Quotes of the Week

"Picture the scene: an endless warming sea of hardhats and high-vis and blokes. Giant trucks. “Working class man” pumping over the PA. Morrison’s exhausted PR manager presumably celebrating the stagecraft by jizzing on a desk somewhere or fucking in the Parliamentary prayer room. Cameras rolling, shutters clicking, the curated image of “Scomo”, man of the people beamed far and wide, the media’s stenography for this self-interested sociopath in full swing." [Coloumnist Dave Milner witing in The Shot, 23 April 2021] 

Micalo Island on the Clarence Valley floodplain, April 2021

Micalo Island is a low-lying island in the Clarence River estuary, subjected to periodic flooding and tidal inundation. It remains an essential breeding and feeding habitat for a diverse array of important native fish species and other aquatic animals.

The island is within the final 6kms of the Clarence Valley floodplain before it meets the ocean and is surrounded by bodies of water local government mapping designates as “floodways”.

When the Clarence River floods the predicted flood depths in the centre of Micalo Island are likely to be in the vicinity of:

Flood 1 in 5yr 0.83-0.9, 0.9-0.98 metres

Flood 1 in 20yr 1.66-1.77 metres

Flood 1 in 50yr 1.75-1.86, 1.86-1.97 metres

Flood 1 in 100yr 2.09-2.2 metres

Flood Extreme 3.68-3.8 metres.

Like nearby Yamba, the island only has one road connecting it to the wider world, Yamba Road, which is frequently cut by floodwaters during flood events.

This is what Micalo Island looked like from the air in early April 2021, still covered in water even when the lower Clarence River was no longer in flood.

Micalo Island seen from the south
Photograph supplied

It will come as no surprise to readers who have experienced the collective madness of coastal developers, to discover that this island is seen as having largescale urban development potential.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison states that net zero emissions will be achieved through technology and "the animal spirits of our business community". I rather thought it was those very same animal spirits which had been globally polluting our atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution began in the 1700s

 

On 19 April 2021 at the Business Council of Australia Annual Dinner Prime Minister Scott Morrison informed the world that; “We are going to meet our ambitions with the smartest minds, the best technology and the animal spirits of our business community. We need to change our energy mix over the next 30 years on that road to net zero emissions…..It will be achieved by the pioneering entrepreneurialism and innovation of Australia’s industrial workhorses, farmers and scientists.

It will be won in places like the Pilbara, the Hunter, Gladstone, Portland, Whyalla, Bell Bay, the Riverina. In the factories of our regional towns and outer suburbs. In the labs of our best research institutes and scientists. It will be won in our energy sector. In our industrial sector. In our ag sector. In our manufacturing sector. That’s how you get to net zero.

It would appear that his first step on this journey is to make a token investment in ‘clean’ energy by way of $539 million in funding for new projects involving hydrogen product and capture & storage, which will apparently be fuelled by both black and brown coal – thereby increasing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions Australia releases into the atmosphere.

This folly was pointed out by ABC News on 21 April 2021:

Getting hydrogen into a pure, useable form takes a lot of energy and this process can produce a lot of emissions.

And so, that is why experts talk about different types of hydrogen — brown, black, grey, blue and green.

Only "green" hydrogen is produced entirely through renewable power and has zero emissions. The others use electricity made by coal (black or brown) or gas (grey), sometimes with carbon capture and storage (blue).

The Government call its hydrogen plans "clean" — a combination of hydrogen from gas and renewables.

The Climate Council says the term is "misleading" for average Australians.

Its website states: "Proponents of fossil-fuelled hydrogen have used this to describe fossil fuel hydrogen linked to carbon capture and storage, as well as renewably sourced hydrogen."

"Only the variety of hydrogen generated with renewables … belongs in our zero emissions future."….

The government insists real progress is being made on CCS technology.

However, many climate scientists believe, when it comes to fossil-fuel energy production, CCS is not a serious alternative to wind and solar power.

Some, like the Climate Council, see it as an attempt to prolong the use of fossil fuels.

"The Gorgon CCS trial has been a big, expensive failure. It is capturing less than half the emissions needed to make CCS viable," the Climate Council's website states.

"CCS is extremely expensive and cannot deliver zero emissions."

"There are still no successful projects operating anywhere in the world."

While The Guardian on April 2021 published these telling quotes:

Harry Guinness, a former Liberal adviser and chief executive of the centre-right thinktank the Blueprint Institute, said the US was planning to spend about 35 times what Australia allocated in the last federal budget on green stimulus, and the government would need to commit to serious finance if Australia was to make a transition to net zero by 2050 as Scott Morrison has said is his preference…..

“Our friends and allies are going to want to see tangible commitments. They’ve been quite clear about that, it’s no mystery,” Guinness said. “If we are in the game of bringing technologies down the cost curve we need finance and incentives, including pricing carbon. Actions speak louder than words.”

Tony Wood, the Grattan Institute’s energy program director, said there was little detail in what the government had announced on Wednesday, making it hard to assess, but that Australia was spending significantly less on hydrogen than some other countries.

He said Australia was also offering support for hydrogen made with fossil fuels where others were backing “green hydrogen” made with renewable energy only.

“I don’t see any evidence that Australia has developed positions that are leading the world,” he said…..

Announcing the funding on Wednesday, Morrison said hydrogen was “zero emissions gas”.

The Greens said as the government planned to support hydrogen made with fossil fuels as well as renewable energy its commitment was “just more cash for coal and gas”. The party’s leader, Adam Bandt, said it paled next to multibillio-dollar green hydrogen commitments by other countries including South Korea, Germany, Spain, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

“This government’s obsession with coal and gas is about to cost Australia as other countries invest heavily in green hydrogen, giving them the edge as future markets open up,” Bandt said. “With all our wind and sunshine, this is Australia’s competitive advantage to seize, but it is being lost.”…..

Richie Merzian, the Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, said it appeared the government was “once again using climate action to support fossil fuel companies”. He said that under current commitments it was possible by 2030 the US would have halved its emissions and the UK cut its emissions by two-thirds but Australia was sitting on a 26% cut while still subsidising fossil fuels…..

I was talking to a public servant climate policy in his portfolio the other day who said 'at least when we were in enviro (dept) we felt like climate policy might relate vaguely to the environment. Now we're just the department for coal and gas. No ones even pretending anymore '

— Polly Hemming (@pollyjhemming) April 21, 2021

Morrison must think the Australian electorate and every OECD government around the world are so monumentally stupid as to not realise that these announcements (and their lack of detail, fuzzy timelines or no guaranteed funding) are solely for the benefit of US President Joe Biden 's two-day virtual Leaders Summit which began on 22 April 2021, with a weather eye out for the twelve-day UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) to be held in Glasgow during November 2021.

By the time all his half-promises and evasions concerning zero emissions have failed to meet the 2050 target date, Scott Morrison will be 81 years of age and I will be long dead - having lived all my life in a country which only genuinely attempted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for six short years between June 2007 to September 2013.

Former NSW Minister & Liberal MLA John Sidoti due to give evidence at ICAC public hearing again today

Yesterday 21 April 2021 was Day 16 of NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) public hearings in the investigation into allegations concerning Liberal MLA for Drummoyne, John Sidoiti (left), who stood down as state Minister for Sport, Multiculturalism, Seniors and Veterans on 3 March 2021 and is currently sitting on the crossbenches as an Independent while the investigation continues.

Sidoti who has been a government member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for the last 10 years is giving evidence before the Operation Witney Public Inquiry again today.

Sidoti was referred to ICAC in September 2019. At that time on his Disclosures By Members form he listed in six properties as co-owned with his wife and another in which he held a 10 per cent interest reportedly valued at 11.5 million. The Sidoti family property portfolio is said to have a potential value of $41.4 million. On 24 October 2019 the Daily Telegraph reported that he had updated his disclosure form to add another property in which he had an interest.

Transcripts of inquiry proceeding to date can be found at:

https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/investigations/current-investigations/2021/nsw-state-member-for-drummoyne-operation-witney/nsw-state-member-for-drummoyne-allegations-concerning-improper-influence-and-breach-of-public-trust-operation-witney

BACKGROUND

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), media release, 26 March 2021:

MEDIA ALERT: Public inquiry into allegations concerning John Sidoti MP starts Monday

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (ICAC) Operation Witney public inquiry into allegations concerning the State Member for Drummoyne, John Sidoti MP, will start next Monday, 29 March 2021 at 10:00 am.

The Commission is investigating allegations that, between 26 March 2011 and 6 February 2018, Mr Sidoti improperly influenced another person, or persons, to dishonestly or partially exercise any of their official functions in respect of: advancing amendments to development controls affecting land between Second Avenue and Barnstaple Road on Waterview Street, Five Dock; and/or any rezoning of the land and/or any proposals to develop the land situated at 120, 122 and 124 Great North Road, Five Dock, and 2 Second Avenue, Five Dock.

The Commission is also examining whether, between 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2019, Mr Sidoti engaged in a breach of public trust by failing to make a number of pecuniary interest disclosures contrary to his obligations to do so under the Constitution (Disclosures by Members) Regulation 1983, the NSW Parliament Code of Conduct for Members and the Ministerial Code of Conduct.

As the ICAC is committed to maintaining a COVID-safe workplace, and has limited space to be able to adequately accommodate members of the media and the public, the Commission’s premises will not be open to members of the media and the public for the public inquiry. However, a pool camera and sound operator will be permitted to film and record the opening address (see the media guidelines for more information).

The Commission will live stream the proceedings via its website www.icac.nsw.gov.au, and will post exhibits (provided they are not subject to non-publication orders), transcripts and witness lists. Updates will also be provided via the ICAC Twitter account (@nswicac).

ICAC Chief Commissioner the Hon Peter Hall QC will preside at the public inquiry, which is expected to continue for four weeks. Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Rob Ranken of Counsel.

A witness list for the first week is attached. Please note that witness lists are subject to change. For further information, please refer to the Operation Witney public inquiry media guidelines.

Credit: John Sidoti image at top of this post was found at ABC News, 21 April 2021.

Messaging in new Morrison Government-funded high school consent videos seem confused and often focussed on perpetrator’s feelings and continuing in an unhealthy relationship.

Snapshot from "Stop Ask Listen" 3 minute video

Tacos, milkshakes, popcorn, a brave male & cowardly sharks, as well as a very aggressive young woman, are all found in Morrison Government's initial publicly released four short videos for high school students 15 to 18 years of age on the subject of ‘respect in relationships’.

Highschool students are being told that to be human means wanting "food, money, power and love" (in that order).

The webpage and training videos appear to have been created by Interactive Animation Pty Ltd of Queensland, trading as Liquid Interactive, at a cost to the taxpayer of est. $3.79 million.

The "Moving the Line" video mentioned in the article below, along with another video "Yes No I Don't Know", were removed from the federal government website https://www.thegoodsociety.gov.au/playlists/the-field-model sometime before midday on 20 April 2021.

 Leaving only two example videos visible on the website, along with what appears to be an extensive hidden video playlist for public school teachers. What distorted messages do those hidden videos send to Australia's children?

Crikey, 19 April 2021:

A bizarre educational video for students in Years 10-12 suggests maintaining relationships even after disrespectful behaviours are called out.

A new government video designed to teach consent to Year 10-12 students is as damaging as it is bizarre. With a focus on the perpetrator’s feelings and “maintaining” an unhealthy relationship, the video echoes the arguments of men’s rights activists and fundamentalist Christians.

The Good Society is a new resource for “teaching respectful relationships in schools” as part of the Australian government’s Respect Matters program, featuring content for primary, middle and senior school-aged kids.

One video, titled “Moving the Line”, designed to teach Year 10-12 students about consent, stands out as being particularly strange. Overtly sexual without ever using sexual references, the video features a young teen named Veronica apologising for smearing milkshake cream all over her boyfriend Bailey’s face.

The decision to make a female the perpetrator of sexual violence is also a strange one: men’s rights activists often argue sexual violence is gender-neutral though 97% of sexual violence is perpetrated by men.

Instead of discussing consent in terms of bodily autonomy — which I’m sure teens on the cusp of paying taxes and reaching adulthood would be able to grasp — the video uses drinking milkshakes, eating pizza and “touching your butt” as examples of encounters that require consent.

More worrying still, the video has a perverse focus on maintaining relationships even when Bailey finds it disrespectful.

(The Morrison government has, against all expert advice, previously advocated victims of domestic violence sit down and talk out their issues in the presence of a couples counsellor with no training in family violence. $10 million was set aside for couples counselling. Of the groups invited to participate, a large proportion are faith-based.)

This ultimately downplays the victim’s experience and can put power back in the hands of the abuser, creating an illusion of shared responsibility for the violence......

The Guardian, 19 April 2021: 

Rape prevention and sexual education experts have criticised the federal government’s new consent education campaign, accusing it of creating “bizarre” videos and spreading misinformation about sex and consent. 

The Good Society website, launched as part of the Department of Education’s Respect Matters program, contains more than 350 videos, digital stories, podcasts and teaching materials to help teach sex and consent to school-age children.... 

The director of End Rape on Campus, Sharna Bremner, warned that the videos fail to meet the national standards for the prevention of sexual assault through education. She added that the videos are “bizarre” and “really trivialise an incredibly serious issue”. 

“This resource doesn’t give young people enough credit,” she told Guardian Australia. “It undermines their intelligence. It underestimates what they already know, and I wonder if anyone involved in it has ever met a 17-year-old boy. 

“It assumes that the problem is that people don’t know what consent is, not that they ignore it. Kids aged 15 to 18 are the most likely to be victims of sexual violence, and also perpetrators of sexual violence. So we need to be giving them correct information.” 

Dr Jacqui Hendriks, a sexual health academic at Curtin University, said the videos skirted around the issue of sex and consent. 

“Trying to talk about sex without actually talking about sex isn’t helpful,” she said. “We need to be specifically talking about consent in an intimate and sexual relationship.” 

The videos are built around a concept called “the field model”. Students are shown an image resembling a football field to explain how shared decisions are made. 

Bremner said neither she, nor other rape prevention experts she has spoken to, had heard of the field model. 

“The only thing I can find on it is that it is a communication theory created by a public relations expert to do with communication in the workplace,” she said. “This is not a theory based in anything to do with sex, consent or relationships.”.....

It's not only Jack Frost who is about as Winter approaches - sharks are active in NSW North Coast waters

4-6 metres Tiger Shark caught in waters off Tweed Heads in 2015
IMAGE: The Sydney Morning Herald 

It may be getting cold and windy as Winter approaches on the NSW Far North Coast, but that doesn’t mean that sharks aren’t about.

On Saturday 17 April 2021 a 2 metre unidentified shark was spotted at Turner’s Beach, Yamba, and on Monday 19 April a 3 metre Tiger Shark was sighted at Byron Bay’s main beach area.

Due to bad weather conditions drones have been unable to regularly patrol Ballina’s beaches since Friday 16 March 2021 and drumlines have not always been in position.

Therefore the last official shark sighting in Ballina waters was a tag and release 1.94 metre Bull Shark caught on the drumline at Shelley Beach, according to @NSWSharkSmart.

Bull Shark breeding season is still in full swing in coastal river estuaries and won't finish until the end of May.

U.S. Netflix Inc's reputation about to go down the drain in NE New South Wales because of a cheap and nasty docu-soap?

 

Netflix Inc. is a multinational entertainment content platform and production company headquartered in Los Gatos, California, with annual revenue in 2020 of US$24.99 billion, has 81 per cent of its total employee pool resident in the United States and is listed on the stock exchange – although only est. 16 per cent of its shares are owned by the general public with the majority of shares apparently held by institutional investors.

It quietly boasts in its Annual Report 2020 that the global COVID-19 pandemic has increased its paid membership by 24 per cent and its annual income by $5.13 billion.

For some reason it has turned an exploitative eye on Byron Bay and many Indigenous traditional owners, local residents and businesses remain unimpressed…..

Byron Bay locals want Netflix show Byron Baes to be shut down.
IMAGE: The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 April 2021

ABC News, 18 April 2021:

Byron Bay in northern New South Wales is defying conventional wisdom that says film and TV productions should be welcomed with open arms for the money and exposure they bring.

A petition calling on business owners to refuse the use of their premises as a location has attracted thousands of signatures.

Netflix declined to be interviewed, but in a press release it said the show would be a "docu-soap following a feed of hot Instagrammers living their best lives, being their best selves, creating the best drama content, #nofilter guaranteed".

A 'Truman Show' portrayal

Mayor Simon Richardson said the show was "offensive" to the community.

"We've almost got a Truman Show-type portrayal of who we are where everything is quite idyllic and superficial, where out the back it's an empty parking lot," Cr Richardson said.

"We've got a community that is in real stress, we've got a community that has real life issues dealing with housing, work, affordability.

"While we are here trying to deal with this as best we can, to have this pamphlet of an idea of who we are without any input by us.

"It's quite offensive."

Cr Richardson called on the producers to make the series in another town that would welcome the exposure or, if they were determined to stay in Byron, to engage with the people and the stories in the town in a more meaningful way.

He said the council's hands were tied, however, when it came to stopping the production from happening……

'Byron deserves better'

Cafe owner Ben Gordon was one among a list of businesses – including fashion behemoth Spell and boutique hotel Rae's – that said no to Netflix when location scouts came knocking.

Mr Gordon said Netflix did not offer a location fee, just the chance of greater exposure and marketing opportunities.

"All the business owners need to realise is it's not good for your business," he said.

"They will tout that it's going to be seen by millions of people and that it's free marketing but it's not good marketing and you don't want to be involved with that."

Mr Gordon said, although he benefited from people posting shots of his cafe on social media, the Netflix production "crossed the line".

"This is a show that is targeted to 790 million Netflix subscribers in America about people who aren't actually from Byron," he said.

"Anyone from Byron who represents Byron in an authentic way wouldn't be involved in this show.

"It's really low and Byron deserves better."