"We want a gasfield ban, not a gas plan!"

Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner, 27 February 2015:

Election and gasfield

The State Election is fast approaching. On March 28 we go to the polls again to cast our vote to decide who will run the State of NSW for the next four years.

In the Northern Rivers, the biggest political issue over the past four years has been the threat of industrialisation and destructive and polluting activities which inevitably accompany invasive gasfields.

We have fought to save our region - at Glenugie and Doubtful Creek and then at Bentley. The famous Bentley Blockade resulted in the suspension of Metgasco's exploration licence which was to allow drilling to a depth of 2.1km through the soils, rocks and aquifers of this beautiful and productive valley, so typical of the Northern Rivers.

It was the pressure exerted by the community on the NSW Liberal National Government which caused them to suspend activity. It was not an act of benevolence on the part of the NSW Government- without people-power the drilling rig would have moved in.

Over 95% of people in the Northern Rivers do not want to live in a gasfield. Tourism and primary industries in our region will suffer irreparable damage and our properties will become devalued and unsalable - who would buy a house in or near a gasfield?

Now is our chance once again to have our voices heard loud and clear - in NSW we have a system of Optional Preferential voting.

Under this system, numbering one box is permitted. However, there is a very good reason why this is not a good choice. If you do number only one box and your choice of candidate does not receive 50% + one of the total votes in the first count, your vote is "exhausted'" and you have, in effect, wasted your vote.

To ensure that your vote counts, you must number every box.

You do not have to follow the how to vote card of any political party or independent candidate.

You are the one who is allocating preferences. Your preferences are the ones that matter.

Who you vote for on election day is, of course, your personal choice. However, to vote for a gasfield-free Northern Rivers, you will need to give your LAST preference to the party who is least supportive of the community's clearly expressed wishes to remain gasfield free.

We want a gasfield ban, not a gas plan!

Rosemary Joseph

Once the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 becomes law

On 27 February 2015 the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security recommended that the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 be passed by the Australian Parliament.

It appears that there is bipartisan political support for the passage of this bill.

The information that will be kept on each and every one of us is found in the Draft Data Set (30 October 2014), but there is no guarantee that information collected and stored will be limited to this particular data set.

Australian Government Data Retention Draft Data Set 30 October 2014

Abbott's march to the sea about to wreak havoc on Australian society

For Australian nationals, we are examining suspending some of the privileges of citizenship for individuals involved in terrorism.

Those could include restricting the ability to leave or return to Australia, and access to consular services overseas, as well as access to welfare payments.

[Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, National Security Statement, 23 February 2015]

Read this quote carefully. Think about it long and hard. Because Tony Abbott is talking about you. The Australian citizens descended from circa 60,000 years of blood connection with country, the heirs of those convicts and soldiers who stumbled off British ships onto Botany Bay soil in 1788, all the people at the end of a 227 year long migration stream who were born in this country and call it home.

What Tony Abbott is describing is a deliberate move to curtail your existing human and political rights under common law and the Australian Constitution.

Don’t for one moment comfort yourself with the thought that only violent terrorists, those plotting terrorism and supporters of terrorists will be subject to whatever legislation he cloaks this move with.

Coalition Governments have abused their powers in the past.

Abbott comes from the same political party which:

attempted to confiscate the passport of the wife of a Lieut. Governor & Chief Justice of NSW;

treated members of one legal political party as criminals and traitors in the 1950s;

fined or gaoled conscientious objectors in the 1960s & early 1970s;
in the 1960's began tapping the phone of a teenage Australian-born citizen, whose family first arrived in Terra Australis in 1788 and who had broken no domestic or international laws, at the behest of a foreign power that was alleged to have committed war crimes;

from 1955 to 1970 refused to register the children of an Australian national (whose family had been in the country since 1854) as Australian citizens on the basis of their parents' political beliefs; and 

on 3 November 2014 made it legal for the Australian Federal Police to enter and search our homes by stealth and if or when we eventually find out silences our objections with the threat of 2 years imprisonment.

This is not an exhaustive list of Coalition government abuses over the years.

Abbott's march to the sea in his ideological war on the populace may be as devastating for Australia as General Sherman’s was for those members of the American civilian population unfortunate enough to be in his path in 1864.

Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has just been knotted by a group of nannas

North Coast Voices was sent this copy of a letter which forms part of a lengthy engagement in the political process by one hardy and dedicated group of Knitting Nannas Against Gas.

Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis can be in no doubt that his lack of political spine has been noted.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is still on the nose with electors according to latest polls and Coalition on road to losing government in 2016

Newspoll published in The Australian, 24 February 2015

Between 20-22 February 2015 68% of Newspoll respondents were dissatisfied with Tony Abbott's performance as prime minister, only 35% thought he would make a better prime minister than Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and, although level with Labor on the primary vote, if an election had been held last Saturday the Abbott Coalition Government would have in all likelihood lost convincingly.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents thought Abbott was best to handle the issues of national security and asylum seekers, but only 45% felt he was best to handle the economy, 33% education, 30% health & medicare and, 22% climate change.

Despite Abbott’s supposed post-spill motion Damascus moment, he is still seen as “arrogant” by 77% of poll respondents, while only 43% find him “trustworthy”, 40% “likeable” and, 33% “in touch with voters”.

The Essential Research poll published on the same day also indicates that although the primary vote gap has narrowed, if an election had been held on 24 February 2015 government would have passed to Labor.

Similarly, the Morgan Poll covering 21-22 February 2015 shows Labor would in all probability have won a federal election if it had been held on Saturday 21 February.

The Fairfax-Ipsos Poll covering 26-28 February 2015 and published 1 March found:      

Seventy-two per cent of respondents did not believe that Tony Abbott has the confidence of his own party.

Abbott's leadership attribute ratings were reportedly all negative.

Thirty-two per cent of the 1,406 people surveyed approved of Tony Abbott’s performance as prime minister and, thirty-nine per cent viewed him as competent, 38 per cent saw him as having a grasp of the economy, with only 36 per cent believing him to be trustworthy.

Forty-three per cent of those surveyed approved of Bill Shorten's performance as opposition leader

Primary Vote

Labor 36%

Coalition 42%

An apparent shift of -3.6% in the Coalition's primary vote when compared with 7 September 2013 and an increase in Labor's primary vote of 2.7% for the same period.

Two Party-Preferred Vote

Labor 51%

Coalition 49%

A 4.5 per cent shift against the Coalition since the 2013 federal election’s 3.61% swing in its favour. This might see Labor achieve a narrow win in 2016.

Preferred Prime Minister

Bill Shorten 44%

Tony Abbott 39%

Reportedly only 38% of respondents identifying as Coalition voters chose Abbott as preferred prime minister.

Approval Rating

Bill Shorten 43%

Tony Abbott 39%

The more positive primary vote numbers for the Coalition may be because "Voters appear to already be factoring in Abbott's potential departure. They don't like him, prefer Turnbull and assume Abbott is not long in his job" according to Ipsos pollster Jessica Elgood.

If Abbott remains prime minister through March, the next Fairfax-Ipsos poll may see the higher primary vote depart the Coalition.

With three out of four of the current major polls going against the Federal Coalition, it would appear that Abbott’s personal unpopularity less than one week shy of halfway through his government's first term in office sees Labor continuing on track towards a positive electoral outcome in 2016.

So who are these Americans thought willing to put "tens of millions" of dollars into Tony Abbott's re-election coffers?

It causes enough unease to know that a Conservative Party peer of the realm sitting in the U.K. House of Lords financed past Liberal Party of Australia federal election campaigns to the tune of $1.5 million, now it seems Americans are expected to donate to Tony Abbott’s 2016 re-election coffers.

The Sydney Morning Herald 24 February 2015:

Mr Higginson wrote that he had raised $70 million since 2011 and recently "laid out my plans to the PM" to travel to the United States to raise "tens of millions" from donors.

Is the Prime Minister so unpopular with home-grown donors that he now has to look elsewhere for the big money?

Or is this trawl for foreign political donations part of the Abbott Government's "open for business" approach to governing?

ERM Power would like to bail out of coal seam gas miner Metgasco Limited ?

Metgasco Limited's largest shareholder appears to be losing interest in the fate of this coal seam/tight gas explorer and wannabe production company.

Unfortunately with the ordinary share price being firmly in the 2 cents range, ERM Power will have to wait before any move to sell off its interest in this company.

Argus Media

ERM Power mulls future of NSW gas assets

22 Feb 2015, 11.48 pm GMT

Sydney, 22 February (Argus) — Australian power and gas group ERM Power is still considering the future of its gas interests in New South Wales (NSW), which include an interest in independent coal-bed methane (CBM) gas developer Metgasco and some exploration areas.

ERM bought a 13pc stake in Metgasco in 2013, but the CBM exploration group has been hampered by a NSW government ruling halting further exploration at the company's Casino project because of community concerns and there has been no resolution to the issue.

"These assets are being impacted by regulatory uncertainty in NSW which, at this point, seems far from being resolved. We will continue to keep these assets on minimum expenditure until investment conditions materially improve," ERM said.

The company also operates its 100pc owned 332MW Oakey peak demand gas-fired plant in Queensland, which was only used 3pc of the time during July-December last year. Oakey reported a 3.8pc fall in its asset value from a year earlier to A$223mn ($174mn) in the six-month period. There were increased opportunities for Oakey because of higher volatility in electricity prices in Queensland during the 2014-15 summer, ERM said, with electricity spot market prices reaching the maximum price cap of A$13,000/MWh on numerous occasions.

km/rjd

On 24 February 2015 Metgasco Limited released its Financial Report For Half Year Ended 31 December 2014.

In the last six months of 2014 it recorded a loss of $2,105,164 with $955,547 of this figure listed as professional fees.

Presumably these fees are associated with its court case Metgasco Ltd v Minister for Resources & Energy which has been waiting judgment since the end of October 2014.

Since announcing its script merger with Elk Petroleum on 22 December involving a convertible loan facility for Elk of $2.5 million, Metgasco has lent Elk a further $1.4 million this year.

Metgasco's ailing fortunes will not have been helped by the fact that one of the main planks in its argument for the establishment of Northern Rivers gasfields - ie. that these gasfields would bring down the cost of gas for business and residential users - has been contradicted by the Select Committee on the Supply and Cost of Gas and Liquid Fuels in New South Wales (25 February 2015) report which states gas prices; will rise regardless of whether there is an indigenous supply...Eastern Australia is becoming part of a single global market for commodity gas, and wholesale prices are being increasingly set by international prices. In the future, it is likely that NSW gas retailers will have to compete with offshore demand and pay export parity prices for wholesale gas.