Stick 'em up! Your money or your health

Faarrck! When will this daylight robbery end?

“Our draft decision indicates that average regulated electricity prices will increase by around 18.1% for Country Energy customers, 17.9% for EnergyAustralia customers and 16.4% for Integral Energy customers (Table 1.1). These increases come on top of rises of around 7% to 13% in 2010.”

Maud Up The Street tells me that her winter electricity bill will rise by over $32 before she even turns her heater on during very cold evenings. Maud wonders how her old bones are going to manage and predicts an increase in aches and pains because she won‘t be able to keep her home warm enough.

IPART Draft Report and Draft Determination covering average price increases in standard supply areas.

American G.O.P. have lost their minds or lost their nerve?

 

According to Jonathon Chait at The New York Times there is a small problem concerning exactly which political hopeful will contest the presidential election against sitting President Barack Obama on 6 November 2012:

The hidden hand of the G.O.P. establishment is once again at work. Dissatisfied with a presidential field consisting of boring retreads (Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee) and Tea Party-endorsed outsiders (Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin), various elites have been trying to coalesce around a candidate of their own.

Now here is where the story gets strange. The candidates they are recruiting make Michael Dukakis look like John F. Kennedy. They are qualified enough to serve as president, but wildly unqualified to run for president. One way to put this is that most powerful people in the G.O.P. have suddenly gone idealistic. Another way to put it is that they’ve lost their minds.

God help us - it's the Shooter's Party at work

In The Daily Examiner letters column on 7 March 2011:

Shooting pains

The Manning River Times reports the Shooters and Fishers Party have wasted no time in taking advantage of the balance of power in the state's upper house, now held by elephant shooter, Robert Borsak and Previous MLA, Robert Brown.

According to the article, Warwick Murray, a local shooters' representative, is reported as saying: "We're keen to see shooting made a larger sport in schools", and also pushing for hunting to be allowed in national parks.

It is clear that the obnoxious Shooters Party Bill, which was rejected by the previous Labor Government, that would have allowed the shooting of a range of native animal and birds, as well as feral species, in national Parks using guns, bows and arrows, and packs of dogs, is still squarely on their agenda.

God help us if the Coalition Party is prepared to do deals if it needs their help to introduce its legislation.

JOHN EDWARDS

South Grafton

Dubbo's Mutton lambs it up about radio law

Former Lower Clarence resident, Richard Mutton, who now hails from down town Dubbo, has thrown his two cents worth into the discussion about radio station 2DU retrenching its announcers Angela Clutterbuck and Ash Keenan and cutting back its "live and local" weekend broadcasts.

Mutton has a bit of form (colloquially known as self interest) when it comes to commercial radio.

Mutton previously had a stint with UNE Radio in Armidale in his student days, where his call sign was "Swinging D*ck", and then moved on to commercial radio at 2GF in Grafton where he double-dipped while on the Education Department's payroll.

While he was live-to-air in Armidale, the same cannot be said about most of Mutton's late-night graveyard sessions on 2GF. Mutton pre-recorded most of his programs for 2GF and then sat at home and listened to himself.

Enough said!

Dubbo's Daily Liberal carries a report detailing Mutton's latest 'effort'. The hypocrisy of the bloke knows no bounds.

While I feel for Clutterbuck and Keenan, having Mutton batting for them isn't a good look.

There are some things a politician should not say on Facebook or in the media

Think a lot but say little. Anon

Nationals MP for Clarence, Steve Cansdell, shows his ignorance of the law as he unfairly abuses a Local Court magistrate on Facebook for the benefit of his 608 friends and assorted readers:

Snapshot 14 April 2011

Steve Cansdell ‎2010 Yamba Riots, police van burnt, cops rocked by drunken mob. All charges dropped & these Grubs walk free. Pissweak Magistrate 18 hours ago via Selective Tweets

Yamba solicitor Bob Thompson took Steve Cansdell to task for similar comments elsewhere. Thompson rightly drew attention to the fact that this NSW Nationals MP was publicly commenting before all matters concerning the 2010 Yamba riot were concluded before the courts and that Cansdell was prejudging the nine juveniles caught up in the original incident:

Excerpt from Thompson's letter to the editor
The Daily Examiner 14 April 2011
Click on image to enlarge

Major stuff up by NSW Police a candidate for Ripley's Believe It Or Not

Update:

In The Daily Examiner on 15 April, Steve Candell states that he wishes he had moderated his language when he made a Facebook comment about the result of the Yamba riot trial, but he stands by the sentiment. I suspect that what Mr. Cansdell actually regrets is the negative publicity his intemperate comments have generated and this Daily Examiner editorial of the same day:

Saffin continues to demonstrate her commitment to the Page electorate

On the NSW North Coast it would be hard to find an elected representative in any of the three tiers of government who is as committed to her electorate as the obviously hardworking Labor Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin MP.

The Punch 7 April 2011:

There were 14,234 cases diagnosed in 2007 (the latest national data). One death for every three cases diagnosed. Bowel cancer has not, as yet, captured the public’s imagination. It does not have a legion of popular ambassadors at its front. There are no supermodels, pop stars or sportspeople selling the bowel cancer story. We are told by journalists: “It’s not a story for breakfast”. There is no ribbon for bowel cancer; there is no agreed colour to unite the cause. And, most importantly, there is no national screening program.

Currently, one in five bowel cancers is diagnosed at stage four, the most advanced stage, when the cancer is often terminal. This is particularly tragic given bowel cancer is easy to treat when detected early. It is a double blow to those dying of the disease to learn there is a simple $30 test that can pick up the cancer early.

Excerpt from Ms. Saffin’s 8 April same day email response to one resident in her electorate who expressed concern that the National Bowel Screening Program winds up at the end of this financial year and, asked for her representation on his behalf at ministerial level:

Please be assured I shall do so personally for you and that I have made representations already. I am aware of the programme and its worth to many of us.

Regards Janelle

Anti-whaling warrior the Bob Barker in the Clarence for maintenance

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s MY Bob Barker quietly slipped into the Clarence River last Saturday so that it can be repainted at the at the Harwood Slipway over the next two weeks.

The Society states:

Our “black ships” have served their purpose. Since 2002, our ships have been painted black with the objective of driving the Japanese whaling fleet from the waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The color black served four purposes for the Sea Shepherd fleet. First, it’s an intimidating color, and up against the superior number of ships in the whaling fleet, I felt we should be as intimidating as possible. The black ships, coupled with our own Jolly Roger, lent an air of intimidation. Secondly, the color black absorbs heat and this helped conserve energy in an environment with 24-hour sunlight, but a close to zero degrees climate.

Added to intimidation and keeping warm, we had a third factor…the black ships have long been a part of Japanese culture signifying change. In Japan, the term “black ships” has a specific meaning. First, with the black fleet of the Portuguese that brought Catholicism and Western trade to Japan, and then with the black fleet led by American Admiral Matthew Perry, that brought Japan out of centuries of isolationism in 1854. Our objective was to stop Japan from whaling, and we succeeded. We drove the Japanese whalers from the Antarctic waters…hopefully for good. If they return, we will return, but the prospect is very good that they will not.

Our fourth factor was to symbolize mourning for the death of so many whales due to Japanese harpoons in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Meanwhile we have other challenges to deal with including shark finning, tuna poaching, and the slaughter of seals, sea turtles, and small cetaceans. And with campaigns before us in the Mediterranean, Palau, Galapagos, and across the Indian Ocean, Equatorial Africa, and the South Pacific, the color black is not the most comfortable. We now need to reflect heat instead of absorbing it. The Gojira will be painted metallic silver,…….

Photograph from The Daily Examiner

In defence of free speech and the rights of First Peoples

On 8 April 2011 North Coast Voices embedded a Vimeo video made by the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation here on our blog.

Since then Crikey has published this:
Lawyers representing Fortescue Metal Group (FMG) and CEO Andrew Forrest have sent legal letters to a video hosting website requesting they take down a controversial clip of a native title meeting held in Roebourne last month despite issuing a denial to Crikey yesterday that they'd been in touch with Vimeo.
In an email from FMG's legal team to Vimeo, Fortescue say the video is defamatory, misleading, "incites racial hatred" and is "designed to intimidate."
Uploaded by Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, the video attracted 12,000 plays in nine days before being removed on Tuesday by the New York-based video hosting site in response to the threats.
The video has since been uploaded to YouTube and has been the subject of heated discussion on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
A spokesperson for Vimeo confirmed that the videos had been taken down for legal reasons. Fortescue spokesman Cameron Morse told Crikey yesterday his company had not had any contact with Vimeo about the controversial video. When contacted by Crikey this morning, Morse declined to clarify his comments.
Michael Cheah, legal counsel representing Vimeo, says the video was removed after the hosting site received correspondence from lawyers for FMG and Forrest alleging that the video contained defamatory and misleading statements about them.

So in the interests of free speech, North Coast Voices again embeds the video - this time in two parts from YouTube.





YINDJIBARNDI PRESS RELEASE: Vimeo forced to delete “FMG’s Great Native Title Swindle” video after legal threats from FMG and CEO Andrew Forrest.

Black Caviar-gate

My second cousin, who's a nephew of the late Clarence the Clocker, was at Royal Randwick when Black Caviar donkey-licked her opposition and won the Group 1 T.J. Smith Stakes over 1200 metres last Saturday.

But, here's the rub. Officially, a crowd of 25,368 was reported to have turned up to see her. However, my second cousin says he's prepared to take London-to-a-brick-on odds about the crowd being closer to 35,000 and not the reported 25,000.

So, who tickled the till? Who helped themselves to the gate takings? Nothing less than a Royal Commission is required to get to the bottom of this scandal. 

Credit: Image of BC from formguide.cyberhorse.com.au