Yet another broken promise by the Abbott Government

Prior to its election on 7 September 2013 the Abbott Government promised to send an Australian customs vessel into the Southern Ocean during the present Japanese whaling season.

We now learn that it has instead decided to send an aircraft to monitor the whaling fleet and protest boats.

An aircraft which will have to turn around and return to home base once it has flown a mere 1,870 nautical miles or around 3,463 km.

According to the Department of the Environment’s Australian Antarctic Division the distance between Hobart and Casey Station in Antarctica is 3,443 km.

Adverse weather conditions, poor visibility and fuel consumption constraints are likely to mean that the Abbott Government will not have this lone aircraft within sight of the whaling fleet for more than a handful of days over the 3-4 month killing season.

Liberal Party MP Greg Hunt as Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage.

Media Release announcing the Coalition Whale and Dolphin Protection Plan on 23 August 2013 during the federal election campaign:

Snapshot taken 22 December 2013

Greg Hunt as Minister for the Environment in the Abbott Government.

ABC News 22 December 2013:

The Federal Government will send a plane to the Southern Ocean in an effort to step up its monitoring of Japanese whaling fleets early next year.

Customs will send an A319 during the whaling season, which begins in January and ends in March.

A number of nations have recently warned environmentalists and whalers against taking action that endangers human life.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the Government is acting in the absence of a decision against whaling by the International Court of Justice.

He says it is important Australia has a monitoring presence in the area given the risk of confrontation between whalers and anti-whaling protestors in order to ensure both parties obey the law.

Minke whales

One of the smallest species of baleen whales, growing to nearly nine metres long and a weight of about 10 tonnes.

The most abundant baleen whale species and are found in all the world's oceans.

There are an estimated 800,000 worldwide.

The common minke and the Antarctic minke are distinguished by size and colour pattern differences.

There is also a dwarf minke species.

Feed primarily on krill and small fish and can gather in pods of hundreds of whales.

Pacific minkes reproduce year-round.

Japan has an International Whaling Committee permit to kill about 850 Antarctic minkes for 'scientific research'.

According to the Australian Government, their conservation status is listed as of "least concern".

"It will be to ensure that there is a presence to make sure that there is no conflict between the parties," he said.

"It will also be to make sure there is an awareness between the parties that the world is watching."

The aircraft in question

As a shortened-fuselage version of Airbus’ A320 cornerstone single-aisle jetliner, the A319 continues to prove its versatility – enabling carriers around the world to benefit from the aircraft’s range options and seat layout flexibility.
In addition to the standard 124-seat configuration with a range of up to 3,740 nautical miles, Airbus offers an option with a seating capacity of up to 156 passengers – a version that is being ordered by an increasing number of low-cost airlines.

The A319 has the same optimised cabin cross-section as the other A320 Family members – which is the widest single-aisle fuselage on the market and sets the standards for passenger cabin adaptability in this segment.  This allows for top-of-the-range comfort with generous seat width, or an extra-wide aisle for fast turnarounds.

UPDATE

Apparently the A319 being used by the Abbott Government has an extended range and, @yasotdetnawtsuj tweeted the limitations of even this extra mileage.

2014: What awaits Australian voters in the coming new year

The Australian Parliament is in recess until February 2014, state parliaments have likewise fallen silent, Christmas cheer and New Year’s revelling beckon.

Surely the coming year will give weary voters some respite from the constant politicking of their elected representatives and they can look forward to twelve months of Uneventful?

Before you get comfortable with that thought.......

2014 will bring:

Local government elections in South Australia

State elections in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania

One federal by-election in the Griffith electorate in Queensland

A federal half-senate election in West Australia
The first Abbott Government Federal Budget

Happy New Year!

A cry for help from Melbourne suburbia

Kelly O'Dwyer (Liberal), the Member for Higgins, like her colleague Teresa Gambaro, desperately needs remedial lessons. Her colleague Christopher Pyne, Education Minister and Leader of the House, should provide her with the lessons.

Evidence of Ms O'Dwyer's need for help is provided in her entry in the register of members' interests dated 12 December 2013.

Is the former member for Higgins,'the world's greatest treasurer', tutoring Ms O'Dwyer?

Clarence Valley Council asked to explain its latest legal débâcle

In mid-November 2013 Clarence Valley Council General Manager Scott Greensill contacted The Daily Examiner to complain about a letter to the editor written by one John Catesby.

Heaven knows what he had to say about Mr. Catesby's latest letter (below) published on Page 8 of The Daily Examiner on 17 December 2013.

A letter  which had many Lower Clarence residents laughing into their morning coffees - because try as he might the general manager just can't silence debate on this issue and his attempts to control information to date have only resulted in an unleashing off the Streisand Effect.

Questions remain

The article in DEX (Wed 4.12.13) concerning the adjournment of the NSW Industrial Commission hearing of the unfair dismissal application by council's senior ranger against Clarence Valley Council is alarming.

Having dismissed the ranger more than 12 months ago; having engaged in protracted and no doubt very expensive legal process; and having subjected the ranger to what must have been enormous stress, humiliation, and embarrassment, Council has now decided to enter into "negotiations behind closed doors" rather than expose the findings of the Commission to the public.

As your editorial quite rightly suggests, the man's conduct and personal integrity remain in question. Worse, Council's actions could easily be interpreted as malicious, vindictive or incompetent. This is simply not acceptable. Justice has not been seen to be done.

Has this been an act of magnanimity by Council? Has it been an acknowledgment that perhaps the offence was not deserving of dismissal? Or is this an attempt to hide an incident created by a culture of threats and intimidation that has seriously backfired because one man had the courage to speak out?

There are just too many unanswered questions. Why did Council allow this to drag on for 12 months if this outcome appears now to have been not only possible but highly likely? Where did Council get its advice to dismiss the Ranger in the first instance and on what grounds? Who are the people in Council with the expertise in these areas and just what is this "expertise", because from where I stand it doesn't appear to be all that flash.

What is going on in this Council and, in particular, in Council's Industrial Relations and Legal Department? We ratepayers are entitled to the answers.

John Catesby

Maclean

2012-2013 crime statistics covering the NSW North Coast

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Media Release:

NSW Recorded Crime Statistics: September 2013 Quarterly Report

Click here for the full report (pdf, 1.1Mb)

Click here for Graph (Ten years of shooting offences in NSW, Oct 2003 to Sep 2013 (pdf, 63Kb)

Release date: Thursday, 5 December 2013

Statewide trends

All major categories of crime in NSW except one either fell or remained stable over the 24 months to September 2013, according to the latest quarterly crime report released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

The exception involved fraud offences, which increased by 20.7 per cent. Compared with past years, failing to pay for petrol from service stations accounted for a small percentage (6%) of the total increase in fraud over the last 24 months. Most of the increase came from unauthorized use of credit cards and bank cards.

Eight of the major offences showed significant downward trends. These included non-domestic assault (down 3.8%), robbery without a weapon (down 8.0%), break and enter dwelling (down 6.7%), break and enter non-dwelling (down 7.7%), motor vehicle theft (down 11.2%), steal from motor vehicle (down 3.9%), steal from person (down 10.8%) and malicious damage to property (down 6.4%).

Shooting incidents have now returned to their long term average (see graph on reverse side of media release).

There were sizeable increases in a number of recorded drug possession offences, including possession of cocaine (up 45.3%), amphetamines (up 13.6%) and other drugs (up 23.2%). These increases may be due to more intensive law enforcement rather than increased drug use.

Regional trends

The Statistical Areas of Greater Sydney, Coffs Harbour-Grafton, Illawarra and Richmond-Tweed all experienced substantial increases in the number of fraud incidents over the last two years. Most other parts of regional NSW, however, experienced either stable or falling crime trends in most other categories of crime.

One notable exception to this was for the New England and North West Statistical Area, which experienced a 64 per cent increase in robbery with a weapon (other than a firearm).

The biggest problems within the Greater Sydney Area were fraud and stealing from a retail store. Double digit increases in fraud were recorded in nine out of the 15 Greater Sydney Statistical Areas and similar-sized increases in stealing from a retail store were recorded in five out of the 15 Greater Sydney Statistical Areas.

The only other noteworthy problems in the Greater Sydney Area were in Ryde (non-domestic assault up 28.8%), the Inner South West (sexual assault up 25.5%), the Inner West (indecent assault and related offences up 44.1%), the South West (indecent assault and related offences up 15.3%), Parramatta (robbery without a weapon up 23.8%) and Sutherland (break and enter dwelling up 15.8%).

Further enquiries: Dr Don Weatherburn (02) 9231-9190

Copies of the report: www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au

Click on images to enlarge

A cry for help from Brisbane suburbia

The Federal Liberal Member for Brisbane, Teresa Gambaro, is desperately in need of remedial lessons. Perhaps her colleague Christopher Pyne, Education Minister and Leader of the House, will provide her with the lessons she so desperately needs.

Evidence of Ms Gambaro's need for help is provided in her register of members' interests dated 9 December 2013.

1. For a while Ms Gambaro forgot her spouse has shares in Australian Pacific Coal Limited (AQC)

2. Ms Gambaro doesn't know a real lot about "residential" property or "jewellery".

 

Whale Wars: battle is about to be joined again in Antarctic waters

 Kyodo News 7 December 2013:

Japan's research whaling

Japanese research whaling ship the Yushin Maru leaves Shimonoseki port in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Dec. 7, 2013. Two Japanese whaling ships and a surveillance ship left the port the same day to join the mother vessel Nisshin Maru and hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March. (Kyodo)

The Sydney Morning Herald 8 December 2013:

Asked on Monday if Mr Hunt would send a Customs vessel to the Southern Ocean, a spokesman from his office said the Coalition had stated a commitment to monitoring whaling and that commitment stood.

He said beyond that commitment, the Coalition would not pre-empt nor discuss operational activities.

Business Insider 9 December 2013:

Japan plans to hunt 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales until about March.

There is still a question over whether Australia will send a surveillance vessel, as indicated by the Coalition during the election campaign.

The Southern Ocean patrol vessel, the ACV Ocean Protector, was reported to be near Christmas Island, a long way from the Antarctic.

ABC radio reports that Sea Shepherd’s chairman, former Greens leader Bob Brown, says:

“The Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt promised in May this year in the run to the election that if the Japanese whaling ships went south there’d be Customs vessels from Australia going south. So we need to hear from the Prime Minister that that promise to the Australian people will be kept.”

Sea Shepherd Australia 18 December 2013:

This morning friends, family and supporters gathered at Sea Shepherd Australia’s Operations Base in Williamstown, and at Elizabeth Street Pier in Hobart to bid a fond farewell to crews of The Steve Irwin, The Sam Simon and The Bob Barker as the ships depart for Sea Shepherd’s tenth Antarctic Defence Campaign, Operation Relentless.

Last year, the Sea Shepherd Fleet was successful in shutting down the poaching operations of the Japanese whaling fleet, saving the lives of 932 whales. In the nine previous Antarctic Whale Defence Campaigns, Sea Shepherd has saved over 4,500 protected whales from illegal slaughter.