Pretty in pink on the North Coast

Untitled by Debrah NovakAn verandah by Anthony Nugent

Frangipani by Wolfram Borgis

Hogarth's attempt to stifle Chile conference just another step in covert US-Japan move against anti-whaling nations?

It shouldn't come as any surprise that International Whaling Commission (IWC) Chair, Bill Hogarth, is attempting to stifle debate and voting at the IWC conference in Chile.

 

It was only late last year that the US Dept. of Commerce through NOAA (for which Hogarth then worked) issued a press release which indicated a close relationship might be developing between the U.S. and Japan over future international commercial whaling.

 

The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs appears to confirm this in a December 2007 official transcript of interview which indicates that Japan has some expectation that Hogarth is pursuing "normalisation" of the IWC which is expected to occur within 2 years.

 

The insertion of a U.S. based organisation, Pew Charitable Trust, into negotions over whaling led to the March 2008 closed-door IWC meeting which appeared ready to support Japan.

Indeed, Pew's involvement might be the vehicle being used by the U.S. to further Japan's aims.

 

But Japan is expecting more than a reform of tone. It wants to see some sign of progress towards the eventual approval of sustainable commercial whaling.

If it does not get that, it is likely to explore further the option of leaving the IWC and setting up a separate organisation of like-minded countries.

The Pew symposium suggested that some members of the anti-whaling bloc might not have too many problems with that, providing an extensive checklist of safeguards is introduced, possibly including elements such as

• limiting the species hunted
• deciding catch sizes internationally
• insisting on the observation of whale sanctuaries
• bringing scientific whaling under international oversight

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the U.S. is not adverse to assisting Japan broker a trade-off which would allow it to increase its coastal whaling in return for minimum concessions on its 'scientific' research.

 

Japan Today reported on 22 June 2008:

Even anti-whaling countries have shown concern about the course of the IWC, with some, including the United States, seeking establishment of a working group of 10 to 15 countries to discuss coastal whaling and research whaling.

 

Japan is currently Vice-Chair of the IWC and its veiled threat to withdraw from the commission is now firming into a public stance.

 

In Chile this week Japan continues to try and isolate Australia.

AUSTRALIA is on its own at a global whaling meeting in Chile by not offering concessions on hunting the creatures, Japanese whalers have said.

 

Australia is not a big export market for Japanese goods and services, nor does Japan invest heavily in this country.

How little importance Australia now holds for the Government of Japan is indicated by the schedule of VIP visits found at its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

The imbalance is clear over the last decade (list does not include Rudd, Smith and Crean visits to Japan since the November 2007 change of government in Australia). 

 

From Australia to Japan

Year	Name
1957	Prime Minister Robert Menzies
1970	Prime Minister John Gorton
1973	Prime Minister Edward Whitlam
1976, 1978, 1980, 1982	Prime Minister John Fraser
1984, 1986, 1987, 1990	Prime Minister Robert Hawke
1992, 1994, 1995	Prime Minister Paul Keating
1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005	Prime Minister John Howard

From Japan to Australia

Year	Name
1957	Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi
1963	Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda
1967	Prime Minister Eisaku Sato
1971	Prince and Princess Mikasa (international conference)
1971-73	Prince Katsura (study)
1973	The Crown Prince and Crown Princess (the current Emperor and Empress) (goodwill visit)
1974	Prince Naruhito (the current Crown Prince) (tour)
1974	Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka
1980	Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira
1982	Prince Katsura (tenth anniversary of establishment of the Australia Japan Society)
1985	Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
1988	Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita
1992	Princess Sayako (tour)
1993	Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
1993	Prince and Princess Tomohito of Mikasa (discussions about educational assistance for children with hearing or sight impairments)
1994	Princess Tomohito of Mikasa and Prince Katsura (charity event to provide educational assistance for children with hearing or sight impairments)
1995	Prince and Princess Akishino (official visit)
1997	Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto
2002	Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

Water raiders, nuke backers

A 'Not Happy, Chall' letter to the editor in yesterday's The Daily Examiner.

IN an effort to differentiate themselves from the regionally unpopular Liberal Party, the NSW Nationals went to the support of their federal counterparts contesting the November 2007 federal election by promising that rivers on the NSW North Coast would be safe from water diversion schemes and backing away from calls to place commercial nuclear power plants in the Northern Rivers region.
Less than seven months later the story changes.
According to the Tweed Daily News on June 16, the Nationals NSW secretariat (at its conference last weekend) resolved to 'support greater efforts to reduce eastern water lost to the ocean and more in-depth ways to turn water inland'.
The party's newly elected vice-chair, Jeremy Challacombe from Grafton, tries to present himself as a new-style National but just parrots the same old line from party diehards on water and energy.
Indeed, in The Daily Examiner (June 18) Mr. Challacombe had the gall to try and present the Lithgow-led push to once again grab Northern Rivers fresh water supplies as 'the motion was more about better water management than river diversion'.
Mr. Challacombe would be well aware that water in the Clarence catchment area (the principal target of would-be water raiders) is very well managed for sustainable outcomes.
His willingness to support investigation of 'nuclear options' is also disappointing for many in the Northern Rivers region.
It is strange that North Coast Nationals MPs, who would have been aware of both motions long before the conference started, either did not attend or made little effort to form a counter-lobby to either the Lithgow water raiders or Dubbo nuclear power plant proponents.
Saying that you would have 'howled them down' if you'd been there (Steve Cansdell) and that this would happen over your 'dead body' (Geoff Provest), or even that the parliamentary arm of the party would likely 'block the plan' (Don Page), may have made for good media copy.
However, it failed to impress this voter.

JUDITH M. MELVILLE
Yamba

'Round the traps this week

Losin' my religion....

In this ultra-conservative, religion-raddled world we now seem to live in, it's beaut to see that the secular jibe is alive and well at The Quotations Page.

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck."
George Carlin
Late US comedian and actor

Obamarama?

Obama leads McCain by 3 points in Oregon and 15 points in Washington according to a SurveyUSA for June 17-19.
McCain leads Obama by 28 points in Utah according to a Dan Jones survey for the same days.
From Vote from Abroad yesterday.

Best blog pic this week

One of the few things
cities do better
than the country -
toilet door commentary.

Pic found at PollieGraph

Hubris on the US08 presidential campaign trail

It takes a healthy ego and full measure of arrogance to stay the course in any U.S. presidential election and, Barack Obama obviously has both.

He has built himself a considerable nation-wide volunteer campaign team, but is he in danger of losing control of this political beast or did he really O.K. the disastrous faux seal shown in this photograph?

The Los Angeles Times reports that Obama has been widely mocked for the seal.

Obama's people are in damage control.

From Mark Ambinder's blog yesterday:

I'm told that Obama recognizes that it was a silly mistake, that the universal reaction at Wacker and Michigan was, "Boy, was that dumb," and that they don't think the seal staging will matter to actual voters.
Does the press think Obama is arrogant? Yes. Does the seal represent arrogance? Only tangentially, actually. The worry for Obama's image managers is that it gives the press a pretext to call Obama arrogant, an example for them to add to a list of arrogant moments, and a way to distract them from what Obama is saying.

Photograph from The Los Angeles Times.

A message to the people of Japan in June 2008

Photograph from Mail Online

This mother and child are not meant to be food for an ancient and civilised people or the domestic pets they keep.

The member for the Planet of the Apes interjects....

I opened the Clarence Valley Review the other day to find one of those dob-in-a-terrorist-or-the-neighbour-you-don't-like adverts taking up a good half of page 17 in the last issue.
This money wasting exercise featured a tag cloud in the shape of Australia which highlighted such gems as I know this person who has downloaded a lot of documents from suspicious websites and I can't shake the feeling something's wrong.
Well, I thought, what a yawn - the internet filters installed on Federal Parliament PCs seem to feel that half the political blogs written by Australians are suspicious and the President of the Senate and the Black Rod appear to think that all internet activity by elected senators is inherently dangerous.
But then I read the adverts' main blurb; So if you see or hear something that just doesn't feel right, please call the National Security Hotline and keep the information flowing.
Now there's a thought! It's hard not to see and hear things that aren't quite right in Canberra these days, so perhaps I should let my fingers do the walking and inform on...........
Luke Hartsuyker, Nationals MP for Cowper, for this inane remark demonstrating a waste of space; The member for the Planet of the Apes interjects.[House of Reps 29 May 2008]
Tony Abbott, Liberal MP for Warringah, for these bon mots; Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member for Shortland is wasting our time raving on about people going surfing. If she has a question to ask the minister, she should ask it. and Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not making any personal aspersions against the member for Maribyrnong. [House of Reps 5 June] and Mr Speaker, I said that she was a liar and I withdraw that. [26 March 2007]
Wilson Tuckey, Liberal MP for O'Connor, for insulting peanuts; Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I want to refer you to standing orders 88, 89, 90 and 91 relating to disorderly conduct. If you want disorderly conduct in this place, let that peanut carry on with matters that have nothing to do with the question. [House of Reps 18 June]
Malcolm Turnbull, Liberal MP for Wentworth, for the crime of over-explanation; Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation. [House of Reps 19 June] and Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation [19 June] and again Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation [17 March] and yet again Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation. [12 March]
Julie Bishop, Liberal MP for Curtin, for copying Malcolm Turnbull's homework: Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation [House of Reps 19 June] and Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation. [18 June]
Brendan Nelson, Liberal MP for Bradfield, for his daffy ways and disrespectfully using the term "silly idiot"; Mr Speaker, just to assist you: if I have said anything at all which is in any way offensive to the Deputy Prime Minister, I withdraw. [House of Reps 18 June]

* A big thankyou to the four blokes and a sheila at OpenAustralia who have just made hunting political snipe that much easier! And quite seriously, have made Hansard searches a little less daunting when looking for your local member's contribution to debate.

Predator Tweed needs rubbing out

The Australian Government would do well to take a big stick to predatory share trader David Tweed and others whose actions suggest they possess morals akin to those of ally cats.

Tweed, who changed his name by deed poll from David Tschernitz, preys on shareholders who have little awareness of the value of shares they own.

Tweed's companies, which include Direct Share Purchasing Corporation (DSPC), obtain copies of companies' share registers that show the names and addresses of shareholders and then use a mass-mailing strategy and post unsolicited offers buy shareholders' stocks for less than market value.

The Australian reports Tweed has had a victory in the Federal Court with a ruling that he can buy copies of share registers for a fraction of the cost of producing them.

Tweed's DSPC took legal action against financial group Axa Asia Pacific Holdings, alleging Axa had overcharged for a copy of its share register.

Axa argued that it was merely passing on the $17,195.39 charge levied by registrar Computershare, but judge Ray Finkelstein ruled on Thursday that this was not a reasonable amount and that Axa could charge only $250.

Axa has been ordered to refund $16,945.39 to Mr Tweed and pay his legal costs.

The decision removes one of the few barriers between Mr Tweed and the small shareholders he regularly targets with unsolicited offers to buy their stock for less than market value.

A brief lesson in humility for our political leaders

"kevin rudd" "brendan nelson" "god"

With populism, political expediency, paternalism and pomposity continuing to be the order of the day in Canberra, Google Trends offers a different perspective from the perennial opinion polls.
Full worldwide breakdown here.

Iemma jacks up electricity price ahead of planned privatisation of NSW power industry and pensioners shiver

NSW North Coast low-income earners, retirees and pensioners can expect their household electricity bills to rise by between $31 and $90 a year on average depending on which power company supplies the house.
This represents a rise of around 4.8 to 8.5 per cent, commencing on 1 July 2008.

With the inevitable network charges/service costs rise which would accompany the Iemma Government's planned privatisation and the expected steep rise in actual cost of electricity per kilowatt hour when emissions trading comes into being, North Coast residents may soon find that this essential service is moving beyond the limits of their pocket books.

Water use costs have also risen, so that in another four years it is likely that the Centrelink utility allowance will make barely a mark on the average household electricity and water bills of the elderly or disabled.

Many North Coast residents are permanent renters and therefore cannot take advantage of renewable energy rebates for energy saving systems which their landlords currently have no incentive to have installed in the first place.
The only option, for many elderly or chronically ill people surviving on low incomes, will be to cease making themselves hot meals or heating their homes on those cold winter nights.

Thanks, Messrs. Iemma and Costa and, thanks in advance to Mr. O'Farrell as it is obvious that the Liberal-Nationals Coalition intends to join in selling us all down the river to assist those big business political donors.

Photograph from ABC News