#MyBroadbandvReality: turning an online survey into an effective political tool

On 20 February 2014 blogger and tweeter Noely Neate posted an online survey which sought readers views on their own broadband connections.

Clever Noely just didn’t tell the blogosphere and twitterverse about the survey results – she, along with Paul Davis, Pascal Grosvenor, Caitlin Neate and others, turned these results into an effective political tool which contained the voices of over 800 Australians.

What the survey revealed about the New South Wales broadband experience:

Credit: Paul Davis @davispg

Other state and territory graphs can be found here.

It wasn’t too long before this move began to be noticed by the political caste in Canberra:

Transcript extract from Senate Select Committee public hearing, Sydney NSW,12 March 2013

Along the way Noely et al demonstrated to the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network that the Internet is not just used for downloading movies, playing games or looking at funny cat videos and, that ordinary people across the country use it in increasingly sophisticated ways:

In fact this submission was collaboratively edited across three time zones, two continents, in real time: Paul’s in Tokyo, Pascal’s in Sydney, and Cait and Noely in QLD, with other collaborators from across Australia assisting with reviews; collaborative creation made possible by using cloud-based Google technologies. This submission is an example of productivity gains through availability of Broadband, noting Noely’s broadband connection dropped numerous times during this process.

The submission (No 52):

#MyBroadbandvReality (PDF 2833 KB)  Attachment 1 (PDF 1054 KB) 

March In March: Australians United For Better Government. In the Northern Rivers on Sunday 16 March 2014 - Part Two

Byron Bay

Coffs Harbour

All photographs found on Twitter and Facebook.

Part One of this pictorial record can be found here.

One Clarence Valley resident did the sums which NSW Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis had apparently avoided

Letter to the editor in The Daily Examiner on 13 March 2014:

Jail plan pilloried

In response to the front page article: Gulaptis says Grafton jail could house 'one punch' thugs (DEX 8/3).

Referring to proposed mandatory sentencing for offenders who throw lethal coward's punches while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, Mr Gulaptis suggested there "was plenty of room" at Grafton to accommodate offenders like Thomas Kelly's killer Kieran Loveridge.

"As far as I am concerned, these thugs can be locked up in the Grafton jail ... this is an opportunity to reopen the jail to accommodate these thugs," Mr Gulaptis said.

So I googled the Australian Bureau of Statistics which says that 90 people have been killed by single punches in Australia since 2000.

That works out at less than 10 people a year, and Chris Gulaptis wants to reopen Grafton jail to house how many people?

Ridiculous.

Marnie Brown

Coutts Crossing

March In March: Australians United For Better Government. In the Northern Rivers on Saturday 15 March 2014 - Part One

Lismore

Grafton

All images found at Twitter and Facebook

SA Liberal Opposition Leader tells electors to "vote Labor" when they go to the polls in the state election

It would be impossible to dream up such a political gaffe….

http://youtu.be/NDmBvYMMTmo

'like a cane toad in a rose garden'

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton has provided some wonderful imagery in a piece he wrote about Chris Kenny, a scribe who pens pieces for The Australian.

In today's Herald Carlton wrote (in part):

The Tories and their army of media toadies wage their war on the ABC with increasing fury, sniping here, a charge from the big battalions there.
Whimpering in the trenches is one Chris Kenny, once a factotum to Lord Downer at the peak of his global glory, now a minor columnist for The Australian and a hugely unwatched talking head for Sky News. As he tells anyone who'll listen, he is much insulted by a Chaser comedy sketch on ABC TV last September which showed him Photo-shopped, pants down, apparently in carnal congress with a canine.

.......

Queensland's finest legal mind, the saponaceous George Brandis, is also up in arms. As federal Attorney-General, he is outraged by the ABC's mockery of Kenny. But, perversely, he remains bent on removing section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act, thus clearing the way for Melbourne's village idiot, Andrew Bolt, to resume his racist sneering at indigenous Australians. So it's OK to rubbish black academics but not Murdoch hacks.
It was hilarious watching Soapy bluster his way around this daft contradiction on Q&A last Monday. Seated next to the fragrant Lisa Wilkinson, squat and unblinking, he looked like a cane toad in a rose garden. No doubt he would defend to the death my right to say this.

Sauce Source: SMH, 15/3/14

Metgasco Limited, then NSW Minister for Resource and Energy Chris Hartcher & Co, NSW Police and those missing letters

The plot thickens concerning the anti-coal seam gas protests at Glenugie on the NSW North Coast.

The Greens (NSW) Media Release

"Missing" letters from Metgasco finally released

12th March 2014 5:33 pm

Four "missing" letters from Metgasco Ltd to Government Ministers have finally been released indicating what Greens MP David Shoebridge has long been speculating, that a high level of political interference took place during police protest operations at Glenugie last year.

Metgasco CEO Peter Henderson wrote to the then Minister for Resource and Energy, now ICAC embroiled, Chris Hartcher as well as the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Brad Hazzard, Minister for Police and Emergency Services Michael Gallacher and the Attorney General Greg Smith requesting "greater legal reinforcement" for their operations.

Henderson also expressed concern about the "excessively lenient legal system" and its "unwillingness" to harshly penalise activists with "anti-development agendas." Henderson's suggestion to the Government in how to deal with protesters was to impose mandatory sentences.

The content in these letters now raises questions as to why the Government failed to hand over these documents following numerous GIPA requests lodged by David Shoebridge.

Both former Minister Hartcher and Police Minister Gallacher advised in a GIPA (FOI) Notice of Decision that no information or documents existed relating to these protests, and upon further GIPA requests only one of the letters was released.

Greens NSW MP and Police Spokesperson David Shoebridge said:

"What we have now are documents being released that the Government bizarrely denied having any record of in the first place.

"These letters not only indicate a clear directive issued by the Metgasco's CEO, but that the Government actually obeyed.

"The charges against these protesters were thrown out in court and we see now were only laid following direct political interference.

"It is simply unacceptable for resource industries to be effectively directing the operational activities of police in NSW." Mr Shoebridge said.

Four letters and attachments dated between December 2012 and February 2013 are now available online which Metgasco Limited asserts are the missing letters.

In these letters (below) Metgasco Limited requests more police to secure its Northern Rivers drilling sites, complains that police were initially not prepared to arrest protesters, complains about the lenient legal system, and, requests mandatory sentencing of any protester arrested at its drilling sites and found guilty of an offence.

Letter bundle includes an unsigned statement by a contractor which has not been witnessed and is unverified.

Subsequent to the commencement of this correspondance the NSW Public Order and Riot Squad was sent north to attend Metgasco's Glenugie drilling site and, in total an estimated 159 local, regional and other area police officers worked approximately 3,234 hours during the protest operations.

Letters from Metgasco Limited CEO Peter Henderson to NSW Government Ministers between December 2012 and Feb...