At the annual black tie White House Correspondents Dinner................
Elsewhere on the night.........
Tuesday 16 May 2017
Comedian Hasan Minhaj's full speech at the 2017 White House Correspondents Dinner sans Donald Trump, then Trump sans Minhaj
At the annual black tie White House Correspondents Dinner................
NSW Police public relations blunder
In light of ongoing revelations concerning data security and privacy breaches (including hacking) by police personnel around Australia, this was not exactly a wise post on the part of NSW Police on or about 6 May 2017. As evidenced by its apparent online deletion since.
Monday 15 May 2017
Of Gas and Hot Air
Energy
security became a major political issue following a storm-induced blackout in
South Australia late last year. Instead
of the massive storm which knocked over the transmission towers being the
“villain”, the Prime Minister and his Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg blamed the state’s level of renewable (wind)
energy for the outage. They have
persisted with this version of events regardless of all the evidence to the
contrary.
In
the months since then politicians and others have had a great deal to say about
the national energy grid and its shortcomings and renewables and base-load
power. Ideology has played a very
significant part in the statements of many politicians. This of course means that truth has often
been twisted or completely ignored.
Recently
the focus has been on gas and a predicted gas shortage.
Despite
the claims of the Government and many industry players, there is no general gas
shortage. There is, however, a looming domestic shortage because most
of the enormous volume of gas being extracted is being exported.
The
Federal Government has rather belatedly recognised that, despite the fact that
Australia will soon be the largest gas-exporting country in the world, there
will be a shortage of gas for the domestic market. Moreover, the Government has realised that
domestic consumers are paying more for gas than consumers of Australian gas in
Japan - even after the cost of processing and transporting of the resource to
that country. This has become a rather
urgent matter for the Government because domestic gas prices and the
uncertainty of supply is hurting local industries. For a government that talks about jobs and
growth, permitting more of our dwindling manufacturing base going either “down
the gurgler” or offshore would be politically foolish.
As
the Prime Minister’s meetings in recent months with the major gas exporters
have not produced the cooperation he hoped for, he recently decided to take
further action. It is action that the
industry is unhappy about saying that this will discourage global investment, a
claim which is unsubstantiated. There
are others, including some in the Government, who believe that this
interference in the market is not justified.
What
happens elsewhere? Western Australia,
the one Australian state which had the forethought to realise that there was a
need to protect local interests, has a gas reservation policy[1]. Many other countries, including Canada, the
USA, Israel, Indonesia and Egypt, have various mechanisms to ensure that they
won’t end up in the situation that Australia is heading towards. In their rush to encourage foreign investment,
successive Australian Federal Governments failed to see that safeguards to
protect domestic gas supplies were needed in the national interest.
Prime
Minister Turnbull has stated that his measures will only be needed for the
short term because he expects that there will be further development of local
gasfields which can service the domestic market. He is referring specifically to NSW and
Victoria which have currently stopped unconventional gas mining. (There is an exception in NSW. Santos’ project in the Pilliga in the
north-west is currently going through the planning approval process.)
The
Prime Minister is one of many politicians and industry players who have weighed
in wanting the opening up of NSW and Victoria to coal seam and unconventional
gas mining.
Recently
Ian Macfarlane, the head of the Queensland Resources Council, and a former
federal Coalition Minister, criticised the NSW and Victorian Governments for
lacking the will to develop their gas resources in the same way that Queensland
has.[2]
What
Macfarlane either does not understand or conveniently ignores is that it is
what happened in Queensland as well as overseas in the USA and elsewhere that
alarmed communities in NSW and Victoria and generated the campaigns against CSG
and unconventional gas mining – campaigns that have gathered strength also in
the Northern Territory and the north-west of Western Australia.
In
his interview with Leigh Sales on ABC TV’s 7.30 on April 27 Macfarlane paints a
very rosy picture of the industry in Queensland [3]. He claims “irresponsible green activism”
stopped the industry in NSW. Blaming
the anti-gas campaign on the “greenie” bogey is convenient for many
conservatives but is far from a true reflection of the breadth of community
opposition to an invasive and polluting industry.
It
will be interesting to see whether the urging of the Federal Government and
proponents like Macfarlane encourage the NSW and Victorian Governments to
change their positions on gas mining. If
this happens, the reaction from those who see the industry as an unacceptable
threat to agriculture and the environment is easy to predict.
Hildegard
Northern
Rivers
5
May 2017
GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration. Longer posts will be considered on topical subjects.
Memo to all federal and state members of parliament: The Great Artesian Basin is not a vast underground sea of fresh water so stop treating it as if it is
Figure 1. The Great Artesian Basin; spring cluster data sourced from Fensham (2006Fensham, R. 2006. Spring wetlands of the Great Artesian Basin. Paper for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee, Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra.http://www.deh.gov.au/soe/2006/emerging/wetlands/index.html(accessed December 16, 2014). ).
It is long past time that all parliamentarians of every political persuasion ceased robbing the nation of its present and future water security with their petty partisan politics and insane reliance on ideology over scientific fact.
In simple language Kim de Rijke, Paul Munro & Maria de Lourdes Melo Zurita point out that the Great Artesian Basin is not an endless supply of fresh water and to treat it as such is dangerous.
Taylor & Francis Online, 11 February 2016:
Excerpt from Society & Natural Resources, An International Journal Volume 29, 2016 - Issue 6: Thinking Relationships Through Water
With regard to the process of extracting gas and subterranean water, a commonality in the submissions of CSG companies and state governments is the simplification of the GAB. It is constructed as a large, well-understood, and unproblematic body of underground water:
[The GAB is] equivalent to approximately 22% of Australia’s land mass. Compared to the total storage capacity of the GAB, the amount of water projected to be extracted during CSG production is very small … the annual water extraction is likely to be less than 0.0002% of total storage. This is the equivalent of taking approximately 5 litres out of an Olympic sized swimming pool. (Australia Pacific LNG 2011, The Senate Inquiry, Submission 368).
Water, in such submissions, is a simplified and abstracted object of nature to be represented solely in terms of volumes and percentages. It is exemplar of Jamie Linton’s (2014 J. 2014 Modern water and its discontents: A history of hydrosocial renewal [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]) notion of “modern water’” a particular way of knowing and relating to water abstracted from its local, social, cultural, religious, and ecological contexts. The anxiety-riddled relationships between the arid region overlying the GAB and water resources are posited as insignificant to extractive practices. Such instrumental and rationalist simplification is part of discursive strategies to produce a view of subterranean water amenable to the (economic) growth of the modern state (Linton 2010 J. 2010 Vancouver, BC, Canada UBC Press; 2014 J. 2014 Modern water and its discontents: A history of hydrosocial renewal [CrossRef]; Finewood and Stroup 2012 M. H. L. J. 2012 Fracking and the neoliberalization of the hydro-social cycle in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale ). The final Senate Inquiry report, however, chided some CSG company submissions, noting that
[The GAB] is not a vast underground ‘sea’ in which levels and pressures quickly and uniformly adjust to the extraction of water from one part. Rather it is a highly complex system of geological formations at a range of depths, of variable permeability holding water of different quality, at different pressures and through which water flows at very different rates, if it flows at all. The reduction in pressure in a coal seam will result in a local fall in the water level and pressure in that particular area which may alter the rate and direction of the movement of groundwater in adjacent formations. The impact of this change may take many years to have a measurable impact on adjacent aquifers. Similarly the contingent loss of water from adjacent aquifers may not be made good by natural recharge for decades or even centuries. (RATRC 2011, 19)
Discursive attempts by CSG proponents to portray a simplified body of subterranean water thus sit uneasily alongside broader scientific narratives of the GAB. A critical scientific challenge, as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, cited in RATRC 2011 2011 O. C. 2011, 1994 M. 1994 Darkness visible: Underground culture in the golden age of geology [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]).
Read the full article here.
Sunday 14 May 2017
Meet the NSW members of parliament who voted to keep abortion a crime in their state
“We came up against the mistruths and the misinformation put out by the Catholic Church, the Australian Christian Lobby and other anti-abortion groups. But these deeply conservative institutions can’t hold back the movement that has started. Religion, whether it is mine or anyone else’s, should not deny someone their rights and choices.
Young people overwhelmingly supported this reform because they can see the hypocrisy. No amount of scare campaigns can hold back the tide. This was about putting abortion access on the political agenda. We succeeded in that and we will continue the campaign.
I particularly think of rural and regional women today, who are the most impacted by abortion being in the Crimes Act, which keeps it scarce, expensive and privatised. I think the members of the Legislative Council who voted against the bill and against the reproductive rights of their constituents have a lot of explaining to do.
Ultimately, the provisions in my bill are operating in various parts of Australia effectively. MPs that voted against this bill need to explain why they think women in NSW deserve fewer rights and fewer protections than women in Victoria, Tasmania or the ACT.” [Dr. Mehreen Faruqi MLC, media release, 11 May 2017]
Facebook, Greens MLC Dr. Mehreen Faruqi, 11 May 2017:
Your body, their choice.
I'm sorry to announce that the NSW Legislative Council has voted 14-25 against taking abortion out of the Crimes Act and providing safe access. Not a single Liberal or National MP voted in support (and only one made a speech).
I first gave notice of the bill two years ago and the bill has been carefully crafted with doctors and lawyers. This has been an inclusive, consultative and collaborative process.
But the genie is out of the bottle now, more people than ever are awakened to this injustice and I am confident that under a less conservative parliament, less dominated by conservative men, abortion will be taken out of the Crimes Act and women and all people seeking abortions will be able to access reproductive health clinics without harassment in future.
I'm proud of the campaign that we have run over the last few years and it will continue. Talking to the community, women, doctors and nurses across NSW from Byron to Bega, from Albury to Newcastle and across Sydney, one thing is for sure, there is an overwhelming appetite in the community for a woman's choice and for abortion to be taken out of the Crimes Act.
I first gave notice of the bill two years ago and the bill has been carefully crafted with doctors and lawyers. This has been an inclusive, consultative and collaborative process.
But the genie is out of the bottle now, more people than ever are awakened to this injustice and I am confident that under a less conservative parliament, less dominated by conservative men, abortion will be taken out of the Crimes Act and women and all people seeking abortions will be able to access reproductive health clinics without harassment in future.
I'm proud of the campaign that we have run over the last few years and it will continue. Talking to the community, women, doctors and nurses across NSW from Byron to Bega, from Albury to Newcastle and across Sydney, one thing is for sure, there is an overwhelming appetite in the community for a woman's choice and for abortion to be taken out of the Crimes Act.
It is a truism that politicians are completely out of step with community expectations but they have reaffirmed it once again. The community campaign will continue. This is not the end, we are just getting started.
Members of the NSW Upper House who voted against the bill:
Lou Amato (Liberal), David Clarke (Liberal), Catherine Cusack (Liberal), Scott Farlow (Liberal Party), Scot MacDonald (Liberal), Natasha Maclaren-Jones (Liberal), Shayne Mallard (Liberal), Taylor Martin (Liberal), Don Harwin (Liberal), Greg Pearce (Liberal), Peter Phelps (Liberal),
Niall Blair (Nationals), Rick Colless (Nationals), Duncan Gay (Nationals), Trevor Khan (Nationals), Sarah Mitchell (Nationals), Bronnie Taylor (Nationals), Ben Franklin (Nationals),
Shaoquett Moselmane (Labor), Greg Donnelly (Labor), and Ernest Wong (Labor),
Robert Borsak (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers), Robert Brown (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers),
Paul Green (Christian Democratic Party), Reverend Fred Nile (Christian Democratic Party).
Members of the NSW Upper House who voted for the bill:
John Graham (Labor), Daniel Mookhey (Labor), Peter Primrose (Labor), Adam Searle (Labor), Walt Secord (Labor) Penny Sharpe (Labor), Mick Veitch (Labor) Lynda Voltz (Labor),
Jeremy Buckingham (Greens), Mehreen Faruqi (Greens), Justin Field (Greens), Dawn Walker (Greens), David Shoebridge (Greens),
Mark Pearson (Animal Justice Party).
KARMA AMERICAN-STYLE: Trump reduced to early campaigning on YouTube for 2020 presidential election campaign after veto by national mainstream media
Campaign advertisement of 1 May 2017 by Donald J. Trump For President, Inc.
C/O Trump Tower, 725 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Huffington Post, 7 May 2017:
Major networks including CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC are refusing to air a Donald Trump 2020 campaign ad that attacks mainstream media.
The 30-second spot focuses on the president’s first 100 days in office, touting his confirmation of Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch as well as pushing forth of the Keystone Pipeline construction and slashing regulations. “You wouldn’t know it from watching the news,” a voiceover says.
It also notably features the words “fake news,” a phrase Trump often uses to undermine reporting with which he disagrees, over the faces of well-known journalists such as Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and George Stephanopoulos of ABC. CNN was the first network to nix the ad, according to The Wrap.
Now, the Trump campaign is responding. On Friday, presidential campaign consultant and — quelle surprise — the commander in chief’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump called it an “unprecedented act of censorship in America that should concern every freedom-loving citizen” in a post written on DonaldJTrump.com.
“Apparently, the mainstream media are champions of the First Amendment only when it serves their own political views,” she said in a statement.
Saturday 13 May 2017
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