Another call for Morrison to go

A sentiment with which it would be hard to disagree, from the pen of The Daily Examiner Editor David Bancroft on 18 February 2011:

Morrison simply must go

You would have to go a long way to find a lower political act than that demonstrated by, of all people, the federal opposition spokesman on immigration, Scott Morrison.

First, the honourable member, if that is what he can be called, bemoaned the fact the government was spending taxpayers' money on sending some of the survivors of the Christmas Island boat tragedy to the funeral of many of those who died.

Such compassion.

He has since apologised, not for what he said, but for the timing.

We have now heard he floated the idea of using community concern about Muslims as a political tool.

So, what was the idea? Whip up hatred and distrust for a few votes?

This is exactly what causes division in the community, exactly the type of behaviour that would drive disenfranchised Muslims or other minority groups into the arms of extremists.

We don't need that, Mr Morrison.

We need, wherever possible, to encourage and promote unity.

Thankfully some of the cooler heads in the Liberal Party have prevailed and his suggestion never got to see the light of day.

But for the opposition spokesman to even suggest anti- Muslim sentiment should be used as a political tool, demonstrates he is not fit to hold the position. There are some extreme right wing views starting to surface in the party.

Hopefully there still remains enough with the belief systems on which the party was founded and named, liberalism, to keep them forever in check.

So, what happened to Perle Pty Limited and why is it suddenly on the political radar?

Snapshot of Perle Pty Ltd website

Here is a corporation (apparently owned by one Norman Herfurth and Graham Keeping through their own individual companies) which has been in existence since 1997, was expecting an annual turnover in 2010 of approximately $35 million, had ongoing contracts to build social housing for the NSW Government and private schools for the Catholic Church and boasted this substantial client list on its own website:

AMP Capital, Australian Museum, Australia Post, BNP Paribas, Bovis Lend Lease, City of Sydney, CMC Markets, Collex / Veolia Water, Incorp Interior Designs, Jones Lang LaSalle, Macquarie University, Memo Corporation, Mintel International, Racing NSW, Railcorp, Reserve Hotels, Rice Daubney, Roads & Traffic Authority (RTA), Roberts Weaver Group, Savills, Sydney Ferries Corporation, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Sydney Opera House Trust, TransGrid, University of Technology, University of Western Sydney, Virgin Mobile and Visa International

So why did Perle Pty Limited operating as Perle Construction Management suddenly go into voluntary liquidation with a list of around 500 creditors (some on the NSW North Coast) and, why is Federal Nationals Luke Hartsuyker attempting to link the Federal Government’s Stimulus Package with the downfall of this company and subcontractors current financial problems when elsewhere creditors appear more stoic?

Perhaps the answer to the first part of this question lies in the fact that this company appears to be more experienced in refurbishing/refitting existing structures rather than building from-the-ground-up, may have been over-ambitious in applying for new construction contracts as well as having a penchant for luxury cars and allegedly pretending all was well in order to receive progress payments from the NSW Dept of Housing and, the second part is easily explained by the Federal Opposition’s desire to use everything and anything it can to beat the Gillard Government about the head and the willingness of local tradies to be used as political tools by the deeply cynical Member for Cowper.

If any one government is to blame for this debacle the finger should be firmly pointing towards the NSW Keneally Government which lurches from one mismanagement disaster to another and a state public service which has been out to lunch for years.

While the real losers in this matter are creditors both large and small, as well as those on the North Coast sometimes desperately waiting for affordable rental accommodation.

Life's little lessons learnt from Cyclone Yasi

Drought-driven dust storms, tropical cyclones, east coast lows, out-of-nowhere tornadoes, storm surges, floods, bush fire - it seems Australia has seen them all over the last twelve months, so this blog post reprinted with kind permission of Island View over at Blogging Townsville contains some hints for the disaster next time......

What I learnt from Cyclone Yasi

While Yasi's winds here were equivalent to a severe Category 2 or weak Cat. 3 cyclone there are some useful things I learnt (or were reminded of) for next time:

1. The wind follows the land - the gullies and valleys - just as fires and flash floods do
   
2. Get a manual coffee grinder
   
3. Solar houses don't have to wait for the power to come on
   
4. Get an alternative mobile phone charger - car, solar, wind-up, whatever
   
5. A surprising number of people build stupid houses in stupid places
   
6. Building on or immediately behind the foreshore dune is dumb - it's a sand dune for god's sake! It has a purpose - to move, to replenish the beach!
   
7. The ONLY media that works/adds value in a crisis is local ABC radio and a battery powered receiver - it must be defended at all costs
   
8. There is no such thing as too much duct tape
   
9. Don't assume that because there's a cyclone, it's gonna rain - fill the bath all the way
   
10. Emergency alert text messages are great - if you have a mobile
    
11. Charge the camera beforehand - taking pics on the mobile chews up battery time
    
12. Tell everyone beforehand to only text you and not to ring
    
13. Get more ice beforehand, fill the fridge up with it (unless you have a solar house of course)
    
14. The Internet is invaluable until you lose power - but only because in enables you to track the cyclone closely.
    
15. News sites are hopeless and Facebook is downright dangerous in the hands of a teenager who can't discern rumour from fact or possibility from probability.
    
16. Print media is useless unless they can can get an edition out before the power comes on
    
17. The BOM site is fantastic but I suspect most people don't know how to read the forecast maps
    
18. Most people have no idea of the country on which they live or how it works
    
19. Most people (and journalists) have no appreciation of the geography of Queensland
    
20. Don't wait for the last minute to buy your beer supply and when you do don't forget to get extra for all of those chats with the neighbours after
    
21. Always be nice to the Ergon and CityWater guys - they are worth their weight in beer at the very least. They do an amazing job in appalling conditions

And finally, when everyone is locked down and until the storm passes, you are starkly reminded that ultimately in this world, you are on your own baby.


Magnetic Island, 9 February 2011

Antarctic whale hunt 'suspended'

Not victory yet - just a temporary ceasefire in the whale wars.

According to the Sea Shepherd organisation on February 11, 2011 - Japanese Whalers Escorted out of the Whaling Grounds

The Japanese whaling fleet is heading eastward at full speed and is now east of the boundary for their whaling grounds. The eastern boundary of the Japanese whaling operations is 145 degrees west. The whaling ships and the two Sea Shepherd ships are now at 72 degrees south and 133 degrees west on a course of 145 degrees. With the Bob Barker and the Gojira in pursuit, the Nisshin Maru continues to head eastward at 14 knots.

Both the whaling ships and the Sea Shepherd ships Bob Barker and the Gojira are now closer to South America than to New Zealand and Australia. This position is 3000 nautical miles southeast of Hobart, Australia and 1700 miles southwest of Patagonia, Argentina.

The Nisshin Maru is making erratic course changes. “It’s like they spin the bottle every watch to see what course to set,” said Captain of the Bob Barker Alex Cornelissen. “There is no rationality in these course changes. They go east, then south, then west, then north and then back east again. In short, they are burning quite a bit of fuel, going absolutely nowhere, and without being able to kill a single whale.”

The Steve Irwin is southeast bound, out of Wellington, en route to rendezvous in about a week with the other two Sea Shepherd ships and the Japanese whaling fleet.

From ABC News on February 16 2011:

Anti-whaling activists cautiously welcomed news that Japan was suspending its annual hunt near Antarctica as a result of their harassment campaign.

"If that's true then it demonstrates that our tactics, our strategies have been successful," Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson said by satellite phone from the ship Steve Irwin after being told of the suspension.

"I don't think they've gotten more than 30 whales from what I can think, certainly they haven't got many whales at all," he said.

Mr Watson was reluctant to claim a victory over the whalers, but said "every whale saved is a victory to us, so we've gotten a lot of victories down here this year".

Japan's fisheries agency said it had suspended operations on the Nisshin Maru factory ship and was considering an early end to the annual harpoon mission after harassment from the conservation group.

"Putting safety as a priority, the fleet has halted scientific whaling for now. We are currently considering what to do hereafter," Fisheries Agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku said.

It's not just the food you eat that contains genetically modified organisms

Record of GMO and GM Product Dealings under Section 138 of the Gene Technology Act 2000

Dealings Involving GM products - therapeutics

NB - All of these products have been approved for supply in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

Some of these approvals go back as far as 1987.

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

A died and gone to heavenz musing: The whisper is that this applies to moggies also: The Observatory Hotel offers pet-friendly rooms at an additional charge (from $50 per pet per night). Dogs will receive a pet bed and their owners can choose dinner from the Scoopy Doo room service menu.

A how not to respect your professional peers musing: Sometimes I even get emails on various subjects from hoomins. Like this snippet for example........."the reality is many of the APN's stories are beat ups - this is inevitable when their journalists are trained to use emotive and adjectival language and make judgements in what are supposed to be objective reports - (this despite the journalists' code of ethics) - However, I do acknowledge that this is becoming the 'norm' in a rapidly changing media world, where stories are dumbed down to appease the lowest common denominator on a populist basis (print/digital/broadcast). The sad thing about this lazy and inept form of journalism is that most readers don't know they are being hoodwinked - so, in many cases one lazy journalist uses another lazy journalist's 'facts' as a given, without doing their own research."

A Rex the German Shepherd in gossip mode musing: Hey Boy, Don't know about you, but Dudley, a mate of mine down the road, reckons our local daily rag, The Daily Examiner, might have introduced a Family First Employment Policy. Dudley pointed out to me that about a month or so ago he noticed a DEX photographer's son was on the payroll and yesterday he noticed a DEX higher-level journo's nephew started scribbling for the paper. Cheers, Rex

A sad goodbye musing: Goodbye, Artemis. We didn't know Artemis except through her family's online mentions of her antics and those posted pics, but all the moggies and doggies associated with Moggy Musing will, I'm sure, join me in wishing her family and many furry friends well after hearing of her sad passing.

A happy, happy musing: Scooter, a 9 month-old Labrador went missing on Christmas Eve and was handed into the Grafton pound and reunited with his family on 30 December 2010 - just in time to have a long nap or three after his big adventure and then join in New Year celebrations.

A furry friend grapevine musing: If your dog or cat appears to be grinning this week it's probably because it has heard that Clarence Valley shire councillor Margaret McKenna has begun to get examples of McDonald's (Yamba) branded rubbish in her mail - sometimes a vote for unpopular development will come back to haunt in the most unusual ways!

Yamba Rugby players go too fast

Although they lost three games at Crescent Head on the weekend, Yamba's rugby players, The Buccaneers, really do need to slow down a lot more.

The team was on the losing side of the ledger to Campbelltown (35 to 5), Sunnybank (35 to 7) and Wollongbar (25 to 7).

However, a report in The Daily Examiner states 

The team travelled three hours down the Pacific Highway to the Crescent Head Sevens.

Heck!  Three hours for the trip from Yamba to Crescent Head! That suggests the rugby boys were putting their feet a tad too heavily on their accelerator pedals.

According to three independent sources, Google Maps, Whereis and TravelMate, it's a distance of about 270kms from Yamba to Crescent Head and over 250kms of it is on the very dangerous Pacific Highway.

Fellas, have a good season in 2011 and travel safely to and from your games.

Image credit: Yamba Buccaneers

Aerial crop spraying on NSW North Coast in the news again

Excerpt from NSW Environmental Defender’s Office newsletter on February 10, 2011:

Byron Shire Echo : Spraying locals with pesticides (8 February 2010)

Helicopter spraying of potentially harmful chemicals on corporate macadamia nut farms in the area has sparked calls for greater transparency in spraying practices.

The United States based Hancock Agricultural Investment Group – which owns several macadamia farms near Dunoon – used choppers for aerial spraying on at least two occasions late last year, causing serious concerns within parts of the local community.

During the November incident the chopper sprayed difenoconazole, a substance that is described as a ‘possible carcinogen' and suspected of damaging the hormone system, according to a recent report co-written by the Northern Rivers EDO, and the National Toxics Network.

To read this article, please visit:
http://www.echo.net.au/newsitem/spraying-locals-chemicals

Everyone likes Tony!

Tony Abbott is an extreme right wing, redneck, homophobic, sexist, bible-thumping, puppet of the mining sector, climate change-denying dinosaur. He would take Australia back to the dark ages if elected - let's make sure he doesn't!!
(TAWNBPM)!!!!!

This little Facebook page has been quietly chugging along since about mid-2010 and now has over 5,000 followers.