Metgasco "just too stupid to help"

Like many other people across the NSW Northern Rivers region, one The Northern Star letters correspondent, Linda Woodrow, thinks that coal seam and tight gas miner Metgasco Limited has lost the plot:

Metgasco owes us

RE Metgasco seeking compensation (NS17/5): I would suggest that Metgasco owes me compensation.

For years we have been doing our level best to save them from themselves.

We have surveyed neighbourhoods door to door. We have held rallies and public meetings. We have written letters to them and to politicians. We have collected signatures on petitions. We have donated prizes and sold tickets in raffles to raise money.

We have hosted scientific and health experts and visiting speakers with firsthand experience from the Queensland and US gasfields. We have written blogs and Facebook pages. We have filmed their breaches. We have stood outside Mr George's electoral office every single week attempting to get him to represent us. We have stood outside the Casino Metgasco office with Honk for no CSG signs, just so they could hear the vast majority of passing traffic honk. And finally, we've been forced to spend weeks camped in a paddock.

Just considering me alone, I have lost countless days of paid work, trying to get the message through to them before they wasted all their shareholders' capital. Some people are just too stupid to help.

Linda Woodrow

Kyogle

The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Sixteen

Japan Daily Press: Tony Abbott

THE LIE

"I think the last government which brought down a very tough budget – the Howard government in 1996 - took a big hit in the polls too.” [ Prime Minister Tony Abbott quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 May 2014]

THE FACTS

The first post-budget Newspoll in 1996 showed a three percentage point increase in the Coalition's primary vote, to 50; a lift in Howard's approval rating, from 47 to 51; and an increase in his lead over Kim Beazley as preferred prime minister to a score of 53 per cent against Beazley's 24….

The Age Poll saw the Coalition holding its primary vote and slightly increasing its two-party preferred lead over Labor. [The Age, 19 May 2014]

THE REASON THE LIE WAS UTTERED?

Voter support for Tony Abbott's Coalition government has slumped on the back of last week's federal budget, according to polls published in Fairfax and News Corp papers today.

A Nielsen poll in the Fairfax newspapers has the Coalition down four points and Labor up four points on a two-party preferred basis, with Labor in front 56 to 44 per cent - tripling its lead from last month's poll.

The Coalition's primary vote has slumped from 40 per cent in early April to 35 per cent - 11 points lower than its vote in the election last September.

And a significant number of voters have switched to the ALP, bringing its primary support up from 34 per cent in April to 40 per cent - a figure not seen against the Labor Party's name in a national poll for years.

On the Prime Minister's performance, Nielsen says just 34 per cent approve of Tony Abbott's efforts - a 10-point slump - while approval of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's performance is up to 47 per cent.

Mr Abbott's disapproval rating climbed to 62 per cent - 12 points higher than at last month's poll….

The Newspoll published in The Australian has similarly dire numbers for the Government, showing Labor in front 55 per cent to 45 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

And for the first time, voters prefer Mr Shorten as prime minister over Mr Abbott, giving him a 10-point lead in the better prime minister stakes at 44 per cent to 34 per cent - a six-point drop for the PM since last month.

The Nielsen poll has a margin of error of 2.6 per cent and Newspoll's margin of error is 3 per cent…. [ABC News 19 May 2014]

Coal seam & tight gas miner Metgasco makes a fool of itself by crying 'We wuz hacked!'

Metgasco Limited has come under greater government scrutiny of late, resulting in media reports like this in the Echo NetDaily on 18 May 2014:

The enormous shit-storm that Nationals Party member Peter Graham ignited after signing his property over to gas mining in Bentley near Lismore continues to escalate….

Almost all of Mr Graham’s 40 immediate neighbours stormed out in disgust from a meeting with government departments on Tuesday (May 13) after they tried to convince the landowners that gas mining was safe.

It appeared the bureaucrats, who represented the Office of Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and NSW Land and Water, were unable to provide satisfactory answers by the residents. In fact, the residents appeared better informed and educated than the government reps themselves.

Held at the Goonellabah Sports and Aquatic Centre, the invitation-only event was promoted as a workshop for concerned residents, focussing on ‘providing a better understanding around groundwater and well-integrity issues, fracture stimulation, and will provide an overview of existing benchmark northern rivers catchment water data.’…

The meeting began with NSW Land and Water commissioner, Jock Laurie, describing his job as, ‘going to rural areas, listening to their concerns and taking them back to the government’.

But the audience soon became angered as it became clear that they were going to be talked at, rather than listened to. Mutters of ‘We know that already’ soon turned to direct questioning of the presenters, who seemed unprepared for the farmers’ high level of education.

The cracks began to appear after Rachel Connell, director of the Office of CSG, admitted of approving Metgasco’s Bentley operation as ‘conventional gas exploration’, despite its own assessment that it was a tight sands project that carried greater environmental risks.

‘We are not responsible for how the company chooses to promote itself,’ she said. And temperatures rose further when she was grilled as to why her office continued to approve Metgasco operations despite the company having  been responsible for well blow-outs and contaminated-water spills. ‘We acknowledge that’s an issue,’ she replied….

As the meeting boiled over, Green Mountain premium beef producer David Scarrabelotti, stood up to say it was now time for the government to listen to the community.

A group statement declared, ‘We have done the research, we know the facts, we have seen Metgasco in action and we are resolute … we declare our absolute determination to stop them.’

Twenty minutes into the workshop it was all over, and only a few residents stayed on to rake over the ashes with the shaken delegation.

‘We insist that this clear message from our community is taken, by you, back to your minister and the premier of NSW,’ concluded the letters handed to Mr Laurie….

And in The Sydney Morning Herald on 15 May 2014:

Resources company Metgasco misled the public over its drilling operation in northern NSW by saying it was seeking a less controversial type of gas. It was for this reason the government suspended its licence on Thursday.

Statements such as those on Metgasco’s website that it was drilling for conventional gas were now considered by officials to be incorrect. The company was in fact exploring for “tight sands” gas, an unconventional gas extracted using the contentious fracking technique.

Resources Minister Anthony Roberts said Metgasco had not undertaken genuine community consultation and concerns had been raised “about the way in which Metgasco has characterised its activities”.

He later told ABC Radio that companies that failed to gain a "social licence" to operate were "probably better off going somewhere else"…..

With ABC News also reporting on 15 May 2014:

Petroleum company Metgasco has had its licence to drill for gas at Bentley in northern NSW suspended and Resources Minister Anthony Roberts has referred the project to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

ICAC has previously investigated links between resource companies and prominent NSW political figures, including disgraced former Labor MP Eddie Obeid.

Citing allegations over Metgasco's shareholdings and interests, Mr Roberts today said: "I referred this to the commissioner to ensure that any decisions made pertaining to Pell 16 have been made entirely properly, without any undue influence or interest. As this is a matter for the ICAC, I will not be making any further comment or statement on this."…

One of the tactics Metgasco appears to use when it receives this sort of media attention is to attempt to recast itself as a ‘victim’. Suddenly there is talk about bomb threats, menacing of its workers or theft of property.

When it donned the victim mantle in the Echo NetDaily on 23 May 2014 the company quickly became a laughing stock, because the problem was not those nasty people opposing its commercial interests but more likely a classic website glitch:

On Thursday (May 22) the ‘Community Consultative’ page on Metgasco’s website did some rounds on social media, primarily because the body of the document was written entirely in Latin.

A company spokesperson [said the] website had been hacked, while members of the Lock the Gate Alliance Facebook page who used the  website’s internal search engine to find the page, claimed that the page was indexed in the search results as being uploaded 13 February 2013.

The page was taken offline a few hours later and replaced with a splash page reading, ‘Access denied. You are not authorised to access this page’

Other commenters were convinced that it was what publishers refer to as Lorem Ipsum, place-holding text that is written in Latin and is still used occasionally to demonstrate how a publication will appear once it has been filled with actual information.

Certainly one would assume that had Metgasco been hacked then they would be able to simply and quickly retrieve the original webpage from a backup.

As such, this was taken by some as proof of Metgasco’s lack of genuine and effective community consultation…..

www.lipsum.com on why web designers use Latin as placeholder text on web pages:

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum….

Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable.

North Coast Nationals MPs seen as a joke

Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 20 May 2014:

MPs a joke

I was almost speechless after reading a joint press release by North Coast National MPs, attempting to take credit for the suspension of Metgasco's exploration licence.

Their representation of their respective electorates, particularly Thomas George and Chris Gulaptis, over the entire life of this parliament and before has, in my opinion, been absolutely appalling.

They have brushed off concerns brought to them by thousands of people within their electorates, ignored petitions, referendums and polls, and twice presided over police action to break up peaceful protest action, and as late as a week ago were sitting idly by while plans were being made to bring in 800 riot police, complete with water cannon, mounted police and the dog squad to break up the Bentley blockade.

Clearly, the only reason for their about-face was the expression of community outrage against the proposed police action and overwhelming support for the protesters that would undoubtedly have seen them both thrown from office at the next election had this latest police action gone ahead.

Their claim that they approached "NSW Energy Minister Anthony Roberts and told him they believed the company had failed to engage in sufficient genuine and effective consultation with the community", is an absolute joke: The fact that it took them the best part of a decade to work that out, despite countless deputations by concerned citizens telling them exactly that, says it all.

I can only hope that the ICAC is not the only investigation that will now occur. In particular there needs to be a real inquiry into the potential impacts of fracking on ground water quality and supply, along with investigating methane leaks from fractured underground rock formations, and the associated health implications for those living in the vicinity.

John Edwards

South Grafton

The question Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was careful not to answer on the ABC program "Insiders"

Reporter Fran Kelly to Tony Abbott: You get to make the choices about what you do. And you talk about everybody bearing the load. But if you drill in the numbers, there was an example of a single mother on $45,000 a year with one child. This budget was going to cost her…around $2,690. You said, as we heard there, this will cost you your contribution, around $6,500.

You earn 11 times more than this woman but you pay 2.5 times the contribution. How is that fair? [ABC Insiders, 18 May 2014]

Abbott Government ends week as it began - badly

The Sydney Morning Herald 23 May 2014:

The suspected Mafia godfather of Melbourne helped bankroll a Liberal Party marginal federal seat campaign in the 2013 election, raising the prospect that the proceeds of crime have flowed into Liberal coffers.

The alleged crime figure's fundraising occurred despite Liberal politicians knowing of his suspected involvement in organised crime and in a previous political donation scandal investigated by federal police.

A Fairfax Media investigation can reveal the alleged Mafia boss helped host the "Bruce Campaign Fundraising Dinner", which a Liberal Party memo later described as a "very successful" event, at his Docklands reception centre on March 1 last year.

Federal Liberal MP Russell Broadbent, who has known about the donor's alleged crime ties for several years having been implicated in the 2009 donations scandal, was at the Docklands event with the suspected Mafia boss. The guest speaker at the event was Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy.

Also at the fund-raiser was Liberal candidate for Bruce Emanuele Cicchiello, long-time Liberal operative and former Bass Coast mayor Neville Goodwin and state Liberal MP for Hastings Neale Burgess…..

Liberal sources confirmed that hire of Waterfront Venues Melbourne was donated by the alleged Mafia boss for the $250-a-head dinner. Food and drink was also heavily subsidised. Expensive items were also auctioned off at the event, including a helicopter ride for two and a dinner.

No specific records of the fund-raiser have been lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission, with Liberal sources saying the individual donations made as part of the event were under the $12,100 disclosure threshold.

Despite being the subject of numerous organised crime probes, the alleged mob boss has never been charged with a criminal offence and denies any involvement in organised crime or political bribery. The federal police bribery probe was closed after gathering insufficient evidence.

The revelations come as the Independent Commission Against Corruption probes donations by colourful business identities to Liberal politicians in NSW…..

The suspected Mafia boss has a business empire spanning Victoria, including stalls at the wholesale fruit and vegetable market, property developments, supermarkets and involvement in the nationwide La Porchetta pizza chain. He has also had dealings with NSW Liberal Party donors, including real estate agent Pat Sergi. Mr Sergi, named in a 1979 royal commission as a money launderer for the Mafia, was recently called as a witness at the NSW ICAC hearings into Liberal Party fund-raising.

Read the rest of the article here.

The West Australian 23 May 2914:

Tony Abbott has failed to declare a set of high-tech cycling gears worth about $3000 given to him by the Japanese Prime Minister.

When in Japan last month, Mr Abbott - a well-known cycling fanatic - was given Shimano Dura-Ace electric gears by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The gears are used by the world's elite road racers, including Tour de France winner Cadel Evans.

Under parliamentary rules, MPs must declare within 28 days all gifts from "official sources" valued at more than $750. Should they keep the gift, they must pay the difference....

UPDATE Saturday 24 May 2014

The Daily Telegraph 24 May 2014:

SENATOR Arthur Sinodinos’s knowledge of Australian Water Holdings’ donations to the Liberal Party has been called into question after a tendered email showed he knocked back a seat at an AWH table to a Malcolm Turnbull fundraising event.

The Liberal senator has stood aside as federal assistant treasurer pending ICAC inquiries into his role as deputy chair and chair of AWH, which is accused of using Sydney Water bill money improperly on political donations, limousines and a corporate box at the football.

When it came to his knowledge of the political donations, ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham asked Mr Sinodinos on the stand in April: “Were you aware donations were being made?”

Mr Sinodinos replied: “No, no, no ... it wasn’t a matter ... discussed at board level.”

Counsel Assisting Geoffrey Watson, SC, later asked: “Did you know at the Liberal Party in your capacity as treasurer that Australian Water Holdings was making donations to the Liberal Party?”

Mr Sinodinos replied: “Not that I can recollect.”

But documents tendered by Mr Sinodinos’s own counsel to ICAC as Operation Spicer rose on Tuesday show Mr Sinodinos was told about one financial contribution AWH made to the Liberal Party.

Tendered emails show Mr Sinodinos was invited to a fundraiser booked by AWH in May 2009, when he was deputy chair of the company.

“Dear Arthur …” says the email to Mr Sinodinos from Mr Di Girolamo’s assistant, “… AWH has taken a table at the 2009 Federal Budget Reply Luncheon and Nick would be delighted if you could attend as his guest.”

The function was on Friday May 15, 2009 for pre-lunch drinks and lunch.

Mr Sinodinos’s PA responded: “Arthur is already attending the event as MC and at this stage is committed elsewhere. Apologies.”.....

Quote of the Month

Worse, after July 1 this year those on concession cards which are available to pensioners could lose as much as $2000 a year, says Louise Biti, head of technical services at Strategy Steps, which advises financial planners. [The Age, 16 May 2014]