On Tony 'stop the boats' Abbott's watch asylum seekers are still arriving by sea

18 September 2013 – Abbott Government sworn in

22 September - HMAS Maitland and another vessel escorts SIEV boat into Christmas Island harbour – the Cahaya Baru contains 31 passengers and 2 crew.

24 September – SIEV boat containing 7 asylum seekers arrives on Australia’s Boigu Island in the Torres Strait 

25 September - SIEV boat containing 19 people arrives at Darwin Harbour sometime during the night of the 24^th or early hours of the morning of the 25^th.

26 September - SIEV boat arrives Christmas Island Harbour with an estimated 70 passengers including children. HMAS Ballarat takes part in the rescue of another 44 asylum seekers in Indonesian waters with these people transferred to an Indonesian rescue vessel for return to Indah Kiat port in Java.

27 September – boat heading towards Australia and estimated to contain up to 125 asylum seekers sinks off southern coast of Java. At least 20 bodies, mostly children under 15 years, washed ashore so far. Australian Customs Vessel ACV Triton rescues 31 asylum seekers from another boat and is thought to be still at sea off Timor.

30 September - 2 RAN patrol boats enter Christmas Island harbour with an estimated 79 asylum seekers (men, women and children) on board, thought to have been picked up from a boat which was either sinking or was otherwise considered unseaworthy.
10 October 2013 SIEV boat with 41 asylum seekers on board found off Cocos (Keeling) Island and, another SIEV boat containing 53 people was recorded as arriving in the same week.

11 October 2013 SIEV boat carrying 79 people arrived at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands from Sri Lanka.
12 October 2013 two SIEV boats arrive carrying a total of 132 people.
17 October 2013 at approximately 8am HMAS Warramunga put into Christmas Island and disembarked 79 asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa. Including one 8 year-old boy, eight to ten women and two individuals requiring wheelchairs.
20 October 2013 SIEV boat arrives with 126 people on board.
21 October 2013 SIEV boat arrives with 40 people on board.
7 November 2013  HMAS Ballarat and ACV Ocean Protector respond to a distress call from a SIEV boat in international waters, with an estimated 62 people on board and these people are transferred to the customs vessel . In transit to Christmas Island.
10-11 November 2013 two SIEV boats intercepted with unknown number of people on board. Expected to disembark at Christmas Island.*
11 November 2013 SIEV boat arrives in Darwin. Unknown number of people on board.*
17 November 2013 Australian customs vessel disembarks 35 asylum seekers (believed to have begun their journeys in Afghanistan & Pakistan) at Ethel Beach, Christmas Island. Unknown number of crew - possibly 5 individuals. SIEV boat began to sink on 15 November as it was being towed.
27 November 2013 SIEV boat arrives in Australian territory - 9 asylum seekers and 2 crew are taken into custody by Immigration officials.
1 December 2013 SIEV boat intercepted off Christmas Island, with approximately 30 passengers and unknown number of crew on board.
2 December 2013 SIEV boat comes ashore Dolly Beach, Christmas Island with 27 people on board. Remains undetected until 5 December.
3 December 2013 SIEV boat intercepted and around 29 passengers and crew taken to Christmas Island
4-5 December 2013 SEIV boat carrying about 60 people intercepted, with passengers and crew transferred at sea to an Australian border protection vessel.
6 December 2013 SEIV boat intercepted and approximately 73 passengers and crew believed to have been taken to Christmas Island.
13 December 2013 3 persons on an intercepted SIEV boat transferred to custody of Australian immigration officials
14 December 2013 HMAS Stuart arrives Christmas Island before 9am local time and disembarks 69 asylum seekers, including children.
19 December 2013 SIEV boat carrying 98 asylum seekers intercepted and transferred to custody Australian immigration officials.##
1 January 2014 SEIV boat with at least 38 people on board intercepted by naval vessels about eight nautical miles off Cape Van Diemen, the northernmost tip of Melville Island.

* Between 10-11 November a total of 171 passengers and crew were taken into detention at Christmas Island and/or Blaydin in Darwin. Those onboard the SIEV boat which entered Darwin waters are thought to contain Somali asylum seekers including children.

UPDATE: 
               Estimated total number of boat passengers and crew as of 1.1.14: 1,469+

               Estimated total number of boats as of 1.1.14: 28 in 105 days    

# Figures derived from eyewitness accounts, as well as international and national media reports.

## Australian Government reports on how many SIEV boats and asylum seekers reached Australia are always predicated on those same boat passengers and crew being transferred into the custody of Australian immigration officials. Not all passengers and crews on SIEV boats are transferred. From this date all SIEV boats are being turned back/towed back into or close to Indonesian waters. The Australian Government does not publish any information on tow/turn backs.

NOTE

Media reports in January 2014 indicate that the Abbott Government has used naval ships and/or customs vessels to tow back/push back up to 5 asylum seeker boats between mid December 2013 and early January 2014.

ABC News 11 January 2014:

The UN refugee agency says it is awaiting an explanation from the Australian Government over reports asylum seeker boats have been forcibly returned to Indonesia.

Earlier this week, Indonesian police told the ABC that a second boat carrying asylum seekers had been forced back to Indonesian waters by the Australian Navy.

The first boat was found shortly before Christmas on the island of Rote, in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara region.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is warning such actions may place Australia in breach of its obligations under international law.

"UNHCR is seeking details from the Australian parties about these recent reports," said spokesman Babar Baloch.

The agency is also investigating reports of plans to provide lifeboats for asylum seekers for future push-backs.

"For the UNHCR it's a very concerning policy or practice if it involves pushing asylum seeker boats back out to sea without proper consideration of individuals who need international protection," said Mr Baloch.

"Any such approach would raise significant issues and potentially could place Australia in breach of its obligations under the Refugee Convention and international law.

"If people who are in need for international protection seek a country's safety, then they must be allowed to go through a process which helps to determine if these people are in need."

Spot the Difference - today's grey matter testing material

NCV has had reports that versions of Ginger Meggs appearing in APN publications, including The Daily Examiner, are being used in schools and retirement villages to test the grey matter of both the young and old.

1. Ginger Meggs in today's Examiner

2. Jason Chatfield's Ginger Meggs as it appears at gocomics

 

A couple of wags have noticed that APN's version appears a day or two (or three) after the real version appears elsewhere.They suggested NCV provides an advance copy of the Ginger Meggs that is scheduled to appear in the following day's APN productions. They reckon they can work out what APN's edited version will look like. Well, that's food for thought.

Let's give APN another chance to get its house in order and fix up this dreadful situation. Over to you, APN!

Is much of the media coverage of Prime Minister Abbott during the October 2013 bushfires accurate, misleading or downright false?

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was apparently ‘discovered’ almost by accident as he anonymously went about fighting NSW bushfires over the last six days:

Pictures circulating on social media show Mr Abbott riding in the fire truck and giving the thumbs up to onlookers before he posed for photos with fellow volunteers.

However, it appears that it was not just an onlooker or ordinary volunteer who snapped Abbott – it appears to have been the former Senior Studio Director at Skynews whose efforts were first tweeted via a Canberra-based political reporter at Sky News.

Here is one of the three tweeted pictures – all apparently originating in Sky News on 20 October 2013:

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust

Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited Network was not content with republishing these images allegedly snapped at around 8am on 20 October – it also used additional images in some of its reporting. Unfortunately those images can only be described as false reporting.

According to The Australian on 21 October 2013:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/bushfires/tony-abbott-puts-himself-in-line-of-fire/story-fngw0i02-1226743492769

According to Newzzly post two weeks and six days before that, this image actually belonged to the period covering the fire on Barrenjoey headland:

http://www.newzzly.com/en_au/n/milder-conditions-help-fire-fight/142252

This was The Daily Telegraph on 16 October 2013:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/tony-abbott-always-set-to-come-out-fighting-fires-that-is/story-fni0cx12-1226740600883

And this is what a peek at The Daily Telegraph’s 16 October photograph properties revealed:

I am now wondering if any of the Abbott as fire fighter images, being published in mainstream and social media reports on NSW bushfires this month, are in fact genuine.

UPDATE

Found on Twitter:

Lucy J Evans is a young woman who has been active on Facebook since January-February 2012.

On 19 October 2013 The Hawkesbury Gazette published this photograph (photographer unknown) of Tony Abbott at Bilpin on its Facebook page:

US Government-funded Australia Pacific LNG & Queensland Curtis projects at heart of American lawsuit to protect the Great Barrier Reef

For Immediate Release, October 7, 2013 Contact:  Sarah Uhlemann, Center for Biological Diversity, + 1 (206) 327-2344 Teri Shore, Turtle Island Restoration Network, + 1 (707) 934-7081 Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment, + 1 (202) 465-1650 Lawsuit Challenges Second, Massive U.S.-Funded Fossil Fuel Project in Australia's Great Barrier Reef $5 Billion in U.S. Funding Threatens Endangered Sea Turtles, Dugongs SAN FRANCISCO— Conservation groups amended an existing lawsuit today to challenge U.S. funding for a second fossil fuel production and transport facility located inside Australia’s Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The U.S. Export-Import Bank has now committed nearly $5 billion in loans to support construction and operation of the two massive liquefied natural gas facilities. Located next to each other on Curtis Island near Gladstone in Queensland, the projects threaten sea turtles, dugongs and many other rare and protected marine species, as well as the world-famous Great Barrier Reef itself. “The U.S. federal government shouldn’t be subsidizing the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These liquefied natural gas projects will be deadly to wildlife and will only serve to export our deeply unhealthy fossil fuel addiction.” The Export-Import Bank, a U.S. federal agency that funds international projects to promote U.S. exports, provided a $3 billion loan in May 2012 for the Australia Pacific LNG project, and in December 2012, the bank loaned an additional $1.8 billion for the Queensland Curtis LNG project. Both are located on mostly undeveloped Curtis Island, near sea turtle nesting beaches, a national park and a community of families that live there year-round. The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Pacific Environment sued over the Australia Pacific project last December. Today’s filing amends that lawsuit to include the Queensland Curtis project. "When I flew over Curtis Island recently I was shocked to see the devastation of the marine habitat and sediment plumes discoloring the coastal waters for miles," said Teri Shore, program director for Turtle Island Restoration Network. "I met concerned residents who are heartbroken over the number of dead sea turtles, dolphins and dugongs washing up on shore like never before due to the disruption and pollution from these massive fossil fuel projects." Sea turtles, dugongs and their habitat in the Great Barrier Reef are threatened by both direct and indirect impacts of industrialization, such as dredging, vessel strikes, fuel and oil spills and water pollution. Ship strikes alone killed 45 turtles in Gladstone Harbor in the two years after LNG-project construction began, compared with an average of two a year in the past decade. “Ex-Im Bank has a long history of committing billions of dollars in public financing to environmentally destructive projects abroad,” said Doug Norlen, policy director with Pacific Environment. “But funding two devastating fossil fuel projects in a world heritage area? It’s a new low.” The two U.S.-funded projects will include drilling 16,000 coal-seam gas wells in interior Queensland using controversial “fracking” techniques, digging nearly 500 miles of gas pipelines, and constructing two separate natural gas processing facilities and export terminals. To provide access to sites, the projects require dredging a new shipping lane in the adjacent harbor and destruction of sensitive seagrass beds. Increased tanker traffic will eventually ship the fuel across the Great Barrier Reef to ports in Asia and around the world. The Great Barrier Reef was given World Heritage status to preserve its remarkable natural beauty, coral reefs, and rare dugong and sea turtle habitat. The two liquid natural gas plants will be located within this World Heritage Area’s boundaries. UNESCO, the international body charged with overseeing implementation of the World Heritage Convention, expressed “extreme concern” over the projects’ impacts on the reef. In 2013 UNESCO threatened to add the reef to the “In Danger” list, a designation made when activities of a host country or outside entities threaten a world heritage area. The lawsuit, originally filed in December 2012 in the Northern District of California and amended today, asserts violations of the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, which implements American obligations under the World Heritage Convention. The case raises the unresolved legal issue of whether the Endangered Species Act applies to U.S. agency actions taken outside of U.S. borders. ###

District Court For The Northern District Of California: First Amended Complaint For Declaratory And Injunctive Relief can be read here.

This is what Metgasco and other coal seam gas miners want to turn the Northern Rivers into....

http://youtu.be/1AeWYwBreEY

If you don’t’ want this to happen – at the next round of elections vote out those local government councillors and state or federal MPs who support (or fail to genuinely oppose) the coal seam gas industry.

Roxon on Rudd

Excerpts from Ten housekeeping tips for a future Labor government by former Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon.

I must say that Kevin always treated me appropriately and respectfully. Although I was frustrated beyond belief by his disorganization and lack of strategy, I was never personally a victim of his vicious tongue or temper. I did, however, see how terribly he treated some brilliant staff and public servants. Good people were burnt through like wildfire. Loosing senior people like chiefs of staff and deputies or contemptuously ignoring their advice left the government weaker.

On the “keep yourself nice” front, some of the worst behavior was very overt - brazenly sending up your own materials on TV or ostentatiously packing up your office as cameras just ”happen” to be in obscure halls of the parliament to capture the moment. If Labor MPs follow a few basic tips on decent behaviour, and pull others into line when they don’t, then we need never see such shameful behavior again....

In my opinion, and it is only my opinion, for the good of the federal parliamentary Labor party and the movement as a whole, Kevin Rudd should leave the Parliament. 

Live on the NSW North Coast and wondering what types of bushfire disaster relief are available?

​NSW – North Coast Bushfires – from 9 October 2013

Australian Government Reference Number 586
Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements

The joint Commonwealth and State/Territory Government NDRRA can provide a range of financial assistance to the natural disaster declared areas in each state.

Funding available includes:

      ·    Personal Hardship and Distress Assistance

      ·    Restoration of Essential Public Assets

      ·    Counter Disaster Operations

      ·    Concessional Loans for Small Business

      ·    Concessional Loans for Primary Producers

      ·    Freight Subsidies for Primary Producers

      ·    Concessional Loans for Voluntary Not-for-profit Bodies

      ·    Grants for Voluntary Not-for-profit Bodies

In the affected Local Government Areas of:

      · Clarence Valley

      · Coffs Harbour

Information on disaster assistance.

Information about Australian Government Disaster Assist.

Details for other regions covered by Eastern NSW Bushfires assistance can be found here.