Friday 24 July 2009
Unimpressive polling at The Daily Examiner, Grafton
A word about bureaucratic corruption in 2009
Next week Brisbane is hosting the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2009 over four days from 28 July to 31 July.
It is held in Australia every two years, and is a joint initiative of the Crime and Misconduct Commission (QLD), the Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW), and the Corruption and Crime Commission (WA).
This is a significant opportunity for Australian and international public officials to learn about contemporary anti-corruption trends and strategies, and to network with senior representatives of leading Australian public sector agencies. This year's conference will also be of particular interest to health administrators, tertiary institutions and agencies providing services in remote locations, with sessions focussing on each of these areas.
Given the vastly enlarged data bases that the Rudd Government is envisioning as vital for the so-called digital information age, one has to hope that some senior public servants attend this conference on behalf of the Federal Minister for Medical ID Cards in 2010, Chris Bowen and the Minister for Let's Revive Howard Government Lame Ideas, Nicola Roxon.
Let us also hope that local government bureaucracy receives more than just a mention in the last day's hijinks:
Bring that Resources Minister under control!
If you would like to draw Martin Ferguson's attention to the possibility that the Rudd Government's
desire to create more uranium mines may not be supported by his fellow Australians, then hit the links in Scott Ludlum's letter and tell the minister so.
Dear friend,
Would you allow a secretive US arms company to mine uranium in your backyard? Neither would we!
So help us tell our politicians that Australia doesn't need more uranium mines.
It's easy to approve a new uranium mine when it is out of sight and out of mind – but just because we don't see a place every day doesn't mean that we should risk ruining it forever.
That's how the Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson are able to approve environmentally destructive projects like General Atomics new Beverley 4 Mile mine, 500 kilometres north of Adelaide.
We need your help to send a backyard message to Minister Ferguson, in his home electorate of Batman.
If this acid leaching mine opens, Australia will have five uranium mines either working or approved, with more in the pipeline. Along with the expansion of other mines it adds up to a potential trebling in Australia's uranium exports - three times the waste, three times the worry, three times the risk.
The Australian Government allows our uranium to be sold to nuclear weapon states such as China. Uranium sold for nuclear power frees up uranium for nuclear weapons so our exports directly or indirectly fuel growing nuclear instability and intensify threats across our region and around the world.
That's why it's important to let our politicians know, in their own backyards, that this massive expansion of uranium mining must stop.
With your help, we are proposing to send the postcard below to every voter in Batman, the backyard of the Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.
All you have to do is sign on to our Backyard Message to Batman campaign to get the message out.
For every signature that we receive one postcard will be sent to a voter in Batman asking them to bring their local member under control.
It's as simple as that.
Help send a backyard message to Batman's 87,930 voters – that should get Minister Ferguson's attention...
Yours sincerely
Scott Ludlam
Australian Greens Senator for WA and spokesperson on nuclear issues
P.S. After you've added your name, don't forget to forward the message to your friends to spread the word even further.
If you want to show Peter Garrett that he can no longer trade on his old Oils cred you can email Peter here.
Thursday 23 July 2009
Excuse me while I turn my head and barf
The U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is less than five months away, and with no benchmarks set to measure compliance the world's leaders recently decided to agree to keeping global warming at no more than 2 Celsius - practically guaranteeing massive environmental degradation across Australia.
Now I find that in their wisdom the organisers of this conference have paid out good money for a dinky little website called Hopenhagen at which we are supposed to lodge a 10-word expression of what gives us hope.
WTF? How can the world have hope if all its leaders are doing is playing at finding solutions for climate change instead of actually doing something right NOW.
L'll
Coffs Harbour