The Coal Seam Gas Debate in May 2012

He said:

OPPOSITION energy and resources spokesman Ian Macfarlane has launched a passionate defence of coal seam gas, claiming the issue has been "subjected to some of the most disingenuous manipulation" he has seen. In a speech to the House of Representatives on Wednesday night, Mr Macfarlane said some of the debate on the issue had been "downright misleading and dishonest".

She said:

I might take Ian MacFarlane’s indignation a little more seriously - if his Statement of Members' Interests didn't show him accepting air flights and/or hospitality from mining groups, Chevron Australia, Beach Energy and EDI Downer.

Of course he's not alone in accepting the perks of industry lobbying.

What one voter thinks of the Member for Clarence

The email received by North Coast Voices was short 'n' sweet and produced a guffaw when passed around:

He wouldn’t have the faintest idea about this.  

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/hanstrans.nsf/V3ByKey/LA20120523?open&refNavID=HA4_1

How right this voter is.

I wonder if ‘Steve’ Gulaptis stands in front of the bathroom mirror to practice the words written for him? How many times does he have to rehearse each piece before he stops stumbling over sentences?

A smoking gun in the Thomson vs Media saga?

In 2009 then Victorian ALP state secretary Stephen Newnham was one of the first people to start accusing Craig Thomson of alleged brothel creeping during his time at the Health Services Union.

After being forced to resign this senior Labor position in that same year, Newnham and former adviser to senior federal Coalition frontbenchers  Rick Brown later turn up as principals of a registered lobby group which had been contracted to provide political analysis (on the upcoming elections in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 2010) to a newspaper in the News Ltd Group.

By 2012 both Newnham and Brown were writing articles critical of the Gillard Government for the Herald-Sun.

Does this set of interlocking relationships with Murdoch's minions go some way to explaining why large slabs of the meeja uncritically swallow whole Abbott & Co’s vitriol concerning this MP?
Might it also explain why the veracity of this 2011 2UE954 News Talk image of Thomson's alleged credit card details (showing a misspelled surname on the face of this card imprint) is not being questioned? A set of 1st-8th April 2005 documents which appear to have been eventually handed over to VIC or NSW Police by HSU officials as evidence of Thomson's alleged 'guilt', if the accompanying interview with Kathy Jackson is to be believed.

Hat tip to Peter Wicks for pointing out the discrepancy



In the transcript of a 1st August 2011 2UE Michael Smith interview with Thomson this section stands out:

Michael Smith: "The card was also used to pay for escort agency services.
I have a copy of one of the escort agency credit card vouchers. It’s the old style one, where you put the card on the plastic slider machine, put the carbon paper voucher on top of it and swipe the slider over the voucher.
The carbon paper makes a clear embossed impression of the card. You can plainly see that the credit card that was present on that night had this on the front of it – Craig Thomson, Health Services Union."

At best this is sloppy reporting. At worst the information in red bolding is a bald lie. Thompson is not Thomson, no matter how you spin it, and any reputable credit card agency would reject the slip in question - rightly worried about the possiblity of identity theft.

100% Ready Clean Energy Forum, 6 to 8pm at Lismore on 12 June 2012

The Nature Conservation Council (NCC) of NSW, as part of the 100% Ready campaign, is holding a FREE public forum on clean energy in Lismore on Tuesday 12 June  2012.

Showcasing real stories from the clean energy frontline that prove we’re 100% ready to start making the switch. Many stories are already out there about how renewable energy has the power to transform our lives, communities and society.  Followed by a unique one-hour workshop open to all attendees, with a specific focus on how we can reach 20% renewable energy in the local area by 2020.

What: Lismore Clean Energy Forum

When: Tuesday 12 June, 6 to 8pm (workshop 8pm to 9pm)

Where: Lismore City Bowling Club, Spinks Park, Molesworth Street, Lismore

Speakers: Paul Cruickshank (Office of Environment and Heritage), Jeff Johnson (Beyond Zero Emissions), Tim Barker (Permaculture Research Institute), Natalie Meyer (Nimbin Community Solar Farm), James Sturch (North Coast Energy Entity) and Warwick Johnston (Sunwiz)

For more information and to register, please visit 100percentready.org.au

Scoop Teh Northern Territory News Missed!

Has ‘Planet America’ been invaded by aliens?

L: Minature alien spaceship as it begins

approach to Chas Licciardello’s right ear

R: Same alien craft as it exits by

Chas Licciardello’s left ear

*Gasp* *Horror* Will Chas survive?

The Thomson Saga: Just how unlucky can a person be?

      Craig Thomson
       circa 2003-2005








The Northern Leader 25 May 2012:

Records obtained by the Herald indicate a $770 fee was charged to Mr Thomson's HSU credit card on May 7, 2005. The transaction was billed to ''Internat Immobiliare''.

So what is known about this corporation?

Well ASIC lists four companies with similar names:

83526612 ORG INTERNATIONAL IMMOBILIARE PTY. LIMITED.

106620900 ORG INTERNATIONAL IMMOBILIARE PTY LTD

146891778 ORG INTERNATIONAL IMMOBILIARE PTY LIMITED

118001415 ORG INTERNATIONAL IMMOBILIARI (AUSTRALIA) PTY LIMITED

The first company on the list was under a court-ordered liquidation which commenced in 2001 and was eventually deregistered on 1 October 2003.

In October 2003 the second company was registered eight days later and deregistered on 15 March 2008. It has no documents lodged on the ASIC website after its registration document. However the ASIC Gazette lists INTERNATIONAL IMMOBILIARE PTY LTD ACN 106 620 900 as a deregistered company on 31 January 2006.

The third wasn’t registered until 18 October 2010.

While the fourth wasn’t registered until 23 January 2006.

There are also two International Immobiliare Limited - one registered in New Zealand and the other in Britain.

Now if the Internat Immobiliare mentioned in the media was actually a holding company associated with a Sydney escort agency; if this name also represents one of the companies listed by ASIC; and if allegedly the name did turn up as a debit on a Health Services Union credit card account in 2005 – then one would have to be very unlucky to have had the transaction occur in what was the last seven months this company was trading.

Doubly unlucky would best describe anyone who in patronising Internat Immobiliare’s escort agency did not realise that they were also using a business which had a reputation for disputed dalliance claims about its workers and ‘famous’ people and, in at least one case in 2004, a worker had allegedly received a large sum from a media outlet to tell the story.

Terminally unlucky is a phrase which springs to mind when one considers there were also allegations of the agency’s books being cooked by management sometime between 2003 and 2008.

At the same time one might characterize a journalist who found credit card documents  pertaining to a long-defunct company strewn across his investigative path - records which at least two police investigations and a Fair Work Australia investigation apparently failed to find - as nothing less than an incredibily fortunate member of the Fourth Estate.

Indeed Lady Luck has been staggering across the public square in such a way as to make one suspect that she is more than a little inebriated.

However, not quite as inebriated as Channel Nine's A Current Affair which appears to be relying on the memory of a former sex worker, who allegedly met a union official once seven years ago (before he lost weight, his hair went gray and that bald patch developed) and was willing to indentify him this year from a photograph - in exchange for an undisclosed payment.

** The former owner of this escort agency apparently now resides near Mission Beach in New Zealand where he is still finding his way into the news and the New Zealand woman interviewed by A Current Affair is believed to be living in Cabarita Beach area on the NSW North Coast.