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“The root cause of the violence is resources,” Nnamdi Obasi, West Africa analyst at International Crisis Group. Overpopulation, on a landscape of diminishing resources and desertification, is driving conflict and deaths. Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have three of the world's top 20 fastest growing population rates, and fertility rates in Africa continue to be among the highest in the world. Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Mali, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia populations are predicted to grow by 500% by 2100. Sadly, their real problem is very clear - massive overpopulation is causing conflicts between religions factions, and their refusal to keep their numbers at a sustainable level. Until they comprehend the massive implications of lack of family planning, and their inhibitions, they will face Nature's heartlessness and limits, and the violence that comes from humanity's ecological overshoot. Encroaching desert stokes religious tensions in Nigeria It's easy to see the symptoms, but overpopulation is the root cause!

Australia First Party

January 26th
Australia Day

"I do not doubt but this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made. We have come here today to take possession of this fifth great continental division of the earth on behalf of the British people and have founded here a state which we hope will not only occupy and rule this great country but will also become the beneficial patron of all the nations of the Southern Hemisphere. How grand is the prospect which lies before this youthful nation”.
Captain Arthur Phillip, Sydney Cove 26/1/1788

Captain Phillip's commission and appointment as Governor of the territory called New South Wales was under the authority of Lord Sydney, given at the Court of St James on the 12th of October 1786.

This foundation as proclaimed by Governor Phillip was the “formal” beginning of European Settlement of this great old continent. Formal in the sense of a permanent commitment to the creation of a new European derived civilisation of progress and culture, even if of humble beginnings.

In ascribing “formal” to this settlement, acknowledgement to earlier Indo-European occupations, evidenced from “pre-history” sites, co-existing alongside the series of migrations of the varying hunter/gatherer peoples down the centuries, is noted.

This permanent occupation, although of Colonial Status, provided our settling peoples with ongoing exposure to our continents unique environment, a primary cause for fixing of outlook and values, and in turn the development of an Australian “Nativist” identity and culture.

From here over the ensuing decades, came the idea of upholding a National Day to advance cultural Australianism, and in particular to provide an expression of our nationality. January 26th was upheld in the separate settlements to varying degrees, and under a variety of celebrations as European Settlement Day, Pioneers Day, and Anniversary Day.

Foremost in the cause for an official national day was the influential Australian Natives Association [ANA], working in conjunction with the Australian Patriotic Society of Sydney. The ANA was formed in 1871 as the Victorian Natives Association, a mutual help society with a secondary aim "to promote the moral, social and intellectual improvement of its members." The association numbered productive citizens, figures of prominence, parliamentarians, and the judiciary.

The ANA became a leading light in the colonial society infusing many of its Australianist views and principles into the population. In the face of the ad hoc manner of celebrations for 26th January, the ANA in seeking to inspire national community spirit, passed a resolution at its 1886 Melbourne conference:- "That a National Holiday be fixed and that 26 January be suggested as the most desirable date, that being the anniversary of the foundation of Australia."

The promotion of the National Day as resolved faced some difficulty from the colonial administrators who initially offered limited interest to expressions of a genuine Australian consciousness, however the Sydney "Bulletin" Magazine, the growth of industrial unionism and the blooming of our Australian native culture, assisted an Australian fervour, and with inspiring a recognition from the citizen at large.

In the latter part of the 19th century, the native born comprised over 75% of the population, and with increasing interest the administrations in 1887 agreed to a national day holiday on 26th January under a celebration to be known as Foundation Day. With the energetic efforts of the ANA, and patriotic people, the celebration universally became Australia Day.

For fairdinkums, January 26th holds true as our National Day – a commemoration of European settlement, and the civilisation our people have built, and defended in war, together with valuing our Native Soil to which we all remain indebted, and enables our lifestyle.
Australia Day 1943: Ian Mudie - Jindyworobak

If ever it were time for the dead to ride
then surely that time is now:
From the Leeuwin's cliffs to the roar of Sydney-side
From Wyndham to the Howe
call up your ghosts, Australia, call up your many dead,
your Kelly and your Lalor and the shirted men they led;
call up your brave, your Stuart, your Wentworth, your Bennelong,
your men who dared Hashemy, with its bitter slavish wrong.
Call up your quietened singers from the silence of the grave,
who sang your latent spirit to the complaining wave.

Call up your myths and your legends, your men of song and tale,
men from the Snowy, the Centre, and lakes where the bunyips wail,
your seekers, your finders, your fighters, your men who with Clancy ride,
Lawson's men from the western creeks, and a thousand more beside.
Call up your ghosts, Australia, and set them riding far
to rouse a sleeping nation to its seven-pointed star.
Call up your dead, Australians, and bid them ride with you
to set your rivers brimming with Eureka's flood anew.
Call up your hosts, Australia, to strive with you amain,
to fight, to sing, to honour, your Flag of Stars again.

Then when the day is over, whether to shout or to weep,
keep ever your dead alive in you, oh, never let them sleep,
for the nation that forgets its dead, that lets its heroes lie
dust-deep in its mind forever is surely ripe to die.
And only those go on, in glory their story to make,
who ever keep their dead alive, and their heroes awake.
Now is the time for the nation's urgent dead to ride,
so set them riding here and now -
from the Leeuwin's cliff's to the roar of Sydney-side,
from Wyndham to the Howe.

Australia First calls on real Australians to celebrate the day in its original intent, important in this new era where toads abound who spin the graveyard future of an “Asian Century”; who despise or have no involvement with our heritage and parrot for our traditional Australia Day to be dumped to placate multicultist misfits; who prostitute our day through the issue of citizenship to the swarms of alien Third World immigrants, who will never be Australian and are undermining our Aussie community; being dumped here by money changers to prop up their collapsing exponential growth driven economic system

Against these toads, the rallying call is Australia First, and support for our Australian identity, heritage and traditions.

Celebrate Australia Day
Fly our National Flag; engage with family and friends to sink a beer, etc; play some Slim Dusty songs, read a verse of Henry Lawson or the Banjo; sit under a gum tree, and rub your fingers in our Native Soil; reflect on the Australia we once had, and want back; celebrate our heritage with genuine patriotism and sentiment, and with a spirit of gratitude to our pioneering peoples and earlier generations who have provided our legacy of Australia.

And join with Australia Firsters in our fight for a regime change - to eject from the State Power the prevailing globalising traitor class and restore the destiny of our Commonwealth.

If you don’t fight - you lose!

Australia First Party
P.O. Box 223 Croydon 3136. P.O. Box 593 Rockdale 2216.
P O Box 893 Rockhampton 4700. P O Box 129 Collie 6225. P O Box 101 Holden Hill 5088.
www.australiafirstparty.net
National Contact 02 8587 0014
email: ausfirst [ AT ] hotmail.com
Identity Freedom Independence pl2. 3/12/2013

Australia First Party - Reclaiming Australia for Australians

IMMIGRANTS and refugees could have their visas fast-tracked if they agree to live in regional Queensland.

The state could even up its intake under the proposal designed to alleviate pressure on the booming southeast.

If they really wanted to release population pressure, there needs to be a call to slow down immigration, not assume that the immigrants will actually stay in regional Queensland in the long term.

Townsville, Rockhampton and Cairns have been earmarked for areas of future migrant growth, but only if the federal government commits to invest in more regional infrastructure. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, a corporate lobby group, and Citibank have stated that Australia's ''infrastructure deficit'' is about $700 billion.

Townsville mayor Jenny Hill warns that without job opportunities, the proposal could encourage ghettos.

Foreigners could jump queue in Qld plan, 20 Jan 2014 at http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/immigrants-could-jump-queue-under-qld-plan/story-e6frfku9-1226805824004

About 100,000 overseas immigrants move to Queensland each year. The unemployment rate in the state lifted to 6.4 per cent in June, its highest level since October 2003 and up from 5.9 per cent in May. Only Tasmania has a worse unemployment rate at 8.9 per cent.

State deputy opposition leader Tim Mulherin said the unemployment figures were an "indictment on the Newman government's economic management".

Australian citizenship is being fast-tracked for bogus "economic growth", but with the engine-room of our economy flagging - i.e. job creation - the hopeful migrants will be isolated and impoverished.

Overpopulation = resource conflict = war. Sustainable population helps ensure peace. Vote 1 PEACE (SPP)

also how dare you imply our founders didn't (at the time) create a constitution of the people? why do you hate australia and our history? absolutely disgusting. go read an actual history book idiot not the anti-australian trash you get from donald horne. jesus

I can confirm that I stand for peace. Unfortunately, minor parties are not given enough media time to talk about all issues so they often have to focus on one issue. The party focusses on population as it is a big "elephant in the room" rarely mentioned and is often an underlying catalyst of many wars fighting over resources, et cetera. Peace is a logical extrapolation of our party's core values. A vote for the Sustainable Population Party is a vote for peaceful, ethical, sustainable population.

Maybe the desire for economic power, and repression of other nations, is also part of the "population" cause. Once the greed for economic growth, and it's allied desire for power, natural resources, and military successes, come off the boil, so will the willingness to be involved in foreign wars. There should be a Royal commission into why Australia went to Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 200,000 Iraqis and 5000 coalition troops died and a cost more than $1.5 trillion was lost in the coalition of the willing. As a result, women are more repressed than ever, most of the country's Christians have been driven to exile and the number of asylum seekers is swelling. Iraq's police force is full of sectarian thugs. "Liberation" has attracted jihadists into the hot-spots, and caused ongoing threats to stability. To invade Iraq is the worst foreign policy blunder in Australia's history, possible exception for Vietnam. Under Bush, the USA is now declining economically. The US went into Iraq, not to help the Iraqis but to grab the oil and make a fortune rebuilding the country using American contractors and workers. It was in short to be a never ending cash cow for them. W need to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. It was conservatives under Howard who lobbied hard for Australia to go to war in 2003. Thousands marched crying 'no war', the cries for peace were ignored, and the weapons of mass destruction were never found. It was also Howard who tried to allay the public's fears about loss of border control, but at the same time ramped up our population growth rate to present day record levels - quietly without democratic debate! A political party not fettered for the desire for massive and perpetual "growth" inherently would and should be more at peace with the economy, the environment, the planet and other nations.

A report by UN World Food Programme and CAPMAS (Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics) found that an estimated 13.7 million Egyptians (or 17 percent of the population) suffered from food insecurity in 2011, compared to 14 percent in 2009. Data also suggests that rates of malnutrition, most notably stunting among children aged 6-59 months, are also on the rise.

Back in July last year, Egypt had less than two months' supply of imported wheat left in its stocks, ousted President Mohamed Mursi's minister of supplies said, revealing a shortage more acute than previously disclosed. Although it also grows its own wheat, Egypt needs huge quantities of foreign wheat with higher gluten content to make flour suitable for bread.

Coastal regions face severe degradation from overdevelopment, industrial waste, and unsustainable fishing practices. The Egyptian tortoise is nearing extinction as a result of poaching and being sold in local pet stores or smuggled to the international market and sold for thousands of pounds each.

With only 3% of Egypt’s total area suitable for vegetation and increasing human needs, preventing the loss of any arable land to desertification should be a national priority.

Incredibly, the journalists, NGOs and experts continue to see the symptoms of human overpopulation, and the allied problems of environmental degradation, species extinctions, and food security - but rarely acknowledge the source of the problem of human overpopulation! The looming global issue of "food security" is a polite and political-correct euphemism (usually) for human ecological overshoot!

Immigration to Australia is increasing, and it's the highest it's been in four years - since Kevin Rudd's silent "big Australia" push - and scam "courses", and the huge list of bogus skills shortages scandal! There were 309,140 net permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia in the year to November 2013 – the highest level since November 2009 and representing a 55% increase from the January 2011", and more than double the long-run average. In the year to November 2013, permanent arrivals fell by 3% to 152,350, whereas permanent departures rose 3% to 91,940 – just off record highs. What's creeping up is the number of "temporary" visas. Much of the recent immigration into Australia has been temporary in nature. According to the Department of Immigration, around 30% of workers on temporary 457 visas end up becoming permanent residents, suggesting that actual permanent immigration remains at relatively high levels. Macrobusiness.com.au: Immigration into Australia highest in four years It just shows that there's nothing more permanent than a "temporary" migrant! The focus on asylum seekers, dominating the "immigration" debate, is really hiding the flowing numbers arriving here legally - at a time of austerity, hardships, economic slowdown, and job losses.

Narelle Pearse is the CEO of the Mackay and Whitsunday Regional Economic Development Corporation, representing a region that's been hit with thousands of job losses in the past two years.

She says there are limited skilled jobs being advertised for and the investment into training has dropped off.

If there are the reported skills shortages in Australia, they should be addressed by upgraded training facilities, more apprenticeships and trainee ships, more affordable tertiary education and innovation. Increasing our economy's size by amassing people from overseas isn't economic growth.

Ms Pearse says it's possible the demand for skilled workers will change quickly but there are people within Australia who could help meet the demand.

Need more training, not more foreign workers on ABC Rural at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-13/call-employ-foreign-workers/5197608

About one-third of 15 to 19 year olds in areas such as the Sunshine Coast, far north Queensland, north western Queensland and West Moreton were jobless.

The Sunshine Coast also ranked the worst for unemployment of 20 to 24 year olds (11.9 per cent), which the report described as a "worrying cluster".

Migrants often find finding jobs harder, due to language difficulties and skills from overseas. They then end up employed in low-skilled areas.

The Australian Industry Group are out of the depth, and should face the hard facts of reality. Simply increasing immigration is for the benefit of the elite, and their corporate empires that have no concern for living standards, congestion, living costs etc. They will celebrate and profit from masses of unemployed, desperate and homeless people who will hungrily accept lower pay and working conditions.

Campaigners vowed to continue their fight against the $1m catch-and-kill policy, with a second rally planned for February 1. WA State Government will next week award the contract to commercial fishers to maintain and patrol up to 72 lines off beaches in Perth and the South-West. Following the sixth fatal attack off the WA coast in two years last month, the state government announced tougher measures aimed at preventing attacks, but denied it was a cull. A "cull" by definition is an effort to kill numbers and reduce their population! Experts from the University of WA who are on research into sharks - have already said a cull would be a pointless reaction, and that a surge in shark-bite incidents off WA's coast are linked to the growing population, which means more people in the water. Sharks are already heavily threatened by over-fishing, and they are important apex predators that help in the health of our oceans. They shouldn't be killed because of tourism and to support our lifestyles. Entering the zone or territory of wildlife should mean knowing the risks, and minimising them, not killing the predators to make it "safe" for one non-marine species - humans!

Britons reporting record levels of anti-immigration attitudes [...] 77 percent of Britons want reductions in the number of new arrivals to their country, according to the findings of a new public opinion poll. A whopping eight out of 10 Britons now believe that immigration rates should be limited, with almost six in 10 supporting significant reductions in the number of foreigners allowed in, according to the latest findings from the British Social Attitudes survey, which has been tracking public opinion for more than three decades. The study, which polled more than 3,000 people, discovered that 77 percent want immigration numbers decreased, with just four percent favoring an increase. Fifty six percent favor reducing the number of new arrivals “a lot” – a record figure. In 1995, when the question was first posed to Britons, just 39 percent supported major reductions, while two years ago only 51 percent held the view. Surprisingly, 54 percent of individuals who view immigration as a positive factor for the economy still want to see immigration reductions, including one full quarter who would favor “severe reductions.” Among those who believe immigration is culturally beneficial to the nation, 55 percent still support greater limitations. One in three Britons now support the view that immigration stimulates Britain culturally, as opposed to 45 percent who believe it is outright dangerous. The number of Britons, including immigrant families themselves - advocating a large reduction in immigration numbers has surged by more than 40 percent since before the expansion of the European Union. However, the poll shows a dramatic divide along class lines, with high-paid, highly educated individuals twice as likely as people from middle- and lower- income families to see immigration in glowing terms. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron is shown around a house in Southall in London on December 18, 2013 which was raided earlier in the day by immigration officers. (AFP Photo / David Bebber) Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron is shown around a house in Southall in London on December 18, 2013 which was raided earlier in the day by immigration officers. (AFP Photo / David Bebber) Even those who support the idea that immigration has helped Britain’s economy and enriched its culture, majorities now want to see it slashed. One individual who holds such views is Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP), who wants a five-year ban on people coming to settle in Britain while immigration policy is amended. . "If you said to me do you want to see another five million people come to Britain, and if that happened we would all be slightly richer, I would say, do you know what, I would rather we were not slightly richer,” he told BBC Radio 4. "I would rather we had communities that were rather more united and we had a situation where young unemployed British people had a realistic chance of getting a job, so yes I do think the social side of this matters more than the pure market economics." Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable, whose Liberal Democrat party shares power with the Conservatives, said Prime Minister David Cameron's goal of cutting net migration to Britain to "tens of thousands" by 2015 was "not sensible." Speaking in a BBC documentary, The Truth About Immigration, Cable said Britain was powerless to control migration inflows from the European Union, not to mention the number of Britons returning from abroad. He said the Liberal Democrats had never endorsed Cameron's "arbitrary" efforts to reduce net migration to under 100,000 before the next general election in May 2015. In November, Britain scrapped a plan to force people from India, Pakistan, and some African countries to pay a cash deposit in return for a six-month visa. Officials said the money would be refunded as the person left the country upon expiration of their visa. The plan was intended to serve as a deterrent to foreigners overstaying their visas. Source: Russia Today: http://www.rt.com/news/british-immigration-survey-attitudes-cameron-313/

PPL VIC: EAST WEST LINK NEWS: East-West test drilling has resumed: Join the community picket from 5.30am tomorrow corner of Alexandra Parade and Brunswick Street Fitzroy 6 Importance: High

More than 30,000 African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally have protested in Tel Aviv, in the biggest rally ever staged by migrants in the Jewish state. The protesters sharply criticised Israel's refusal to give them refugee status and the detention without trial of hundreds of asylum seekers. Now, giving "refuge" to those escaping conflict are demanding that they are given the benefits of residency.

Rights groups say most African migrants in Israel cannot be deported because their lives would be under threat if they returned to their homes in Sudan and Eritrea.

Many illegal immigrants, who are often employed in menial jobs in restaurants and hotels, also launched a three-day strike in several Israeli cities on Sunday. Under legislation passed on December 10, authorities can detain illegal immigrants entering Israel for up to a year without trial. Starting from Sunday, the asylum seekers will not go to work and will probably continue to strike throughout the week.

Israel says that there are close to 60,000 illegal immigrants from Africa in the country and that they pose a threat to the state's Jewish character.
National borders are tightening up, due to global population pressure and compassion fatigue.

Population growth has affected Israel's wildlife

Israel offers a microcosm of the global situation on overpopulation: At the middle of the twentieth century, this tiny country was still home to an astonishing assemblage of mammals, birds and reptiles. That's because in 1949 there were one million people living in Israel. Today there are eight million. The equation is simple: more people means less wildlife.

Accordingly, about a third of the country's 115 indigenous mammal species today are either endangered or critically endangered. The amphibian population is almost entirely extirpated.

The United Nations estimates that Palestinian and Israeli annual population growth is 2.4 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. Even expanded desalination does not change the burden created by geometric population growth on infrastructure, food security and ecosystems.

As mentioned in this article most soy beans go into the mouths of pigs and chickens which are then eaten by us. Soy beans represents the cheapest form of high protein feed needed by these animals to grow fast. Historically both pork and poultry where consumed at much lower levels (pre-WW2). The reason for this was the high price of grain and cost of high protein additives like soy beans. People actually ate more red meat as it was grass fed, with pork and poultry being a 'luxury' meat eaten on special occasions. Alternatively, on small farms pigs and chickens can be maintained on scraps and their own foraging, but this would still mean that you only ate them a few times a year. As grain prices go up it will make pork and poultry meat more expensive, forcing people to eat less meat and increasing the proportion of what they still consume as red meat (beef/lamb/goat etc.) that is raised on pasture, lowering the overall meat consumption. For now everyone should be aware that conventionally raised poultry and pigs (i.e. factory farms aka CAFO - concentrated animal feeding operations) consume the bulk of the worlds soy production. Pasture raised pigs and poultry also are fed some soy, but less than their CAFO counterparts. If we all ate less white meat and switched our sources of poultry and pork to pastured raised animals it would significantly reduce demand for soy we wouldn't see land in places like Argentina being taken over by this crop. Remember than soy beans are a internationally traded commodity. In Australia we only produce a small percentage of the soy beans that are consumed here (by pigs and poultry), this would mean that some Argentinian soy is imported here and being consumed by animals which we in turn eat. It's all very well to complain about problems but we have to be aware that it is our eating habits that DIRECTLY CREATE this problem. It is difficult to change the world, but we can change what we do ourselves.

"More and more of the pages of the Australian Financial Review these days are taken up with real-estate, property development, land-marketing, land-use planning arguments, and industries associated with immigration".

One group, vocal against the tide of high rates of population growth, are the vilified "NIMBYs"! While they may not mention the dreaded "p" word of population growth, or the "i" word for excessive immigration, they generally safely stick to "planning" schemes for their cities and suburbs.

A study by University of South Australia and University of New England researchers compared the approval rates for new housing developments across all Adelaide councils to find out how the city would cope with increases in population. It found that council approvals showed that for every 1 per cent increase in the average weekly earnings of a council's residents, there was a corresponding 2 per cent reduction in that council's new housing approval rate. In other words, the more affluent the residential areas, the more vocal the "NIMBYs" were! The more articulate no doubt are the long term residents who have the wisdom and perspective of years, and the community support to be vocal.

Academics are meant to be indifferent and objective, not endorse any lobby group. However, University of New England co-author, Mr Sorenson said that "There is a need for Adelaide to get over the hurdle of NIMBYism, or the maintenance of existing lifestyle at the expense of housing the population.''

The "hurdle" of NIMBYISM is stopping population growth, and housing growth! The residents actually want to maintain their lifestyles and housing quality, not go down the path of Victoria's deprivations, congestion and high costs of "solution" to excessive population growth!

Adelaide inner-city growth stifled by NIMBYs - report of 4 Jan 2014 at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/adelaide-innercity-growth-stifled-by-nimbys-report/story-e6frg6n6-1226794577026

What's insidious is the assumption that our population growth is natural and organic, in response to the number of families, economic health and an abundance of affordable natural resources. Our "projected" population growth is engineered by at least 60% of our growth from immigration, and is a government policy that needs to be questioned and challenged - democratically like any other!

Below is my unpublished letter to The Age, 29th December, in response to a letter published by Victorian Premier Napthine. It's in reference to the East West Link.

The cost and the great demands of population growth are skirted around by The Age. It's the elephant in the room of our need for more roads, despite upgraded public transport. Anything with the dreaded "p" word is censored.

Melbourne's circulatory system is under pressure from more and more cars, and the massively invasive and expensive by-pass "surgery" of the East West Link is to relieve the traffic pressure building up on our roads, due to population growth. The gridlock is causing our arteries to be seriously clogged.

However, my letter was unpublished! (not only this time, but repeatedly). They continue to skirt around the massive boulders of logic, the impediments to smooth traffic flows, and the reason for Melbourne's serious short-fall in infrastructure - and productivity. The dreaded "p" word is avoided, like a plague!

My unpublished letter:

Premier Napthine (letters 29/12, What about the wins) claims that the government has increased the number of weekly metro rail services by 1078, and weekly bus services by 3400. The government has also purchased 15 new Metro trains, 50 new trams and 40 new V-Line carriages.

So, despite the increase in rail and bus services, our roads are still congested and productivity is being impeded by traffic growth. Access to the western suburbs is already available via the West Gate Bridge and the Western Ring road, but they are clogged up.

Hon Terry Mulder, Minister for Roads, justifies the massive expense and disturbance of the East West Link by the fact that Melbourne is currently growing faster than almost any time in its history, and demand for mobility is also growing, meaning they need to invest in both public transport and roads.

Any planning or professional design that must incorporate perpetual growth will find the constraints prohibitive, and limit best practices and outcomes.

Melbourne's population, at current rates of projected growth, will swell to 8 million by 2050. Any solution to traffic gridlocks will become outdated with time until the parameters of Melbourne's needs are known - and stable.

Margit Alm
Eltham

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Premier Napthine's Letter published by The Age:

What about the wins?

It is disappointing that The Sunday Age continues to fail to fairly and fully inform its readers with respect to the commitment to, and significant achievements in, improving public transport across Melbourne and Victoria by the state government.

Nowhere in the article by Farrah Tomazin (Opinion, 22/12) did she mention that we are currently undertaking the largest public transport infrastructure project in our state's history - the $4.8 billion Regional Rail Project.

Tomazin also failed to mention that since coming to office, the government has increased the number of weekly metro rail services by 1078 and weekly bus services by 3400. The government has also purchased 15 new Metro trains, 50 new trams and 40 new V-Line carriages.

In addition, the Coalition is currently spending more than $400 million removing dangerous level crossings at Springvale Road, Springvale; Rooks Road and Mitcham Road, Mitcham; and two on Anderson Road, Sunshine. The government has also outlined and funded plans to remove a further seven dangerous and congestion-causing level crossings. This real action to actually remove these crossings stands in stark contrast to 11 years of inaction under the previous Labor government.

The Coalition also provided $125 million in recent budgets to upgrade the Dandenong and Bayside-Frankston railway lines to improve punctuality and reliability of services as well as passenger comfort.

However, the clearest demonstration of the effectiveness of the Coalition government's efforts to improve public transport is the fact that both punctuality and reliability of our metro train services have improved significantly.

For example, on the Frankston line, which was a disaster under Labor, punctuality has improved from 65.6 per cent in June 2010 to 90.8 per cent in November 2013.

DENIS NAPTHINE, Victorian Premier

Letters to The Age: Premier Napthine's letter

There's no proof or evidence that the use of renewable energies can be ramped up and scaled to meet the needs of "big Australia". All the Greens platitudes about renewable energy, ignoring population growth, make them nothing but a whistle in the wind.

Population growth has a multiplying effect on pollution, land clearing, GHG emissions, demands for fossil fuels, and living standards. Living in apartments and towers, as we are being forced to more and more, is a higher energy consuming lifestyle. There's no recycling, gardening, water harvesting, composting or evaporative cooling of trees and vegetation.

They have become a social justice party, more interested in an open door to asylum seekers and gay marriage.

If you scratch a little under the green facade, you find they are simply a mainstream party with little to contribute to politics except as an alternative to the duopoly of Libs and Labs.

Without a meaningful population policy, one devoid of political correctness and oxymorons, then the Greens have little to offer.

Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Prime Minister David Cameron's proposals to toughen rules on entry could stigmatise foreigners and create a "climate of ethnic profiling". (The Australian, 28th Dec - behind a Paywall - Ed)
Mr Cameron has used a new bill to set out provisions making it harder for illegal entrants to remain undetected. Landlords, NHS workers and banks will have to check the immigration status of tenants, patients and customers.

A UNHCR briefing note sent to MPs that Mr Guterres feared that legal asylum seekers and refugees would be penalised by the proposed restrictions as public sector employees and landlords struggle to work out their status.
The UN also called on the international community to offer not only humanitarian aid for refugees, but also resettlement opportunities outside the country, and Labour is urging the Government to accept 400-500 Syrians, including torture victims (the clams are almost certainly fabricated, see sana.sy/index_eng.html, syrianews.cc - Ed), women and girls at high risk and people with family links to the UK.

Economic overshoot and scarcity of jobs is a population problem, along with conflicts for limited resources. Spreading the displaced in developed countries is an open-border concept, one that means migrants will take advantage of welfare and economic developments paid for by residents. Genuine refugees should be the priority, not migrants wanting a "better life".

The English are already living in one of the most densely populated nations on Earth. Prime Minister David Cameron wants to get UK net migration below 100,000 before the 2015 election.

United Nations should focus on key issues such as Syrian refugees rather than "interfering" in British policy, senior MPs warn.

A Bill has been brought in following concerns about a surge in economic migrants from Romania and Bulgaria when transitional controls over their movement are lifted on January 1.

The public policy mandate of multiculturalism means that even Osama Bin Laden could apply for Australian citizenship in full turban and Kalashnikov -denial of Australian traditional values government public servants have been brainwashed.