Monday, 26 February 2018
Where have all the insects gone?
ABC
News, 24
February 2018:
A global crash in insect
populations has found its way to Australia, with entomologists across the
country reporting lower than average numbers of wild insects.
University of Sydney
entomologist Dr Cameron Webb said researchers around the world widely
acknowledge that insect populations are in decline, but are at a loss to
determine the cause.
"On one hand it
might be the widespread use of insecticides, on the other hand it might be
urbanisation and the fact that we're eliminating some of the plants where it's
really critical that these insects complete their development," Dr Webb
said.
"Add in to the mix
climate change and sea level rise and it's incredibly difficult to predict
exactly what it is."
Entomologist and owner
of the Australian Insect Farm, near Innisfail in far north Queensland, Jack
Hasenpusch is usually able to collect swarms of wild insects at this time of
year.
"I've been wondering
for the last few years why some of the insects have been dropping off and put
it down to lack of rainfall," Mr Hasenpusch said.
"This year has
really taken the cake with the lack of insects, it's left me dumbfounded, I
can't figure out what's going on."
Mr Hasenpusch said
entomologists he had spoken to from Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and even as far
away as New Caledonia and Italy all had similar stories.....
The
Guardian, 19
October 2017:
The abundance of flying
insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a
new study that has shocked scientists.
Insects are an integral
part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it
was known that some species such
as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the
losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for
ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.
The new data was
gathered in nature reserves across Germany but has implications for all
landscapes dominated by agriculture, the researchers said.
The cause of the huge
decline is as yet unclear, although the destruction of wild areas and
widespread use of pesticides are the most likely factors and climate change may
play a role. The scientists were able to rule out weather and changes to
landscape in the reserves as causes, but data on pesticide levels has not been
collected.
“The fact that the
number of flying insects is decreasing at such a high rate in such a large area
is an alarming discovery,” said Hans de Kroon, at Radboud University in the Netherlands
and who led the new research.
“Insects make up about
two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific
decline,” said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team
behind the new study. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable
to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon.
If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”
The research, published
in the journal Plos One, is based on the work of dozens of amateur
entomologists across Germany who began using strictly standardised ways of
collecting insects in 1989. Special tents called malaise traps were used to capture
more than 1,500 samples of all flying insects at 63 different nature reserves.
Labels:
climate change,
extinction,
flora and fauna
Sunday, 25 February 2018
Just in case you think that Barnaby Joyce will only have his backbench salary to live on
Given soon to be former deputy-prime minister Barnaby Joyce has wrapped himself in a self-pitying cloak of undeserved victimhood, it may not be long before he is crying poor to whichever journalist will listen.
So just to remind everyone that the son raised by well-to-do "multi-millionaire" parents,who had him privately educated in his highschool years as a border at St. Ignatuis' College Riverview, is not without resources.
As of 1 January 2018 a federal MP's base salary stands at $203,030 per annum and, in addition to this salary Joyce as the Member for New England will receive an electoral allowance of est, $40,000 per month, along with a subsidised car, travel & accommodation allowance, free home phone as well as a daily allowance when in Canberra of $90 per day.
He also reportedly owns five rural investment land parcels in the Warrumbungle district totalling around 2,400ha and then there is the family.....
Aerchie
Archive, undated
2016:
But the Joyce family's
main property is Rutherglen, in Woolbrook, which sprawls across more than
1780ha north of Tamworth. No price was disclosed for that asset, which has been
owned by the family for more than five decades.....
He attended St Ignatius’
College, Riverview in Sydney where he played Rugby, and the University of New
England in Armidale, where he resided at St Albert’s College and graduated with
a Bachelor of Financial Administration degree in 1989He attended St Ignatius’
College, Riverview in Sydney where he played Rugby, and the University of New
England in Armidale, where he resided at St Albert’s College and graduated with
a Bachelor of Financial Administration degree in 1989…..
The
Australian,
12 March 2016:
Mr Joyce also enjoys
considerable wealth, largely stemming from the Joyce family trust, which is
controlled by his parents, Beryl and James Joyce.
The family owns more
than 33,700ha of land in Enngonia, north of Burke,
which was bought between 2000-04 for $1.7m, along with a two-bedroom holiday
house valued at $400,000 in Mission Beach, between Townsville and Cairns….. [my yellow highlighting]
It is noted that in his declaration of member's interests in January 2018 Barnaby Joyce specifically stated he had no dependent children.
Labels:
Barnaby Joyce,
National Party of Australia
Saturday, 24 February 2018
Friday, 23 February 2018
There's something worse than a cashless welfare card out there in the darkness
What could possibly be worse than the Turnbull Government's Cashless Debit Card which will eventually cover all government cash transfers to individuals except Age and Veterans' Affairs pensions?
The answer is - welfare payments being converted into 50 per cent Cashless Debit Card and 50 per cent a generic low grade, nutritionally suspect, weekly or fortnightly processed, tinned & dry goods food parcel.
Such as this proposed program......
Vibe, 13 February 2018:
In Donald Trump's budget proposal, America's poor is hit the hardest, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. The plan proposes a $17.2 billion-cut to the program by 2019 and will replace monthly cash benefits with a food box delivery program, according to reports.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney compared the program to Blue Apron, an ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service. The Chicago Tribune notes SNAP provides roughly $125 per month to 42.2 million Americans, and the Agriculture Department would use part of those benefits to buy and deliver boxes of "homegrown" food. It's called "America's Harvest Box."
The Harvest Box would contain things like shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables. Since the boxes are valued at half of SNAP recipients monthly benefit, the remainder of their benefits would be put on electronic benefit cards, CNN Money reports.
The existing US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program offers about 46 million low-income Americans an allowance to buy from grocery stores and farmers markets a wide range of breads, cereals, rice, pasta, dairy products, fresh fruits & vegetables, meats, fish and poultry, as well as seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat. Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream are food items and are therefore eligible items. Seafood, steak, and bakery cakes are also food items and are therefore eligible items.
Trump intends to change this program as a government cost-cutting measure saving up to a reported US$127 billion over ten years and, have the private sector under contract give out shelf-stable food bought in bulk. No choice of food parcel content appears to be allowed - it will be one-size-fits-all.
What could possibly go wrong? So many things if private contractors of the type the Trump Regime will pick were to attempt regular food delivery to est. 46 million people.
Given the love affair that those right-wing warriors in the Liberal and National parties have with the political extremes of US Republican politics, it won't be long before the likes of Minister for Human Services Michael Keenan and Minister for Social Services DanTehan start suggesting similar food parcels as a component of the bulk Centrelink welfare payments here in Australia.
NATS Spill? Monday 26 February 2018
According to Junkee on 22 February 2018:
Nationals MP Andrew Broad has publicly called on Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to resign from the leadership of the National Party, firing the starting gun on a leadership challenge.
Nationals MP Andrew Broad has publicly called on Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to resign from the leadership of the National Party, firing the starting gun on a leadership challenge.
In an interview on ABC
radio this afternoon Broad said his local Nationals branch had called on
Joyce to resign and that he would represent that view to the Nationals party
room meeting in Canberra next Monday. He called on Joyce to resign as party leader
and go to the back bench.
Are we about to see......
Thursday, 22 February 2018
So Prime Minister Turnbull has been bitiching again about the ABC's reporting
It's also disingenuous to talk about a 30 per cent rate when so few
companies pay anything like that thanks to tax legislation that allows them to
avoid paying corporate tax. Exclusive analysis released by ABC today reveals one
in five of Australia's top companies has paid zero tax for the past three years.
On that same
day the House
of Representatives Hansard recorded these mentions:
Mr THISTLETHWAITE
(Kingsford Smith) (10:12): ………All of these hardworking Australians would be
thrilled to know—very pleased to know—that the ABC has uncovered that about one in five Australian
companies pay no company tax whatsoever in this country. Yes, that's right: 380
of Australia's largest companies pay absolutely no income tax at all—a big
doughnut; a big fat zero. They include airlines, banks, financial
service companies, mining, energy, clothing, steel, and telecommunications
companies. There's even a condom manufacturer. That's rather appropriate, given
what they've just done to the Australian taxpayer in paying no tax at all
during the course of the last couple of years…..
Mr THISTLETHWAITE
(Kingsford Smith) (13:49): As mums and dads pack up the kids, send them off to
school and head off to work; as pensioners struggle to put the air-conditioner
on because of rising electricity costs; and as students face increases in their
fees because of cuts to TAFE and cuts to funding for education—these
hard-working Australians, as they head off to jobs and study today, would be
pleased to know that the ABC has uncovered that one in five Australian
companies pay absolutely no company tax in this country. That's right, 380 of Australia's
largest companies paid absolutely zero company tax over the course of the last
three years. They include airlines, energy companies, mining companies,
clothing companies, banks, insurance companies and a manufacturer of
condoms—which is highly appropriate, given the rogering that they've just given
Australian hardworking taxpayers by paying no tax. Now, given that these
companies pay no corporate tax, what is the response of the Turnbull
government? The response of the Turnbull government is to give them a tax cut.
These companies are struggling so much that we're going to give them a tax cut!
Yes, that's right: 380 of the largest companies that pay no tax will get a tax
cut, despite the fact that they're increasing taxes for Australian workers by
putting up the Medicare levy. We won't cop it. Labor will oppose these tax cuts
and we'll stand up for average, hard-working, battling Australians……
Mr TURNBULL
(Wentworth—Prime Minister) (14:03): I thank the honourable member for her
question. The government is supporting and delivering lower business taxes
because we know they will result in more investment and more jobs. Company tax
is ultimately a tax on workers. When nearly nine in 10 Australians work for
private business, surely it is obvious that it's in the national interest to
support the companies that employ the overwhelming majority of Australians.
But, instead of supporting policies that will create jobs and grow wages, the
opposition is busy peddling the myth that business does not care about the
level of tax and doesn't in fact pay tax. I'm not sure where the $68 billion of
company tax receipts came from, but, according to the Labor Party, companies
don't pay tax. The Labor Party wants to increase taxes; the government wants to
reduce them. But we do not believe that paying tax is optional. Every
Australian and every business that makes a profit in Australia must pay their
fair share of tax. You'd think that was common sense, but not for the
opposition. Like everything the opposition leader does, he calls for action one
minute and then opposes it the next. He called for action against multinational
tax avoidance and then he voted against some of the toughest anti-avoidance
laws in the world. If this isn't clear enough for the members opposite, we'd be
happy to arrange a briefing with officials from the Australian Taxation Office.
We have introduced and, no thanks to the Labor Party, passed through the
parliament some of the toughest multinational tax avoidance laws in the world.
At that briefing from the ATO, I am sure that those distinguished officials
will be able to provide a tutorial on the difference between revenue and profit
because members opposite either don't understand the difference or they're now
calling for businesses to be taxed on revenue—not profit— even if the business
makes a loss. We saw that
they were busily retweeting the article—one of the most confused and poorly
researched articles I've seen on this topic on the ABC's website. Of
course, the ABC is an enterprise that understands profit and loss.
Opposition members
interjecting—
Mr TURNBULL: It does! It
understands taxes; they're recipients of them. They receive them—taxpayers'
funds. They understand the difference: the hard work of investing and
struggling and losing money one year and then being able to offset it against
profit the next—or not. No, the ABC has the same understanding of the
commercial world as does the opposition. (Time expired)
The Australian
Financial Review scenting blood after the prime minister’s
criticism went to print with this disingenuous take on 15 February 2018:
Both premises fatally
expose their author's innumeracy. The first is demonstrably false. Freely
available data produced by the Australian Taxation Office show that 32 of Australia's 50 largest
companies paid $19.33 billion in company tax in FY16 (FY17 figures are
not yet available). The other 18 paid nothing. Why? They lost money, or were
carrying over previous losses.
I’m sure North Coast Voices readers will quickly
notice that Alberici was citing statistics for a baseline of around 1,900
companies and the ‘Fin Review’ columnist was citing a baseline of 50 companies -
so of course the number of companies paying no tax to the number of companies
paying tax is going to differ between the two baselines.
Reading the full text there does not appear to be any factuall inaccuracies in the Alberici article being complained about.
Reading the full text there does not appear to be any factuall inaccuracies in the Alberici article being complained about.
Meanwhile ABC News withdrew the online version of
the economic analysis
and updated Alberici’s
companion article in order to provide further
information and context.
The companion
article still contains those same statistics:
Analysis by the ABC
reveals Qantas is not alone — about 380, or one in five, of Australia's largest companies have paid
no tax for at least the past three years.
However,
these opening lines written by Alberici in the article “There's no case for a corporate
tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it” on
14 February are now missing in action as this analysis gently sinks to the
bottom of the Internet:
There is no compelling
evidence that giving the country's biggest companies a tax cut sees that money
passed on to workers in the form of higher wages.
Treasury modelling
relies on theories that belie the reality that's playing out around the world.
Since the peak of the
commodities boom in 2011-12, profit margins have risen to levels not seen since
the early 2000s but wages growth has been slower than at any time since the
1960s.
The Guardian reported on 16 February that:
Guardian Australia understands ABC News management has been in crisis meetings for two days after the prime minister attacked the articles in question time and then wrote formal letters of complaint to management.
The Guardian reported on 16 February that:
Guardian Australia understands ABC News management has been in crisis meetings for two days after the prime minister attacked the articles in question time and then wrote formal letters of complaint to management.
I suspect
that what Turnbull took umbrage to in the first place was the fact that one article took a stronger position on
why corporate tax cuts were not good for the economy or wages growth and, therefore
were unlikely to benefit workers and
their families and, the other article which is still online did not address this aspect of government taxation policy.
So he set out to shoot the message down and be damned to the fate of the messenger.
Of course in attempting this Turnbull created a Steisand Effect With A Twist - ensuring that the full text of “There's no case for a corporate tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it” has been copied onto websites he can't bully and the article's analysis is still being discussed by voters.
So he set out to shoot the message down and be damned to the fate of the messenger.
Of course in attempting this Turnbull created a Steisand Effect With A Twist - ensuring that the full text of “There's no case for a corporate tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it” has been copied onto websites he can't bully and the article's analysis is still being discussed by voters.
BACKGROUND
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/...abc-turnbull.../story-fna045gd-1226869241476?...
Jan 26, 2018 - COMMUNICATIONS Minister
Malcolm Turnbull says ABC board members who do not want to
get involved in ensuring news content on the public broadcaster is accurate and
impartial should get off the board. Revealing he receives hundreds of complaints about
the ABC each week, MrTurnbull said “the ..
Q&A:
Malcolm Turnbull phones ABC boss Mark Scott to complain about crude Tony Abbott
tweet
26 August 2015
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/...turnbull...abc.../ff6ad001ced93bb9c40eee1f4c839...
Dec 2, 2013 - THE minister in charge of
the ABC, Malcolm Turnbull, rang the broadcasters boss Mark Scott last
week to tell him he had made an “error of judgment” in teaming with the
Guardian to run revelations that the Indonesian presidents phone was bugged.
https://delimiter.com.au/.../watch-turnbull-implies-complained-abc-failed-nbn-coverag...
Feb 4,
2016 - Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears to have implied
that he made the samecomplaint to ABC management that he has
previously made in public before the 2013 Federal Election, stating that the
broadcaster had "failed" to provide balanced coverage of the
competing National Broadband Network ...
Australian
Tax Office, 2015-16 Report of Entity Tax Information
This report contains the total income, taxable income and tax payable of
over 2000 corporate tax entities for the 2015-16 year. This report also
includes separate lists of entities whose information was not available by the
cut-off date to produce the Report of Entity Tax Information for 2013-14 and
2014-15.
Labels:
corporations,
economy,
government policy,
Our ABC,
statistics,
taxation,
Turnbull Government
Wednesday, 21 February 2018
George Christensen running a little distraction for his 'mate' Barnaby Joyce?
Far-right federal politicians tend to stick together in the face of negative media coverage and on 17 February 2018 thirty-nine year old George Robert Christensen, Liberal-Nationals MP for Dawson, apparently decided to give social media something else to talk about other than his 'mate' Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce.
Unfortunately when picking a topic George showed all the maturity and sound judgement voters have come to expect from members of the Turnbull Coalition Government.
Cristensen's Facebook caption reads "You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?"
Unfortunately for George at least one member of the public reported his Facebook post to the police and the prime minister. So it wasn't that long before he changed the captioning of this gun-totting image.
Some time later he also removed the image with a silly show of petulance.
Perhaps he finally got around to considering whether his prime minister might be as unamused as many other Australians given these facts about those so-called "greenie punks".
“Two hundred
environmental activists, wildlife rangers and indigenous leaders
trying to protect their land were killed in 2016, according to the
watchdog group Global Witness – more than double the number killed five
years ago.” [The
Guardian, 13 June 2017]
"A New South Wales farmer who shot and killed an environment officer involved in land clearing prosecutions against his family has been found guilty of murder." [ABC News, 25 May 2016]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)