In your guts you know he's nuts

Tony Abbott in all his intellectual glory

Tony we’ll all be rooned Abbott continues to prove Albo right – “In your guts you know he’s nuts”.

“This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It's a market, a so-called market, in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.” {Tony Abbott during doorstop interview on 15^th July 2013}

''Tony Abbott's insistence that Labor's emissions trading scheme is an expensive exercise in buying and selling an ''invisible substance'' has drawn derision from climate experts and industry.------Professor Richard Dennis, an economist at the Australian National University, said Mr Abbott should make it clear whether he thinks radiation was harmful or not. ''The notion that something now has to be visible to be valuable or harmful is an entirely new concept in Australian politics and one that will concern and confuse many,'' he said. ''If Tony Abbott is concerned about people paying for invisible things, then anyone who owns intellectual property should be very concerned, likewise people in the futures and financial derivatives market.'' {Granny Herald on 16^th July 2013}

“Abbott's "invisible substance" line appears to have been lifted almost word for word from this UK Telegraph column. http://bit.ly/a60yoH “ {@bencubby at Twitter on 16^th July 2013}

Hartsuyker jumps on Murdoch misinformation bandwagon and rest of mainstream media fall in line behind him

This was Denis Shanahan and Jared Owens writing an ‘exclusive in The Australian on 17 July 2013:

In a rush to spend as much money as possible in marginal seats, the Rudd government has given surf lifesaving clubs 72 hours to apply for funds for "shovel-ready" projects to be announced before the election campaign…….

This was the Federal Nationals MP for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, hopping on the bandwagon at ABC Regional News 17 July 2013:

The Nationals member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker said the surf club grants are blatant pork-barrelling.

"The real issue here whether this is an appropriate use of tax payers money or whether this is actually corrupt conduct," he said.

This was Luke Hartsuyker again making sure his electorate got the news on Page 5 of The Daily Examiner 18 July 2013:

Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker came out swinging after he heard lifesaving clubs would only have three days to lodge funding applications.

"Funding for surf lifesaving clubs should be provided on the basis of need, not on the basis of getting Kevin Rudd re-elected," Mr Hartsuyker said.

"Now we have Kevin Rudd saying he will provide funds to surf lifesaving clubs on the basis of a club's location, without any consideration to a club's need or its capacity to service the local community.

"A 72-hour timeframe for all funding applications to be lodged is not the way to govern Australia."

There is one small problem with this story – it was incorrect and Surf Life Saving Australia informed the media of this at 4.27pm on 17 July 2013.

Something The Australian had to admit the next day on 18 July 2013:

SLSA released a statement confirming chief executive Greg Nance spearheaded the push "of his own initiative". "SLSA is not aware of any official federal government grant programs other than those already in the public domain," the statement said.

Mr Nance was unavailable to be interviewed.

SLSA spokesman Guy Britt declined to explain what federal funding was being sought, why the deadline was so short or whether the submissions were transmitted last night as indicated.

UPDATE:

Of course it is possible that the Member For Cowper is assigning to the Rudd Labor Government the very same motives which drove the former Howard Coalition Government (of which he was a member) in the lead up to the 9 October 2004 and 24 November 2007 federal elections.

The Sydney Morning Herald 16 November 2007:

THE Coalition used a controversial grants program to make a flurry of election-eve handouts and has funnelled millions of dollars into projects in marginal seats against departmental advice, an audit has found.

A scathing report on the Regional Partnerships Program by the Australian National Audit Office outlines a litany of grants made without proper paperwork or explanation, including many that were fast-tracked just before the last election. It found:

■ The 10 electorates that received the most funding were all held by the Coalition.

■ 55 per cent of 2004 election commitments went to marginal electorates.

■ Of 43 projects that were approved despite the department not recommending to proceed, 38 were in Coalition seats.

■ In a 51-minute spending spree in the hours before the government went into caretaker mode in 2004, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the program, De-Anne Kelly, approved 16 grants worth $3.349 million.

A long-serving official in the auditor's office told the Herald yesterday: "This is the worst thing I have ever seen."

The audit found the three ministers overseeing the program were more likely to approve grants that were not recommended by the Department of Transport and Regional Services if they went to projects in Coalition seats. Projects that were recommended by the department were more likely to be knocked back if they were in Labor seats.

Clarence Valley Council denies duty of care and blames lack of money for its failure to maintain local timber bridge

Dr Ann Collins (centre in the yellow jersey) during the Sydney to Gold Coast charity ride.

 

 

The Sydney Morning Herald 14 July 2013:

 

Ann Collins lies strapped to a plastic medical gurney as a helicopter winches her into the sky.

Far below the prone body of the Sydney surgeon stands the Bluff Bridge, a rickety wooden structure spanning the Orara River south of Grafton on the mid-north coast.

Two hours earlier, Dr Collins was happily taking part in her 10th Sydney-to-Gold Coast charity bike ride, but then her front wheel lodged in a rut in the bridge surface, sending her flying over the handlebars.

''Instead of falling onto the ground I hit the side railing,'' said Dr Collins, who is 65.

''I somersaulted off the bridge. I remember the timber planks were very crumbly, because I was trying to grab onto them as I fell down into the rocky ravine.''

The oral and maxillofacial surgeon was stunned by the fall, before realising her legs were crossed in front of her at strange angles.

Dr Collins suffered numerous injuries, including two compound fractures to her left leg, a compound fracture to her right leg, and a fracture and dislocation of her left elbow.

It took major surgery, four months in hospital and many more months of rehabilitation before she could begin to function normally again.

Five years later, Dr Collins' bicycle stands, somewhat incongruously, in the NSW Supreme Court.

Having tried unsuccessfully to mediate a settlement with Clarence Valley Council - the body responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the bridge - she is suing the council for injury, loss and damages totaling about $800,000.

She claims that, by failing to safely maintain the surface of the bridge despite knowing it was in a state of disrepair, or to provide a sign instructing cyclists of the need to walk rather than ride across, the council was negligent and breached its duty of care.

The case is remarkable because the council's defence includes the claim it simply cannot afford to properly maintain the many ageing timber bridges in the Clarence Valley municipality.

In its defence statement, the council says it ''did not owe the plaintiff a duty of care, because its functions are limited by financial and other resources … having regard to the extent of roadworks for which the defendant is responsible; and the resources available''.

Dr Collins rejects the council's arguments, but the case highlights the looming crisis over local infrastructure in NSW…..
Dr Collins said that in her case a simple sign would have prevented the accident from occurring.
''It only cost them $190 to put up a sign saying walk your bike over the bridge after the accident happened,'' she said. ''If that sign had been there, the bridge would still have been unsafe but the accident would have been avoided.''....

Pensioners worried that Abbott will stop pension indexation if he becomes prime minister

Abbott to stop pension indexation?

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

“Pensioners have expressed horror at suggestions today that an Abbott-led government may cease regular indexation of the pension, as per a recommendation made by the Howard Government’s 1996 National Audit of Commission,”[1] said Senior Policy Advisor, Charmaine Crowe.

“Regular indexation of the pension ensures that it maintains pace with the cost of living, which is critical for pensioners, particularly those with no other source of income.”

“The vast majority of pensioners have no other income, so if the pension cannot cover living costs, they have nothing to fall back on.”

“Around 80 per cent of people aged over 65 receive the Age Pension, in part because of the relaxation of the means test under Howard. This made many retirees who have significantly more income or assets than a full-rate Age Pensioner, eligible for the pension.”

“Ceasing pension indexation would affect not only Age Pensioners, but over 1,000,000 carers and people with disability receiving the Carer’s Payment and the Disability Support Pension.”

“If the current indexation of the pension was removed, the pension risks losing its value as the Newstart Allowance and Parenting Payments have done, subjecting their recipients to living in poverty.”

“The Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott must come out and categorically reject any proposal to cease the current pension-indexation regime."

Media Contact: Charmaine Crowe

Mobile: 0422 707 332

---

[1] Peter Martin ‘How an Abbott Government may run the economy’:The Sydney Morning Herald 12 June 2013 http://bit.ly/19nodGG

When standing by your leader is a painful experience for a Liberal Party MP

The look on the faces of Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband Malcolm Turnbull and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey says it all.

Being a member of the Team Abbott  can be painfully embarrassing.

Tony Abbott ‘explaining’ the Internet to Australia with Malcolm Turnbull at his side

Joe Hockey standing behind Tony Abbott as he refuses to answer a question about expenses claimed

Even Abbott's wife appears less enthused these days.........

Tony Abbott with Margie Abbott as he talks about 'invisible' carbon dioxide this week

The sad statistics of murder on Australia

In 2012 the Australian crime rate for homicide and related offences was Murder 1.5 victims per 100,000 persons, Attempted murder 1.0 victims per 100,000 persons and Manslaughter, 0.3 victims per 100,000 persons, with the national victimisation rate being 2.0 per 100,000 persons.

The male victimisation rate was 2.8 and the female victimisation rate was 1.2 per 100,000 person for homicide and related offences.

Australian Bureau of Statistics: CRIME IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AUSTRALIA:

For the last decade of the century the Australian Institute of Criminology has monitored every homicide in Australia. The dataset shows that homicide in Australia was characterised by the following features.

There were 3,150 homicide incidents over the decade, averaging 315 per year, a figure that did not fluctuate much.

Just under two-thirds of all homicide incidents (60.2%) occurred in residential premises. Nearly half of all homicide incidents occurred on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and over two-thirds of homicide incidents occurred between 6pm and 6am.

Eight out of 10 homicide incidents can be characterised as 'one-on-one' interactions between the victim and the offender, though there have been, on average, 15 multiple fatality incidents per year, resulting in approximately 39 victims per year.

There were 3,386 victims of homicide. Across the 10-year period, rates of victimisation have remained relatively constant, fluctuating between 1.7 and 2.0 per 100,000 population. Some 63.2% of victims were male and 36.8% were female. Females were killed at an average annual rate of 1.4 per 100,000 population, whereas males were killed at an average annual rate of 2.4 per 100,000 population. There has been a stable pattern of gender differentiation, with a ratio of 3 males killed for every 2 females. Male victims were more likely to have been single at the time of the incident, whereas female victims were more likely to have been married or living in a de facto relationship. Females were more likely to be killed as a result of a domestic altercation, although this proportion has declined in recent years. Males were more likely to be killed following an alcohol-related argument.

Victims of homicide were more likely to be killed with a knife or other sharp instrument than any other weapon. There was a declining trend in the proportion of victims killed with a firearm, with an average of 81 victims killed per year with a firearm.

The highest age-specific victimisation rate for females was for children less than one year of age (average rate of 2.6), whereas the highest victimisation rate for males was for young men between the ages of 24 and 26 years (average rate of 4.3). Indigenous persons were on average 8.1 times more likely to be victims of homicide than non-Indigenous persons.

Approximately 9% of all homicide victims were aged under 15, and this proportion has remained quite stable each year since 1989. Biological parents, usually the mother, were responsible for a majority of child killings in Australia. Very rarely are children killed by a stranger.

There were 3,481 offenders of homicide - 87.2% were male and 12.8% were female. Males consistently exhibited higher rates of offending than females, with a ratio of about 7:1. The median age of male offenders was 27 years and the median age for female offenders was 29 years. Male offenders were more likely to be single, whereas female offenders were more likely to be married or living in a de facto relationship at the time of the incident.

Between 1996-97 and 1998-99, just under 2 out of 5 male offenders and just over 1 out of 5 female offenders were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. Approximately 6% of homicide offenders in Australia committed suicide during or following the homicide incident.

Eight out of 10 homicides occurred between people who were known to one another. Females were more likely to be killed by an intimate partner, whereas males were more likely to be killed by a friend or acquaintance, but under 2 out of 10 homicides occurred between strangers. Approximately 13% of all homicide incidents occur in the course of other crime, such as robbery and sexual assault. One in 10 homicide incidents occurred in the course of robbery, and 3.7% occurred in the course of sexual assault. This relatively low rate of homicides committed in the course of another crime is a factor which differentiates Australia's homicide rates from those of many other countries.

While only 13% of homicides were committed by females, women who kill tend to kill men. Women are more likely to kill (in descending order of frequency) husbands, ex-husbands, de facto partners, and lovers, followed by children and other relatives. Very few women kill strangers.

In Australia, between 1 July 1989 and 30 June 1999 there were 13 mass-murder incidents (where the number of victims was 4 or more), resulting in the death of 94 persons, though in the two most recent years of the century Australia recorded no mass-murder incidents.

Understanding homicide involves some fundamental neurological and sociological risk factors. Looking across many nations, from a policy point of view things like expanding the number of police, giving them better technology, setting longer prison sentences, imposing or abolishing the death penalty have had no effect on the homicide rate, which has remained fairly constant in most countries (Mouzos 2000).

Coal Seam Gas: and so the industry hard sell begins again

The Northern Rivers needs to closely watch this situation and make it views known to federal and state government……

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his speech to the National Press Club 11 July 2013:

The discussions I have had in the last couple of weeks with both business and the unions have been useful in elaborating the possible content of a new national competitiveness agenda for Australia.

Thus far we have agreed on seven broad areas of necessary policy work together.

Number one: Domestic electricity price regulation in Australia, and the impact of the current carbon price as well as the future availability of competitively priced domestic gas supplies are high on the agenda…..

Furthermore, reforms are needed for the supply of competitively priced gas for Australian businesses and households…..

Number four: We need a new approach to the regulatory impost on business from all levels of government.

This particularly applies to multiple and conflicting environmental assessment requirements for state and federal governments.

Surely it lies within our wit and wisdom to begin by integrating the assessment procedures and reports at present separately mandated by the Commonwealth and the states.

Surely we should aim at having one single integrated assessment system, even if we continue to have two different decision points.

An integrated assessment system removes so much of the regulatory burden faced by businesses when trying to get a project off the ground.

I have already discussed this with Premier O’Farrell in particular and I want to take this discussion further. 

Financial Review 12 July 2013:

Lower energy prices through increased coal seam gas production and changes to the regulation of power prices will be pivotal to a seven-point productivity plan Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will take to the election.

The plan would require business and unions to work together in an Accord-style “pact” to boost productivity beyond the mining boom.

The push to boost coal seam gas will include less environmental regulation, pushing NSW to fast-track approval of two major developments and leaning on the Victorian government to lift an exploration moratorium.

The Guardian UK 12 July 2013:

A huge coal seam gas project in New South Wales is emerging as a test case, pitting Kevin Rudd's promises of lower gas prices and "streamlined" environmental processes against Labor's recent pledges to protect the environment.

Gas producers are demanding the prime minister rescind Julia Gillard's final environmental law: the requirement that the federal government assess the impact of coal seam gas wells on the water table.

Santos is ready to begin drilling 18 CSG exploration wells near Narrabri in New South Wales, including in the Pilliga forest, to prepare for a planned 400 well CSG project it says could provide one quarter of NSW's gas needs.

The project has been nominated by federal sources as one that could be sped up by better environmental decision-making to help increase gas supply and reduce prices, in line with the plan outlined by Rudd in Thursday's national press club speech.

The company argues its exploration plans, a pared-back version of its original exploration intentions in the state's north-west, should not require a full, and possibly lengthy, federal environmental assessment under the commonwealth government's long-standing legal powers to protect endangered species or the recently added powers to consider the cumulative impact of CSG wells on the water table.

ABC PM 12 July 2013:

JUSTINE PARKER: Richard Denniss says unlocking supply can do little to lower gas prices once Australian gas prices is linked to the world market.
RICHARD DENNISS: Whether we double or treble the amount of coal seam gas, whether we build floating LNG plants in any part of the country, none of that will have any significant impact on the world gas price. And the fact is soon Australian consumers and businesses will be paying a much higher world price than the local low price they've become accustomed to.
JUSTINE PARKER: A spokesman for Kevin Rudd says he'll work with the states and territories to see if changes to gas regulation can halt energy price rises.
The gas transmission industry believes one way to unlock supply is to reduce state-level restrictions on coal seam gas.
Here's the chief executive of the Australian Pipeline Industry Association, Cheryl Cartwright.
CHERYL CARTWRIGHT: With restrictions on access in coal seam gas, that is reducing access to supply. Queensland's actually doing that well now, but there needs to be a way of working closely with the producers and the farmers, working together on the land to make the most of the land for the energy for the rest of country as well as the agriculture. It can be done.

ABC News 12 July 2013:

Kevin Rudd has named electricity prices as the first plank of his seven-point national competitiveness plan. He is targeting gas supply as one key area for reform. The ABC understands setting aside some of Australia's gas for domestic use is off the table. The gas pipeline industry is now urging the Prime Minister to push governments in the eastern states to lift their coal seam gas restrictions.

Australian Mining 12 July 2013:

Apex Energy have been denied permission to drill 16 exploration wells within Illawarra water catchment areas.

The NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) rejected the proposed drilling program yesterday, stating that more conclusive studies on the impact of CSG activities to drinking water were needed.

PAC said that until the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer’s review on the impacts, along with the state government’s resulting policy decisions were made, it would be inappropriate to approve the drilling program.

PAC found that the impacts of CSG activities ‘were being questioned in a range of studies in NSW, Australia and internationally’.

“It appears that the potential risks of coal seam gas activities are still being established and that there is some uncertainty regarding the potential impacts of the suite of coal seam gas extraction techniques which could be applied within various geological formations,” PAC said.

The Daily Examiner 15 July 2013:

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin has denied reports claiming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make the expansion of coal-seam gas a priority in a wider push to tackle high electricity prices.

In an agenda-setting National Press Club speech last Thursday, Mr Rudd outlined a seven-point "productivity plan" which included targeting of high domestic electricity prices, with the "future availability of competitively priced domestic gas supplies ... high on the agenda."

"Reforms are needed for the supply of competitively priced gas for Australian businesses and households," Mr Rudd declared.

While there was no mention of CSG in the speech, an Australian Financial Review story by veteran political journalist Philip Coorey quoted unnamed sources saying the policy would involve CSG expansion, specifically the fast-tracking of two major NSW CSG projects and "leaning on the Victorian Government to lift an exploration moratorium".....

 "The Prime Minister made absolutely no mention of CSG mining in his speech or elsewhere," Ms Saffin said.

"My position is clear on Coal Seam Gas mining."

"I fought hard for the Federal changes to the EP&BC Act to protect our water. The water trigger legislation went through and is now law. This offers some protection for our area from CSG," she said.

A spokesman for Richmond MP Justine Elliott labelled the AFR story "mischief-making", claiming it was easy to "stir the pot" with "unnamed sources".

It remains unclear how the Federal Government could move to rein in a future of high gas prices.....