144 countries, with the third lowest ratio among advance economies of Public debt to Gross Domestic Product.

Australia ranks 48^th out of 144 countries when it comes to Wastefulness of government spending.

While the nation ranks 96^th out of the same 144 countries in the category of Transparency of government policymaking.

Finally, when a ranking for Pay and productivity is calculated Australia is 80^th of 144 countries.

 

No reputable statistician would eliminate 44 countries and still keep the same ranking as does this graph. Nor would they try to merge two separate financial year ranking results in the same graph without adjusting for the 10 country difference.

 

Therefore this graph may be nothing more than a sly attempt to skew the electorate’s perception of how the country is faring in the lead up to the September 2013 federal election.