Ahoy, Northern Rivers shire councillors!

In the face of growing evidence of the negative impacts of climate change and how these are likely to affect the NSW North Coast, both the NSW Minister for Planning and Northern Rivers shire councils continue to cave-in to pressure from developers to allow housing on vulnerable coastal and estuary land.

 

Hopefully this report will give them pause for thought.

 

"IN a portent of how climate change could transform town planning along the nation's coastlines, the South Australian Supreme Court has ruled that predicted sea level rises are a valid reason to reject beachfront housing developments.---

The South Australian Supreme Court cited local sea level rises of 30cm over the next 50 years in ruling yesterday against Northcape Properties' plans for 80 holiday homes at Marion Bay, 150km west of Adelaide.

The changes - which the court ruled was expected, not merely a probability - would encroach on the proposal's "erosion buffer and coastal reserve".

Earth Hour March 2008

On March 29 it's time to switch off the electricity at your house for one hour, to show the world that action against climate change is important to you and demonstrate how people can reduce energy consumption in their own homes.

The global warming initiative began as an environmental event in Sydney last year and has expanded to include 24 cities from around the world.

Razor gang shaves $22 million a year off MPs printing allowance

I just love it when the new broom does some overdue sweeping.

Yesterday the Rudd Government announced that it is introducing changes to Parliament to cut politicians' printing allowances from $150,000 to $100,000.

It is also proposing to stop MPs from stockpiling their funds for election campaigning.

Finally, we might see an end to those useless fridge calendars sent out during the first year of the election cycle and a reduction in those equally useless letters claiming credit for other b*ggers efforts sent out in the last two years before the next election.

Stifling a local MP's urge to print rubbish might save a tree or two as well.

A win-win for us all.

John Winston Howard, no man of steel just an embarrassing old f*rt

Former Prime Minister, John Winston Howard, continues his whistlestop tour of America in defence of those personal attitudes and government policies rejected by the Australian people on 24 November 2007.

 

It's all a bit sad really. Instead of trying for a dignified position on the world stage as a former head of government, Mr. Howard has opted to act the embarrassing old f*rt.

Refusing to believe that he could have been wrong and also refusing to accept that his public intransigence may yet have a direct impact on the political survival of the Liberal Party of Australia.

 

ABC News yesterday published this brief synopsis and video link to his 10 March speech to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, billed on the school's webpage as "A Conversation with the Honorable John Howard".

 

"Former prime minister John Howard has again defended his government's record in a speech in the United States.

Mr Howard addressed students at Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government.

He spoke about his support for nuclear power in Australia and his opposition to Australia signing the Kyoto Protocol.

He has also restated his opposition to a formal apology to the Aboriginal Stolen Generations."

 

John should have ignored Janette's desire to pursue the fleeing tatters of former glory and stayed quietly at home.

 

I wonder if Harvard Uni and his other hosts know that they are objects of ridicule for taking Howard so seriously? For paying him $50,000 a hit to spout a very unoriginal piece of sour grapes from what appears to be a single compilation of highlights from his 2007 election speeches. 

Rudd Government sinks its fangs into public dental plan

Rudd's razor gang continues to wield the knife.

 

According to The Daily Telegraph last week. 

 

"A MEDICARE dental scheme paying for 20,000 dental treatments a month will be abolished by the Rudd Government in three weeks' time.

The scheme, which provides up to $4250 in Medicare benefits for dental work, has been in operation for just three months.

The latest Medicare statistics show that 20,224 dental services were funded under the scheme in January.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon is axing the $384 million scheme and replacing it with a plan to give the states $290 million to pay for one million dental consultations at public dental clinics.--

The Association for the Promotion of Oral Health yesterday slammed the axing of the Medicare dental scheme, claiming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was "stealing Medicare entitlements".

Association chairman Hans Zoellner said Mr Rudd, who has a heart valve replacement, relied on high quality dental services to avoid a deadly complication of his condition known as endocaritis.

Bacteria from gum disease or dental decay could have resulted in a life-threatening heart infection, Professor Zoellner said.

"He is stripping Australians less fortunate than himself from the same dental services he requires for survival," he said.

"We don't all marry millionaires."

 

Now I know that it is possible that Howard's scheme for dental care from private dentists on the recommendation of GPs may have been open to a level of overuse or abuse.

However, carving out a cool $94 million from the dental health budget is not the way to go.

 

The combined states waiting lists at public dental clinics need more than what is on offer to fix the long wait for treatment.

 

"There are 485,000 Australians waiting up to 10 years for public dental treatment and Professor Zoellner said Labor's extra funding would only treat 83,000 of them."

 

Indeed, with most of those who have been on the waiting lists for years now needing considerable work done on their mouths, this new level of funding (which will actually be prioritised and allocated by state governments) will probably only continue to spent on examinations and extractions rather than efforts to keep functioning teeth.

That way the states will make the money go further towards allowing them to avoid significant increases in their own contributions to dental health funding.

 

Ms. Roxon needs to remember that, like health, dental services are the constitutional responsibility of the Commonwealth and ensure that state governments are locked in to proper use of the limited funds she is offering.

Many on the NSW North Coast will be watching this issue with interest as they wait in the dental queue.

Personally, I would have preferred to see the proposed $31 billion in inflationary tax cuts reduced instead of budget cuts eating into public health measures.

Morrie and the Multinationals sing 'It's you and me against the world'

Well the report into the electricity privatisation plan has been presented to the Iemma Government.

Predictably, it comes down predominantly in favour of the Iemma-Costa proposal.

Also predictably, NSW unions hold a dissenting view.

Uncomfortably but not unexpectedly, Prime Minister Rudd weighed in to support his little mate and sang from the same hymn book.

What is a little surprising is the strong rumour that a number of North Coast Labor Party branches are very unhappy and at least one has made known its opposition to Morrie's little scheme to sell-off an essential service.

 

So, apart from most of his 21-strong front bench, some hardline economists and the big multinational energy companies, who is in favour of what appears to be a $25 billion Telsta-style sell out?

Anyone? No-one?

 

Not even the three reports that came before the NSW Government gave an unqualified tick of approval to this sell-off. Doesn't that give you pause for thought, Premier?

Morrie, I hope that they hang you high by your heels at the ALP state conference in May.

 

A collection of papers and the final report are at Securing the State's Electricity Supplies.

The March 2008 Impact Statement with dissenting positions by Unions NSW and the Total Environment Centre is at this link.

Shout Out youth mag revamped

Shout Out the local free youth magazine has been revamped. Its 34 page March 2008 issue is glossy and tightly packed with news and views, as well as great surfing pics.

This mag is a Clarence Valley Arts project funded by the NSW Government through the area assistance scheme.

The Shout Out team are young, bright and cluey and their mag is well worth a look to see what's on and what's up.

If you want to find out what's on for the young on the NSW North Coast, grab a copy of the mag.
Alternatively contact the team at:
cvyouthmag@yahoo.com.au or go to MySpace here.

Remember that the Youth Week 2008 festival is at Maclean Showground on 5 April 2008.
It will have live music, DJs, 4-way bungee, circus workshop, jewellery making, and great food stalls.
Sounds like a great day.

A smile for the start of the working week

Cartoon found at Club Troppo.

Is Japanese government and industry paying for this latest 'informal' whaling discussion?

One has to wonder exactly whose press releases are being relied on for stories concerning last weekend's International Whaling Commission meeting in Tokyo and the additional informal discussion concerning a repeal of the international whaling moratorium.

 

Japan already carries out "a limited hunt in waters close to its shores" in which it kills around 100 whales and in excess of 21,000 dolphins annually according to the government fisheries agency reported in The New York Times.

 

The NZ Herald on Sunday reported the following today.

 

"LONDON - Controversial plans to lift the worldwide ban on whaling were presented to a secret meeting of more than 70 governments in London last week.

The plans, which have alarmed environmentalists, have been welcomed by both pro- and anti-whaling governments and seek to lift a long stalemate over hunting, enabling Japan officially to resume commercial whaling for the first time in more than 20 years.

The plans would permit the world's main whaling nation to carry out a limited hunt in waters close to its shores.

In return, Japan would have to stop exploiting a loophole in international law, through which it kills hundreds of whales around Antarctica each year under the guise of "scientific research".

The plans - drawn up at another unpublicised meeting in Tokyo last month - were presented by the governments of Argentina and the Netherlands to a closed three-day session of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at the Renaissance Hotel near Heathrow airport, which ended yesterday."

 

There is a real danger here that Japan is angling to extend its commercial whale kill into Pacific Ocean waters and to not only include Minke whales but also to have some threatened species 

placed on the official catch list.

 

One also has to question the present motives of the Netherlands and Argentina. 

The Netherlands effectively ceased commercial whaling in 1964 when it sold its last whaling ship to Japan and now officially opposes the practice of whaling. So its support of discussions about 

allowing Japan to widen its coastal whaling is possibly in response to thinly veiled Japanese threats of legal action or diplomatic sanctions over the Netherlands registered vessel, the Steve Irwin.

In 2007 Argentina supported an extension of the Antarctic Southern Ocean whale sanctuary into the South Atlantic and has been critical of Japan for voting against this move.

Given Japan's history of using money to pave the way, a suspicion develops concerning its 'new' relationship with these two countries.

 

The international community would be foolish to believe that any concession granted to Japan would see that country cease its drive to expand both whale kill numbers and the territory in which it conducts these whale hunts.

 

For the voice of the hunted and soon to be hunted go and listen to their songs/sounds:

Blue Whale 1                   Pilot Whale   

Blue Whale 2                   Sperm Whale                   

Humpback Whale 1          Dolphin 1

Humpback Whale 2          Dolphin 2

Humpback Whale 3          Male Whale in 2003

Fin Whale                        Dwarf Minke

When all else fails the Liberals hug their teddy bears

Voters, give little Brennie Nelson a chance to shine as Lib leader; cry Christopher Pyne, Julie Bishop, Greg Hunt, Malcolm Turnbull and all, as they clutch their teddy bears as armour against the long night.

Why should we? When the lot of you were in government I don't remember you giving ordinary Aussies much of a chance.

For over a decade you blithely made your political bed. Now lie in it!

top soil question

Has anyone else in the valley noticed how quickly the topsoil dries out. Since the good rain we have had I decided to plant some trees. I had some seeds that I'd potted up and they were growing strong, so it was time for them to go out into the big world. The hole were dug, fertiliser was ready so in they went.

I noticed when I was digging the holes that the first 50 to 70mm was dry. Under that the soil was moist, and the clay layer was wet. I thought that all the extra water that these trees would need was a good wetting-in on planting.

It was surprising that on inspection two days later the trees were showing all the symptoms of lack of water.

The topsoil was bone dry and the more disturbed the soil the deeper the dryness. Where I had dug the holes for the trees the dryness extended a good 100mm or more.

This has led me to thinking about what would cause this problem. Since most of the trees were well mulched when they were planted, direct sunlight should not have caused the drying soil.

We have not had extremely hot weather so that could not be the cause either.

This made me think about the drought we have just had. Could it be that over the combined dry years the humus in the soil has depleted to such an extent that it leaves the surface topsoil vulnerable to drying?

This is my current theory, but I am open to other suggestions.

If you have noticed the same thing in your garden in the Clarence Valley I would be very interested to hear of your experiences and what you think may be causing this. Or is it just my imagination?