Snapshot from a letter to the editor in The Northern Star 19 July 2013:
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
The Australian Academy of Science conducts an online survey
In May 2013 the Australian Academy of Science conducted an online survey[1] and these are some of its findings:
30% of Australians think that it takes one day for the Earth to orbit the sun.
27% of Australians think that humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs and 21% of university graduates think humans lived with dinosaurs.
6% of Australians think 81-100% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, with 7% of this group having a university education.
25% of Australians are not sure of the percentage of the Earth’s water that is fresh.
9% of Australians don’t believe in evolution and 10% don’t think it is currently occurring.
9% of Australians do not think humans are influencing the evolution of other species and 19% of university graduates do not think humans are influencing the evolution of other species.
79% of Australians say science education is absolutely essential or very important to the Australian economy.
[1] The survey was undertaken online and conducted between the 7th and 10th of May, 2013. Respondents were drawn from a professional social and market research panel.
The overall sample size was 1515, segmented and weighted to be nationally representative of Australia’s population by gender, age and residential location.
The accuracy of the results at an overall level is +/-2.5% at the 95% confidence interval. This means, for example, that if the survey returns a result of 50% to a particular question, there is 95% probability that the actual result will be between 47.5% and 52.5%.
Full survey results here.
Monday, 22 July 2013
It's official. Clarence Valley Council is mad as a march hare
The Daily Examiner 20 July 2013:
Clarence Valley councillor Andrew Baker says he resigned from the environment economic and planning committee in part due to the lack of action in Maclean.
Cr Baker said he was frustrated with, what he termed inaction on plans to link Maclean back to the Clarence River.
The 2011 Clouston plan was widely rejected by the public, Cr Baker said.
The plan was reworked and in June 2012 was adopted by the council, along with a resolution to do "a comprehensive design process for McLachlan Park in 2012/2013, taking into account community views and land tenure considerations".
Cr Baker attended the meeting run by Mr Engwicht, which he said had nothing to do with the design.
He also objected to Mr Engwicht's idea of a "tourist attraction toilet".
"The idea of having a tourist attraction toilet with a secret garden atop to create a secret river experience can only be described as 'on the nose' by anyone who just wants this horrible joke to go away," Cr Baker said.
"It stinks that we would waste ratepayers' money paying someone who wants to hide the river behind the dunny.
"I want Maclean to be thought of as penthouse-quality, not as an outhouse joke."
All sides in this council debate from the penthouse-quality to the loo with a view have missed the point.
McLachlan Park is only a name. The reality is that the area in question is a concrete and earthen levee wall of approx. 7,796m2, part of a longer earth wall constructed to protect Maclean against flooding.
It is much more important to ensure the structural integrity of this levee than to tart it up for tourists or remove part of it to provide more CBD parking.
Especially when council management has encouraged councillors to use this 62 year-old high school dropout with no design or planning qualifications (pictured below) as a consultant.
David Engwicht
A relentless self-promoter
The Border Mail 3 and 4 March 2009:
Councillors and senior staff have defended Mr Engwicht in recent times after he was excluded from a committee reviewing his $5.4 million concept for a makeover of the city’s main strip shopping centre….
His $5.1 million concept for High Street, released in September, was widely panned...
To date Mr. Engwicht appears to have been paid $5,000 by Clarence Valley Council.
His $5.1 million concept for High Street, released in September, was widely panned...
To date Mr. Engwicht appears to have been paid $5,000 by Clarence Valley Council.
* Graphic from Running On Carbs
* Photographs from PPS and Engwicht website
Right-Wing Myths: The Howard Government's record with regard to asylum seeker numbers
Time and time again Coalition Opposition MPs and Shadow Ministers talk about how the Howard Government stopped the boats and how they will do so again if they regain government.
The implication is that no asylum seekers arrived unannounced in Australia during the Howard era.
Well I’m sorry, but this is not the case. Even after Howard implemented the 2001 Pacific Solution asylum seekers continued to arrive.
Between the financial years 2002-2003 and 2006-07 at least 417 asylum seekers arrived by sea and, at least 18,421 arrived by air.
Between the financial years 2002-2003 and 2006-07 at least 417 asylum seekers arrived by sea and, at least 18,421 arrived by air.
Australian Government, Asylum Trends Australia 2011-12
Sunday, 21 July 2013
People Smuggling: Rudd Government's new No Visa No Settlement policy versus Coalition's Turn Back The Boats policy
Each Australian voter will have to make up their own minds which irregular arrival asylum seeker policy to vote for - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's turning back the boats on the high seas or Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's immediate transfer to and resettlement in Papua New Guinea.
Dept. of Immigration and Citizenship 20 July 2013:
If you come here by boat without a visa you won't be settled in Australia.
Australia's migration policy has changed. From 19 July 2013 if you travel to Australia by boat with no visa, you will not be settled here. You will be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing. If found to be a refugee, you'll be settled in Papua New Guinea, or another participating regional state, not Australia. This includes women and children. These changes have been introduced to stop people smugglers and stop further loss of life at sea.
If you are not found to be in need of protection, you will stay in Papua New Guinea until you can be sent to your home country.
There will be no cap on the number of people who can be transferred or resettled in Papua New Guinea.
Don't risk your family's safety. Don't waste your money.
Don't risk your life or waste your time or money by paying people smugglers. If you pay a people smuggler you are buying a ticket to another country.
Arriving in Australia by boat means:
- being sent straight to Papua New Guinea for processing
- being settled in Papua New Guinea, not Australia, even if you are found to be a refugee
- not being reunited with family and friends in Australia.
You can still come to Australia through regular migration. Find the right pathway for you and your family.
Fact sheet
Media release
Advertisements
News.com.au 20 July 2013:
The national campaign will be followed by advertisements overseas.
We'll stand up for Australia. We'll stand up for real action. We'll end the waste, repay the debt, stop the new taxes and stop the boats.
2011:
What we've said though is that it should be an option to turn the boats around where it's safe to do so…..Now, the Navy's done it before, it can do it again.
2012:
Tony Abbott has decided that a Coalition government will instruct the navy to turn around asylum-seeker boats on the water and return them to Indonesia in an assertion of Australian border protection.
The Opposition Leader is determined to impose a new and tougher unilateral policy whereby Australia uses its naval forces to actively secure its borders.
2013:
We will deliver stronger borders – where the boats are stopped – with tough and proven measures….We will immediately give new orders to the Navy to tackle illegal boat arrivals and ‘turn back’ the boats where safe to do so….
The Federal Opposition has declared it would send Australian troops - including top level SAS soldiers - to help turn asylum-seeker boats around.
Liberal-National
Coalition asylum seeker policy
2010:We'll stand up for Australia. We'll stand up for real action. We'll end the waste, repay the debt, stop the new taxes and stop the boats.
2011:
What we've said though is that it should be an option to turn the boats around where it's safe to do so…..Now, the Navy's done it before, it can do it again.
2012:
Tony Abbott has decided that a Coalition government will instruct the navy to turn around asylum-seeker boats on the water and return them to Indonesia in an assertion of Australian border protection.
The Opposition Leader is determined to impose a new and tougher unilateral policy whereby Australia uses its naval forces to actively secure its borders.
2013:
We will deliver stronger borders – where the boats are stopped – with tough and proven measures….We will immediately give new orders to the Navy to tackle illegal boat arrivals and ‘turn back’ the boats where safe to do so….
The Federal Opposition has declared it would send Australian troops - including top level SAS soldiers - to help turn asylum-seeker boats around.
Four days in Australian Opposition Leader's life
According to the RSL National President’s Newsletter No 2 of 2012:
On Monday 5 March 2012 the Leader of the Federal Opposition, the Hon. Tony Abbott chose the large RSL Sub-Branch at Bendigo, Victoria to formally launch the commitment of the Federal Coalition Parties to improve the indexation of DFRB and DFRDB superannuation payments. Mr Abbott was accompanied by the Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Senator the Hon Michael Ronaldson and Senator Bridget
McKenzie.
Later that day Abbott attended one of the Wimmera Machinery Field Days near Horsham – a distance of 215 kms from Bendigo.
To travel down to Bendigo on that Monday Mr. Abbott decided he wouldn’t drive or get on a bus, train or scheduled commercial flight – he would charter a plane for two days.
On the second day he visited an Adelaide school.
Tony Abbott Flickr Member since 2010 Taken on March 6, 2012
Tony with the school captains from St Pius X School in Adelaide
This is what that trip cost Australian taxpayers……
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/parliamentarians-reporting/docs/T30/ABBOTT_Tony.pdf
Fast forward to federal election year 2013 and yet another charter flight from Sydney to Rockhampton is about to be billed to the taxpayer:
In the first three years after Tony Abbott was elected Leader of the Opposition by one vote, he spent at least $256,281.27 on private charter flights and been fully recompensed from the public purse.
Fast forward to federal election year 2013 and yet another charter flight from Sydney to Rockhampton is about to be billed to the taxpayer:
The Sydney Morning Herald 19 July 2013
In the first three years after Tony Abbott was elected Leader of the Opposition by one vote, he spent at least $256,281.27 on private charter flights and been fully recompensed from the public purse.
In 2010 - an est. $65,969.64
In 2011 -an est. $138,209.55
In 2012 - an est. $52,102.08
During that same period his family travel jaunts cost the taxpayer an estimated $56,152.52
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