There are many suspicious features about Craig Thomson’s Health Services Union imbroglio, but notable among them are the apparently close links between HSU “whistleblower” Kathy Jackson and Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Peter Wicks uncovers a very tangled web

Sibel Edmonds worked for years prior to 9/11 interrogating terrorist suspects in Farsi, Turkish and other Middle-Eastern languages on behalf of the FBI. She learned of the terrorist attacks planned for September 11 2001, but her warnings were ignored by her superiors, with tragic results for 3,000 US residents and even more tragic results for Afghanis, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Libyans, Yemenis, Somalis and Syrians, many hundreds of thousands who have since been killed in wars for which 9/11 was used as both a direct and indirect pretext. After years of waiting for clearance to publish her book from the FBI, she has gone ahead and published as Sibel Edmonds explains in this interview on Russia Today.

Another case showing just how out of touch VCAT is. Information from the West of Elgar Group (WERA) shows what could happen in your street. So keep alert just in case. The developer is an overseas company and the development is being advertised overseas. The size of some of the units indicates they may only be of interest to the overseas student market. In Surrey Hills, close to Wattle Park tram terminus, and far from shops, developers are buying cheaper land in our local streets. VCAT has just approved an application by an overseas consortium for 32 apartments in such a street. Three development applications for this site have been knocked back. This one breaks rules set for the others. Where is the sense or the justice in this?

The World League for the Protection of Animals has expressed alarm at a proposed new New South Wales law that would permit children as young as 12, unaccompanied, to pursue and kill with weapons animals declared feral in National Parks.

Good news! The Federal Budget did not provide funds to Premier Baillieu for the East West Link. Julianne Bell thanks those 16 community groups for supporting PPL VIC and the Royal Park Protection Group for Ian Hundley's and her mission to Canberra on 27 March 2012 to present their submission to Infrastructure Minister Albanese in which they requested the Federal Government NOT fund the EW Link but support public transport projects. Ian Hundley and Julianne briefed staff. Thanks also go to the Greens "for their principled stand against the East West Link and for their advocacy for Doncaster Rail Link."

Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy is setting up a website http://www.planmelbourne.vic.gov.au asking for residents' feedback on the sort of Melbourne we want in the future. These kinds of websites, however, make it hard to say what you really think. It is probably better to send the Minister a submission re Plan Melbourne saying what you really think, in your own words, rather than responding to the website questionnaire. Email it to Matthew.Guy[AT]parliament.vic.gov.au . As a guide, we suggest that any plan must first have a policy to limit the population growth. To ignore this issue and try to plan for greater growth, would be self defeating.

I knew there had to an answer to the 9/11 conspiracy theorists that would make the facts clear to non-experts. This is a great 5 minute video. (Also at YouTube).

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Comments made on previous "Miscellaneous comments" page from 20 April 2012 can be found here.

The current system of protection is failing Australian wildlife. Too little too late. Does legislation claiming to protect really cause habitat destruction? Current legislation let wildlife numbers fall too low, creating genetic bottlenecks that reduce long term chance of species survival. Even the largest national park is just a gene puddle, rather than a gene pool, if it is not connected to other habitat. Article by James Fitzgerald, NSW Wildlife Council

Environment Minister Burke has shown more courage than previous environmental ministers, surprising environmentalists.
Koalas in NSW, Queensland and the ACT will be classified as vulnerable under a protected listing by Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke. Mr Burke says koala numbers have dropped by 40 per cent in Queensland and by a third in NSW over the past two decades. The koala will be listed as vulnerable on the threatened species list following advice by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. Mr Burke has said developers will have to account for the koala listing when making building applications. Environmentalists say that this also means that issues arising will comes under Federal environmental law now. More needs to be done, however. Teaser by Admin, candobetter.net. Article by Alex Harris of www.koalatracker.com.au

"Minister Burke has ruled out protection for all koalas and we are concerned these northwest NSW koala populations may be left off the threatened species list, even while their populations are falling dangerously low." Zoologist David Paull: 75 per cent decline in the relative abundance of koalas in the Pilliga from 1993 to 2011. Estimates only 500 to 2000 koalas left in the area. “The spread of mines and gas wells, tree kills from coal seam gas spills and increased vehicles through the Pilliga Forest will likely put extra strain on these already declining koala populations." Wilderness Society, 29 April 2012. (This article elevates to an article a comment "Media Release - The Wilderness Society on Koalas," posted by Bandicoot on April 29-2012.)

An Australian firm called MeeMeep has developed a management interface for a social network of people to act as couriers for each other as the need and opportunity arise. The participants can negotiate costs but MeeMeep makes the final payments when all parties are satisfied. The pay-off is that you can negotiate cheap transport of anything from a computer to a pair of sunglasses to where you want it by finding someone who is already going in that direction and who will charge less than commercial transport solutions to move your object.

The ESM is a permanent rescue facility slated to replace the temporary European Financial Stability Facility and European Financial Stabilization Mechanism as soon as Member States representing 90% of the capital commitments have ratified it, something that is expected to happen in July 2012. A December 2011 youtube video titled “The shocking truth of the pending EU collapse!”, originally posted in German, gives such a revealing look at the ESM that it is worth quoting here at length. It states:
[Article 30]: “Governors, alternate Governors, Directors, alternate Directors, the Managing Director and staff members shall be immune from legal process with respect to acts performed by them . . . and shall enjoy inviolability in respect of their official papers and documents.” First published by Global Research April 19, 2012.

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Comments made on previous "Miscellaneous comments" page from 23 March 2012 can be found here.

This page of comments has been disabled. Please add further comments here. - Ed, 5 May

Sheila Newman will interview Jenny live TODAY 19 April between 12 midday and 1pm at 3RPP. You can listen live here. What next? Will they sell the people off as slaves? Will the remove access to our bank accounts overnight? Will they raise the cost of electricity so high that the companies take our houses to pay for them? Our Parliamentary system is beyond democratic control. Our economic system is a bad joke. Our taxes are used to pay for educational institutions which are then set up to profit private enterprise and investors and users overseas. And now, under Ted Baillieu, there is this proposal to sell Port Melbourne... (No, this is not an April fools joke.)

And here is a report from citizens taking control in East Preston: On 1st April 2012 our East Preston day started with one of the principals of LOVE Real Estate knocking on the door and saying that if we mention the name of LOVE Real Estate in our protest they will sue! I said "Really? promise? hey bring it on - we need all the publicity we can get!". An hour later, we photographed them photographing us!

Artist activist James Paterson of Boronia could not sleep being so worried about what is being done by developers in his area.

What you won’t hear from Labor or Liberal spokespeople about the causes of the Queensland election result.
Cost of living has been given as a major cause of Labor's loss in the Queensland elections 2012, but the real reasons for these rising costs are skirted. The Liberals have even tried to pin these costs on taxes that have not yet been used. See also James Sinnamon's articles about privatisation and population policy in Queensland and how he tried to call the government, the unions, and the Greens to account on these well before the 2012 elections.

Humanity has struggled to survive through the millennia in terms of balancing population size with food supply. The same is true now, but population numbers have been soaring for over a century. The limiting factor has been hidden, but this factor -- oil and natural gas, or petroleum -- is close to or beyond its peak extraction. Without ample, free-flowing petroleum, it will not be possible to support a population of several billion for long.

Originally posted on Culture Change on 2 March 2010. Re-posted here by author Peter Goodchild.

Ratepayers have fewer and fewer rights in Victoria but it may be that they can refuse to pay their rates unless they are satisfied.

Letter from Australian Wildlife Protection Council to RSPCA: "We seek your help to insist that appropriate action be taken against the perpetrators of cruelty committed vs a Fraser Island Dingo. Freedom of Information reveals Dingo Necropsy Report of a cruel horrific death on a healthy male dingo. This cruelty has been dismissed. The tragedy was entirely preventable and is this not what the RSPCA is all about? Prevention of Cruelty to Animals?" Thanks to the Habitat Advocate for the photograph.

Did you know that the very last battery hen has been freed from her cage in the UK? Sadly, Australian Governments are still refusing to act. History was made on January 1st this year when barren battery cages were banned throughout the European Union. There are about 12 MILLION battery hens in Australia.

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Comments made on previous "Miscellaneous comments" page from 23 December 2012 can be found here.

Comments on the next "Miscellaneous comments" page from 20 April 2012 can be made here.

We don't just need to have religion separate from government, we need to separate business and the press from government. Only a very troubled democracy would have a mass media that actually dignified Australian banker, Elizabeth Proust's expectation that the people of Melbourne should simply walk away from the few remaining rights they have in their fractured, fragmented and amalgamated local councils. If this kind of thing goes ahead, our ability to self-govern will be unilaterally taken from us in order to ram through a Hong Kong style megacity that no doubt would benefit the banks. It has already happened in Brisbane where there is only one huge council - the same one that is responsible for so many new Brisbane homes being built on a flood plain that took lives, health and security in exchange for quick profits from bank-rolled property developers and government friends and clients.

Social Scientist and petroleum depletion writer, Ted Trainer, gives his views on a way forward that does not involve growth. Most of you out there are working three times too hard, and going down with depression and obesity, as your social cohesion crumbles. How about trying a different, simpler way? Frederick Trainer is the author of a new book, Transition to a sustainable and just world, Enviro Books.

12 March 2012, Sydney: New research released today by the Stable Population Party has found 73% of Australians would prefer a stable population of around 26 million by 2050; instead of Australia's current rate of growth which will see us exceed 36 million by 2050.

GrowthBusters is showing this Wednesday in Melbourne (then Brisbane on Friday, then around Australia). Water shortages, hunger, peak oil, species extinction, and even increasing depression are all symptoms of a deeper problem – addiction to unending growth in a world that has limits.