Don't mention the funding cuts!

ABC News: At the campaign launch in South Perth on 11 March 2014

It was a case of don't mention the funding cuts or the Commission of Audit 900-page interim report currently sitting on his Canberra desk. As pressing the carbon and mining tax buttons in a mercifully brief, but virtually policy-free speech, Prime Minister Tony Abbott launched the 5 April 2014 West Australia senate election Liberal Party campaign:

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Perth

Prime Minister

E&OE

I’m here to officially open the Liberal campaign for the Western Australian Senate by-election which we are having because of the ineptitude of the Electoral Commission.

I can understand the frustration of Western Australians of having to go to the polls yet again, but this is a chance for the people of Western Australia to vote for a strong team – for a strong team – that will give a fair deal to the people of Western Australia.

We’ve got a strong team and they will vote in the Senate, should they be elected, for a fair deal, a better deal for the people of Western Australia.

That’s what this is all about – voting for people who will be a strong team and will give the people of Western Australia a fair deal in the Senate.

Now, it’s very important – very, very important – that we get rid of anti-Western Australian taxes and the mining tax and the carbon tax are anti-Western Australian taxes.

That’s what they are. They’re anti-Western Australian taxes and they are only there still because the Labor Party and the Greens, voting together as they always do, have voted to keep them.

The question for Labor Party representatives in this state at this time is why are you voting in the Senate to keep the carbon tax and to keep the mining tax even though these are anti-Western Australian taxes?

That question should echo right around this state. Whenever you see a Labor politician – why are you voting to keep on this great state of Western Australia the mining tax and the carbon tax that are so damaging to this state and which are so obviously anti-Western Australian taxes?

So, it really is very simple and very clear cut – if you want a strong team that will do the right thing by Western Australia you have got to vote for the Liberal Party. You have got to vote for Coalition candidates. I have got great Coalition candidates in David Johnston, in Michaelia Cash, in Linda Reynolds and in Slade Brockman. I am very proud of them and we are a strong united team, as the presence of the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and also Steve Irons the local member for Swan demonstrates today.

So, it is good to be here and it is good to officially open this campaign to do the right thing by the people of Western Australia with this strong team.

Thank you.

While elsewhere on the West Australia campaign trail Abbott is told you are scum.

Thank the gods! I'm not a Liberal.

As Abbott and Co continue to lay waste to democratic processes, socio-economic policy, access and equity – readers might like to take this test to see if they have been contaminated with the far-right berserker virus:  http://australia.isidewith.com/political-quiz.

Thankfully, my results showed I was far away from the more virulent  policy positions of Abbott, Hockey, Cormann, Brandis, Pyne, Bernardi, Bishop, and the rest of those sitting on the government benches in Pariament House, Canberra:

Looking back at a time when the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association sometimes told the unvarnished truth

A time when the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) was honest with the people of New South Wales:

3 August 2011

Coal seam damage to water inevitable

Ben Cubby

THE coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association told a fiery public meeting in Sydney that good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them.

"Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers," said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. "The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question."

The admissions came before the start of the first public hearing in NSW, held in Narrabri, of a Senate inquiry into the effects of coal seam gas mining.

The hearing was told that many farmers in northern and western NSW were angry about proposals to extract coal seam gas from their land, and some planned to join a mass campaign to lock their gates in the face of resources companies...

"The intent of saying that is to make it clear that we have never shied away from the fact that there will be impacts on aquifers," Mr Dunn said.

"I'm wanting to ensure that we are not seen as saying there won't be any impacts during the process. It is a matter of monitoring and managing those impacts."...

Of course, immediately after the publication of this article APPEA denied the published quotes of its spokesperson.

However, on 7 March 2014 The Sydney Morning Herald published an article which supported APPEA's original statements:

A coal seam gas project operated by energy company Santos in north-western NSW has contaminated a nearby aquifer, with uranium at levels 20 times higher than safe drinking water guidelines, an official investigation has found.

It is the first confirmation of aquifer contamination associated with coal seam gas activity in Australia - a blow to an industry pushing state and federal governments for permission to expand.

Santos was fined $1500 by the NSW Environment Protection Authority, which posted a media release on its website on February 18, without identifying the nature of the contamination.

Two days later, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner signed a memorandum of understanding with Santos to speed up the project, in the Pilliga forest near Narrabri, guaranteeing a decision on its future by January 23 next year.

The EPA says it launched an investigation after routine testing in March last year by Santos of groundwater around the project - which remains in the test well stage - detected ''elevated levels of total dissolved solids and slightly elevated levels of other elements''.

The investigation concluded there was no evidence contractors engaged by the previous owner of the project, Eastern Star Gas, followed strict rules when building a pond to hold waste water and brine produced when gas is extracted. The investigation concluded the pond liner was of ''poor quality, which resulted in the integrity of the liner being questionable''.

On Friday, EPA chief environmental regulator Mark Gifford confirmed the contamination was caused by water leaking from the pond and that lead, aluminium, arsenic, barium, boron, nickel and uranium had been detected in an aquifer at levels ''elevated when compared to livestock, irrigation and health guidelines''.

Mr Gifford said the metals are ''not additives'' and occur naturally in the surrounding soil and water.

''However, the leaking pond has mobilised the elements and moved them into the aquifer, increasing their concentrations,'' he said...

Read more at : http://www.smh.com.au/environment/santos-coal-seam-gas-project-contaminates-aquifer-20140307-34csb.html

Note: My red bolding

Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition's first Earth Matters presentation for 2014 - 5.30pm Monday 17 March

Media Release 

EARTH  MATTERS

In our first Earth Matters session for 2014, our presenter poses two questions.  Can we stop climate change and keep the planet we have grown to love?  Given the outlook the planet faces with climate change, is it time to consider nuclear energy as part of the solution? 

This is one person's journey in moving from being adamantly opposed to nuclear energy to seeing it as necessary to keep the planet cool.

Our presenter is Peter Morgan, a well-known local conservationist.

Earth Matters is a session on environmental issues which is conducted every two months by the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition in conjunction with the Clarence Environment Centre.

Time: 5.30 pm, Monday March 17. 

Venue: Staff room, Grafton Primary School, Queen St, Grafton.

All welcome.

For further information contact Stan on 66449309.

The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Thirteen

THE LIE

we are all totally committed to trying to ensure genuine and complete equality between men and women...this is a nation which has smashed just about every glass ceiling...

[Australian Prime Minister and self-appointed Minister for Women Tony Abbott, Address To The International Women's Day Parliamentary Breakfast, March 2014]

THE FACTS

On 24 February 2014 the Abbott Government made submissions to the Fair Work Commission Equal Remuneration Case arguing against "comparative wage justice" and the issuing of an "equal remuneration order" in redressing any gender-based undervaluation of the work of female employees in the early childcare sector.

New figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics  show that, on average, full-time working women’s earnings are 17.1% less per week than full-time working men’s earnings (a difference that equates to $262.50 per week). [Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 20 February 2014]

...according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, “a significant proportion of the gender pay gap is unexplained”, and discrimination remains a factor...

Pay inequality and income gaps between men and women increase over time and become wider in older age. When we look at lifetime earnings, across every educational level, women fare more poorly than men.

In their 2012 report for AMP.NATSEM, Smart Australians: Education and Innovation in Australia, the authors found that based on the current figures the lifetime earnings gap between men and women with a bachelors degree was $1.26 million, with men earning $3.66 million compared to women’s $2.4 million (see Figure 2).

A woman aged 25 years with postgraduate qualifications can expect to earn two-thirds of her male counterpart’s lifetime earnings and, on average, she will have lower lifetime earnings than a man with Year 12 qualifications – $2.49 million and $2.55 million respectively.

Women’s earning prospects have actually decreased since a similar analysis was conducted in 2009.

Using data and dollars from 2006, the report found that the gender gaps in lifetime earnings across educational levels are even greater where there are children, and that men with a bachelor degree with children earned almost twice the lifetime earnings of women in the same category. [The Australia Institute, What’s Choice Got To Do With It? - Women’s lifetime financial disadvantage and the superannuation gender pay gap, July 2013]

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in November 2013, full time female adult ordinary time average weekly earnings for all industries was $1,270.50 and full time male adult ordinary time average weekly earnings for all industries was $1,532.10

Men still dominate in senior positions, even in industry categories with a high concentration of females in the workforce such as “health care and social assistance”.

Men also dominate in the full-time employment category for “all industries”.

Note: All graphs found at the Australian Government Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

We know some of what allegedly went on with Korean mining company Kores, but what did CSG mining company Metgasco Limited do to lobby for its future?

The Daily Telegraph 6 March 2014:

FORMER resources minister Chris Hartcher had dinner at the home of a mining company lobbyist with mining executives who were trying to win approval for an $800 million mine.

The lobbyist and Liberal fundraiser is Nick Di Girolamo, who, along with Mr Hartcher, faces an ICAC inquiry into allegations he and others corruptly directed money into a slush fund in return for favours.

Mr Hartcher, who was forced to resign as a minister after an ICAC raid on December 5, dined at Mr Di Girolamo’s home with representatives of Korean mining company Kores, which was trying to get the Wallarah 2 Coal Mine, on the Central Coast, approved.

Kores director Jungki Lee and Susan Lee, a local Korean figure on the government’s Multicultural Business Advisory Panel, were at the dinner, sources have told The Daily Telegraph.

Asked at parliament yesterday if he wanted to comment on the dinner, Mr Hartcher said: “No”.

Ms Lee said at first “I don’t know” and “I don’t recall”, before saying: “Do I have to answer this?” and suggesting The Daily Telegraph might speak to her lawyer.

The article above sets out one alleged tactic used by a Korean mining company in its lobbying of the NSW O’Farrell Government, but what tactics did Metgasco Limited employ when lobbying, given it had Liberal Party member Richard Shields on its team for two years?

Shields, Richard 

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Mr. Richard Shields is External Relations Manager of Metgasco Ltd. Richard has knowledge and experience in politics, having worked for almost 20 years in senior government and party related roles. He understands the challenges and complexities of the legislative and regulatory processes of government, in addition to having an insight into managing media and community relations. Prior to joining Metgasco, Richard served as Deputy Director of the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division) for over 3 years and also served as the Interim State Director. Other positions held by Richard include a Policy Adviser to former Senator the Hon Helen Coonan as Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Richard has also worked as a Senior Consultant for two of Australia's issues management firms. Drawing on his media and stakeholder management skills, Richard advises the Managing Director and Board on issues management, communications and engagement strategies and investor relations Richard has a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management and Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales.

BACKGROUND

6 November 2013: Magistrate suggests NSW Police had a political agenda in arrest of protestors at Metgasco drill site.

10 February 2014:  Letters from Metgasco CEO Peter Henderson to various NSW ministers have gone missing, and Greens MLC David Shoebridge wants to know why.

Tony Abbott - first outed in the Australian Parliament for being 'sexist' & 'misogynist' - now being called a 'homophobic' 'heartless racist'. Has a prime minister ever been so tellingly described in Hansard before?

On 9 October 2012 then Prime Minister Julia Gillard rose to her feet in the House of Representatives calling then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for what he is in the eyes of many and, a fifteen minute description of him as 'sexist' and 'misogynist' entered the permanent parliamentary historical record, Hansard.

On 3 March 2014 Senator Scott Ludlum also rose to his feet in the Senate to address yet other facets of the Prime Minister's character and, an almost eight minute description of the Prime Minister as 'boring', 'thoughtless', 'homophobic' and a 'heartless racist' indelibly entered the political lexicon.

http://youtu.be/dtqrfiEV8Gshttp://youtu.be/dtqrfiEV8Gs

Australian Senate Hansard 3 March 2014:

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (22:09): Tonight I rise to invite Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit the beautiful state of Western Australia. I do this in good faith, because we are only a matter of weeks away from a historic by-election that will not just determine the final makeup of this chamber after July but also will decide much more of consequence to the people of Western Australia, whether they are thinking of voting for the Greens or not. Prime Minister, you are welcome out west, but this is a respectful invitation to think carefully about what baggage you pack when you make your next flying campaign stopover. When you arrive at Perth airport, you will alight on the traditional country of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, who have sung this country for more than 40,000 years. This is 200 times the age of the city that now stands on the banks of the Derbal Yerigan, the Swan River. Understand that you are now closer to Denpasar than to Western Sydney, in a state where an entire generation has been priced out of affordable housing. Recognise that you are standing in a place where the drought never ended, where climate change from land clearing and fossil fuel combustion is a lived reality that is already costing jobs, property and lives.

Mr Prime Minister, at your next press conference we invite you to leave your excruciatingly boring three-word slogans at home. If your image of Western Australia is of some caricatured redneck backwater that is enjoying the murderous horror unfolding on Manus Island, you are reading us wrong. Every time you refer to us as the 'mining state' as though the western third of our ancient continent is just Gina Rinehart's inheritance to be chopped, benched and blasted, you are reading us wrong. Western Australians are a generous and welcoming lot, but if you arrive and start talking proudly about your attempts to bankrupt the renewable energy sector, cripple the independence of the ABC and privatise SBS, if you show up waving your homophobia in people's faces and start boasting about your ever-more insidious attacks on the trade union movement and all working people, you can expect a very different kind of welcome.

People are under enough pressure as it is without three years of this government going out of its way to make it worse. It looks awkward when you take policy advice on penalty rates and the minimum wage from mining billionaires and media oligarchs on the other side of the world—awkward, and kind of revolting. It is good to remember that these things are temporary. For anyone listening in from outside this almost empty Senate chamber, the truth is that Prime Minister Tony Abbott and this benighted attempt at a government are a temporary phenomenon. They will pass, and we need to keep our eyes on the bigger picture. Just as the reign of the dinosaurs was cut short to their great surprise, it may be that the Abbott government will appear as nothing more than a thin, greasy layer in the core sample of future political scientists drilling back into the early years of the 21st century.

The year 2014 marks 30 years since the election of the first representative of what was to become the Greens—my dear friend and mentor Senator Jo Vallentine. She came into this place as a lone Western Australian representative speaking out against the nuclear weapons that formed the foundations of the geopolitical suicide pact we dimly remember as the Cold War. Since the first day of Senator Vallentine's first term, the Greens have been articulating a vision of Australia as it could be—an economy running on infinite flows of renewable energy; a society that never forgets it lives on country occupied by the planet's oldest continuing civilisation; and a country that values education, innovation and equality. These values are still at the heart of our work; nowhere stronger than on the Walkatjurra Walkabout, which will set off again later this month to challenge the poisonous imposition of the state's first uranium mine on the shoreline of Lake Way. As the damage done by the nuclear industry is global, so is our resistance.

Mr Abbott, your thoughtless cancellation of half a billion dollars of Commonwealth funding for the Perth light rail project has been noted. Your blank cheque for Colin Barnett's bloody and unnecessary shark cull has been noted. Your attacks on Medicare, on schools funding, on tertiary education—noted. The fact that your only proposal for environmental reforms thus far is to leave Minister Greg Hunt playing solitaire for the next three years while you outsource his responsibilities to the same Premier who presides over the shark cull has been noted too.

You may not believe this, Prime Minister, but your advocacy on behalf of foreign biotechnology corporations and Hollywood's copyright-industrial complex to chain Australia to the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been noted. People have been keeping a record of every time you have been given the opportunity to choose between predator capitalism and the public interest, and it is bitterly obvious whose side you are on.

So to be very blunt, the reason that I extend this invitation to you, Mr Prime Minister, to spend as much time as you can spare in Western Australia is that every time you open your mouth the Green vote goes up. You and your financial backers in the gas fracking and uranium industries have inspired hundreds of people to spend their precious time doorknocking thousands of homes for the Greens in the last few weeks. Your decision to back Monsanto's shareholders instead of Western Australian farmers has inspired people across the length and breadth of this country to make thousands of calls and donate to our campaign.

As for the premeditated destruction of the NBN and Attorney-General George Brandis's degrading capitulation to the surveillance state when confronted with the unlawful actions of the US NSA—even the internet is turning green, 'for the win'. Geeks and coders, network engineers and gamers would never have voted Green in a million years without the blundering and technically illiterate assistance of your leadership team. For this I can only thank you.

And, perhaps most profoundly, your determined campaign to provoke fear in our community—fear of innocent families fleeing war and violence in our region—in the hope that it would bring out the worst in Australians is instead bringing out the best in us. Prime Minister, you are welcome to take your heartless racist exploitation of people's fears and ram it as far from Western Australia as your taxpayer funded travel entitlements can take you.

What is at stake here, in the most immediate sense, is whether or not Prime Minister Tony Abbott has total control of this parliament in coming years. But I have come to realise that it is about much more than that. We want our country back. Through chance, misadventure, and, somewhere, a couple of boxes of misplaced ballot papers, we have been given the opportunity to take back just one seat on 5 April, and a whole lot more in 2016. Game on, Prime Minister. See you out west.

It is heartening to note that, long after Tony Abbott is no more, students and scholars will be able to read these two word portraits of the man and form a more accurate view of who he was than if they had relied solely on that put forward by the Murdoch media and Coalition spin doctors.