Coal seam gas industry's one man PR team

Adrian Nygaard aka Sealbasher & Rigpig

This Big Oil PR dynamo into red cars, guns and huntin’ gets a guernsey in The Daily Examiner on the 18th June 2012:

“HE'S not terribly worried about a locked gate - Adrian Nygaard has a gun.

At least that's what you might think if you'd been following some of Mr Nygaard's Facebook activity of late.

Mr Nygaard, who also goes by the name Seal Basher, has taken to the social network in support of the coal seam gas industry and has branded those opposed to the industry as brain dead oxygen thieves.

Alongside a photo of himself with a pistol aimed to the side of camera, Mr Nygaard wrote on Sunday: "You picked the wrong people to go to war with!!! LMFAO (laugh my f'ing a-off)".”

Having since pulled both the photo and the Coal Seam Gas Drilling Support page from Facebook, Adrian blames CSG protesters for causing him stress. But I have to wonder if what really made him fold the tent and slink away was this Facebook graph showing a growing lack of interest in what he and his mates had to say:

All we’re left with are little nuggets like this on his personal page:

Seal Basher

August 15, 2010

Thank God for wars, arms build ups, industrial nations, planes trains and big ass automobiles. I love our hydrocarbon sucking world, it keeps my beloved oil and gas drilling industry going, and when our rigs are drilling, my garage gets more and more toys parked in it!! THANK YOU OIL BURNIN WORLD!! THANK YOU!

Barry O'Farrell robs around 1,400 pensioners living in the Page electorate

Saffin calls on O’Farrell Government to stop slugging pensioners

Page MP Janelle Saffin has slammed the O’Farrell Government for taking part of the Federal Government’s recent pension increase away from public housing tenants.

Premier O’Farrell has announced a hike in public housing rents from March next year.

Ms Saffin said the NSW Government is using Labor’s pension increase as an excuse to hit public housing tenants.

“This cash grab will affect about 1400 public housing tenants in Page.

“The Federal Labor Government is delivering a boost for pensioners to help them make ends meet, but Barry O’Farrell wants to take a slice of it for himself.

“Local pensioners are sick and tired of seeing the NSW Government hit pensioners every time the Federal Labor Government gives them a bit of extra support.

“All pensioners in Page have received a lump sum payment from the Federal Government in recent weeks of $250 for singles and $380 for couples. From next March they will get a permanent boost to their regular payments.

“But Barry O’Farrell’s decision means a maximum rate single pensioner in public housing will be paying an extra $84.50 in rent a year.

“Federal Labor is delivering the pension increase as a separate, stand-alone supplement. The accepted practise is to leave pension supplements alone when public housing rents are calculated.

“In 2009 when the Australian Labor Government brought in the biggest ever increase to the pension, I lobbied the then State government to quarantine the increase from public housing rent rises,” Ms Saffin said.

“Barry O’Farrell has betrayed local pensioners.”

June 15, 2012

Media contact:  Lee Duncan 0448 158 150

Whale Meat FAIL

ABC News June 13 2012:

Japan's whaling research body has failed to sell the bulk of meat harvested from its last round of what it calls research whaling, despite inviting bids months ago.

A report released by Japan's Dolphin and Whale Action Network reveals there have been 13 rounds of public auctions for the whale meat, but 900 tonnes of it has failed to sell.

That is three-quarters of all the meat harvested from the last round of so-called scientific research whaling in the north-west Pacific.

The meat sales are supposed to help cover the cost of the whaling fleet.

Japanese taxpayers have been subsidising the fleet for years because few people eat the meat, complaining it does not taste good

Whale meat photograph from Google Images

The Chris Gulaptis Travelling Photo Show



Chris Gulaptis as he appears
 on  the NSW Parliamentary website

Clarence MP, Chris Gulaptis, has made a very bold attempt to get himself in The Guiness World Records. Gulaptis, who it seems is camera shy in Macquarie Street and is yet to sit for a portrait shot for the parliamentary website, appears no less than twenty three, yes 23, times on the latest taxpayer funded newsletter hitting letter boxes across the electorate of Clarence.

In a late development, the lads at our local watering hole reckon the reason the local member's photo isn't on the website is because Farry O'Barrell put a freeze on public spending at parliament house so we'll have to wait until the 2013/14 budget when carpenters can be employed to undertake the task of increasing the width of the top of the doorways at the photo studio. Currently, all doorways are standard sized, but enlarged doorways are needed if the Member for Clarence is going to get his swollen head through them.

A timely reminder that suspected corrupt conduct can be reported online to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption

Reporting Corruption

Members of the public and public officials are encouraged to report suspected corrupt conduct to the ICAC.

You can report allegations online. All reports are carefully assessed.

Report corruption here.

Moves to have a crematorium on the Lower Clarence

Clarence Valley Council has a proposal before it to have a crematorium on Chatsworth Island.
The hot spot earmarked to get the new facility is 441 Chatsworth Road, Chatsworth Island.
That location is currently occupied by a two-storey brick home that sticks out like dogs' b#lls. 
It's just a stone throw off
the Pacific Highway immediately south of the Mororo Bridge near the Iluka turnoff.

The last price tag on the property which covers about 1.75 acres (7,000 m²) was $325k.

Image credits: LJHooker, Maclean

Sometimes regional newspapers has a better grasp on Abbott & Co than the national media

Raising the chapeau big time to The Coffs Coast Advocate on 16^th June 2012:

“AT THIS stage, a vote for the Coalition in the next Federal election is not necessarily a vote for a fast-tracked completion of the Pacific Hwy.

Despite all the theatre that has taken place since Tuesday's state budget announcement, there is no guarantee the Liberals and Nationals will provide Pacific Hwy funding that is any better than the Gillard Government is offering.

When asked this week what a Coalition government could offer the people of Cowper regarding the most contentious piece of road in the country, neither local Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker or Nationals leader Warren Truss would commit to giving constituents a better Pacific Hwy deal.

This is despite the words of opposition leader Tony Abbott on January 9 after the tragic death of a young boy in Urunga: "I'm very happy to be bipartisan about finishing the Pacific Hwy as quickly as possible."

These words now appear empty……”

Daily Examiner subeditors asleep at their desks

Want further evidence that APN's Daily Examiner is is in a rush to get to the bottom of the barrel? The schoolboy howlers shown below appeared on the paper's front page on Friday and its website, respectively.

Sample 1:

Sample 2:

However, to the Examiner's credit, it still has a bit to go before it hits rock bottom. When we see it printing things such as those included in a piece in The Melbourne Argus on 6 July 1940 (see below) we'll know it's arrived at that destination.

Credit: The Melbourne Argus, 6/10/1940 courtesy of the National Library of Australia's Trove



Rubbery electricity price rise claims from the NSW Government in June 2012

It seems NSW government ministers and their media advisers have no shame when it comes to the electricity price rise facts and figures they present to journalists, who in their turn do not always bother to check the accuracy of these claims.

As anyone can see, carbon price costs are adding between 7.9% and 9.4% to retail electricity prices from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013 depending on which power company is your supplier.

This is what the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal clearly stated on 13 June 2012:

     · The final decision allows for an average price increase of 18% across NSW (including inflation), primarily as a result of rising network (poles and wires) costs and the introduction of the carbon price. Our final decision is higher than the 16% price increases indicated in the draft decision in April reflecting updated estimates of costs of generating electricity.

The average price increases will vary for customers of the 3 regulated electricity retailers as follows:

 20.6% for EnergyAustralia customers, which translates to an extra $7.00 per week ($364 per annum) on an average residential customer bill, and $9.07 per week ($472 per annum) on average for its small business customers

 11.8% for Integral Energy customers, which translates to an extra $4.00 per week ($208 per annum) on an average residential customer bill, and $5.19 per week ($270 per annum) on average for its small business customers

 19.7% for Country Energy customers, which translates to an extra $8.21 per week ($427 per annum) on an average residential customer bill, and $10.67 per week ($555 per annum) on average for its small business customers.

· The average price increase of 18.1% is higher than the 16.4% that was indicated in our draft report, reflecting updated analysis and inputs, including an updated estimate of inflation. Retailers submitted that there would be less vigorous marketing to customers as a result of declining margins in NSW under our draft report. They argued for larger price increases…

The NSW Minister for Energy and Resources Chris Hartcher in a media release that same day spun these figures:

Families and businesses across NSW are going to be devastated by the latest round of price rises, expected to add between $208 and $427 to the average household power bill.

80% of the price rises for Western Sydney households will be caused by the carbon tax. Price rises for Endeavour Energy customers will add $208 to the average bill, of which $166 will be because of Labor's carbon tax.*

The Daily Examiner online one day later:

POWER bill pain in NSW can be directly attributed to the Federal Government's carbon tax, says the state's Energy Minister Chris Hartcher.

As of July 1, families can expect to pay between $400 to $700 more a year on gas and electricity.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal predicts the average bill will rise about 18.1%, largely due to the carbon tax.

It should be noted that, because power supply infrastructure is not fully privatised in New South Wales, a significant proportion of the full retail and business price rise is directly attributable to the management style of the O'Farrell Coalition Government.

* Endeavour Energy is a statutory State owned corporation, established under the Energy Services Corporations Act 1995 (NSW) and the State Owned Corporations Act 1989 (NSW).