On feeling OLD........

Whatever happened to liquorice straps, sherbet cones, slate pencils, genuine musk sticks, rainbow balls, allsorts, mint leaves, bulls eyes, candy hearts, snow balls, caramel chews, tiny macaroons, freckles made with quality chocolate, big fat jelly babies with faces and navels, cobbers the size of doorstops and stick jaw toffees?

Oh, I feel OLD when I read this Roy Morgan graph with its list of sterile, globalised lollies:

Oi, Richie! Please explain that extra council rate gouge

This is what NSW Independent Pricing And Regulatory Tribunal said when it set the council rate peg percentage for 2012/13 at 3.6% on 6^th December 2011:

* we took the increase of 3.4% in the Local Government Cost Index (LGCI) for the year to September 2011

* we deducted a productivity factor of 0.2%

* for this year only, we have added a carbon price advance of 0.4%.

This is what Clarence Valley Mayor and recently unsuccessful Nationals pre-selection candidate, Richie Williamson, told ratepayers in The Daily Examiner on 8^th December:

“..council's costs would rise by between .4 and .5% as a result of the tax, and the local government minister had factored in a carbon tax increase of .5% when determining the rate-pegging limit.”

Now if Bazza O’Farrell and Local Government Minister Don Page have indeed granted Clarence Valley Council an extra .1% increase above the IPART ruling, fellow travellers Richie, Bazza and Don need to explain why this isn’t an attempt to gouge local ratepayers based on an ideological desire to cast the Federal Gillard Government in a bad light.

Dorrigo Environment Watch contradicts Anchor Resources claims concerning community consultation

Community consultation contradictions

In early November 2011 Dorrigo Environment Watch Inc undertook a survey of local residents near the Wild Cattle Creek Mine to substantiate Anchor Resource’s claims of wide community consultation. The results of the survey contradict these claims.

In an interview with Katya Quigley Coffs Coast ABC Radio on October 6^th  2011 Anchor Resources General Manager Ian Price quoted ‘Anchor since it started exploration drilling, in about 2009 has consulted widely with the local residents particularly in the area affected by the project. We continue to do that as there are changes and we planned to do activities that’s included letter drops and face to face meetings with people. We are continuing that consultation into the local community, distributing an updated brochure to people in the community and will continue to do that work.’

A follow on interview on the 18^th November 2011 reiterated Anchor’s claims about widely consulting with the local community and their community engagement project. 

Results from the survey found that 52% of landholders had received no communication from Anchor Resources, whilst 26% were contacted in 2009 with no further communication since. 17% of landholders had communications in 2009 and 2010 and 13% of landholders have been communicated with between 2009 to 2011. One of these landholders received over 96 emails from Anchor Resources in a 2 year period, mostly in relation to access agreements. The landholder survey conducted included 88% of known residents along Lower Bielsdown Road.

DEW is alarmed by the comments made by Mr Price in relation to community consultation. It is very misleading to state publicly that Anchor Resources has been consulting widely with the community and specifically with those living near the area most affected by the project when the survey findings clearly showed that a very small proportion of residents have actually been consulted. We feel false and misleading information about our community is being presented by Anchor Resources. Given this and Anchor Resources' refusal to attend or accept invitations to community public forums it follows a pattern occurring in communities throughout NSW affected by mining, where mining companies use tactics that have been described in parliament as ‘divide and conquer’.  We invite Anchor Resources to adopt best practice community engagement including organising and hosting an open public forum in Dorrigo where all community members are welcome.

Dorrigo Environment Watch Media Release 7 December 2011

Japan the Unspeakable

Whale image from RealPhoto


ABC News 6 December 2011:

Harpoon ships from Japan's whaling fleet have left their home port and could now be heading towards the Antarctic for this year's hunt.

Japan says it is going ahead with the expedition despite falling demand for whale meat.

Jaw dropping stupidity caught in one short quote

“As far as the Clarence Valley is concerned, I haven't, as yet, noticed conflict between population growth and the environment.” {Letter writer in The Daily Examiner on 5^th December 2011}

Member for Clarence: take your pick, 'Steve' Gulaptis or 'Chris' Cansdell

It seems there's a good deal of confusion in the electorate of Clarence as to who the current Local Member is and who might be pulling the Member's strings.

A couple of wags at the local watering hole reckon the surnames Cansdell and Gulaptis along with the given names Steve and Chris have become interchangeable. So much so, says my mate Robbo, that on any given day the local MP might be Chris or Steve. Robbo reckons that's going to come in real handy for the MP over the festival season - the MP can be in two places at once, party-partying (ho ho style) and driving along the Pacific Highway looking for speed cameras.

Click on the image below to reveal how some in the electorate see their local MP.

Valley Watch calls for a NSW Royal Commission into Coal Seam Gas Mining

Valley Watch, a Clarence valley community organisation, has launched a petition requesting the NSW Parliament to:

* call a Royal Commission into all impacts of CSG mining;

* implement a moratorium on CSG mining until the outcome of the Royal Commission; and

* ban the extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing.

Valley Watch has formally joined the Lock the Gate Alliance in its campaign against Coal Seam Gas mining. 

Interested persons can sign Valley Watch's petition at its stall at the Yamba Market on Sunday, December 11, or at the Yamba Wellbeing Centre which is upstairs at 4-5 Yamba Street (entrance via Wooli Street).

 

The wording of the petition is:

This petition of citizens of New South Wales draws to the attention of the House that Coal Seam Gas Mining (CSG):

·      always involves contaminated water, as extraction of gas draws out of the coal seam water that is highly saline and can contain toxic and radioactive compounds, endocrine disruptors and heavy metals;

·      when using hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), pollutes large quantities of fresh water with sand and chemicals that are pumped underground;

·      is proved to lower the fresh water table, yet exploration licences have been issued in vital NSW water catchment areas;

·      involves leaky wells, processing plants and pipelines that are a fire hazard and cause air pollution;

·      risks a range of direct and indirect health impacts such as heart, lung, kidney and neurological problems and cancer; and

·      produces greenhouse gas emissions – particularly from large scale methane leakage – such that CSG mining has a global warming impact that is as bad as, if not worse than, coal over a twenty year period.

The undersigned petitioners therefore request the House to:

·      call a Royal Commission into all impacts of CSG mining;

·      implement a moratorium on CSG mining until the outcome of the Royal Commission; and

·   ban the extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing.

 Images from clarencevalleywatch.com

UPDATE:

The petition can also be signed at Yamba Picture Framing, 6/12 Angourie Road, Yamba opp. the public primary school.

In 1960 the Menzies Government decided to inflict Master Anthony John Abbott on the nation

While the Abbott legend makes much of his education, religion and politics, there is very little mention of his early family life.

So to fill this gap there’s a little potted family background included in this brief profile of that notorious discount immigrant Anthony John Abbott, Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Parliament.

Father

At sixteen years of age Richard Henry Abbott, (Ernest Henry Abbott- father and Jane Elizabeth Abbott  née Keir - mother) arrived in Sydney, Australia on 17th January 1940 aboard the passenger ship Ulysses accompanied by his mother, four months after Britain declared war on Germany.

{http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Scripts/PassengerReport.asp}

Richard's father Ernest, an English maritime engineer, appears to have been in Australia when war was declared and arranged for the family to reside in the vicinity of Newcastle port in New South Wales. {http://nbhsoba.net/images/Registers/!%20Register%20Index%20Complete%20140121.xlsx}

As required by British law as a British citizen/subject Richard was called up in 1942.

ABBOTT RICHARD HENRY : Service Number - 422371 : Date of birth - 06 Jan 1924 : Place of birth - NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE ENGLAND : Place of enlistment - SYDNEY : Next of Kin - ABBOTT ERNEST {http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=5389535}

Richard Abbott the former Newcastle-on-Tyne labourer, now a qualified dentist, returns to the U.K. with his mother Jane on 16th April 1954 aboard P&O Strathnaver. Intending to reside at Park West, Marble Arch W1 {http://www.movinghere.org.uk/search/catalogue.asp?RecordID=50142}

Mother

Fay Peters

Father: Anthony Bredschneijder Peters, Carpenter. Born around 1907 in The Netherlands to Willemina Bredschneijder who arrived in Australia in 1912 and in 1916 married for a second time to Hendrik F. Peters in the District of Newtown NSW.

Mother:  Phyllis Irene Lacey. Born in Wales U.K. and in 1932 married Anthony Peters in the District of Waverly NSW.

{http://i.findmypast.com.au/websites/au/mX_Rudd%20Abbott%20ancestors%20came%20by%20sea.pdf}

“A PATIENT, Mrs. E. J.Hennessy, of Cessnock, with trainee Miss Fay Peters who is doing ward rounds after meal-time.” 1953

{http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18386855?searchTerm="fay peters"&searchLimits=}

“ mother was born in Australia but gained British citizenship when she emigrated to the UK to marry old Richard Henry Abbott.” {http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/qantas-chief-vows-to-stay/2342620.aspx?storypage=0}

On 5th November 1955 Fay Peters arrived in England at Tilbury aboard the the P&0 liner Himalaya, stating an intention to visit in the U.K. for 18 months. She gave her U.K. address at the time as Crosby Hall, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

Parents marry in England

On 12th January 1957 in the district Westminster in the county of London Fay Peters wed Richard H. Abbott.

{http://www2.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=205922377&d=bmd_1320433380}

Family arrives in Australia in 1960 after paying the princely sum of twenty pounds to emigrate from 5 Castlebar Road London to Australia

“ABBOTT Richard Henry born 6 January 1924; Fay (nee Peters) born 23 May 1933; Anthony John born 4 November 1957; Jane Elizabeth born 25 January 1959; travelled per ORONSAY departing Tilbury on 7 September 1960 under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme” Intending to live with wife’s parents at Bronte, NSW. {http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=7328488}

Tony’s progress

“Abbott is the only son of Richard and Fay Abbott, of Killara on Sydney's upper North Shore. His father has one of the largest orthodontist practices in Australia and Tony Abbott was born into the privileged world of secondary education at St Ignatius College, Riverview, one of only eight Sydney GPS schools.” {Sydney Morning Herald 27^th March 1994}

“He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Sydney where he resided at St John's College, and was president of the Student Representative Council. He gained media attention for his political stance opposing the then dominant left-wing student leadership. He was also a prominent student boxer. He then went on to attend the Queen's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Politics and Philosophy…..

When Abbott was 19, his girlfriend became pregnant and believed Abbott to be the biological father. She was keen to get married but when Abbott refused she left him seven months into her pregnancy. She later gave birth to a son and had him adopted….. DNA testing later revealed that Abbott was not the man's father.” {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott}

“JUSTIN RICKARD, FAMILY FRIEND: I don't actually recall ever meeting Tony because he's a little bit older than me, just a little bit, but I do recall dating his younger sister at university and even in those days Tony was spoken very highly of in his family, with great awe and respect, and the phrase "future PM" was often whispered or should I say yelled around the family table.” {http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_882.asp

"In fact it was not until over twenty years after the family had arrived in Australia as subsidised assisted migrants that Tony Abbott’s parents applied to register his birth with the Dept. of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and apply for his citizenship, in a document/s dated 19th June 1981.

This application appears to have been treated as urgent by departmental staff.

Although by now an adult, Tony Abbott did not attend any interview with the Dept. Immigration and Ethnic Affairs concerning this citizenship application according to an internal memo signed by a migration officer and held in the National Archives of Australia.

His parents were subsequently informed in a letter dated 1st July 1981 that Anthony John Abbott was now deemed to be an Australian citizen under Section 11 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 which allowed citizenship by descent, based on his mother's evidence of her own citizenship.

At this time Tony Abbott was 23 years and 7 months of age and, had either applied for a Rhodes Scholarship or was intending to apply for this scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Currently such applications must be applied for after 1 June in the year a Rhodes Scholarship is on offer.

To gain a Rhodes Scholarship in 1981 an applicant has to be an Australian citizen (British subject) who has been resident in Australia for at least five years. In that year the scholarship was worth approximately £3,000.

Tony Abbott was apparently intending to depart Australia on or about 10th July 1981 and, started his scholarship course at Queens College, Oxford, in October 1981" {http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-real-reason-anthony-john-tony.html}

Oxford academic record

{http://junkee.com/oh-this-old-thing-just-tony-abbotts-1983-academic-transcript-from-oxford-university/24136/transcript3}

Financial status

When Tony Abbott was twelve years old his parents set up a company, EATONWEST PTY LTD, which acted as trustee for a family trust in which he may have been a beneficiary. The company was deregistered in 2004.
{http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1995-03-30%2F0020;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1995-03-30%2F0025%22}

In 1993 Tony and Margie Abbott purchased 184 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga for $237,000 and sold it in 1994 for $250,000, in order to purchase 32 Lady Davidson Circuit, Forestville, NSW the current family home. {http://www.couriermail.com.au/realestate/news/former-home-of-pm-tony-abbott-hits-the-market/story-fnihpveq-1226867282790}

Abbott was elected as the Liberal Member of House of Representatives for Warringah in a federal by-election on 26 March 1994. He spent just under two years on the back benches before he began to receive ministerial appointments. {http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=EZ5}

The Howard Government lost the 2007 federal election and Abbott went from being a government minister to being an opposition MP. Apparently unwilling to alter his life-style after he was appointed a shadow minister in December 2007, he appears to have entered into a shared equity loan arrangement - possibly in 2008 or 2009 when the Rudd Labor Government was supporting these loans through investment by the Australian Office of Financial Management in the very financial institution listed in his mandatory declarations found in the Register of Members' Interests when he finally entered the details in mid-2010.

In the Register of Members’ Interests Abbott also lists his spouse as holding an unspecified number of shares in General Gold Resources Inc. In 2007 he listed these shares as General Gold Resources NL. However, this West Australia mining corporation changed its name in July 2002 to General Gold Resources Limited and a month later to Yilgarn Gold Limited. At some later date it again changed its name to Kairiki Energy Limited. The company is currently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as a gold mining, petroleum, exploration and investment company operating in Australia and the Philippines. As at 19th September 2013 it had 3,988 shareholders with 2,983,363,837 shares on issue. {http://www.kairikienergy.com/system/application/assets/documents/26092013_Kairiki_2013_Annual_Report1.pdf}

Abbott became Leader of the Opposition on 1st December 2009 and became prime minister when the Coalition won government in September 2013. As of 1 July 2013 an Australian prime minister was paid a salary of $507,338 per annum plus parliamentary allowances and entitlements. {http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pms-salary-tops-500000-20130613-2o75b.html}

“

Dual citizenship controversy

Because Tony Abbott was born in London U.K. before 1st January 1983 and had a British father he automatically became a British citizen at birth. 
{https://www.gov.uk/check-british-citizen}

No person holding dual citizenship can lawfully be a senator or member of the Australian Parliament.{http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/}

In March 2014 a Mr. Tony Magrathea entered into correspondence with Oxford University concerning the possibility that Abbott held dual citizenship.

{http://tonymagrathea.blog.com/2014/06/21/tony-abbott/}

Doubts about whether Abbott ever renounced his British citizenship remain and "Ninemsn contacted the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet seeking confirmation that Mr Abbott has renounced his British Citizenship. After a three-hour wait, the office replied with this single-sentence statement: "The Prime Minister is an Australian citizen and does not hold citizenship of any other country." {Channel 9 News 2nd September 2014}

The Sun Herald expanded on this news item with “An online petition with more than 5400 signatories has called on Mr Abbott, who was born in London to a British father, to produce his British citizenship renunciation form. A spokesman for Mr Abbott last night would say only: “The Prime Minister is an Australian citizen and he does not hold citizenship of any other country.”

His office refused to provide documents verifying this and would not say if Mr Abbott had renounced British citizenship.” {Herald Sun 3^rd September 2014}

Political career

Parliamentary service

Elected to the House of Representatives for Warringah, New South Wales at by-election 26.3.1994 vice the Hon. MJR MacKellar (resigned). Re-elected 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013.

Ministerial appointments

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 11.3.96 to 21.10.98.

Minister for Employment Services from 21.10.98 to 30.1.01.

Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business from 30.1.01 to 26.11.01.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations from 26.11.01 to 7.10.03.

Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service from 26.11.01 to 7.10.03.

Minister for Health and Ageing from 7.10.03 to 3.12.07.

Prime Minister from 18.9.13 to 15.9.15.

Committee service

House of Representatives Standing: Banking, Finance and Public Administration from 5.5.94 to 29.1.96; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs from 11.3.08 to 3.2.10; Family, Community, Housing and Youth from 11.3.08 to 3.2.10.

Parliamentary party positions

Leader of the House from 12.2.02 to 17.10.07.

Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry from 6.12.07 to 18.9.13. Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector from 6.12.07 to 22.9.08; Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from 22.9.08 to 1.12.09.

Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party from 1.12.09 to 14.9.15.

Leader of the Opposition from 1.12.09 to 18.9.13.

{http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=EZ5}

On 14th September 2015 a federal party room meeting of Liberal Party MPs and senators removed Abbott as leader of the parliamentary party and, in a 44 to 54 vote installed Malcolm Bligh Turnbull as prime minister. Abbott had been Australian prime minister for only seven hundred and twenty-six days.

A broad consensus emerged in the Australian media in relation to Abbott's term in office, which is encapsulated in this 19th September 2015 quote:

“Abbott governed for the past and the few conservatives desperate to continue living there. He governed against science and in contempt of the environment. He governed in opposition to social equality, in terror of reform. His was a government of fear and avoidance, a rolling sideshow anxiously avoiding the fact it had nothing to add and no idea what to do.”

{https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2015/09/19/kicking-the-abbott/14425848002386}

Tony’s 'bon mots'

“I think that it’s very important that we empower people to reject this kind of rampant sensuality.” {http://thedawnchorus.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/reasons-to-not-vote-for-tony/}

"I find it difficult enough staying faithful to the one woman for the rest of my life" 
{http://francesjones.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/the-faceless-men-of-the-liberal-party/}

“I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think are both, they both need to be moderated, so to speak.”

{http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2514401.htm}

“I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons”

{http://www.news.com.au/national/a-look-back-at-most-controversial-tony-abbott-moments-after-prime-minister-apologises-for-winking/story-fncynjr2-1226927063505}

Tony Abbott the politician with his parents

“Mr Richard Henry Abbott & Mrs Fay Abbott

8 Collins Road ST IVES NSW 2075”

{http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/resources/documents/DA0970-07.pdf}

# This post is updated whenever further information is found