Saturday, 1 November 2014
How the world sees Abbott's Australia
Headline at German language Handelsblatt.com on 27 October 2014:
Australien – der Folterstaat
…..Verstümmelungen und Selbstmorde sind in den Lagern Alltag. Selbst Kinder leben hinter Stacheldraht, dem Wahnsinn nahe. Und das Volk klatscht Beifall.
Australia - State of torture
….mutilations and suicides are everyday life in the camps. Even children live behind barbed wire, close to madness. And the people applauded. [Google Translate]
Friday, 31 October 2014
Abbott's new Internet Tax
Abbott & Co, fearful of having their own political tactics used against them, have in their joint not-so-confidential party discussions provided the Australian public with a convenient tag for the latest ‘national security’ measure - the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014.
Coincidentally, after the Internet Tax tag became public the Abbott Government announced that it was deferring a parliamentary vote on the bill until next year.
Coincidentally, after the Internet Tax tag became public the Abbott Government announced that it was deferring a parliamentary vote on the bill until next year.
Deputy-Premier Troy Grant introduces himself to the NSW North Coast in exactly the wrong way
If there was an issue so big that it is recognised by both government and industry as being close to the hearts of a great many residents and electors living on the NSW North Coast, it is community opposition to coal seam and tight gas exploration and potential production.
So what did the Nationals do on one of Troy Grant’s early visits as Nationals leader and deputy premier of the state – they start a donnybrook that will have people shaking their heads and saying; Told you the Nats were for all for 1,000 well strong gasfields in our paddocks.
Grant needs to keep better control of his troops if he wants the Nationals to hold regional seats in the March 2015 state election and, he needs to recognise that commercial gasfields will ruin the North Coast's clean green image which underpins local economies.
Echo Netdaily 27 October 2014:
Tweed mayor Gary Bagnall has launched a scathing attack on state MP Geoff Provest and deputy premier Troy Grant, accusing the two National Party politicians of trying to gag him over his stand against coal-seam gas (CSG) mining.
The defiant dummy-spit came on the eve of a media event organised by the two MPs yesterday at which they announced funding for a new tourism sign on the highway at the Queensland border.
Despite being snubbed for what he wanted to say, the Tweed mayor went along to the highway-edge announcement.
The row erupted on Friday when Mr Provest emailed council general manager Troy Green to tell him to trash a draft press release on the funding announcement because the mayor had made comments he didn’t like.
Cr Bagnall, who was elected mayor just last month, said his comments for the draft release had welcomed the funding for the sign, adding that Tweed council had taken the initiative to promote tourism by installing new signs ‘explaining the indigenous meaning of some village names, and that the shire also had plans for Gasfield Free signs’.
But Mr Provest saw red when he read the draft and fired off an email to council to say he found the mayor’s comments ‘totally inappropriate’.
‘Commenting about the gas field free signs just shows a lack of integrity and professionalism,’ Mr Provest said, accusing Cr Bagnall of taking an ‘opportunity to have little digs at the state government’.
The Tweed MP then told council it would ‘not be required to make any official comment’.
Cr Bagnall told Echonetdaily he was furious at being ‘snubbed and told to shut up’, saying new deputy premier Mr Grant was a staunch supporter of CSG and would not have liked ‘any mention of CSG”.
‘But I won’t be silenced,’ the mayor said….
Cr Bagnall said Mr Grant was on the record as describing those opposing CSG exploration as ‘scaremongering’.
He said he would always stand up for Tweed residents’ opposition to CSG and unconventional gas exploration.
“The deputy premier is the second most powerful elected NSW politician, but he does not have a right to tell me what to think or say,’ Cr Bagnall said.
‘I stand with our community and oppose harmful coal seam gas mining and I will never be silenced by CSG supporters like the Nationals’ deputy premier or Geoff Provest,’ the mayor said….
A word portrait of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Cabinet ministers
The ideology-based wrecking ball that is the Abbott Government can possibly be explained thus…………………..
Kruger and I published a paper that documented how, in many areas of life, incompetent people do not recognize -- scratch that, cannot recognize -- just how incompetent they are, a phenomenon that has come to be known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Logic itself almost demands this lack of self-insight: for poor performers to recognize their ineptitude would require them to possess the very expertise they lack. To know how skilled or unskilled you are at using the rules of grammar, for instance, you must have a good working knowledge of those rules, an impossibility among the incompetent. Poor performers -- and we are all poor performers at some things -- fail to see the flaws in their thinking or the answers they lack.
What's curious is that, in many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious. Instead the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge….. [Rabett Run, 24 October 2014]
Successful negotiation of everyday life would seem to require people to possess insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills. However, people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence. This lack of awareness arises because poor performers are doubly cursed: Their lack of skill deprives them not only of the ability to produce correct responses, but also of the expertise necessary to surmise that they are not producing them. People base their perceptions of performance, in part, on their preconceived notions about their skills. Because these notions often do not correlate with objective performance, they can lead people to make judgments about their performance that have little to do with actual accomplishment. [Dunning, David et al, June 2003]
The electorate's response to the Abbott Government post-September 2013 may be explained by this......
Fremdscham (the noun) describes the almost-horror you feel when you notice that somebody is oblivious to how embarrassing they truly are. Fremdscham occurs when someone who should feel embarrassed for themselves simply is not, and you start feeling embarrassment in their place. It is at the heart of beloved "mockumentaries" such as The Office, Modern Family, or Ricky Gervais' Extras. It is also what makes the auditions for American Idol, Britain's got Talent and Deutschland Sucht den Superstar so discomfortingly entertaining…
Besides the emotional response, Fremdscham-inducing events and items (such as this creationist video) also usually cause one to ask this question: "how on earth can these people be unaware of how stupid they are being right now?". [Daniel R. Hawes, 6 June 2010]
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Northern Rivers communities welcome new Labor Party policy on Coal Seam Gas which now includes the Clarence Valley
The NSW Labor Party realised that it had blundered in excising the Clarence Valley from its ‘CSG Free’ Northern Rivers policy and, yesterday corrected this new policy to include the valley, its water catchment, bio-diverse environment, vibrant communities and local economy.
MEDIA RELEASE 29TH OCTOBER 2014
Northern Rivers communities welcome new Labor Party policy on CSG
Community groups in the Northern Rivers have applauded today’s policy announcement from the NSW Labor Party that adds the Clarence LGA to their proposed ban on CSG mining in the Northern Rivers.
“This is a very welcome announcement from the NSW Labor Party and brings the Northern Rivers one step closer to being gasfield free,” said Gasfield Free spokesperson Dean Draper.
“We congratulate John Robertson and the ALP for showing leadership and foresight on this issue and responding to the concerns of communities across the region.”
“We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Janelle Saffin and Justine Elliot who have put considerable effort into representing the community’s concerns on this issue over the last few years,” he said.
“The communities of the Clarence will be delighted to be added to the proposed protection zone in the Northern Rivers,” said Lynette Eggins of Clarence Alliance Against CSG.
“We are united with other communities in the region in our opposition to unconventional gas extraction and will be joining people from across the region at the big rally in Lismore on Saturday.”
“With both Labor and the Greens supporting protection for our region it is now clear that the National Party are out on a limb.”
“It is high time our local Nationals MP’s took decisive action to support the community and advocate within government for the gas licences across the region to be cancelled,” she said.
Media release courtesy of Gasfield Free Northern Rivers and Yuraygir Coast and Range Alliance.
Echo Netdaily 29 October 2014:
Under the policy, Labor will not allow new CSG exploration licenses, will refuse to grant CSG extraction licenses, reject renewals of existing licenses and refuse any applications to expand existing operations in the Northern Rivers.
Labor leader John Robertson – who copped a stern talking to from Knitting Nannas in Lismore for forgetting the Clarence – said the inclusion of the Clarence Valley local government area brought Labor’s policy in line with the decision of the NSW Labor conference in July this year.
Mr Robertson was joined by Shadow Minister for the North Coast Walt Secord and Labor’s candidate for Clarence Trent Gilbert in Grafton to make the formal announcement.
‘Last month I announced that Labor would ensure that the northern rivers region would be CSG and unconventional gas-free – and now the Clarence Valley will be included,’ Mr Robertson said.
‘The Northern Rivers is a unique region that is underpinned by its reputation as a pristine environment – and the Clarence Valley will now receive the same protections as the rest of the region under Labor.’
The Daily Examiner, 30 October 2014, Page 3:
COALDALE farmer Allan Reardon is not a man you would normally find anywhere near a Labor Party gathering.
But when it's about coal seam gas mining, his passions are ignited
Mr Reardon made the long trip from his farm at Coaldale, north of Grafton, to hear NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson announce the Clarence Valley had been included in the opposition's Gas Free Northern River declaration.
"I'm not a Labor man," was all he said of his political allegiance.
"But I'm pleased to hear the Labor Party is against allowing coal seam gas mining in the area. I would like to see the Nationals and Liberal Party do the same thing.
"The region's landowners are doing it tough enough without the stress of having the threat of gas mining thrust on them."
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