Rise Up Australia Party in 2013

 

Fundamentalist Christian Pastor Danny Nalliah of Catch the Fire Ministry fame finally managed to register the far-right and slighty batty Rise Up Australia Party [RUA] in February 2012 and became its national president.

 

RUA in its effort To Keep Australia Australian  has a website, a Twitter, Facebook, YouTube presence and – climate change denier Christopher Monckton as a high profile supporter.

 

It also apparently intends to keep two party membership registers:

Final question in a ten question supplement attached to an RUA membership application form.

 

One of its more bizarre policy principles appears to be an intention to make it a felonious act to perpetrate psychological violence against an entity or property.

Now leaving aside living creatures which can be legally owned, property as a sentient being would have to be a novel political concept.

Tell me what's wrong with these titles?

The Hon Tony Abbott MP

Leader of the Opposition

January 31, 2013

11.30am - 1.30pm

"Address to the National Press Club"

 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Prime Minister of Australia

January 30, 2013

11.30am - 1.30pm

"The Prime Ministers Address to the National Press Club"

 

What's wrong with these titles the National Press Club has been using to advertise its gigs in Canberra today and tomorrow. Yep, you guessed it. While Tony Abbott is given his correct moniker minus the “MP”, Julia Gillard is not. She’s “The Hon Julia Gillard MP Prime Minister of Australia” to everyone but her family and friends if you’re being polite.

Concerned residents - not anti-CSG activists

CSG Free Northern Rivers

MEDIA RELEASE: 22 JANUARY 2013

Claims made by Richard Shields from Metgasco on ABC Radio (Country Hour) today have been rejected by CSG Free Northern Rivers. Mr Shields claimed that CSG is safe and that Metgasco wanted to speak with local communities but were prevented from doing so because meetings were “hijacked by anti-CSG activists”.

“Metgasco has a very poor history of communicating with local communities and Glenugie is a case in point,” said CSG Free Northern Rivers spokesperson, Boudicca Cerese.

“Close neighbours to the Glenugie site have personally informed me that they have never been advised by the company of their drilling plans and there has been no attempt by Metgasco to provide any public information sessions to residents in the general Glenugie area.”

“The fact that Metgasco has found time to meet with the Grafton Chamber of Commerce yet has failed to inform local residents clearly shows where their priorities are.”

“I have visited the locals who are blockading at Glenugie and have listened to their concerns. These are genuine people whose views are being systematically ignored and trivialized by the state government and Metgasco,” said Ms. Cerese.

“It is local community members, not some anonymous and nebulous ‘activists’ who are at the centre of the blockade against Metgasco at Glenugie.”

“If Mr Shields does not understand this simple fact – that it is local communities who are standing up against their plans to turn the area into a gasfield – then it is he who is ‘not prepared to listen’.”

“This is also the case at Doubtful Creek, between Casino and Kyogle, where Metgasco plan to drill another core hole in the near future,” MS Cerese said.

“Locals at Kyogle tried for more than a year without any success to get Metgasco to hold a public meeting to address community concerns about coal seam gas- they even offered to book a venue for the company.”

“Small private meetings between Metgasco and a few invited guests chosen by the company certainly does not constitute community consultation.”

“Until the CSG companies and the state government genuinely start listening to community views and concerns about CSG then the blockades and other actions are likely to continue as each community takes a stand to defend local community, environmental and social values.”

“As for Mr Shields’ claims that the work Metgasco are doing at Glenugie is safe, this ignores the fact that these drilling activities are part of a cycle of work focused directly on producing CSG for market which will involve hundreds if not thousands of wells.”

“You can’t say that just because one step in the process is less dangerous or risky than the entire process, that the overall coal seam gas operations are therefore ‘safe’.”

“The community is not stupid and are not deceived by Metgasco’s repetitive cycle of spin and misinformation,” she said.

 

Tony Abbott's election campaign funding in 2012-13

 

 

On 5 November 2010 The Sydney Morning Herald revealed:

 

THE political fund-raising arm of the federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has been found to have breached electoral laws, while one of his principal donors has also failed to make required disclosures, according to documents lodged with the NSW Election Funding Authority.

After a five-month investigation, the authority found that the Warringah Club, which raises money for Mr Abbott's campaigns in his seat of Warringah, had broken the law by not disclosing the sources of its donations.

''The club failed to lodge a declaration [as required] and the matter is to be further investigated to determine whether to pursue prosecution,'' the authority's funding and disclosures director, Brian DeCelis, wrote to the NSW Greens, which raised an official complaint about the Warringah Club in May.

But Mr DeCelis also found that the club and the NSW Liberal Party, which lodged false declarations relating to the club, ''did not understand their disclosure obligations'' and therefore would not be prosecuted for knowingly making a false statement.

 

One can safely assume that Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott, The Warringah Club and the NSW Liberal Party now understand their legal obligations.

 

So why is it that this club, whose primary aim is to raise money for Abbott’s ceaseless election campaigning, was in breach of the reporting deadlines again the following year – with the 2010-11 financial year annual return apparently outstanding until 2 February 2012 – a remarkable feat given that it would take all of ten minutes to complete this form as all donors are usually hidden within generic cash transfers by the Liberal Party into club coffers.

 

As the deadline for associated entity annual returns is listed as 20 October each year and returns are not publicly displayed until 1 February the following year, I suspect that The Warringah Club will keep its 2011-12 financial outlays and donations received behind a convenient curtain until well after this year’s federal election.

 

Although Tony Abbott’s second fundraising vehicle, the Warringah 1000 Forum, did manage to lodge its 2010-11 annual return on time, does list donors and along with its amendment to that return dated 17 April 2012, possibly gives a better flavour of which individuals/companies are favouring his chances.

 

 

·  Penalties relating to the Commonwealth disclosure scheme

UPDATE:

The 2011-12 annual financial disclosure returns from political parties, associated entities, donors and third parties who incur political expenditure became available online on 1 February 2013.

The Warringah Club has changed its name to The Sydney Small Business Club and has recorded no 2011-12 individual donations above the declarable threshold of $11,900.

While all mention of the Warringah 1000 Forum had simply disappeared from the AEC website on 1 February 2013.

Perhaps there was more to the reported funding discrepancies than first thought.