Saturday 11 October 2014
Friday 10 October 2014
It is time to be afraid, very afraid, in Abbott's Australia
There are realistic and credible circumstances in which it may be necessary to conduct coercive questioning of a person for the purposes of gathering intelligence about a terrorism offence….
The existence of other, less intrusive methods of obtaining the intelligence will continue to be a relevant but non-determinative consideration in decisions made under subsection 34D(4).
[Australian Security & Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), October 2014, submission to to Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Inquiry into the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014]
ASIO detention powers should be repealed not extended. Detaining non-suspects for up to seven days, virtually incommunicado and without effective review at the time, removing the right to silence on penalty of imprisonment, and criminalizing any disclosure of detention, is excessive and disproportionate in view of existing powers, the level of terrorist threat, and the absence of any declared public emergency justifying derogation from protected human rights. The regime violates the freedom from arbitrary or unlawful detention under Article 9(1) of the ICCPR and the right to effective judicial review of detention under Article 9(4) of the ICCPR.
[Ben Saul, Professor of International Law (Syd Uni), 1 October 2014, submission to Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Inquiry into the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014]
If you reveal it, you’re guilty. If it goes to court the question is whether a journalist revealed information, not whether they’re justified in revealing that information.
[Professor George Williams, Director of Public Law, University of NSW, Statement to Media Watch re National Security Amendment Bill (No 1) 2014, 1st October, 2014]
[Professor George Williams, Director of Public Law, University of NSW, Statement to Media Watch re National Security Amendment Bill (No 1) 2014, 1st October, 2014]
Australia now stood alone as the only country in the world with the types of control order and preventative detention order the government wanted to keep, after Britain substantially amended its regime.
[Professor George Williams, The Guardian, 3 October 2014]
But the key provision is section 35P, which bans disclosure of any information that relates to a SPECIAL Intelligence Operation.
This ban applies to any person.
So journalists, whistleblowers, bloggers and even tweeters could all end up behind bars.
This ban applies to any person.
So journalists, whistleblowers, bloggers and even tweeters could all end up behind bars.
[North Coast Voices, preview of An Untold Story insert which will be displayed every time this blog judges that Abbott Government laws make it unsafe to mention or debate an issue of importance]
Yaegl elder Ron Heron honoured by Macquarie University on 23 September 2014
Macquarie University media release:
Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton, Mr (Uncle) Ronald Heron (Doctor of Letters), and Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Crouch
Senior Indigenous elder Uncle Ron Heron receives honorary doctorate
23 September 2014
Ronald Heron, a highly respected senior elder of the of the Yaegl Aboriginal people of Northern New South Wales, and an anthropologist, historian and former university lecturer, will be recognised with a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from Macquarie University on Tuesday, 23 September.
The award will be granted in an afternoon graduation ceremony for students of the Faculty of Science, with Heron’s family and friends coming to Sydney for this special occasion.
“We are delighted to confer this award upon Uncle Ron, who has contributed so much to the endeavours of this University through science, education and leadership,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor S. Bruce Dowton. “He provides a remarkable example of the power of education; not only in his own life but in how he has touched and shaped so many others.”
Since 2002, Uncle Ron – as he is known – has worked with Macquarie University researchers on a cooperative project studying and testing medicines made from native plants. With Heron as a key supporter, the Macquarie team started education programs in local schools aimed at providing pathways through high school and tertiary study, now a national initiative in the National Indigenous Science Experience Program.
“This award is a great honour and means so much, not only for myself, but for all of my people of Yaegl and Bundjalung Country,” says Heron. “I feel enormous pride – I have come a long way from a tin hut. It is up there with the very best. I thank Macquarie University for this opportunity.”
Born in the Clarence Valley in 1947, Heron was schooled in the prevailing mission system of the day. He worked until his early thirties cutting and burning cane and picking peas before moving into a role as an Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol counsellor.
He moved to Canberra and graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Letters, by thesis (now Masters of Letters), in prehistory and anthropology. Heron then lectured for 10 years at Southern Cross University, Lismore in Indigenous Studies. As an academic he has contributed to many publications, including ethnographic books on the North Coast Aboriginal peoples, and remains a frequently cited researcher.
Heron has contributed to extensive research at Macquarie University including on bush medicines, has been a contributing author on books on Yaegl bush resources in international scientific journals, has presented lectures and storytelling at Macquarie led National Science Week activities and has co-developed the long running and successful River of Learning celebrations at Maclean High School.
“As part of our initial consultations with Uncle Ron and the Yaegl and Bundjalung communities, they told us that we could help them run science and youth leadership activities. Now that the program has gone nationally, they’re even running their own part of it in the fabulous cultural immersion program.”
Despite advancing age, Heron’s drive has not diminished and in the last few years he has successfully studied for TAFE certification in Tourism and Guiding and has started taking tourists around the Clarence region.
Thursday 9 October 2014
A taste of things to come for the Clarence Valley local government area? CSIRO Survey September 2014: "Fifty per cent of [Western Downs] people think their community is struggling to cope with coal seam gas development"
Metgasco Limited holds an exploration licence PEL 426 (38 blocks about 8 km NNE of GRAFTON) and Clarence Morton Resources Pty Limited holds exploration licences PEL 457 (10 blocks about 23 km WNW of YAMBA) and PEL 478 (12 blocksabout 21 km NW of GRAFTON) in the Clarence Valley.
These tenements cover a large part of the valley.
To date both Metgaso and Clarence Morton Resources have drilled test wells in PEL 426 and PEL 457 respectively.
Valley communities face an uncertain future until they know a) if these companies intend to proceed with gas production; and b) if the NSW Government will prohibit gas production in the Clarence Valley local government area.
There have been many news articles reporting on Queensland gasfields and a significant number of these contain disturbing information/opinion.
This is one such article from ABC News 19 September 2014:
The CSIRO says the results of a survey its conducted on the Western Downs will help authorities develop better long-term plans for mining communities.
The survey is the second phase of a three-year study the CSIRO is conducting in conjunction with major coal seam gas (CSG) producers.
Four-hundred residents across the Dalby, Tara, Chinchilla and Miles districts were asked to rate the wellbeing of their communities and how resilient the region will be over the life of the gas industry.
Lead researcher Andrea Walton says respondents were worried about the impact the industry is having on roads, the environment but also on community cohesion.
"Important elements to this sense that where they live offers a good quality of life that it is a good place to live," she said.
Dr Walton says most were worried about the future.
"Fifty per cent of people think their community is struggling to cope with coal seam gas development," she said…..
According to the CSIRO; The Western Downs local government area in southern Queensland is in the Surat Basin where most of Australia’s coal seam gas (CSG) reserves can be found and where most CSG development activity is presently taking place.
The CSIRO survey of Community Wellbeing and responding to change: Western Downs region in Queensland report released in September 2014 is; the second stage of a three year project entitled “Impacts of Coal Seam Gas mining on communities in the Western Downs: How features, resources and strategies of a community affect its functioning and well-being” (or the Community Functioning and Wellbeing Project).
It is
Australia Pacific LNG and QGC both have gasfields in the Western Downs region.
The Alliance Agreement between these three parties allows the potential for the CSIRO to derive income from any commercialisation flowing from research results.
Excerpts from the study [my red bolding]:
* 1. Sub-regional differences
Tara reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction with eight of the fifteen dimensions of community wellbeing including personal safety, community spirit, income sufficiency, community cohesion, social interaction, services and facilities, community participation, and employment and business opportunities, with the latter three reporting unsatisfactory levels. They were also dissatisfied with planning, leadership and access to information. Residents of Tara community also reported lowest levels of overall community wellbeing and lowest levels of place attachment.
On average, people who lived in Tara had mid-line attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region.
Dalby reported dissatisfaction with four of the fifteen dimensions of wellbeing including levels of employment and business opportunities, environmental management, decision making and roads.
Employment and business opportunities were significantly lower than Chinchilla.
Residents were also 26-dissatisfied with planning, leadership, and access to information.
They had relatively high levels of community wellbeing, and the highest le-+vels of expected future wellbeing and place attachment, which were significantly higher than Miles and Tara respectively.
On average, people who lived in Dalby had negative attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region.
Chinchilla reported dissatisfaction with three of the fifteen dimensions of wellbeing including levels of environmental management, decision making, and roads. They were also dissatisfied with planning and leadership but unlike the other regions were satisfied with levels of access to information. They reported the highest levels of employment and business opportunities compared to the other sub-regions, and higher levels of community spirit, income sufficiency, when compared to Tara.
Their wellbeing was relatively high and higher than Tara.
On average, people who lived in Chinchilla had positive attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region.
Miles reported dissatisfaction with three of the fifteen dimensions of wellbeing including levels of environmental management, decision making and roads, with their view towards roads the lowest in the region.
They had the highest levels of personal safety and community participation.
They had lower levels of satisfaction with their built environment, and their employment and business opportunities when compared to Dalby and Chinchilla respectively.
Residents were also dissatisfied with planning, leadership, and access to information. Their overall wellbeing was moderately high and higher than Tara, but their expected future wellbeing was the lowest of the sub-regions and significantly lower than Dalby.
On average, people who lived in Miles had negative attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region, which were the lowest and significantly lower than Chinchilla.
* 2. Location of residence differences
Compared with people who lived out of town, people who live in town reported higher levels of satisfaction with social interactions, services and facilities, and employment and business opportunities than people who live out of town.
They also reported higher levels of overall wellbeing and expected future wellbeing. People who live in town had more positive attitudes and feelings towards CSG development. On average these views were favourable whereas the views of out-of-towners were unfavourable.
* 3. Age related differences
Younger people reported higher levels of income sufficiency and higher social interaction. Younger people feel lower satisfaction with services and facilities
Older people felt higher satisfaction with the built environment, higher satisfaction with the level of services and facilities, higher satisfaction with the environmental quality, higher satisfaction with the roads, higher levels of overall community wellbeing, and higher perceptions of community resilience. Older people experience lower levels of social interactions
Middle-aged people felt the lowest levels of health, lowest levels of satisfaction towards the built environment, lowest levels of satisfaction towards the environmental quality, lowest levels of satisfaction towards the roads, lowest levels of overall community wellbeing, lowest levels of satisfaction with community resilience (the way the community is responding to change), lower levels of social interactions, and lowest levels of income sufficiency.
* 4. Gender related differences
Females, relative to males, felt lower levels of personal safety, less satisfied with the environmental quality, less satisfied with the services and facilities provided within the community, and less satisfied with the management of the environment for the future. Females felt there were higher levels of community spirit, and experience higher social interactions.
* 5. Income related differences (see Appendix E for detailed Table)
The lowest income people (less than $40,000) felt least satisfied with their income sufficiency, least positive about employment and business opportunities, and most negative about coal seam gas development in the region.
The lowest income people felt most satisfied with the built environment and the roads.
The highest income people (greater than $120,000) felt most satisfied with their income sufficiency, most satisfied with their employment and business opportunities, and most positive towards coal seam gas development.
The highest income people felt least satisfied with the built environment, and the roads.
* 7. Farm ownership differences
Compared with those who did not own a farm, people who owned a farm reported higher levels of personal safety, but lower levels of satisfaction with social interactions, and environmental management.
They also had lower perceptions of community resilience and expected future wellbeing. People who owned a farm had more negative attitudes and feelings towards CSG development, and on average these views are unfavourable.
* A second effect was found when comparing those working in the CSG sector to other residents (either in or out-of-town), irrespective of sub-regions. CSG sector workers were significantly more likely to see their communities as adapting than other residents.
* Those that work in the CSG sector had lower levels of satisfaction with job security than those who didn’t work in the CSG sector (M = 4.11 and M = 3.70 respectively).
************North Coast Voices turns 7 today************
NORTH COAST VOICES
would like to thank all our readers
both past and present
for their visits to our blog
and for the time spent here
Wednesday 8 October 2014
Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption: Abbott Government extends it hunt for political scalps
When the Abbott Government set up the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption it obviously expected that the hearings would have a higher media profile than they did and elicit more response from Australian voters they have done thus far.
Indeed, it appears that having the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the witness list did not play well for either Prime Minister Abbott or his Attorney-General George Brandis.
While evidence such as this has caused either sheer disbelief or guffaws of laughter:
Victoria Assistant Commissioner Fontana giving evidence before the Royal Commission 18 September 2014
Apparently dissatisfied with the very expensive and politically disappointing results which it suspected would be coming down the line before the end of this year, on 7 October 2014 Senator Brandis announced he was extending this Royal Commission another twelve months until 31 December 2015 and also widening its terms of reference in an as yet unspecified manner.
This was despite the fact that under the existing terms of reference the Royal Commissioner stated a willingness to submit a final report this December and did not believe that extending the time available to this Commission would further fulfill the commission’s task.
Excerpts from the somewhat politically oriented letter to Attorney-General Senator the Hon George Brandis from Commissioner the Hon John Dyson Heydon AC QC, dated 2 October 2014:
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Abbott Government killing Australia's sustainable energy future
The Guardian, Australia's investment in renewable energy slumps 70% in one year, 3 October 2014:
Australia’s investment in renewable energy projects has slumped below that of Algeria, Thailand and Myanmar, new figures have shown, with the sector “paralysed” by the government’s review of the Renewable Energy Target.
Just $193m was invested in new large-scale clean energy projects in the third quarter of 2014, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Investment in the year to date is $238m.
This represents a massive 70% slump on 2013 investment and has resulted in Australia slipping from the world’s 11th largest investor in clean energy to 31st in 2014.
This ranking is below Algeria, Myanmar, Thailand and Uruguay. By comparison, Canada has invested $US3.1bn in large clean energy projects so far in 2014.
The slowdown in renewable energy investment is pinned squarely by Bloomberg on the government’s review of the RET, which mandates that 41,000 gigawatt hours of Australia’s energy comes from renewable sources by 2020.
A recent review of the RET by businessman Dick Warburton found that although it has created jobs and driven investment, it should either be suspended or shut down completely.
The government has yet to formally respond to the report, instead holding talks with Labor on a “compromise” position that may see the RET altered in some way without being scrapped entirely. Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United Party all oppose any change to the RET.
Kobad Bhavnagri, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told Guardian Australia that the renewables sector is “in the doldrums.”
Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance
“The government’s position has caused this, it has had some pretty strong anti-renewables rhetoric, particularly anti-wind, and wants to close certain clean energy programs,” he said. “The review has been particularly protracted. The industry was fearful the recommendations would be extreme and they were. It has been shattering.
“I think the government has backed itself into a corner because the Warburton review lacks credibility. I don’t think it’s in Labor’s interest to agree to any changes to the target.”……..
"My comments get on the tellie - yours don't. You can't be heard!
YouTube may not be the tellie, however it records the Australian Education Minister Christopher Pyne for posterity just the same....
http://youtu.be/xt7CxXh5nQw
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