Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government May 2019: new crew on the political ‘Titanic’

With no plans to genuinely address climate change mitigation, in denial concerning the slowing national economy and pretending that Australia is not in breach of its human rights obligations on two fronts (treatment of Aboriginal adults & children and detained asylum seekers), Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott 'Liar from the Shire' Morrison released his new ministry list on 26 May 2019.

Australian Government Ministry List for the 46th Parlaiment, 26 May 2019 by clarencegirl on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/411541377/Australian-Government-Ministry-List-for-the-46th-Parlaiment-26-May-2019

Coal Seam Gas: Queensland supplies a timely lesson for the rest of Australia

ABC News, 26 May 2016:

The risk of spreading toxic groundwater from one of Queensland's worst environmental contaminations has prompted a ban on coal seam gas drilling in an area where companies are already extracting gas.

The State Government quietly created a no-go zone for gas extraction 10 kilometres around the former Linc Energy site in the Southern Inland, at Hopeland, burying the decision in an environmental approval issued to Arrow Energy in December.

Despite the ban, Arrow and QGC still have permission to extract gas within the zone.

On a separate, neighbouring mining lease — approved in August — Arrow gained approval to ramp up six existing "pilot" wells for commercial production.

Farmers said they were alarmed by the revelation and want state officials to come clean about the risks of groundwater contamination spreading under prime grazing and cropping land.

The ban is the first public admission that a burgeoning CSG industry could aggravate the Linc contamination, where toxic gases were released into groundwater by a now-illegal process called underground coal gasification.

Cotton grower Brian Bender's Hopeland property is split by the two Arrow tenements — where CSG extraction is banned on one side but not the other.

"I think it's a bit of a joke, really — there are no lines underground," Mr Bender said….

The ABC understands tests on groundwater contamination were being examined by a trio of experts who would be called as state witnesses in a criminal prosecution of five former Linc executives next month.

The failed company was convicted and fined a record $4.5 million last May for causing serious environmental harm through its underground coal gasification (UCG) plant.

The District Court heard in that trial that it could take up to 20 years for groundwater to recover from Linc's attempts at the now-illegal UCG process, which allowed toxic gases to escape through fractured rock.

At the time, the state's then-environment minister described the contamination as "the biggest pollution event probably in Queensland's history".

A week before Christmas, Arrow gained approval for 70 wells on a gas tenement to the north-east of the former Linc site.

It is part of its $10 billion Surat Gas Project, which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promoted in a February media release as Queensland's "biggest resources project since 2011".

Ms Palaszczuk's release made no mention of the gas extraction no-go zone.

But the state's Department of Environment and Science approval said Arrow "must not locate any [CSG] production wells within 10 kilometres [of the Linc site]".

"The extraction of groundwater as part of the petroleum activity(ies) from underground aquifers must not directly or indirectly influence the mobilisation of existing groundwater contamination on [the Linc site]," the environmental authority said.

It said the department may force Arrow to model CSG impacts on "groundwater contamination around [the Linc site] at any time" and present its findings within a month.

But there were no such conditions for gas drilling in the neighbouring Arrow tenement that surrounds the former Linc site, where six wells were approved in August…..

But will the Morrison federal government or the remaining seven state and territory governments learn from Queensland's disasterous mistakes?

Apparently not.........

2GB Radio, 24 May 2019:

The Minister for Resources is urging the New South Wales government to approve the state’s biggest gas project.

Santos Narrabri Gas Project is aiming to develop gas reserves in northwest New South Wales that could supply half of the state’s gas needs.

The Resources Minister Matt Canavan tells Ray Hadley almost all of NSW’s gas comes from other states.

“The problem with that is, of course, it costs a lot of money to transport gas long distances, so that has pushed the price up for Sydney based users of gas.

“Things have changed and we need to reflect that.”

The Canberra Times, 18 April 2019:

Federal Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan was in Darwin on April 17 to publicise an April 2 federal budget announcement of $8.4 million in funding to fast-track development of gas reserves in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin.

"We want to get on with the job. We want to get the gas up out of the ground and into people's homes and businesses as quickly as we can," Senator Canavan said in a statement….

The Beetaloo Basin is about 500km south-east of Darwin in the Sturt Plateau region between the towns of Katherine and Elliott and includes pastoral land and indigenous communities. Around 70 per cent of the Territory's shale gas resources are estimated to lie in the Beetaloo Basin, reserves that could potentially raise Australia's global ranking of gas resources from seventh to sixth. Farmers, businesses and industry are divided over whether fracking should be permitted because of the risk of pollution to rivers and bores. Pro-fracking advocates argue it will be a boon for jobs and economic growth.

Australia 2019: women are still dying violently in unacceptably high numbers

Counting Dead Women, 25 May 2019

On average at least one woman a week is dying violently in Australia this year.  

I say "at least" because the figure above is mainly based on media reports of deaths - how many go unnoticed by the nightly news or daily newspapers is unknown.

Looking back on past posts on North Coast Voices it appears that an average of 1 to 2 female deaths by violence per week is how the years since 2014 have ended.

Despite the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government periodically talking up its approach to ending violence against women the situation is littled changed because women are still dying in unacceptably high numbers.

Byron DA for largest coastal solar farm in NSW being progressed

Myocum district, Byron Shire

The Northern Star, 25 May 2019, p.8:

A solar farm flagged for Byron Shire would be the biggest of its kind east of the ranges in New South Wales, according to Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson.

Cr Richardson said the “massive” five megawatt solar farm planned for land adjacent to the shire’s tip at Myocum would be a wise investment.

Coolamon Energy lodged a development application for the $6.5 million project last month, which proposes building the large-scale facility at Grays Lane, with the solar panels covering 6.3ha of the 73.53ha site.

At a meeting on Thursday councillors voted to spend $465,000 on a final feasibility study for the project.

Cr Richardson said the council had already done a lot of business modelling and cost-benefit analysis for the project.

In the DA, construction is estimated to take 12-14 weeks.

The applicant claimed the project would create jobs and help meet Byron Shire’s electricity demands.

via @AnitaHess

Anniversary of the 1997 report Bringing Them Home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families

Trump accuses Australia of interfering in 2016 American presidential election process?

Will there be a falling out between the Bobbsey Twins?

It seems the world leader Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott 'Liar from the Shire' Morrison openly admires and, whose dress, mannerisms and tactics he apes, is no longer happy with the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Coalition Government.

News.com.au, 25 May 2019:

US President Donald Trump has announced he wants Australia’s role in sparking the FBI probe into links between Russia and his election campaign examined by US Attorney-General William Barr.

Despite Australia’s historically strong alliance with the United States, President Trump specifically named Australia as a nation whose part in what he calls the “Russia hoax” must be thoroughly investigated.

“What I’ve done is I’ve declassified everything,” Mr Trump told AAP reporters at the White House on Friday before departing on a trip to Japan.

“He can look and I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine.

“I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country.”

The reason behind this sudden urge to hit out at Australia? 

Well, that's not hard to find.

Ex- Donald Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos - out of prison after a short stay for lying to the FBI - in what appears to be an attempt to rid himself of a well-deserved reputation for indiscreet tongue wagging is now asserting that he was the victim of a set-up.

Trump who himself has a reputation for believing a thousand impossible or implausible tales before breakfast has obviously been following @GeorgePapa19's conspiracy tweets.

*Photos used in montage from Google Images

Gunditjmara: honouring the past and the present

The Guardian, 10 January 2017. Photo Budj Bim

The Guardian, 23 May 2019. Photo Denis Rose

The volanic eruption of Budj Bim (Mt. Eccles) around 30,000 years ago was witnessed by the Gunditjmara people and the subsequent lava flow formed rock over an area 18 kms long & 8 kms wide.

This easily worked, durable rock turned the people into stone masons and around 6,600 years ago allowed them to create one of the world's largest aquaculture systems.

The Guardian, 23 May 2019:

A 6,600-year-old, highly sophisticated aquaculture system developed by the Gunditjmara people will be formally considered for a place on the Unescoworld heritage list and, if successful, would become the first Australian site listed exclusively for its Aboriginal cultural value.

Known as the Budj Bim cultural landscape, the site in south-west Victoria is home to a long dormant volcano, which was the source of the Tyrendarra lava flow.

The Gunditjmara people used the volcanic rock to manage water flows from nearby Lake Condah to exploit eels as a food source, constructing an advanced system of channels and weirs. They manipulated water flows to trap and farm migrating eels and fish for food. It is one of the oldest aquaculture systems in the world.

On Tuesday night in Paris, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, which works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world, officially recommended world heritage status for Budj Bim. The nomination will be formally considered by the world heritage committee in the final step in the process in July.

The Budj Bim cultural landscape is largely managed by the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, who also protect the Gunditjmara-owned properties along the lava flow. The project manager and also elder, Denis Rose, said the homes challenge the idea that all Aboriginal people were hunter-gatherers.

“There are around 200 registered and recorded stone house sites, so people were living a sedentary life,” Rose said. “The area had such a reliable water supply from Darlot Creek, and the traditional name for that creek is Killara, which means ‘always there’. It’s a very appropriate name because even during the dry this year, it was still running.”

The Gunditjmara traditional owners have led the process to have Budj Bim added to the world heritage list, and Rose said the recognition would lead to the site being better protected and managed.

Read the full article here.