Comments

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2015-07-10 23:53

Re http://candobetter.net/comment/reply/4505/175074#comment-175074Furthermore, where are we without soverignty? Whilst it is possible that rich people forming power elites may be able to exert some control over their interests at a global level, the rest of us can only be effective if we have representation at local, state and national level. There is no democratic representation at global level. The idea that people can exert all the power they need as consumers does not work. The market is geared simply to encourage any activity that makes more money. But activities that make lots of money tend to do lots of harm to our environments and societies. This is especially so as we move further away in time from the 1950s era of gushing oil wells in a context of much smaller populations. Foreign investment goes to regions where costs, checks and measures are low and profits high. The market and Australia's current economic policies reinforce this. People investing at a distance do not have to face protests from locals, do not have to recognise the harm the activities they invest in may do. That is another reason that our governments, increasingly desperate to find ways to attract money, pursue policies to remove local power to object to developments and other changes. Loss of national sovereignty is part of a process that begins locally with loss of local power to say no to activities in one's locality, to draw a line, to say, enough.

James Greyson @... (not verified)

Fri, 2015-07-10 21:54

A soft collapse? Sorry, not an option. The global collapse dynamic has no safety net where everyone keeps chickens and filters their rainwater while swapping seeds with friendly neighbours. It will be billions of people willing to do anything to get food and water that will be essentially unavailable.

This debate is no different than others that pluck out 3 or so system variables to be held out as keys to a better future. This is the same system blindness that characterises both intransigent BAU and ineffectual alternative movements. What's interesting here is the level of confidence that economic growth is intrinsically destructive so the only escape is to take down the global economy, effectively opting to end civilisation. I'd suggest it would be simpler to end our system blindness.

http://blindspot.org.uk/seven-policy-switches/

nimby

Fri, 2015-07-10 08:43

Green Larissa Waters did state that the Greens were against selling Australian land, food producing land in particular, in this age of food insecurity, given the changing climate, to state owned outfits. However they are not against foreign investment. There is a difference between "foreign investment" and a wholesale takeover, or buy up. Investors lend money or own a proportion of an asset to help the capital owners progress in buying what they would not be able to themselves, due to high costs. It means that they work in partnership, or eventually pay back the investor or even buy them out. Selling off is about transferring ownership, the freehold! It seems that many of our left politicians are still cowering about Australia's "white" status, and that we must globalize and be multicultural? What's wrong with sovereignty? We don't need to feel guilt, or "share" our land with foreigners? The Greens with their open door and multicultural policies are inconsistent with their environmental policies, and are a really socially progressive party that uses the "environment" and "climate change" to attract the naive?

Vivienne Ortega

Fri, 2015-07-10 08:35

A massive Chinese coal mine is threatening to ruin Australia’s best farming country. Putting a huge, dirty coal mine in Australia’s food bowl is a dumb, irresponsible idea. We’re talking about a massive hole the size of 4620 football fields – roughly two-thirds the size of Sydney Harbour. Australia has only 6% arable land, and food security, thanks to global and national population growth, is an essential issue and of vital concern to present and future generations. The Breeza/Liverpool Plains are Australia’s most fertile country – rich black soil with reliable underground water. To the mining companies however these wonderful assets are just waste products that hinder their access to the dirty coal. So, our food security is to be sacrificed for coal to China! It's assumed that we can import food instead? Modelling shows that the mine will damage, if not destroy, the abundant fresh groundwater that makes this land so productive. We are being sold out by the government we voted for and expect to act responsibly towards are natural assets, by our "environment" minister, but NOT SO! From a corrupt Government Minister approving the exploration licence, to Ministers/ Governments changing regulations in favour of miners over food producers. Longs term sustainablity, and our national interests, are being betrayed for short term cash flows. It's not rational decision-making, but caving into filthy lucre. There’s a big koala population and significant Aboriginal sites under threat. The heart of our country is being savaged and exhumed, without the consent of the people. Please lend your voice and sign this petition asking Minister Hunt and the NSW government to STOP the development of a huge dirty coal mine in the heart of Australia's food bowl. Change Org: STOP a huge, dirty coal mine from being developed in the heart of Australia’s food bowl

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2015-07-09 09:48

Authorities in Saudi Arabia continue to discriminate against Saudi women and girls and do not adequately protect the rights of migrant workers. The country’s anti-terrorism regulations can be used to criminalize almost any form of peaceful criticism of the authorities, and dozens of human rights defenders and others are serving long prison sentences for criticizing authorities or demanding political and human rights reforms. Other human rights concerns include the death penalty, with more than 2,000 people executed between 1985 and 2013; the arrest, imprisonment and harassment of large members of the Shi’a Muslim community and other minority groups. New legislation effectively equated criticism of the government and other peaceful activities with terrorism. Women faced discrimination in law and practice, and were inadequately protected against sexual and other violence despite a new law criminalizing domestic violence. Woman cannot open a bank account without her husband's permission, here are several other things women in Saudi Arabia are still unable to do: drive a car, vote in elections, show their hands in public, wear attractive clothes or makeup, go for a swim, compete freely in sports, try on clothes when shopping, go to a cemetery, read an uncensored fashion magazine, or buy a Barbie! Twelve things women in Saudi Arabia can't do (10/6/15) | The Week The irony is that Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to make a bid to head the United Nations' Human Rights Council, in a move that has been described as the "final nail in the coffin for the credibility" of the Human Rights Council. The country will move to assume lead control over the HRC after 2016 when the presidency is awarded to a new nation. Saudi Arabia is one of the few absolute monarchies left in the world. There is no legal code in the country, leaving it to individual judges to set the punishment for a crime in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic doctrine. Yemen is where more than 1,500 civilians were reportedly killed, 3,600 others injured, and one million displaced in three months of violence. Saudi Arabia launched an air war in late March, hoping to stem the advance of Houthi rebels, who are allied with Iran. There's no oil supplies concerned, so it seems that nobody is really concerned. Analysts say that Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia are locked in a strategic contest for influence across the Middle East. The Saudis don't have the intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capability to determine all of these targets, so they had to have had some help, and it probably came from the United States.

Dave Macilwain (not verified)

Wed, 2015-07-08 13:05

Good stuff Sheila, because this bullshit just goes on! And thinking about Q&A – despite its ‘show’ like put-off, it has been sometimes the only real place where there is argument between people in different camps, and unscripted in front of a live audience. THIS is what makes it a good and useful program! I was just listening today to an interview with David Jansen the climate change denier, followed by an interview with one of the scientists who wished to knock some sense into his head. She was really good, and had a beautiful metaphor for the situation – that we are all in a truck heading downhill towards a chasm, and someone in the cab wants to start a study into whether Gravity really exists, before we put on the brakes! But the problem was, as with almost every interview we hear, that these two people weren’t being interviewed together, and able to argue directly for ten or fifteen minutes unscripted, so that some issue can be thrashed out. The sort of thing that RT likes to do, but which our producers shy away from because of the dangers someone might say something to wake us all up! So I think we need more Zaky Mallahs, and we need to hear their questions – like ‘Who is supporting ISIS?’.... !

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2015-07-07 18:15

Mark O'Connor writes: At “The Conversation” today I have added the following Comment to Gregory Melleuish’s article, "Australia’s Constitution works because it doesn’t define national identity."

A major underlying problem is that any fair recognition of Aborigines should include their right to be consulted on future immigration. Their central grievance is that they were immigrated upon without their consent (a gentler phrase than "invaded") and thereby reduced to a vulnerable minority within their own country. They are now at risk of being reduced to a minority among the minorities in their own country. That is why the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee loudly demanded an end to all plans for "higher population growths in Australia", saying "We have lost enough. . . . Australia's population is bearable at this point in time, but further ecocide of this country will leave nothing for no one." (See my book This Tired Brown Land pp. 288 ff.)

Their problem is that the business Right, including developers and property investors, wants no interference in its plans to get rich through population growth, no matter at what costs to environment and urban quality of life. And the far Left wants to give away shares in Australia to the whole world, arguing confusedly that the only way to assuage their sense of guilt for having stolen Australia from its Aboriginal peoples is to invite in the rest of the world to share the plunder.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2015-07-07 12:11

From Jenny Warfe:

PIBCI is holding a meeting, with Dr. Toscano as the speaker, in Hastings on Sunday 12th July at 1.30 pm
1:30pm - Sunday 12th July 2015
Hastings Hall - Main St, Hastings
(next to Hastings Public Library)

For those of you who are sick of the corporate sector ruling the joint, you may be interested in this political initiative.
Dr. Joe Toscano, a medical practitioner and initiator of PIBCI, has a long political activist history, and has campaigned over the years on issues from defending Medicare, the ABC, public housing, corporate welfare, and indigenous issues. He has also stood many times for the senate, for Lord Mayor of Melbourne and most recently as an independent in Frankston.

Listen to his latest 3CR program here: http://audio.3cr.org.au/3cr/anarchist-world-this-week/2015/04/15/1000/201504151000_anarchist-world-this-week_64.mp3

The proposed sale of the Port of Melbourne, (after all the taxpayers money that has been sunk into it over 100 years of public ownership), and probably to overseas corporate/fund management/investment interests* has sealed my interest in opposing any more handovers of our public assets to corporate interests. We need a countervailing point of view in the media and public discourse generally, and we are just not getting it.

http://anarchistmedia.org/pdf/PIBCI%20-%20Membership%20Form.pdf

*http://www.afr.com/business/infrastructure/ports/port-of-melbourne-sale-kicks-off-despite-rent-row-20150527-ghahtr

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2015-07-06 07:27

Saudi Arabian ignorant king and his supporting countries are committing the worst, the most illogical mistake of the history and America (that always shouts for human rights!) and England (the old coloniser of many and different countries in not so far) and Zionist apartheid regime (that has committed many war crimes, crimes against humanity, etc.) are only a few of supporters of the Arabs, whose thought belongs to pre-Islamic era, only for their financial benefit. I believe there is justice in the universe and these evils will sooner or later pay for their oppression & mistake. Remember! the truth is mightier than everything and the Sun will not remain under the clouds for ever. The US, the small Britain, the Zionists and Saudi Arabia will pay for these crimes, I am sure.

Eddy (not verified)

Sun, 2015-07-05 15:49

Anonymous, please note, the World at large, that is the World that is not subservient to the hegemony aspirants spouting bullshit and lies left right and center, KNOWS very well, the truth of events in Syria.

We KNOW, it is the U.S.F.U.K. Israel and the Turkish Government who are fomenting this divisive war within your country.

We have seen authentic documentation of trumped up lies emanating from the above sources in their efforts to demonise the Government of Syria, specifically the claim of chemical weapons, which fell flat on it's face as a concocted lie, only to be again resurrected in the last two weeks, despite the U.N. and the U.S. stating publicly that all such resources had been removed from Syria. Thus again proving to the whole World, that they are liars.

It is directly because of this appalling behavior from the above groups that the respect from the rest of the World for them, has fallen to the lowest level in history.

After all, how can anyone respect or even trust anything coming from the mouths of PROVEN LIARS ? Thus it is their creditability that has fallen and countries hold them in contempt and take actions themselves accordingly.

Given the above, other than moral support, there is very little other nations can do on their own to assist Syria in their time of need. Laws are being passed nearly every day in such countries denying them the opportunity to assist anyone in similar circumstances, driving such people underground if they still wish to assist such nations (of which Syria is just one).

No one can assist anyone, if they are locked up without charge, and no one even knows they are locked up, simply disappeared without trace, and Governments do not need to explain such disappearances.

So I'm all open, to hear suggestions, on how people sympathetic to events in Syria, could assist them.

admin

Sun, 2015-07-05 14:55

The following was posted to a forum discusion The IMF: An inexcusable, incorrigible failure on JohnQuiggin.com.

J-D on July 5th, 2015 at 08:23,

Thank you for advising me of my mistake. I have corrected the article and have acknowledged your advice as a footnote to the article.

The article now includes two embedded videos of a huge recent rally in Greece for a "No" vote. The first is only 3:49 minute in length. It has no English translation, but that scarcely detracts from its value for non-Greek-speaking audiences. The second video is 10:30 minutes in length and has been dubbed over by an English translator.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2015-07-05 09:56

Richard Heinberg, senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute believes we have reached The End of Growth (2011), as does energy economist Jeff Rubin (2012), who understands that "the real engine of economic growth has always been cheap, abundant fuel and resources."

Heinberg says that "If policymakers fail to recognise this (limits to economic growth) and continue assuming that the current debt crisis is just another turning of the business cycle, then we may lose whatever opportunity still remains to avert a crash that could bring civilisation to its knees".

He also says there are limits to debt. "Beyond a certain point people are unable to make increasing payments and banks don’t want to loan them more money. We seem to have reached that point in just the last decade. Now household debt is not growing substantially but that’s being made up for with increasing levels of government debt – deficit spending and quantitative easing on the part of central banks".

Could it be that all the financial circus that we are seeing in and around Greece be just the effect of much deeper causes?

Greece has become the first developed country to default on an International Monetary Fund loan, itself a fraction of a € €323 billion national debt – equivalent to more than 175% of the country’s GDP.

If the Limits To Growth study is right and the crisis is generated by the gradually increasing costs of production of natural resources, then, collapse cannot be avoided, at best it can be mitigated by acting at the system level. Countries that rely on other nations to buy their debt run a risk of becoming beholden to their creditors and having to trade sovereignty for liquidity. Due to its inability to pay its debts and a desire to remain in the eurozone, Greece has had to accept various external conditions from the EU regarding its budget and national economic policies in exchange for forbearance and additional capital.

The expectations the Greeks have for renegotiating their debts requires them to squeeze blood from a stone. Only by increasing tax collections can Greece reverse the painful reduction in government spending, services, and employment known as austerity. the Greek economy cannot hope to generate the new wealth necessary to repay its maturing debts. Voters have effectively rejected the implausibly deep and sustained cuts in government spending and services necessary to meet principal and interest payments.

The physical limits to economic growth are chiefly resource depletion (a shrinking pie), resource competition (ashrinking slice of the pie).

A "no" vote means Greece has more leverage to negotiate a better package with the EU. That is not accurate, according to EU leaders.

admin

Sat, 2015-07-04 01:51

by Paul Craig Roberts. Previously published (2/7/15) on PaulCraigRoberts.org

According to history books, democracy originated in Greece. Of course, historians could be mistaken, but this is the prevailing view among Western populations with enough awareness to be interested to know.

What we are witnessing today, July 2, 2015, is that after 2,500 years in the Western World only the current Greek government is interested in democracy. The Greek government, to the surprise and consternation of every other European government, has called a referendum for the Greek people to decide the fate of Greece. For resorting to democracy, the Greek government has been universally denounced in the Western World.

So much for Western democracy.

The greatest and most successful propaganda scam in history is the one that convinces the world that they are nobody if they are not part of The West, the indispensable peoples, the exceptional peoples. If you are not part of The West you are nobody, nonexistent, a nothing.

This prevailing propaganda might prevail in Greece on Sunday, in which case a fearful and intimidated Greek population might vote against the only government that, instead of accepting a payoff from Greece’s enemies, fought for the welfare of the Greek people.

If the Greeks vote for their oppressors and against their own government, democracy in the EU will cease to exist.

2,500 years ago Greeks saved their independence from the Persian Empire. Sunday’s vote will tell us whether Greeks have again served liberty or whether they have succumbed to Washington’s Empire.

The fate of all Europeans and of Americans themselves will be settled on Sunday.

Stop the TPP (not verified)

Fri, 2015-07-03 12:36

Community Run Petition: Stop the trade of kangaroo meat to China Studies show that the grazing pressure of one kangaroo is equivalent to just 0.15 - 0.2 of a sheep, and is minute when compared to cattle. In practical terms this means that the damage on grazing lands attributed to kangaroos has been grossly overestimated by as much as 470 per cent. “This would mean that kangaroos are a much smaller component of the ‘total grazing pressure’ than is generally accepted.” The current commercial slaughter is cruel, unjustified, unscientific, and is devastating to Australia’s kangaroos . Research has established that kangaroos are not in epidemic / “plague” proportions, that farm waterholes play no part in increasing kangaroo numbers, that few joeys survive, in fact only 25%, survive to adulthood. The kangaroo killing industry has been protected as if it were a national saviour of Australia’s rural economy, supported by a series of myths which no one ever bothers investigate. The industry claims that kangaroo grazing contributes to 30% of grazing pressure, when this is totally untrue. A female kangaroo and joey have as close a bond as primates. Each decade, over 30,000,000 are killed, leaving one million orphaned joeys, to die from chilling, starvation, attached by feral animals, each year. Kangaroos are not killed hygienically in an abattoir and injuries are not monitored at the point of kill because the kill is un-policed. There is no potable water, to wash knives, hatchets, the ute, hanging hooks for inside the chiller boxes. Kangaroos are shot in the outback at night in unhygienic conditions, disemboweled among the faeces of other animals, dirt and dust and insects. In 2009 Russia banned kangaroo meat due to hygiene issues. Raw kangaroo meat can carry hydatids, nematodes, parasitic worms, and other bacterial fungal and viral diseases, such as salmonella and E-coli. Wake up Australia, while there’s still time to save your wonderful kangaroos. Community Run Petition: Stop the trade of kangaroo meat to China

Amal (not verified)

Fri, 2015-07-03 00:37

This article is very interesting, most importantly for those who know that the Syrian society relies heavily on TV. TV is really at the focal point of any house, specially with the limited internet access everywhere. It is not a surprise that the society at large is going nuts with fanaticism and twisted mentality, undoubtedly due to the toxic daily combo of hatred they are receiving ...

Stop the TPP (not verified)

Thu, 2015-07-02 15:21

"Second, it is pointless for JSCOT to conduct its inquiries after the agreements are a done deal and signed by the government". How do governments expect to make the best decisions for the nation and for the public, if these agreements are signed and then assessed in hindsight? That's not good parliamentary process, but knee-jerk reaction, of diving in first due to pressure from massive global corporations, and then flounder in an effort to survive – if possible. These "free" trade agreements will have nothing "free" about them if we are enslaved to global corporations, and then sued if we don't comply and make our own laws. It's an assault on our sovereignty.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2015-07-02 09:02

You wrote:

"But I also have to say that the whole government rhetoric which we live daily and which formed the context of the controversy on Q & A seems to me like an exercise in hypocrisy and a subtle encouragement for people to go to Syria and join 'rebel fighters'. It is our government and its slimy billionaire mentors in the United States and NATO who demonise the Syrian Government as an excuse to continue to rape and pillage a whole swathe of countries in the Middle East, in a fine old tradition begun at the beginning of the 19th Century in the Great Game."

That, exactly, is the window with the vast dirty view that Mallah nudged opened and which everyone since, beginning with Jones at the immediate outset, has fallen over themselves to slam shut. I'm puzzled at how you might see Mallah's final observation as being ambiguous. It seemed crystal clear to me that he referred to the effect that Ciobo's expressed sentiment would created amongst the 'at risk' young moslem group. He confirmed this intent in a Guardian column the very next day.

Zaky Mallah: I stand by what I said on Q&A. Australia needs to hear it 1 

This clarification is being steadfastly ignored whilst column miles continue to be produced burning him to create the smoke necessary to obscure that window with the dirty view. It seems like an important issue to me. I don't often see an innocent person machine gunned in public to cover up a high profile crime. The extent of those joining in the massacre, or at least complicit by toleration, is one of the most bizarre aspects.

I think you are right. Abbott does want them to go. It helps maintain the middle eastern destabilisation and it gives him a cheap effective electoral wedge. His electoral opponents are clueless and terrified as to how to handle this wedge.

Footnote[s]

1. ↑ The linked story above was previously:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/zaky-mallah-i-stand-by-what-i-said-on-qa-the-public-needs-to-hear-it

What you are now viewing is the result of your HTML browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer or whatever), instead, rendering the following HTML code:

<blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/zaky-mallah-i-stand-by-what-i-said-on-qa-the-public-needs-to-hear-it">Zaky Mallah: I stand by what I said on Q&A. Australia needs to hear it</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>

... as:

Zaky Mallah: I stand by what I said on Q&A. Australia needs to hear it.

Also, the HTML codes for paragraph:

<p> and </p>

... aren't strictly necessary on a Drupal content-managed web-site such as candobetter.net. The simple carriage return (and, preferably, an additional carriage return to separate one paragraph from the next), currently used by most contributors, is sufficient. (Purists, possibly including one of the candobetter editors, prefer to include <p> and </p>.)

 - Ed

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2015-07-01 16:21

The united states has a very poor reputation for treatment and protection of farm animals. Like Australia it only accords animals chattle status, whereas in Europe there have been gains in treating animals as sentient creatures.

And the United States has more people in prison than any other state, most of them non-whites from significant poverty whom the system provides with totally inadequate public defenses, even for very serious crimes.

"In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.[1] Imprisonment of America's 2.3 million prisoners, costing $24,000 per inmate per year, and $5.1 billion in new prison construction, consumes $60.3 billion in budget expenditures. As of 2014 the high incarceration rates have started to modestly decline, although still remain the highest in the world.[ Roy Walmsley (November 21, 2013). World Prison Population List (tenth edition). International Centre for Prison Studies. Retrieved July 11, 2014.]"

"A substantial body of research claims that incarceration rates are primarily a function of media editorial policies, largely unrelated to the actual crime rate. Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems is a book collecting together papers on this theme.[ Potter and Kapeller (1998)]" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate

America also has the death penalty in a number of states, although only a few still exercise it.

"Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, thirty-four states have performed executions. In 2013, 39 inmates were executed in the United States, and 3,088 were on death row. Many states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, and Arizona, regularly execute convicted murderers. Source: "Capital punishment in the United States," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States

American prisoners volunteer to have drugs tested on them as a way of earning money in a manner that flies in the face of human rights. In privatised prisons they are treated as slave labour - although this was also the practice in government prisons and dates back a long time, perhaps first exposed by Nancy Mitford in The American Prison System.

Evidence of very poor capacity for just trials grows daily in the increasing count of people on death row whom DNA techniques has shown to be innocent of the crimes they were charged with and sentenced to death for.

And many people think that the United States is the biggest global bully of the lot, with its unaccountable and lethal use of drones, its outsourcing of wars which people can invest in on the stockmarket, and its ideology of war as peacemaking. It has more military bases around the world than any other country and it just so happens that the countries where it has those bases do what it says. For an informed comment on the United State's dominance of supporting countries, see, "Vladimir Putin on France and Europe: "NATO Member States have renounced their sovereignty"

Not saying that China is a great place for justice and democracy, and certainly not for generalised kindness to animals, but seems that the United States is only a democracy in name. Recently the Princeton University analysed the situation and declared it an oligarchy. See Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" (2014) which you can download here:
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPPS%2FPPS12_03%2FS1537592714001595a.pdf&code=d3a67daeef13e420db323feb4fadd1e3

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2015-07-01 14:42

This is probably also a move towards forcing people into private education. The State school system was long Labor territory and the Libs and the Corporates like to reorganise the total education territory so that they can more easily influence it - in voting, religion and other ideologies.

Reserve Our Gas (not verified)

Wed, 2015-07-01 12:05

This is a copy of an email from Senator Jacinta Collins in regard to lack of gas reserves for Australian consumers: It's in response to a petition to reserve OUR gas for domestic consumers, and not allow prices to be blown out by foreign mining corporations! Senator Jacinta Collins writes that: I understand that there is concern in the community that the price of gas is increasing. A gas reservation imposes a requirement that producers must reserve a fixed volume or proportion of gas for household use, power generation and local manufacturing consumers. Unfortunately, this short term response will likely lead to further price increases. She continues:As you may be aware a gas reservation system currently exists in Western Australia, with no clear evidence that it is having any affect, and one is legislated for but is as yet inactive in Queensland. At the Federal level, the former Labor Government ruled out introducing a gas reservation policy because they do not work. (my comment: this is a peek into the future of "free" trade agreement costs - we will lose cheap access to our own natural resources, and politicians will be in the palm of their hands) Collins claims that the The Federal Labor Opposition does not support domestic gas reservations for the same reasons. (ie it does not work?) A gas reservation policy leads to distorted price signals, inefficient industries, lower investment and, ultimately, higher prices. (my comment: don't "offend" the foreign investors, or "distort" their market! Prices keep going up, so how are exporters actually addressing this?) She says that The key to managing gas prices is looking to increase supply, by bringing more gas onto the market while ensuring that strong environmental protections are in place, and increasing production or pipeline capacity in existing sites. Gas has and will continue to play a vital role in Australia’s energy mix. Thank you for raising this important issue with me (Thanks for nothing) Yours sincerely, Senator Jacinta Collins Senator for Victoria So the solution to gas prices is to keep increasing supply? This is very convenient for the mining companies, a license to increase supply! Until recently gas consumption has been relatively cheap because electric appliances weren’t yet highly efficient and the cost of gas in Australia was not linked to prices prevailing in world markets. Distributors of electricity will cannibalise distributors of gas, in several circumstances are the same companies. Gas and electricity prices are expected to rise, so the cost-of-living impact will only worsen. Customers battling to pay bills in full and on time are facing an increasing risk of unfair electricity and gas cut-offs, a peak welfare agency has warned. Victorians' gas bills will skyrocket by hundreds of dollars over the next few years and low-income earners will be the worst affected, according to a report from a consumer utilities body. Domestic prices have been rising as gas producers in Australia seek higher prices in export markets, made possible by shipping gas in liquid form, mainly to Japan. So, domestic consumers are meant to pay global export prices and bear the brunt of having multinational mining companies pay what they want! All gas-exporting nations, except Australia, have either a gas reservation scheme - in which a portion of gas is reserved for domestic use at a fair domestic price - or equivalent statutory requirements aimed at ensuring local industry and consumers are not disadvantaged by exposure to the high global price for gas. Sign the petition: RESERVE OUR GAS

Protect our sov... (not verified)

Wed, 2015-07-01 10:52

Australia's top public servant, Michael Thawley, secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, has dismissed any prospect of China leading the world, saying the economic giant is neither willing nor able to solve global problems. "China wasn't ready to take on the responsibility either economically or politically or security-wise," he said. SMH: China not fit for global leadership says top Canberra official Like human obesity, "growth" is not an indication of exemplary ethics or strong and ethical leadership. There are serious human and animal rights abuses in China. The anniversary of the 1989 4th June, the Tiananmen Square massacre, is generally showtime for the always-bubbling tension between Chinese authorities and the dissidents and activists in the country, who seek more freedom for themselves and their countrymen. There are now 70 Australians detained or jailed in China?—?a number that has almost doubled in the past five years. An estimated 500,000 people are currently enduring punitive detention without charge or trial, and millions are unable to access the legal system to seek redress for their grievances. The Hubei-based Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch group described a "worsening and regressive human rights situation," and a domestic security regime that is more oppressive than anything seen in the past 25 years. China is famous for animal rights violations. Yulin, China is home to the infamous and controversial Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which is no stranger to protests since tens of thousands of dogs have been slaughtered and eaten at the annual event. China pole dancing animal rights for dogs There are some people with compassion for their "best friends". A dancer recreates the image of a captured dog being torched by flames. The caption reads: “Burn: I die painfully and slowly just to satisfy their wants. Crispy skin. How does it smell to you?” More than 20 activists from various cities in China, most of them Buddhists, spent more than 100,000 yuan (around HK$126,000), most donated by animal lovers, to buy and save around 400 dogs from the local markets.The activists have re-settled these dogs on a farm in Shangrao, Jiangxi province. This sick and evil "festival" is an obscene display of human "dominance" of animals, and illustrates the depths of depravity that humans are capable of descending to. China's economic boom does not give them any leadership qualifications. They are the Goliath, impressive, but immobile and easily killed by strategy, skills and intellect.

Save our Schools (not verified)

Wed, 2015-07-01 10:35

The policy of more houses, people and less schools is also active in Banyule. Nine schools have been closed in the last 20 years, and more in recent times. Banksia Secondary school has closed, to be come housing, and Haig Street is to become 118 units, all set to congest the narrow streets and overload services. It's doubtful they will even be able to get their rubbish collected if there is parking in the street too! Of course the population will boom, and it will be hindsight knee-jerk reaction to find a site for new schools! No doubt the building of a new school will bring political ticks, at a cheap price! It's an economic model based on housing growth, not on human welfare or maximizing human resources with skills and high educational standards. It's all to easy to source the skilled from overseas, through uncapped temporary migration and "skilled" migration! Why bother with education here in Australia? It's a cyclic enlargement of "skills shortages" as the more we import, the less that is spent on skill training and thus we are assured of more lack of skills! We are becoming a service industry nation, with limited skills needed. We are about warehousing humans in high rise towers and apartments, and profiting from storage.

H.Olman (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-30 23:24

I read today that our PM is actively working on a NZ type immigration pact with Singapore. ie unrestricted entry. Is that because it has been so successful with NZ? (500,000 people who won't go home.) I suppose we will all get a say when the deal is done.

Val Yule (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-30 22:41

We are selling off our schools to developers to build apartments and town-houses, in which will live more children. In Victoria, Oakleigh South Primary School land will become 56 townhouses and up to 65 apartments. Clayton West Primary School land will become almost twice the number of townhouses. Monash Special Development School is planned to become 122 apartments in a 4-storey apartment building and 28 townhouses. Five former school lots in Monash were sold by the State Government for $97 million last year. The Monash Council is challenging the prevention of residents appealing to VCAT. This is on top of former primary schools already sold. This results in: Children must travel to schools by car or public transport, making more traffic, more cost to families, less exercise for children, more carbon emissions, and bigger remaining primary schools which are less friendly for young children. Local communities cannot build up. Dr Valerie Yule, Mount Waverley, Vic.3149

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2015-06-30 01:33

It was interesting watching a very good interview by Emma Alberici with international trade consultant Andrew Stoler on Lateline tonight (29/06/2015). He is the former Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organisation. He suggested that if countries were worried about losing protection of things they wanted to keep if they signed on to the Investor State settlement clause, then they should choose what they want to safeguard. This gets to the heart of the sovereignty and democracy problem entailed in such agreements. Who exactly decides what they want to protect when almost no-one gets to see the agreement details? Who is going to ask the Australian public what they care about? Not the secretive governments of Australia that are organising this fascist deal inserting international corporations as an overarching tier in Australian law. The Investor State Settlement Clauses give companies the right to sue governments for compensation for a reduction in their expected profits and corporations can sit in judgement in their own cases! It seems that these agreements, which can interfere in any aspect of activity in a country, are really to be used by governments to engineer from outside change in national social, environmental and commercial systems: Changes that they would not be able to achieve from within because they would be too unpopular to get passed as laws in national and state parliaments.

Dennis K

Sun, 2015-06-28 15:03

That international finance is now dictating the future of nations, of peoples, of even entire races of people, to run our own societies as the technocracts and capitalists think it should be run, this must be one of the most horrendous crimes committed in Europe since 1945. Entire nations are being subsumed to an economic ideal, which in practice doesn't work.

Brian T (not verified)

Sun, 2015-06-28 14:46

Posted on June 13, 2015 by afghanistanwatch

According to The Washington Post, the CIA are spending a billion dollars a year on arming and training 'moderate' rebel groups, and running guns and fighters into the country. As here:

At $1 billion, Syria-related operations account for about $1 of every $15 in the CIA’s overall budget, judging by spending levels revealed in documents The Washington Post obtained from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

U.S. officials said the CIA has trained and equipped nearly 10,000 fighters sent into Syria over the past several years — meaning that the agency is spending roughly $100,000 per year for every anti-Assad rebel who has gone through the program.

The CIA declined to comment on the program or its budget. But U.S. officials defended the scale of the expenditures, saying the money goes toward much more than salaries and weapons and is part of a broader, multibillion-dollar effort involving Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to bolster a coalition of militias known as the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army.

Much of the CIA’s money goes toward running secret training camps in Jordan, gathering intelligence to help guide the operations of agency-backed militias and managing a sprawling logistics network used to move fighters, ammunition and weapons into the country.

Secret CIA effort in Syria faces large funding cut (12/6/15) | Washington Post

This is what is known in corporate media speak as 'Obama's hands off approach to Syria'.

Michael (not verified)

Sat, 2015-06-27 18:52

There are so many questions because the area of discussion is endlessly complex. With respect to population I feel it is a mistake or at least very limiting to narrow one’s understanding to one explanation, one dynamic, one force and that goes for Malthus, too. ? I have read both of Sheila Newman’s books on population, (the first quite some time ago). I am familiar with the content of “Demography, Territory and Law: rules of animal and human populations.” And would see the system Newman describes as an intricate, subtle, interlacing of knowledge and powerful natural forces that have previously been observed and been documented in nature. The systems Newman describes in “rules of animal and human populations” where populations are stable in size over time, are natural ones that have not been interrupted or displaced. Malthus in his lifetime was mostly observing human populations which had been displaced and disorganized and were growing rapidly, although, as Newman observes, his later work recorded stable sized populations in Europe, for instance, Switzerland's Leyzin and he said that his first book had been inspired by the small populations of Australian Aborigines reported by Cook or Banks visiting with the Endeavour. It is important to see that the stable and the overshoot scenarios are both possible on one Earth even at the same time!

Bill (not verified)

Sat, 2015-06-27 17:24

Martin is innocent. His version is correct. Are there any witnesses who claim the shooter took another man from a vehicle at the store where Glen Roy Pears was taken? Write to me.

Katie (not verified)

Sat, 2015-06-27 14:47

Unless an international deal (like TPP) benefits ordinary people without detrimental consequences to the environment in all relevant countries, it serves no valuable purpose. No matter how many more cars are sold from the US or however many other manufactured items or greater volume of commodities are sold from other countries involved, the deal is objectively pointless and futile if it does not create greater well being for the populations of those countries.

Dennis K

Thu, 2015-06-25 20:26

Hi Ronald, You ask whether anyone is pushing a platform of no growth. I would be interested to know when the mania for 'growth' really began. I'm aware there was a populate or perish view after WWII, but that was quite specific to numbers and defence. Today, growth is a mantra. I don't see this obsession with growth much prior to the 1970s or 80's, in the same manner as today. It was growth for a specific objective, but not just growth for growth sake. Or perhaps I'm mistaken. I have a view that the rate at which an ideal is vocalised, is inversely proportional to its existence or security. People who are insecure about their status are usually the ones who talk about it the most. As our society becomes more intolerant of differing views, we yell 'tolerance' more. As our government take away rights, they talk more of 'democracy'. Hitler talked a lot about peace, more than most other leaders of the time. I'm wondering whether the constant talk of 'we have to grow' is due to the inability to cater for the lack of it. After the baby boom, population growth rates in the West declined, until the 90's when for many Western nations, they went below replacement levels. Technically, if it weren't for immigration Australia would probably still have a birth rate slightly below replacement. The economic and political leaders panicked. They ramped up immigration, and talked of growth. Why did they panic? I think the answer is simply because they weren't capable of dealing with the post growth paradigm. The world was changing, and no economist or political had any idea how to ADAPT. Their view of how the world could work was narrow. They couldn't see how we could develop to the new reality. So instead of adapting, they tried to change the environment, so they wouldn't have to adapt. This isn't working well, and we are dealing with its failures. Even today, you speak to people, they genuinely appear to believe that there is no way possible that our society can still prosper without "growth". At the moment, world economic growth is slowing, stalling, and this seems to be a new long term trend. This is because we haven't adapted to the new reality, and the patchwork we are putting over our society to pretend the world hasn't changed is suffocating us. The financial malaise we have is not a protracted speed bump, which we will 'recover' from. It is our civilisation slowly choking. All species have to adapt to change or die. We have an entrenched political and economic class which cannot adapt, and refuses to allow society to adapt. So we slowly die. More and more control has to be wrested away from the people, to stop this adaptation occurring. Populist parties which challenge this patchwork have to be suppressed.

Save our Forests (not verified)

Wed, 2015-06-24 14:51

Burning forests down to "clean" or "renewable" energy is absurd, contradictory and flies in the face of any resemblance to what we know of "conservation". We are being ruled by fools, who think they can call things what they aren't. They can't see the forests for all the trees, and they are inanimate collections of wood? "In politics, stupidity is not a handicap." - Napoleon Bonaparte Forests are cradles of life, of living ecosystems that functions so we can benefit from them. They provide services for a myriad of species, from the roots of the trees to the high canopies. If burnt, these services and the lives in them would be destroyed. Why kill off the Golden Goose for short term benefits? These people so ignorant of the natural world, they simply live in a plastic environment. Australia’s native forests contain around 13,067 million tonnes of carbon, close to 24 times our annual national emissions profile (535.9 Mt). Leaving these forests standing contributes much more to the effort to tackle climate change than chopping them down and burning them. The carbon they hold, if burned, will simply add to greenhouse emissions and undermine other renewable energy sources. Who is really going to buy electricity from forest-burning companies? It's pure and destructive madness.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2015-06-24 12:05

"Former French Prime minister Francois Fillon, told the public broadcaster France 5 in February that the United States was attempting to “unleash a war in Europe, which would end in catastrophe.” The United States has continually instigated wars and conflicts in South America. It started in 1856 when the U.S., fulfilling the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, goes to war with Mexico and ends up with a third of Mexico's territory. In 1984 the U.S. spent $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador-- something of a farce, since left-wing parties are under heavy repression, and the military has already declared that it will not answer to the elected president. In 1989 the U.S. invaded Panama to dislodge CIA's Manuel Noriega, an event which marks the evolution of the U.S.'s favorite excuse from Communism to drugs. The U.S. battles global Communism by extending most-favored-nation trading status for China, and tightening the trade embargo on Castro's Cuba. There's a whole list here: History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America The conquest of the Americas is probably the greatest act of foreign intervention in history. Millions died, entire peoples and cultures were wiped out, and the wealth gained in the New World propelled Spain and Portugal into golden ages. The alleged support by the United States of wealthy landowners, business leaders, and their organizations tied to the violent uprising in eastern Bolivia has led U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg's expulsion from La Paz 2008. Now, they are standing up against the US! Bolivian President Evo Morales said earlier this year that Latin America is more united than ever against the policies that the United States government is intending to impose on the region. Evo Morales: Latin America Stands United Against US Aggression (17/3/15) | TeleSUR . If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english The United States must modify its actions, otherwise, Morales said, the countries of the region will most certainly defend their sovereignty, according to Prensa Latina. In 2006, Bolivia inaugurated as president Evo Morales, a coca union leader who was critical of what he termed "neo-liberal" economic policies. Relations with the United States deteriorated as the Bolivian Government began to dismantle vital elements of the relationship. In 2008, the government expelled the U.S. Ambassador and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from the country. Morales won re-election in 2009, and his government expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2013. Morales is seeking re-lection to a third term in October 2014. Morales’s enduring popularity is a result of his extraordinary socio-economic reforms, which – according to the New York Times – have transformed Bolivia from an “economic basket case” into a country that receives praise from such unlikely contenders as the World Bank and the IMF. As Morales uses his third term, it’s clear that what he’s done already has been remarkable. He has defied the conventional wisdom that says leftwing policies damage economic growth. For the second time in 2014Bolivia is privileged to be the economy with the best growth in the region, others have been more affected by the international crisis and have had weaker growth. In the event of a US invasion of Venezuela, Bolivia would side with Venezuela. So said Bolvia’s president Morales during an emergency session of ALBA, and called on other Latin American heads of state to draw closer together. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales warned that the USA would pay a high price for any act of aggression against Venezuela. He also called on US President Barack Obama to apologize for the recent announcement that Venezuela presented a threat to the national security of the USA. Morales: "Bolivia Ready for War with US" No doubt the United States would like to open borders in Europe would unleash opportunities for open markets and domination of resources, and control

John Bentley (not verified)

Wed, 2015-06-24 09:55

Further to the pieces by anonymous and Sheila who are pretty well on the money with their comments on folate and vitamin B12 is the fact that industrialised food ie food produced with chemical fertilisers, may not have the necessary quantities of vitamins for a healthy lifestyle.

Much of our food is grown in soils thoroughly depleted of elements and trace elements healthy plants require. Soils are then supercharged by adding chemical fertilisers (elements) so that crop yields are both resplendent and bountiful. However, without the necessary trace elements the food lacks those vitamins that are most vital to us humans.

Healthy soils equals healthy plants and this can only be achieved by giving the soils the nutrition they require in a more traditional sense and not force fed chemicals. As a proponent of wicking worm bed technology and healthy food I recommend readers go to WaterRight.com and Healthy Food Association to learn more about soil nutrition and healthy food from the venerable Colin Austin.

Ronald Bleier (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-23 18:06

I’ve managed so far about 140 pages in your Vol 2. Wonderful stuff. I’m every day impressed by the breadth of your research and reading, not to mention how brilliantly you’ve put it all together; not to mention you’ve turned so much of what we (I) thought we knew on its head. One big thing I’ve learned since my last is that the basis of the British class system arose out the Norman invasion when Britain was forever changed: it became occupied territory and l the key former stabilizing institutions were overturned. Years ago I read David Howarth‘s 1066: The Year of Conquest, (1981), whose theory that the Pope‘s intervention turned out to be decisive in giving the victory to the Normans. It forced the British King to adopt an ultimately losing immediate do or die strategy instead of a more strategic plan of waiting out the invaders. In his fine book, Howarth made a point of explaining that pre-invasion stable and effective British institutions were in place and were overturned and crushed by the Normans. Since his book stopped in 1066 I hadn’t realized the effects of how the occupying force over time created the rigid class system with its attendant ramifications. So now I can understand better how these kinds of imperial interruptions – as with Easter Island – can overturn clan based systems and turn a sustainable society into inequality and injustice. I’ve just finished your coverage of Henry VIII, Cromwell, the Civil Wars. I’ve never been clear on that era and I had no idea of the ramifications for the economy and the forests. I’ve got Dirt on interlibrary loan. From only the first few pages I can see what a terrific writer he is. I’m looking forward to squeezing him in at some point. Thanks for mentioning the bit about Malthus when he got a chance to see sustainable communities. I gather you’ve gone beyond him in ways I still haven’t. He’s still my main man. Capitalism vs the Rest I guess my main query is where does science, technology and other things we call progress come in? Is progress bound up with inequality? I think of Newton for example who never had to work and lived off the bounty of his inherited estate. I think of Malthus’s dictum of the empty table where if you’’re not invited, you don’t eat. What if Newton had to work for a living? You’ve made clear that you’re not exactly a fan of capitalism. I’m someone who tends to place importance on leadership as opposed to systems. I’ve long concluded that private property and the profit motive -- the bases of capitalism ? – are the most effective means of production and distribution. And capitalism’s ills? From a technical /theoretical point, it would seem a trivial matter to emplace the necessary safeguards of transparency, oversight, anti-monopoly strictures, and adequate provisions for health care, education, social welfare, as well as sustainable management of the environment, i.e., regulation and legislation. Of course in the real world, there is politics and corruption. But doesn’t the real world also impact public ownership, socialism, anarchism, communism? Worst case of course in any system is tyranny, Stalinism. Which is of course is why institutions which provide for contested changes in leadership – shall we call this democracy? are the best chance of adequately responding to evolving circumstances. I gather you believe there’s a way to get back to sustainability from our present position if only we could localize production and distribution. I wish I could say I can see it, although you’ve already convinced me of plenty I’d didn’t think I’d change my mind on. On this larger question, my sense is that our huge outsized numbers make for unsustainable politics. Is it possible to imagine leadership campaigning on platforms of no growth? It seems too evident for words that we’re in an unsustainable trajectory with leadership in the U.S./Israel, Britain (EU?) etc., bent on a high speed acceleration off the cliff that Hitler sent us towards. Off the cliff? How do we explain or deal with our Bush-Cheney-Obama world? Why are we in such a fix? I can only think in Malthusian terms. Resource pressure, the power of ruthless leadership, the dearth or elimination of alternative positive leadership. How did we get to a Lincoln, FDR – people who helped get us to a measure of stability? And then there’s Hitler who brought us the CIA and its powers. And then there’s LBJ who eliminated the leadership that could have helped get us on a more sustainable track.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2015-06-23 16:49

Just responding to the above comment because, although the source it gives for Folate is correct, (dark green vegetables like broccoli and spinach and dried legumes such as chickpeas, beans and lentils), Folate and B12 go hand in hand and B12 comes from animal protein, including cheese, milk, eggs, meat and fish. (The author probably realised this and was just balancing up the info, however there is such confusion out there I feel it is reasonable to perseverate a bit on this.) A useful Vegan source of info is here: https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-health/vitamins-minerals-and-more/vitamin-b12-your-key-facts/what-every-vegan-should-know-about-vitamin-b12 It is very important to have enough Vitamin B12 as well as folate. The two interact together. There have been a number of studies to show the danger of folate added to foods in a population which, for one reason or another, has insufficient access to B12.
"In seniors with low vitamin B-12 status, high serum folate was associated with anemia and cognitive impairment. When vitamin B-12 status was normal, however, high serum folate was associated with protection against cognitive impairment."
The article is available online here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1828842/

Ronald Bleier (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-23 16:32

Re: S. M Newman, Demography, Territory and Law: Rules of Animal and Human Populations, (Countershock Press, 2013) and S. M Newman, Demography, Territory and Law2: Land-Tenure and the Origins of Capitalism, (Countershock Press, 2014) Dear Sheila I've finished Book 1, and I've started Book 2. I didn’t expect I’d be saying this: Where’s Books 3 &4? Wonderful. Some years ago I belatedly learned that the most fun in life is learning. Amazing. I had no idea on how much you had to teach, and how much I was able to learn.. I had no idea that incest restrictions was the dispersal force – nor that animals had the same propulsions. And the Westermark efffect was of course entirely new to me. Also, you convinced me about what is likely to have happened on Easter Island, overturning the Jared Diamond/mainstream analysis. Also it’s wonderful that you have discovered old and forgotten and marginalized sources that give what seems like a more accurate picture of what’s going on and what has happened. None of this was taught to me in high school or in the NYT or anywhere else. You have certainly made a tremendous breakthrough. I’ve learned now to be more patient until I’ve seen your presentations and research. So I’m looking forward to finding out how ancient societies, like the Babylonian, Roman Empire, China, India , millennia before the industrial age, ran pretty much according to the same unsustainable rules, devouring resources, as we are today, and crashed as a result – how they fit into your theories. Plus look what happened in pre-historical times: the extinction of the large mammals. I’m reminded of a documentary I saw years ago about the Greek port of Pireaus, if I’m not mistaken. They explained how over time, more and more of the trees were cut down for fuel, the rain brought down the mountain and the port extended out it turned out for a mile or more into the sea and no more mountain. I gather it fits in somewhere. In historical novelist Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon stories, set in 9th century Arthurian, not quite Britain, the main character again and again sees traces of a much more advanced technological Roman civilization and bemoans the depths to which his own times have fallen.

anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-23 16:32

"Vitamin B12 deficiency causes an easily treatable and reversible form of dementia which has been increasingly overlooked since the 1980s, although it was discovered in 1900 and the cure found in 1926, earning Minot and Murphy a Nobel Prize". If a lot of our dementia is actually "treatable" and "reversible" then we must ask why isn't it? Does our government really lavish and grovel in our "ageing population" threat, that is set to ruin our economy if allowed to propagate? Maybe all the hype is a strategy to create fear, and thus promote our high population growth? It's an interesting conspiracy theory, that the "ageing population" is designed to fit their demographic purposes. All communities age, and it's nothing new. People have always age, and with better health care, maybe we have more older people. There's no way to avoid population booms without at the other end, experiencing higher rates of baby boomers. Even migrants age, and more and more migrants are part of our aged. So, the ageing are so much of a burden that we must have a constant flood of migrants to compensate, to offset them- despite high rates of unemployment. It assumes that our ageing poulation and their health care and pensions all comes from income tax? After nearly 25 years of glorious economic growth, one would think that we would be prosperous, and better off! On the contrary, our budgets are being slashed, and even education is being privatized. Easy to vilify the costs of providing for an "ageing population" than government flawed economic model. David Smith, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology at Oxford University, who led the research on Vitamin B and Alzhiemers, said: “Our work shows that a key part of the process that leads to Alzheimer’s disease might be modified by a safe and simple intervention.” Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.

Dennis K

Mon, 2015-06-22 22:24

Thank you Sheila, I'll put that in my phone. True patriotism isn't standing around draping yourself in a flag, yelling about how great 'straya' is. It is doing your duty as a citizen to safeguard this country and its workings for the well being of our nation. Unfortunately, it is hard to prove when rules are broken, especially since there are many avenues to skirt them (such as using proxies in Australia to perform the transaction). But anyone who does know of any possible breach, has an obligation to report it. It would be well worth publicising and submission to keep a public record, even just of the number of reports so we know how widespread the problem is when the FIRB decide to bury the issue.

Vivienne Ortega

Mon, 2015-06-22 08:19

21 June 2015 MEDIA RELEASE- SAVE OUR SUBURBS Baird’s Building Program Won’t Make Housing Affordable The State Government has trumpeted its latest housing release program as the solution to Sydney’s housing affordability crisis. However, Dr Tony Recsei, President of the community group Save Our Suburbs says that the releases announced in the program are completely inadequate. “Of the 20,000 extra homes to be delivered over the next 4 years, 12,000 will be imposed on existing suburbs as higher densities” said Dr Recsei. “This leaves only 2,000 per year to provide the homes that the vast majority of people want – freestanding houses.” Dr Recsei went on to say “Before the advent of high-density policies, 10,000 new housing lots were annually released to accommodate Sydney’s increasing population. This resulted in sufficient affordable homes that people wanted. But to drive high-density policies, governments have increasingly strangled the land supply. To force people into units, the number of new housing lots released annually has been steadily decreased to the current 2,000. This created artificial scarcities which drove land prices into the stratosphere. In 1976 the land component of the price of a house was 32%. Now the price of land comprises 70% of the cost of buying a house. “High-rise developers exploit this government created shortage by charging excessive prices. Thirty years ago, it took 3.5 years of household income to purchase a dwelling, now it takes 9.8 years, making Sydney after Hong Kong and Vancouver the least affordable city in the English speaking world,” Dr Recsei said. “The Government’s new plan will cause yet more traffic congestion, less housing choice (more than 80% of people want free-standing homes), overshadowing, destruction of urban greenery and wildlife, loss of heritage and adverse effects on health (including illness and deaths from the increased air pollution and a significant increase in schizophrenia). Dr Recsei concluded “The scenario of yet more profits for high-rise developers at the expense of the public will continue. Developers comprise the largest category in the Business Review weekly top 200 rich list. “For the past ten years Save Our Suburbs has been advocating release of sufficient land to meet demand and so maintain affordability. Successive governments, it seems, have fallen under the spell of the high density developer lobby, where profit trumps the people’s right to housing choice, availability and affordability.” Save our Suburbs should be advocating for zero net immigration rather than land releases?

Daisy Uriad (not verified)

Sun, 2015-06-21 18:37

A couple of weeks ago the Age released an article about the shooters and fishers party trying to increase shooting on pubic lands in Victoria (see link below). However the Conservation council of Western Australia is claiming success in convincing the WA state government not to allow recreational shooting on public lands. This provides a good example for the Victorian government to stand up to the Shooters and Fishers Party's call for overhaul of Victorian state game reserves.

Shooters and Fishers call for overhaul of Victorian state game reserves (6/6/15) | Age

Tuf-nuf (not verified)

Sat, 2015-06-20 16:07

U.S. military confirms rebels had sarin (9/11/13) WND Weekly

As part of the Obama administration’s repeated insistence – though without offering proof – that the recent sarin gas attack near Damascus was the work of the Assad regime, 1  the administration has downplayed or denied the possibility that al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels could produce deadly chemical weapons.

However, in a classified document just obtained by WND, the U.S. military confirms that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel Islamists fighting in Syria.

Not that the ABC or the Australian Government would give a damn about this really important evidence contradicting most of their bogus platform against Syria.

Footnote[s]

1. ↑  Many, who are actively opposed to the war against Syria, unfortunately still use the unjust and pejorative term 'regime' to describe the Syrian government. As was shown on Thursday 19 June 2014 at a press conference at the United Nations, the Syrian Government of President Bashar al-Assad enjoys the overwhelming support of the Syrian people. (The linked article also includes an embedded video of the press conference of length 52:45 minutes.)

The press conference was to allow four people who had independently observed the Syrian Presidential elections of 4 June 2014 to give their observations of those elections. All four testified that the Presidential elections were conducted transparently, properly and fairly.

The overwhelming vote for President Bashar al-Assad of the overwhelming majority of eligible Syrian voters, showed that he can claim far greater electoral support than most of the elected leaders of countries which are hostile to Syria, including France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

This electoral endorsement comes on top of the fact the the supposedly brutal tyrant al-Assad had, by June 2014 somehow been able to suppress a supposedly popular uprising against his rule for three and a half years by then (or for more than 4 years and 3 months by 20 June 2014). What other tyrannical ruler has been able to resist a popular uprising for so long with out help by foreign occupying armies?

It is striking that no-one amongst the audience put to the four observers the lying narrative presented to audiences by the mainstream newsmedia that Bashar al-Assad was a hated dictator. - Ed

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-19 15:51

How many wild animals are poached, including juveniles, to be exotic "pets" and meant to be gazed at as freak novelties? These big cats might be docile and adaptable enough as cubs, but they won't stay that way. In a three bedroom apartment in Gaza? What a disgrace that the zoo even sold the cubs. Zoos are supposed to be operating for the best interests of animals, their welfare and conservation, not selling their wares like a commercial market. Zoos should all be shelved as relics of the 19th century. How many caged animals are bored, abused and neglected, living in slums and conditions totally inappropriate to their natural habitats. Zoos are a shame to humanity, and a hideous monument to anthropocentric attitudes.

anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-19 13:47

There are more refugees in the world today than ever previously recorded — and more than half are children, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday. Nearly 60 million people were counted as forcibly displaced in 2014, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Pope Francis has called on the world’s rich nations to take serious steps forward on climate change, the poor and the growing refugee crisis, saying those who “close the door” on the less fortunate should ask God's forgiveness. Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/06/18/21/00/pope-francis-calls-for-gl... He seems to be on a blame-game roll of pointing the finger to "wealthy" nations, instead of addressing the source of the problem. Italy has threatened a backlash if other EU states refuse to share the burden of asylum seekers, but even so ministers took no decision to carry out proposals by the European Commission for quotas to redistribute 40,000 refugees. An estimated 1,800 migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have died in the last six months while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, according to international observers. By connecting the migrant crisis to the issue of global warming, the pope makes clear the need for collective responsibility on these conjoined fronts. Pope Francis gives a nod to those concerns in Laudato Si’, dismissing concerns about overpopulation. Significant progress has been made in reducing global hunger, but most of the gains have occurred in countries with relatively low fertility. Where fertility rates remain high, the battle against hunger is far from won. The population of South Sudan, which also ranks very high for hunger, is projected to rise by 236 percent. And these projections assume that fertility rates in these countries will continue their historic decline. Reproductive choice should the the right of every woman, and access to contraception is essential for their wellbeing, and that of our planet.

End the Ponzi (not verified)

Thu, 2015-06-18 09:51

Treasurer Joe Hockey confirmed two years ago in New York, in an interview with CNBC, that our large migration program is one of the key drivers of housing unaffordability. He told CNBC that “Australia is a long way from a housing bubble….The fact is we have a very generous immigration program and we have very slow supply coming in the market”. This very "generous immigration program" is what's guaranteeing that demand for housing remains high, pushing up prices. Housing is a necessity, like food, water, electricity and petrol. When utilities rise in price, along with costs of living, there is common commiseration about inflation, but when house prices rise, it's celebrated as being an essential component of our economy! In our cities, population growth and insufficient new housing are pushing up rents. Property developers are given the green light to keep pushing heights upwards, and increase housing densities, to restrain urban sprawl. There's a frenzy to keep up housing supply, but the debate on affordable housing can't ignore the demand side that's manipulated by governments through their growth policies!

Robert Braby

Wed, 2015-06-17 15:51

Well done Joe. As usual you have gone to the periphery of the problem instead of the core. The fundamental long term problem, leaving aside the current bubble, is that population growth adds to housing demand, but supply cannot possibly keep up at prevailing prices, despite official rhetoric to the contrary. We can build more houses where vacant land exists, but are severely constrained in built-up areas where most land is already taken up, but where most people prefer to reside. And each year the supply of vacant land is reduced by development, but population demand keeps increasing. So land prices rise. Furthermore, in inner suburbs where vacant land is almost non-existent, extra accommodation is achieved by expensive high-rise construction, which adds another layer of costs. The cruellest blow is to low-income families who are priced out of the housing market and locked into a permanent state of rent dependency and poverty. As house prices rise, so also do rents. As the rich get richer the poor get poorer. All major political parties are complicit in this pro-growth conspiracy, including that so-called champion of the poor - the ALP. Shameful.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2015-06-17 13:20

Our immigration policy, based on our history and tradition of settling new migrants to add to our diversity and skills does not have to end, but be levelled out. We don't have to be "fortress Australia", or be a pariah to the overcrowded world of overpopulation, terror, conflicts and all the challenges humanity is facing. We don't want either to be left behind in the dark, and keep adhering to the tired "growth" mantra that our governments and economists are bogged down with. By the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion, up from the current 7.3 billion. The proportion of poor people living in fragile states is on the rise; the OECD estimates that even in a best-case scenario, more than 62 percent of the world’s extreme poor (defined as those living on less than $1.25 a day) will reside in fragile states by 2030, up from 43 percent today. We need zero net immigration! Treasurer Joe Hockey doesn't accept living standards are deteriorating – even as the nation suffered its biggest trade deficit on record from a collapse in exports. Exports plunged 5.7 per cent in April, when iron ore prices collapsed and bad weather hampered shipments. Asked by shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen why Australian living standards were falling, Mr Hockey said "that is a ridiculous statement, and it's wrong ... because we have got asset values going up in Australia." Hockey denies living standards falling as trade deficit blows out (4/6/15) | AFR Joe Hockey is living in a parallel universe of plenty and wealth. While the eyes of our politicians keep on the dashboard of our GDP and exports, there are people struggling with costs of living, such as power and water, house prices, unemployment, homelessness and battling against the tide of funding cutbacks! "The incomes of Australian families are under significant pressure and the Treasurer hasn't bothered to acquaint himself with the facts," Mr Bowen said. "Mr Hockey should ask Treasury for a briefing on real net national disposable income per capita." So for all the "growth" we hear about, and our wealth, in per capita terms we are declining! While we may have had nearly 25 years of economic growth, the benefits are being more and more diluted between more and more people due to our world-record rates of population growth!

admin

Sat, 2015-06-13 14:04

Adapted from Trans-Pacific Partnership battle: Barack Obama handed defeat by Democrats (13/6/15) | SMH :

Washington: Democrats in the US Congress have defied the president and voted down part of a package of bills designed to speed negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The loss is humiliating for the president, who on Friday morning had for the first time ever travelled to the Capitol building in order to directly appeal for a specific piece of legislation.

As protesters gathered in sweltering weather outside, the president attended the Democratic Caucus meeting and reportedly told members that a vote against the bill would be a vote against him.

Even the Democrats party's leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, spoke against the bill.

In the end just 40 Democrats sided with the president, while 144 voted against the bill.

The bill allows the White House to negotiate a deal and then present it to Congress, which can ratify or block, but not amend. This gives other signatories to trade treaties confidence that any deal arrived at with the White House will not later be altered to suit vested interests.

...

America's trade union movement celebrated a victory.

"The House of Representatives has done the right thing, but the fight isn't over," read a statement by Richard Trumka, of the AFL-CIO, America's peak union organisation.

"This is a significant day. American workers came together and spoke with one voice about the path their country and economy should follow.

"We are very grateful for all the activists, families, community leaders, and elected officials who worked so tirelessly for transparency and worker rights in international trade deals. "

...

Nadia Trimea (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-12 23:46

General Prosecutie for you: Crimea’s Poklonskaya promoted to new rank


Published time: June 12, 2015 06:28
Edited time: June 12, 2015 07:11

Natalya Poklonskaya (RIA Novosti / Taras Litvinenko)

Natalya Poklonskaya (RIA Novosti / Taras Litvinenko)

Tags

Russia, Thrills&Spills

Natalia Poklonskaya, Crimea’s chief prosecutor, who came to prominence during the peninsula’s controversial partition from Ukraine, has been promoted. She is now a major general equivalent.

The promotion is one of 80 ordered this week by Russian President
Vladimir Putin among officers of the military, the police, the
prosecution, the investigative committee, customs and other law
enforcement agencies.

Poklonskaya’s rank was raised form chief justice councilor to
state justice councilor 3rd class, which corresponds to a
promotion from colonel to major general in the Russian military
or the police force.

Her previous promotion came in March 2014, days after being
appointed acting chief prosecutor of Crimea by the prosecutor
general. The appointment was made permanent two months later.

Read more'She annexes your heart': Reasons why Crimea prosecutor Poklonskaya not to be messed with

Poklonskaya, 35, rose to
global prominence during the turbulent secession of Crimea from
Ukraine and reunification with Russia. At a media conference she
spoke up for rebellious local authorities, denounced the armed
coup in Kiev and declared Crimea’s refusal to submit to the new
Ukrainian authorities. Her harsh words and stern expression
contrasted greatly with her cute blond appearance and unusual
voice, sparking an instant internet meme.

She is among the public figures, who were personally slapped with
travel and financial sanctions by the European Union for her role
in the fateful events. In Ukraine she is wanted for conspiracy to
overthrow lawful authorities.

anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-12 14:48

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/ridiculous-... (story behind paywall - editor) Finally, a politician, Bob Carr, is speaking out about our population growth, and drawing the dots to stress on infrastructure and housing costs! Any attempt to address soaring house prices in Sydney and Melbourne should focus on “ridiculously overambitious’’ immigration targets, says former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr. Immigration was running far ahead of the ability of major cities to absorb new people, straining infrastructure and pushing up the price of dwellings that increasingly are seen as being beyond the reach of average Australians. On Sunday, Assistant Treasurer Mr Frydenberg said the increases in house prices were due to a "number of things". "It's a function of population growth, it's a function of state governments not engaged in enough land release. It's a function also of foreign investment." It's not rocket science, and these two factors would be primary compared to any "number of things". "As someone who, along with the bank, owns a house in Sydney I do hope our housing prices are increasing," Mr Abbott said in question time on Monday. The ruling classes have no scruples in putting their own vested interests, and hat of their elitist colleagues, against the interests of the masses - the "normal" people who make up the great majority of the electorate! It's time for a clean up of our government and break the heavy collusion between the housing/mortgage industries and government!

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-12 12:09

If people with a "good job" do take the risk and dive in head first into the housing market, despite overblown prices, they could lose all if the housing bubble bursts! For most people, home ownership is the greatest economic investment, not only financially but one that determines their security and living standards, and family life. The housing bubble that has finally burst in the US and in the UK could be upon us relatively soon if the results of the fifth annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey are anything to go by. All markets in Australia were rated as “severely unaffordable” except Wagga Wagga in NSW, Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria, which were named “seriously unaffordable.” “In Australia, Canada and the United States, for example, home ownership rose from approximately 40 percent before World War II to 65 to 70 percent at its peak,” the study noted. Compare those days to today’s struggling home buyer who is expected to fork out about 8 times income for a basic abode compared to 2.5 times or less back then. Demographia pdf When it comes to servicing the first 12 months of a 25-year/80 per cent LVR mortgage, it will cost roughly 65 per cent to 70 per cent of household income to service that debt at current record-low mortgage rates. Melbourne is not too far behind. Even professionals would struggle to own a home! Governments should be responsible for the welfare of the people, not extorting them for the benefits of a few! Our wealth is being drained from the pockets of normal people into the hands of the ever increasingly wealthy, due to neoliberal policies and pure greed. While the public's attention has been cleverly diverted to the "human rights" of access to gay "marriage", the real human right is to housing- something essential that everybody needs!

quark

Fri, 2015-06-12 09:14

I believe the correct answer to the question "what is it that we (in Melbourne) have that we didn't have in Melbourne 5 or 10 or even 20 years ago?" is "VIBRANCY". I'm yet to work out what this actually means or even if I like it. It is hard to see it for all the downside listed by Will Archie. It's funny but I hear British migrants of my acquaintance agreeing about how boring Melbourne was when they arrived about 30 years ago. The thing is that people I knew were having fun, getting around without too much trouble, not too many parking fines, finding places on the beach to put their beach towels, getting out into the countryside quite easily. Melbourne might have been boring for these new arrivals because they didn't know anybody at first and expected life to be all on the outside. The thing is, it wasn't, to the extent that it is now. Turning, Melbourne's leisure into organised events and big fireworks displays as has happened are features of this more populous Melbourne. This may or may not be coincidental. Melbourne probably looks better to certain types of visitors or newcomers than it might have in 1970 or 1980 but it is definitely not as good a place to live as it was those decades ago. I characterise the lives of people living in Melbourne in those past decades as more private and maybe with more individual, internal control. Humorist, Barry Humphries made great fun of this and of Melbourne's suburban complacency. He has so far not commented on the disappearance of what amused him and us for so long. Humphries' depiction of Melbourne was of a place utterly lacking in "VIBRANCY" and full of mediocrity and complacency. The thing is that another way of expressing this is that mediocrity meant that ordinary people of ordinarily means could have a very comfortable existence. This access to the security of a "nice home in the suburbs" meant that stresses were far less than they are now when this is not an expectation. There were far fewer battles over one's immediate environment being changed by development. Time and emotional energy now spent on trying to defend the local urban environment must have been spent on subjects of individual choosing. Maybe Barry Humphries has not semi-retired because of his age but because Melbourne and its people are no longer funny.

admin

Fri, 2015-06-12 01:01

This was posted to a forum discussion, Big Oil changes sides in the War on Coal.

Ultimately, whether it is achieved directly by accountable democratic government or, somehow, by 'market forces', I expect a sustainable world, which would not be threatened with global warming, would include something like the following:

  • Population stability - an end to the high immigration encouraged by the Abbott government and most state governments for the benefit of property developers and land speculators;
  • communities in which most places of work, education, leisure and retail are less than a 15 minute cycle ride a way;
  • public transport sufficient to make car ownership for longer journeys unnecessary;
  • most food consumed by a community produced in market gardens close to that community or in the yards surrounding the free standing houses of its inhabitants;
  • the manufacture of artefacts with built-in obsolescence to be outlawed;
  • over-packaging outlawed, or at least taxed sufficiently to cover the cost of disposal in council landfill;
  • all beverage or food containers to be manufactured to conform to design standards, be reusable and be paid for by consumers with refundable deposits.

Unless something like this is achieved I think we stand no chance of reducing our consumption of non-renewable resources, including fossil fuels, to sustainable levels. The chance of achieving this with the 'free market', which is still the official ideology guiding Australia and much of the rest of the world, is close to nil.

Will Archie (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-12 00:49

I was born in Melbourne 35 years ago (scares the hell out of me) I have always been passionate about this city up until the last 5 or so years... so with the ugly over-development, over-population and the overly-sensitive defenders of this touting all these wonderful things we now have... Can I ask, in Melbourne, aside from increased traffic, racial intolerance driven by housing and personal space related tension- what is it that we now have that we didn't have in Melbourne 5 or 10 or even 20 years ago? My answer is nothing. If anyone can come up with anything or even tries to, well, you are a complete f#$%^&. Simple! We should all very sad but motivated to start speaking out about what's happening to Melbourne and to those who are pushing for this population growth well shame on you and no doubt it will come back to haunt you and not soon enough!

Robert Braby

Thu, 2015-06-11 21:54

The current housing boom has its origins in the global financial crisis of 2008, when the federal government and Reserve Bank engaged in expansionary monetary and fiscal policies to avert a major recession. This they did successfully, but the fallout is still lingering on. The Reserve Bank pushed interest rates down to historically low levels. They recovered slightly, but the world economy has not fully recovered from the GFC, and that has stalled Australia’s economic recovery also. So we have now drifted back into a mini recession, prompting the Reserve Bank to drop interest rates again – to historically low levels not seen for many decades. Meanwhile, the expansionary fiscal measures taken by the Federal Government during the GFC resulted in an uncomfortably large deficit, which the government now wants to reduce. This has discouraged them from engaging in further fiscal stimulus, thereby putting most of the burden for preventing a deepening recession on monetary policy; hence the exceptionally low interest rates now. The profit motive is alive and well, so many people have taken advantage of these low interest rates and piled into the housing market – including foreign buyers and ordinary people taking advantage of the tax benefits of negative gearing. Eventually the economic cycle will turn up, unemployment will start to fall and the Reserve Bank will put monetary policy into reverse. Interest rates will start to rise and the housing boom (bubble?) will end. But there are no signs that population growth will end. It marches on relentlessly. Investors know this and factor it into their investment decisions. Each year the impact of population growth increases. Why? Because each year the supply of vacant land is diminished by development, but the population numbers increase.* They might decrease in percentage terms but still increase in absolute terms. So house prices will continue to increase but at a slower rate than we have seen over the last few years. • I am referring loosely here to the trend rate of increase, ignoring year by year fluctuations.

Dennis K

Wed, 2015-06-10 23:29

The Greens are basically a "Social Justice" party, who conflate wishing for the right things with good policy. Their policy mostly targets social housing, and the poorest of us all. That is, they don't address the problem at all. Poor people have always struggled to afford a home, and the fact someone with no income can't afford a house, doesn't mean there is a problem with the price of the house. Saying that poor people can't afford a home is as asinine as saying that if you need more money, you need to earn more. Their housing policy doesn't even mention that housing is overpriced. Even Abbott acknowledged that! The Greens motivation has more to do with using the tax money to provide social housing and a more equitable tax system. Perhaps middle class home ownership is too bourgeois for many of their supporter base, hence why the Greens rarely seem to say that average middle class Australians's shouldn't be priced out. That said, Negative Gearing should go. It is essentially wealth distribution, where wealth is distributed from one tax payer to someone else, purely on the basis of what the recipient chooses to do with their money. It is ironic that the Liberals and conservatives, who are averse to wealth redistribution, support negative gearing. They decry Socialism, but practice it using our money. IT is "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". The only thing that changes is the basis by which 'ability' and 'needs' are determined. Negative Gearing favours some investment activity (that which can be negatively geared) over other investment activity. The Government, and the Arts/Law graduates who fill Canberra, are NOT in a position to determine efficiently and effectively, where that investment should go. They don't know, and can't know. A large factor in the housing bubble is the expansion of cheap credit. The Australian housing bubble is only unique, because it continued after the GFC. The other Anglosphere nations also had housing bubbles, but they popped, whereas ours remained due to the capacity for further government interventions through simultaneously increasing the FHG, increasing immigration and opening up the market to foreign investors, all instituted by Rudd. Our housing bubble was primed to deflate in 2008, but action in 2009 kept it afloat. The influx of funny money and cheap credit fuelled these bubbles. The exact same thing is occurring today. Housing bubbles are growing in Ireland and in the USA, and here in Australia again. We also have immigration rates through the roof, which help prop it up, moreso by increasing the perception that property is a winner, than by actually pumping money into the ponzi. That is to say, the perception among investors that high immigration means capital gains, may have more of an effect on house prices than the actual purchases immigrants make. The government could just fudge the data, bring in no one, and the sentiment alone would still keep prices up. As for foreign investors, I would guess of the Australian government was to really crack down on purchases made with black or grey money, or made illegally and appropriate their houses, then maybe 20% of houses would be reclaimed, perhaps many more so. The mass investment in Australian property is riddled with criminal and fraudulent activity. I think the number of purchases in contravention of laws would when eventually revealed by quite staggering. The data just doesn't match up with legal activity. How is it so many Chinese can take so much money out of China to buy properties here, when their country limits them to extracting $50K? Our government is perhaps party to one of the biggest financial crimes being committed in Australia. Our leaders are so corrupt and so arrogant, it is a sign of the times that they can do this openly, and not fear repercussion. No doubt corruption in China allows this to occur too. The entire situation reeks of corruption. http://www.chinalawblog.com/2012/10/getting-money-out-of-china-thats-ill... http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/06/stop-money-laundering-so-our-kid... http://www.whocrashedtheeconomy.com.au/blog/2014/07/australian-real-esta... https://sourceable.net/is-australian-property-a-haven-for-money-laundering/ If the Greens were willing to treat our criminal class for what they are, criminals, then they might get my support. But alas, they don't. Only a party willing to put them in jail, or impose huge fines on serving and ex members can hope to make a difference. Fiddling with Negative Gearing is no longer enough. If the Chinese stock bubble which is forming now bursts, this will have massive repercussions for Australia. It may solve our 'housing crisis' in a very brutal manner.

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2015-06-10 23:23

Hi Denis, It is the promise of population growth that has got the investors manic. And then we get the manic population growth to make them feel that the promise will be fulfilled. i.e. the perception needs to be constantly massaged. I agree with your other observations. And of course there are the other inducements, like citizenship, bolt-holes, dual citizenship, and the general opportunities for corruption that we are so famous for.

Dennis K

Wed, 2015-06-10 21:21

I think population growth did play a large part, but has taken a back seat to speculation. Firstly, the portion of homebuyers who are first home buyers is lower than ever. This suggests that new people are not entering the market. Data indicates that it is mainly investors buying properties. Warnings of a bubble are being repeated frequently in the past few days, as there are growing concerns that the housing market is overheated (always late to realise). Secondly, rental yields are low. Investment is primarily in the hope of capital gains, or in subdivision. Rents are stagnant or dropping, so demand for rental properties isn't the main driver. Many investors leave the properties vacant. Thirdly, we are assuming rational supply/demand economics. There isn't demand for the hundreds of apartments, these are merely an investment vehicle for speculation. Investors are caught in a mania, and are seeking to ride the bubble further up. At the moment, mania is becoming more and more an factor. Our housing market is becoming more and more divorced from DEMAND, and these towers are build purely to channel speculative investment money. We are no longer building houses to house people, but to act as a phyiscal unit of currency in a speculative bubble. Stopping population growth now will reduce demand, but it will not remove the 'bubble mania'. Investors will not care, as long as there is the perception that the bubble will grow. I think at this point, the beast is out of control, and will either crash, or consume us all.

Dennis K

Wed, 2015-06-10 21:16

I hope he was three sheets to the wind when he said that. Who would have thought, that if you have more money, things become easier to afford. Thank you Mr Hockey. No one in Australia knew this. Just get more money! Here I was thinking that getting a job which pays LESS might help. Ahh, there is where I was doing wrong. Thanks Joe. I'll just get a job that pays $150K. Problem solved. Easy done! Good to see our best minds are tackling our countries finances.

Dennis K

Wed, 2015-06-10 21:11

I would be overjoyed to hear Dick Smith deciding to enter politics. I've held him in high esteem since I was a young teenager and am continuously impressed by his passion, ingenuity and drive to do right by Australia. The country needs people like Dick Smith.

End the housing... (not verified)

Wed, 2015-06-10 18:12

Dick Smith, 71, is among Australians receiving the highest of accolades to be awarded in the Queen's Birthday honours on Monday. He was 24 when, with $600, he started Dick Smith Electronics in 1968. "I was fixing the Manly Cabs radios. Twelve months later, my accountant said, 'You've earned more than the Prime Minister.' I had made $30,000." Smith says he is too old to enter politics, but he is in discussions about lending his name to a political party: Dick Smith's Sustainable Population Party. Mr Smith told The Australian he was considering running under the Sustainable Population Party’s ticket but may also run as an independent. It follows Mr Smith’s announcement in March that he had registered the Dick Smith Party but declared he would not run as a candidate. The SPP is carrying out a survey to decide whether they should change their name to Dick Smith’s Sustainable Population Party, he said. Do we really believe our increasing population, which outstrips that of many "third world" countries is a good thing? No national debate is permitted, because there is a three-pronged support for this population Ponzi scheme in the form of the Liberals, Labor and property developers - and the silence of the Greens is also silent collaboration with "big Australia".

quark

Wed, 2015-06-10 08:18

Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott are skating on thin ice with their defence of stratospheric house prices especially in Sydney. Another Liberal politician, Craig Laundy has defended Joe Hockey's recent remarks on the subject and advised the public that now is a good time to get into the property market. What happens if someone takes on a mortgage which he can just afford and then interest rates rise and he can no longer cover the repayments? Does the government bear any of the responsibility? Abbott said that he wanted prices in Sydney to rise because he has a property there (mortgaged). He is far from disinterested. Hockey says housing is not unaffordable because people are buying but that the answer to the problem that apparently is not a problem is to "build, build, build". He must know that the problem is shortage of land , land land in relation to the huge numbers of people, people, people needing housing in the areas where people want to live. He knows that the average person can only buy where land is cheap or buy in more expensive areas but have little or no land. Members of the government are skating on thin ice because they appear to be interfering in the housing market. Isn't their dictum to let markets be free? They also appear to be giving advice and to have their own interests in the asset case in which they are giving advice to the public. What they need to do is take on the responsibility of a housing safety net. This means "public housing, public housing, public housing!"

anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-09 18:39

He declared that "If you've got a good job and it pays good money and you have security in relation to that job, then you can go to the bank and you can borrow money and that's readily affordable". The fact that wages are not keeping up with house prices is being ignored by this buffoon, and shows just how callous and out of touch our arrogant politicians really are!

Mr Hockey made the comment at media conference in Sydney where he was being asked about rising housing prices across the country, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. He denied that housing in Sydney had become unaffordable, particularly for new entrants into the property market. Just wonder how the normal people are actually able to communicate with our leaders, in their ivory towers of affluence. How many houses must our politicians have? They just watch their profits increasing, while the masses are struggling to meet mortgage payments, or are thrown onto the streets. Older people now are in danger of homelessness, due to pension cuts and soaring housing and costs of living.

The Treasurer said rising house prices were a good thing because they enabled owners to borrow against the equity to fund new spending. After decades of paying off a house, or even part of it, how are they to see it eaten away with reverse mortgages? Houses can't be used to pay water, Council rates, electricity and everyday expenses!

Joe Hockey's advice to first homebuyers - get a good job that pays good money (9/6/15) | SMH/the Age

Other stories : Joe Hockey pilloried for 'get a good job' remarks (9/6/15) | SMH, [Joe Hockey's claimed] property crackdown 'won't hurt Australia' (9/6/15) | SBS

Robert Braby

Mon, 2015-06-08 16:20

Tony Abbot's comments are typical of what we have come to expect from a Prime Minister so lacking in a vision of a better Australia, and augur poorly for the government's response to the recently released report on housing affordability. As for Chinese investment in housing, the reason I made no reference to this in my submission to the housing inquiry is twofold; firstly, foreign investment involves a complex mix of economic and policy variables, including foreign exchange rates, interest rates and other monetary variables which were outside my immediate field of interest. Secondly, a major motive for housing investment, whether coming from inside or outside the country, is capital gain. The major fundamental long-term driver of capital gain, as I emphasised in my submission, is population growth. So I suspect the current high rates of overseas investment in the Australian housing industry are, to a large extent, merely a manifestation of our very high rate of population growth. If we can solve the population problem the overseas investment problem should largely solve itself. The same could be said of negative gearing - it is also largely motivated by capital gain.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2015-06-07 10:54

Title was: Australia singled out as a climate change 'free-rider' by intern[ational community]. - Ed

Australia is named along with Canada, Japan and Russia as appearing "to have withdrawn from the community of nations seeking to tackle dangerous climate change". Japan is sensibly heading towards a sustainable population size, so they probably claim their detachment from mitigation efforts is their right!

However, Australia is still in the "growth" frenzy, with the biggest population growth rate of the developed countries, along with Canada. It would be dishonest and intellectually incongruent to claim Australia is making efforts to mitigate climate change, yet heading towards "big Australia".

The country was on course for emissions to rise 12-18 per cent above 2000 levels after scrapping the carbon price in 2014, compared with the promise of a 5 per cent reduction by decade's end. Anthropogenic climate change can't be addressed while population growth is being promoted, along with land clearing, coal exports, mining and urbanisation.

The energy needs of a continent home to 600 million people without access to electricity, Africa has a keen interest in reducing global warming risks given its exposure to extreme weather and widespread poverty. However, most of the world's population explosion is from developing nations, such as Africa. While they are low per capita on energy use, they are offsetting this with their bulking up of people.

Of course, the elephant in the room is never mentioned – increasing demand for energy fueled by population growth! Australia's economy is the most environmentally and climate-hostile in the world, not only because of population growth, but due to the export of climate change through coal mining.

Australia singled out as a climate change 'free-rider' by international panel (5/6/15) by Peter Hannan | SMH

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2015-06-07 09:05

Last month the ABC revealed that just days before the January election Campbell Newman's LNP government approved the clearing of nearly 32,000 hectares of land on Olive Vale station, in a decision that was not publicly announced. The Queensland government has now stepped in by asking the Commonwealth government to stop the bulldozers! The Newman government allowed the land to be cleared, in secrecy. Conservationists say the land in and around Olive Vale is worthy of world heritage listing, is home to 17 listed threatened species, and includes important rivers flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. It's the highest volume of clearing in Queensland, and was for "high quality agriculture". There's nothing high quality about the decision-making process! ABC: Queensland government steps in to stop Olive Vale land clearing Australia is under pressure to "feed the world", it seems, due to declining agricultural output, and human overpopulation. "Food security" is an economic opportunity for Australia!! This region is “smack in the middle of core habitat” for the endangered buff-breasted button-quail. Ryan Global won approval days before the election in January to clear land mostly to grow sorghum to feed cattle and expand its numbers on the property from 15,000 to 25,000 beasts. “The blank cheque granted to the proponent to clear over 30,000 hectares of Cape York is astonishing" said ACF program manager Andrew Picone. Nothing promotes lawlessness like filthy lucre! The Guardian: Endangered Quail threatened by controversial Queensland land clearing The company that owns the station, Olive Vale Pastoral, told the ABC last month that the clearing would help create dozens of jobs on Cape York. There are plenty of "jobs" being created through crime, and a lot of unwanted and ugly means. With rising crime and terror, "jobs" are being created right through the law enforcement process, to the courts, legal system, and prisons. There's prostitution, the sex industry, pornography, drugs, gambling - and environmental vandalism! "Jobs" don't justify all human activities. Why would you justify "jobs" when it would eventually add to droughts, loss of native species, and destruction of Nature - the system of rivets that and fasteners that keep the machinery of ecological benefits functioning? If there's an overburden of unemployment, why propagate the skilled immigration program and create the illusion overseas that we have "skills shortages" - and then justify environmental destruction? Read more at AWPC website Any Environmental Day in Australia is laughable, in the land of mass exterminations and heavy land clearing. But Mr Hunt said he had instructed his department to investigate whether the land clearing on Olive Vale station complied with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Let's hope that Hunt actually stops this destruction and acts actually as an Environment Minister!

Katie (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-05 23:31

I can't bear to look at the video. The photographs are bad enough. The documented cruelty happening in the world, news of which reaches me daily via my computer is becoming overwhelming. I am bombarded with it and this would be bearable if it were fiction, but it is not. It is true! It is no longer possible to be happy in this world; knowing of this undeniable suffering and wanton cruelty, perpetrated by humans such as that illustrated in the above article. If it happened once, maybe it could eventually be forgotten but it never ends. It's getting to the stage now where, if I see a photo of a dead animal that shouldn't have died but may not have suffered too much, I'm almost reassured. One cannot ever un-know about the cruelty one sees on the Internet so the best that I can now manage is temporary escape through entertainment or the occasional momentarily distracting conversation on an unrelated subject. I feel assaulted, hurt, damaged by these photos and all the other terrible ones that have entered my life via the computer screen. I'm sure I am not alone in this. The sooner humans disappear from the face of the earth, the better.

Dennis K

Fri, 2015-06-05 21:25

All too often, the argument that living things must devour to live, that other animals hunt kill and eat, and therefore so must we, gets trotted out. What makes us human, is our ability to reflect on our actions, to be cognisant and realise the implications of what we are doing. Animals don't have this ability (at least it doesn't appear to be so), so they do hunt, kill and eat, often without regard for the preys suffering. The hyena's don't have the faculties to realise, and empathise with their prey they are eating alive for half an hour. They are not choosing to forgo the use of these mental faculties. It just isn't there. We however do. Which is what makes a human being treating animals this way so much worse. We can know, have the ability to know and understand, but we choose to pretend to be at a lower animal level, that we have to do what it takes to survive. In doing this, we shuffle off part of our humanity. So much misery and suffering is caused by people justifying acting on automatic impulses and desires, rather than mastering them. This is why time and time again, whether in the Bible, in moral teachers and philosophers, that the idea of self restraint and self discipline comes in, and why what is considered sin, is often acting in impulses. Greed, lust, gluttony, anger and envy are the result of us being driven, and controlled by automatic urges, than being in control of them. Unfortunately, I don't think it is simply the draconian society that does this. Cruelty exists in free countries. It could be the deculturalisation of China, but one has to wonder why Communism didn't have the same effect in Eastern Europe.

anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2015-06-05 13:03

There are those who deny the concept of human "evil" and dismiss it as superstition, or some cultist thinking! One only has to see these horrendous and hideous images to realize that we are looking at evil! This is not about food, or about texture, or gastronomic delight -but about sadism and clammering to be the highest in the "jungle" to be the top predator of species. Some pathetic people need to feel power over others, and it's evidence of some inherent personal inadequacy or weakness. The need to inflict pain and suffering on "lower" beings, without defence!

On the contrary, caring for animals and the animal rights movement tends to bring out the best qualities in people, and a closed link with Nature.

Proverbs 12:10 "a righteous man (person) has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.."

“I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.” Leonardo da Vinci

“Man is the cruelest animal.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Why so much suffering in China? Probably living in draconian society with little compassion for human rights has hardened their hearts.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2015-06-04 23:45

Phillip Adams interviewed someone yesterday about a forthcoming book, by Carl Safina,
Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. The interviewed writer sounded capable of truly independent thought and spoke with refreshing logic. People might like to look out for it.

You can listen to the program online here or download the 9.9Mb mp3 file from here. - Ed

Katie (not verified)

Thu, 2015-06-04 13:18

I agree with the above comment that sustainable intensification of agriculture is an oxymoron and that it is associated with in creased pressure on the environment. It must not be forgotten that also, farmed animals lose out badly in this process with increased cruelty as their needs and feelings are increasingly disregarded.

anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2015-06-04 12:05

According to a 2009 report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation the number of food insecure people is estimated between 800 million to 1 billion, with a similar number suffering obesity. The world’s middle class is also predicted to rise from around 2.5 billion to 4.9 billion over the same period.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/voice/sustainable-intensification-of-agriculture-oxymoron-or-unavoidable-imperative-20150604-3x5ud.html

The global population, currently growing at around 140 people per minute, is predicted to reach 8 billion by 2030, 9.1 billion by 2050 and possibly as high as 14 billion by 2100. Any pretense towards "sustainable agriculture" is just delusional, and procrastinate real action of food security. This is one of the "challenges" faced by both scientists and producers who need to increase food production to feed a hungry planet, while transitioning farming to a sustainable footing.

Economically, Australia has an opportunity to meet the growing demand for food in the world, but at the same time we seeing a steady decline in agricultural productivity and the agricultural resource base. The Economy can't be divorced from the Environment, and the threats of climate change.

Additionally, there's been a decline in investment in agricultural research and development, as a proportion of agricultural GDP, and an increasingly urbanising population is leading to urban expansion into prime agricultural land. We can't eat houses, but it's assumed that housing growth can offset what we are losing from the fading mining boom!

The UN Environment Program estimates that 25 per cent of the world’s food production may become lost due to environmental breakdown by 2050. The unavoidable fact is that human populations are outstripping food supplies, and Nature's ability to increase production to meet human demands.

The term sustainable intensification of agriculture is an oxymoron, as most agricultural intensification to date has been associated with increased pressure on the environment and natural resource base. The term "sustainable growth" is also an oxymoron, and nothing in a finite world can keep being consumed while at the same time be replaced if population keeps exploding.

quark

Wed, 2015-06-03 12:13

Tony Abbott's revelation that he (and the bank) own a house in Sydney, therefore he wants house prices to increase "modestly" is a significant step towards normalizing what most would see as a conflict of interests. Aren't politicians at his level supposed to be at arm’s length from their investments in order to be properly disinterested in decision making? But it is difficult to arrange this with property that one uses. If Abbott wants what he obviously sees as an investment (his property in Sydney ) to increase in value, then it is ingenuous to say that he only wants it to increase “modestly”. In truth investors hope their investments will go through the roof ! But from the societal and moral point of view, a house to live in should not be seen as an investment like shares or bonds since it is essential to life as are water and food. If Tony Abbott and his government can affect house prices through policy (and they can) perhaps they should be banned from owning property whilst they are in government. Then they would not be so eager for prices to increase.

anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-02 16:39

People wanting to become citizens in Australia should have to undertake an English language test, Liberal MP Sharman Stone says. We disposed of the White Australia Policy, but now there are few controls in place. Would-be citizens are currently asked 20 questions in the Australian "citizenship test" about Australia's beliefs, values, its law system and Australian people. She says that if people cannot speak English in Australia, in drawing from experience at citizenship ceremonies in her Victorian electorate of Murray, where she estimates a number of new citizens cannot read, write or speak basic English. It flies in the face of why we have the majority of our migrants, to plug in skills shortages? If they lack skills in English, they really can't have any other useable skills in industry. The Immigration Department are disjointed from our economy, democracy and are immune to public opinion. They liberally distribute and print all sorts of visas and permits to enter Australia, and there's no accountability or matching to our living standards, unemployment, prices and the cost of upgrading our infrastructure to cope with congestion. Dr Sharman should also be questioning immigration numbers too, and just why we need skilled migrants at a time of high unemployment and savage cuts to TAFE funding. English test should be mandatory for people wanting citizenship in Australia, says Liberal MP Sharman Stone

BanDuckShooting (not verified)

Tue, 2015-06-02 16:26

Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews said he wanted to boost the parrot's captive population as part of an urgent response to an outbreak of beak and feather disease. "This bird is right on the edge of an extinction precipice in the wild," Mr Andrews said. With such few numbers struggling against "developments" and environmental destruction, any disease could destroy their stronghold on existence.

Around 64 wild parrots flew out of their single Tasmanian breeding colony this autumn for Victorian coastal wintering grounds. 27 were captive bred and released to the wild. The young are listless and shedding feathers. With such small numbers, fewer than 70 in the wild, there's no room for disease, neglect or complacency. Such small number don't encourage genetic diversity, or robustness in the species.

Australia, famous for mammal extinctions, is also ramping up our world record to include native bird extinctions.

Disease strikes endangered orange-bellied parrots in Tasmanian breeding colony (1/6/15) | The Age

Stop the housin... (not verified)

Mon, 2015-06-01 19:06

'I do hope our housing prices are increasing': Tony Abbott quizzed on housing bubble.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has welcomed increasing house prices in Sydney on the same day the head of Treasury voiced strong concerns about a developing housing bubble in the country's largest city. Wonder how many houses does our Prime Minister have?

"I want housing to be affordable but nevertheless, I also want house prices to be modestly increasing". What hypocrisy! The prices have more than "moderately" increased, and many people are locked out. He wants people to have resources, jobs and houses, but houses are NOT available. We can't go any higher.

“As someone who, along with a bank, owns a house in Sydney, I do hope that our housing prices are increasing,” Mr Abbott told Parliament today.

Labor’s Andrew Giles was among the MPs to slam Mr Abbott’s comments, saying they were “extraordinary”.

Tony Abbott opened his mouth in without controlling his tongue, and now we know his real agenda of protecting his own interests and that of the super-wealthy investors.

Without any real economic activities except for inflating house prices, our nation is becoming divided by the capital owners and those struggling with cuts to public funds, and falling into a hole of deprivation and poverty.

Abbott should walk down the street and see the homeless and distitute.

Appendix: Ostensible mainstream media indignation against Tony Abott

'I do hope our housing prices are increasing': Tony Abbott quizzed on housing bubble (1/6/15) | SMH

Analysis: Sydney housing bubble threat presents challenges for Government, Reserve Bank (1/6/15) | ABC News

Housing affordability: The comment that shows that Tony Abbott doesn’t get it (1/6/15) | SMH

Tony Abbott wants house prices to keep rising, contradicts RBA and Treasury who warn of a bubble (1/6/15) |SMH

Stop the Planes (not verified)

Mon, 2015-06-01 08:08

The illustrations of aeroplanes is incredibly revealing and shows the little Cessna of the "asylum seekers" compared to the giant Jumbo, Titanic of the air, of economic migrants! The media focus on the former and diverts the public attention away from the latter. It's all smoke-screen, and we get letters to the editor, and editorials, on how Australia lacks "compassion" for the displaced, yet do they know or realize just how many migrants we DO accommodate each year in Australia, and the enormous costs involved? No wonder we are being crushed by infrastructure deficit, and our "growth" is being treated as inevitable! If we had NO immigration, our population would stabilize in about two decades, but with immigration equalling emigration, about 70 or 80k people per year, we could stabilze by mid-century. This what we should be doing, as the world - including Australia - is becoming more hostile in environmental and economic terms, and the number of displaced will continue to soar and more land masses become inhospitable to human settlements. Obviously, we in Australia can't possibly build all the housing we need to keep up with the housing boom, and the immigration rate. Housing is a major industry in Australia. So, we must have foreign "investment" to help keep the prices high. Nick Folkes should be congratulated for his courage, at standing against the big Giants of the banks, and property developers. The fact is that is IS China that's the major investor in real estate in Australia, and it's not being "racist" to mention this country specifically! Housing should be enshrined in our Constitution as a normal Right, not something optional.

admin

Sun, 2015-05-31 15:17

No action is to taken by the DELWPH 1  or the police to prosecute a farmer who, on 26 May trespassed on Waterboard land at Boneo on Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. The farmer trespassed in order to release dogs to drive kangaroos, who were sheltering in the bush back onto his cleared farmland where he then killed an unknown number with 100 rounds of ammunition. Four more kangaroos were driven onto the road and killed by passing motor vehicles and two live joeys were killed by his dogs. According to the ABC News of 19/5/2015 the Goongerah Environment Centre were threatened with prosecution for trespassing in order to protect rainforest on the Errinundra Plateau with clearing. The ABC reports:
Ed Hill from GECO said he was shocked by the threats. "Quite frankly we're disgusted that the Government would threaten to prosecute community members for getting out there and basically doing the work that the Government is meant to be doing and holding VicForests accountable to state laws that protect unique environmental values, like rainforest," he said.
On the same day the ABC also reported in the story Errinundra Plateau rainforest canopy needlessly destroyed in East Gippsland, Environment Dept report finds:
A report from the Department of Environment has revealed VicForests' contractors needlessly destroyed rainforest canopy in East Gippsland. The department visited the area in April to investigate claims VicForests had illegally logged rainforest on the Errinundra Plateau. ... Investigators said they were concerned because there was no obvious reason why the rainforest canopy had been destroyed. It said VicForests retained a degree of culpability because it did not tell its contractors not to harvest the trees. It said regulatory action would not succeed because of a lack of conclusive evidence but it recommended VicForests review its guidelines. Last week, Environment Minister Lisa Neville said she would send in department staff to conduct spot checks on VicForests' logging activities. The Victorian Greens' forestry spokeswoman, Samantha Dunn, said independent ecologists and inspectors should be deployed to keep an eye on VicForests. "I've seen a wealth of material produced by the community out there which clearly indicates rainforest species have been felled, it's a bit laughable in terms of yes the evidence has actually gone off on a logging truck to the mill now, so no wonder there's inconclusive evidence," she said.
Footnote[s] 1. ↑  Does anyone know what the acronym ' DELWPH' stands for? - Ed

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2015-05-31 08:27

In a slap on the face to the Victorian government, the Gippsland environment group Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) last week was shortlisted for the prestigious United Nations World Environment Day Awards in the Habitat Restoration and Biodiversity category.

VicForests were exposed for illegally logging ancient old-growth forests, but it was covered up and denied by the government. In face of this exposure by the Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) they were threatened with prosecution for entering a “timber harvesting safety zone”.

Victorian environment minister Lisa Neville said: “There was extremely poor practice and it was probably a fine line whether this was a breach or not.” This "fine line" meant the vandalism of trees hundred of years old!

“The state government are shielding VicForests’ logging operations from public scrutiny.

GEC spokesperson Ed Hill said: “It’s a great honour to have made the shortlist for this prestigious award that recognises significant contributions to the conservation of biodiversity by local community groups. Ironically the Victorian government are threatening to prosecute our volunteers for doing the exact work the United Nations has recognised and shortlisted us as finalists for.

Green Left:Victorian government threatens environment group honoured by UN

Experienced at VCAT (not verified)

Sun, 2015-05-31 02:03

VCAT bullies parties that are off-side to its own interest. This is because many VCAT lists are funded by companies through consumer affairs victoria (CAV). This leaves significant conflicts of interest. As a result VCAT is effectively a Mexican court. Cases are decided before they even go to hearing. The Owners Corporation List for one, is an outright joke. Don't expect due process if you're against such a protected party at VCAT, especially if your claims may expose the protected party.. So much for the Australian Justice System!

Dennis K

Sat, 2015-05-30 23:25

Urban Taskforce Australia aren't concerned, because they benefit financially at the detriment to the rest of us. So of course they would say that, wouldn't they? Statistics, which can be found after some light web searching show there is indeed reason for concern, as well as evidence witnessed by people all around Melbourne and Sydney, in particular, certain parts which seem to be targeted. There are millions of empty dwellings in China, many unsold. Some estimates over FIFTY MILLION. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-11/mindblowing-fact-day-china-has-over-52-million-vacant-homes The city which is quite literally empty is well documented, and many other towers suffer the same fate. Yet with so many opportunities available, wealthy Chinese have to push out locals here (often using dubious money and I would dare say, our homes are being used to launder dirty money quickly). To call this "redneck", when it is nothing more than sane, healthy concern over ones own country demonstrates how hostile the media is towards us. Even the term 'invasion' could perhaps be justified, as what we have are foreign interests occupying local resources. Lastly, the comment that the Freedom Party's site features swastikas is joke and libellous. There are no swastika's featured on the site, and if by 'featured' they mean you can see one, then one could just as well say that the SBS site also features swastikas, as can be seen here. SBS Swastika From what I can see, the site mentions Nazi Germany in a negative context. The SBS is essentially paying people using tax payers money, to work against the interests of the people who are paying them.

nimby

Sat, 2015-05-30 13:07

'Redneck' anti-foreigner flyers distributed ahead of Sydney protest is how the SBS present this protest!

Their accusation is that "the organiser behind an anti-foreign investment rally at the Chinese Consulate denies his campaign is racially motivated, dismissing government figures citing the necessity of foreign buyers.."
They throw in all the taboo words, such as "anti-immigration", "red-neck", "racist" and "anti-foreign investment" along with all the other condemnation of the Party for Freedom.

"The new dispossessed or forgotten people will one day be remembered as the 'stolen generation' priced out of the market by invading overseas Chinese colonising our suburbs and cities," their website reads. Actually they are quite accurate! That's what's happening now to people, they are dispossessed because of unaffordable housing and high population growth!

Urban Taskforce Australia, a group of property developers, say that Chinese investment was “not considered to be at a level to warrant the community concerns and intense media scrutiny”. In conclusion, it stated that foreign investment was “a vital component” of the housing economy. How do groups with such entrenched vested interests determine the sovereignty of our housing?

How many migrants come to Australia to buy a house, get a job, and work towards a "better life" only to find foreigners are allowed access to our housing, to push up prices?

SBS: Redneck anti-foreigner flyers distributed ahead of Sydney protest

Indonesians buy property here but Australians cannot buy property in Indonesia. Canada has already passes legislation which doesn't allow the Chinese and the Indians to buy their visas or buy properties. Australians cannot buy property in China therefore this relationship with China is unilateral and certainly not for the long term benefit of Australia.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2015-05-30 09:44

Using 20 models and a mid-range projection of carbon dioxide emissions, researchers found the peak intensity of storms such as super Typhoon Haiyan, which tore through the Philippines in November 2013, will become even stronger and more common. Tropical cylones in the north-west Pacific and their ferocity will continue to increase even with moderate climate change over this century. Haiyan left more than 6200 people dead and 1785 missing in the Philippines alone, clocking sustained wind speeds of 315 km/h, the fastest ever recorded. El Nino years are likely to foster stronger typhoons in the north-west Pacific because the region they form in tends to shift - along with the warming surface waters - further southeast towards the central Pacific. The Age: Super typhoons to increase in strength with climate change, researchers find The latest three-month outlook released by the Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday (Australia) shows the odds favour drier-than-average conditions for most of south-eastern Australia for June and for winter as a whole. South-west WA is an exception. The outlook is likely to make grim reading for many inland regions, particularly western NSW and Queensland – where more than 80 per cent of the state has already been declared to be in drought. The Age: Australia's winter likely to be drier and milder than usual as El Nino kicks in The findings of the famous 1972 study, Limits to Growth, and those that followed concluded that the world can only sustain a limited human population and that at some point the planet’s ecological limit will be reached and then exceeded. World population is forecast to increase from over seven billion, up from about two billion before the Second World War, to more than nine billion by 2050. Our planet's increasing hostility to humanity will cause devastation, disaster and displacements.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2015-05-29 14:35

Logging in East Gippsland is not commercially viable and cutting down native forests across the region is racking up losses of up to $5.5 million a year, internal government documents reveal. That's the high monetary cost of logging our native forests, in the cause of producing "jobs"!

A leaked report revealed that East Gippsland logging is being cross-subsidised by profitable harvesting in the state's Central Highlands.

The report floats the idea of the government subsidising VicForests to continue East Gippsland logging. A separate internal VicForests corporate plan for 2013-14 to 2015-16 characterises the last option as treating logging operations in East Gippsland as a "Community Service Obligation." So, they are doing the people of East Gippsland a favour, of providing a "community service" they don't want?

VicForests general manager of planning, Nathan Trushell, said that "[East Gippsland] operations are expected to cost approximately $1 million this year with this expense covered by profitable operations elsewhere in the state." So why is the destruction continuing, under the guise of an "industry"? Probably to keep the political fat-cats in Spring Street, and justify their staff and public servants!

Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said overall VicForests had remained profitable in 2013-14 and the industry supported jobs in Melbourne and regional Victoria. No other private industry would survive so long, without taxpayer subsidies, and losing money for "jobs" in regional Victoria is a water-thin reason for continuing. They would be better employed by digging holes, and filling them again! It would oxygenate the soils too!

Despite recent focus on the Central Highlands, logging in East Gippsland has also been heavily contested by environmentalists and scientists for decades.

The Age: Logging in East Gippsland losing up to 55 million a year (28/5/15)

Dennis K

Thu, 2015-05-28 21:16

The idea of rallying may seem silly to some, but it seems a reasonable enough idea and the action is in my opinion warranted. Especially since it seems that some (much?) of the purchases of housing may be using illicit funds, or being a money laundering exercise. The fact is, our government have sold out the people with regards to basic human rights, such as shelter, and the democratic process seems ineffective in dealing with peoples concerns. Particularly since peoples wishes are blatantly being ignored for the favours of big developers and investors. Unsuitable housing projects (which do NOT provide affordable housing, NO housing project does these days) go ahead despite hundreds of objections. What else left is there to do, but more direct disapproval? I think the situation warrants it now. The media will treat it with The Silence, which they do for anything they don't wan't DISCUSSED. The statistics with regards to foreign investment are shocking, and while some do rightfully state that China is not the only nation to buy our residential real estate, it does seem that Chinese appetite for our own homes is disproportinatelly larger, and having a major influence. China does seem to be head and shoulders, the bigger player in all this, especially the past couple of years. Therefore, given that it is our childrens ability to put a roof over their head which is at stake, and under threat from a country which is still technically a Communist dictatorship, I think this protest may spark some discussion. Unfortunately, it is in the wrong city for me, maybe something similar could be done in Melbourne. However, it is important to direct the accusation at those who have the power to do something, and force their hand to act on this problem. Protesting against the Chinese buyers will go nowhere, as the message will be lost as they don't collectively have power. Our government does, and this protest could be used as a way of putting forward the message to OUR government that the image that Australians have of Chinese investment is heavily tarnished by their refusal to control foreign residential investment for our benefit,. and that this could result in negative sentiments expressed against China more directly (which is what this protest seems to be doing already). P.S. I've spoken to people who work in the property biz in Melbourne. The figures with regards to Chinese purchases specifically ARE as alarming as people say they are, and perhaps even more so.

Nick F. (not verified)

Thu, 2015-05-28 13:30

Australia is under attack from greedy foreign intruders who are rapidly acquiring Australian residential property pricing locals out of the market. Aussie battlers are being pushed to the fringes of our cities while foreign intruders are reaping the benefits of hard working previous generations. The price of housing in Sydney and Melbourne has skyrocketed crushing the dreams and aspirations of young Australian families who are increasingly dispossessed. The new dispossessed or forgotten people will one day be remembered as the ‘stolen generation’ priced out of the market by invading overseas Chinese colonising our suburbs and cities.

The Australian dream of owning a residential home is rapidly becoming a distant memory due to the drastic increase in mass third world immigration coupled with foreign ownership. Housing affordability has become a smashed due to foreign buyers snapping up property at our expense.

In particular Chinese foreign ownership of residential property and assets is pushing the Australian prospective homebuyer to the fringes of society living in compromised living arrangements competing against foreign forces invited here by the policies of the major political parties who ignore the plight and struggles of young families seeking to progress up the economic ladder.

Chinese nationals are Australia’s largest foreign buyers of residential property and farms with recent figures showing over 20% of new residential property in NSW and Victoria sold to foreign nationals but contrary to the lies perpetrated by real estate agents (pimps) and government officials, they’re not just buying expensive properties. New figures reveal that around 70% of all sales to foreign buyers were below the $1 million mark.

Demography is destiny, and with the full support of the major parties, Australia is undergoing a drastic demographic change. Traditional Australians are becoming strangers in their own land with many of our suburbs being turned into third world ghettoes riddled with crime, social friction and impending real estate bubble collapse. Current trends indicate Australians will become a minority in their own land within the next 30 years if present invasion figures continue.

Party for Freedom is a grassroots patriotic political party that represents the forgotten people. We need your support on the 30th May in sending a strong message to the Chinese government and Chinese nationals that their residential property purchases (ownership) in Australia is not welcome.

Pls. bring Aussie flags, and placards expressing your opposition to Chinese nationals raiding the local residential property market.

Where: Chinese Consulate,
39 Dunblane Street, Camperdown

Date: Saturday 30th May 2015

Time: 12 noon to 2pm

quark

Wed, 2015-05-27 23:26

I thought the idea of "renewable energy" was its low carbon emissions and clean-ness. Burning wood gives off Greenhouse gases so why would anyone with half a brain suggest burning our forests when we have coal? What's the difference in GGEs between wood and coal? If there's no saving in GGEs, then there is no advantage in it being "renewable" !!

Fake "growth" (not verified)

Wed, 2015-05-27 18:54

A continued surge in residential building work has not been enough to offset an even steeper slide in mining engineering projects. The frenzy of housing and construction is failing to bring the economic reward of mining. ABS claim that over $14.7 billion worth of residential construction work was done in the three months to the end of March.

Redidential building boom fails to offset mining bust | ABC News 27/5/15

The housing boom is helping to offset the weakness in engineering activity, but we are being crushed by infrastructure deficit, and loss of productivity from gridlocks and slow traffic.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance on goods and services was a deficit of $1.32 billion in March, following a revised deficit in February of $1.61 billion. While export volumes of coal and iron ore continue to increase, their price continued to fall over March and that was a key driver of the bigger deficit.

The first national audit of the country's transport network by Infrastructure Australia has revealed that population growth will rapidly congest both roads and public transport at an alarming rate, with an added price tag of $53 billion by 2031. The simple truth is that population growth and the consequent demand for transport is occurring faster than we can build new roads and railways, placing unprecedented strain on our existing transport networks.

Housing and population growth have become imbedded into our economy, and there seems to be a surprise when we end up with a massive trailing deficit of infrastructure for retro-fitting our cities!

Fake "growth" (not verified)

Wed, 2015-05-27 07:54

Despite 24 years of glorious "economic growth", more and more Australians are quietly slipping into poverty and third world living standards.

A Salvation Army national survey of 2406 visitors to Salvation Army Community Support Services found those on Newstart allowance hardest hit with just $9.57 a day to live off when accommodation expenses were paid. Despite our cities great tall, glass towers and impressive expansion, it hides increasing deprivation.

Of the children represented, many parents could not afford out of school activities such as, sports trips and camps, and in a third of cases, fruit and vegetables on a daily basis.

An average of all those visiting the centres showed just $17.86 a day to live off when accommodation expenses were paid. It's easy to blame drugs, domestic violence, alcohol, and other vices, but despite "economic growth", why are more people falling outside the safety net?

Our population is growing at over 400,000 people per year, and our budgets mean that more must be spent and don't cover all the needs. Even if a family's combined income increased, and their house price inflated, with more babies and mouths to feed, they can still fall into poverty.

Population growth is outstripping our economic growth, and it's not really "economic growth" if it doesn't stretch to provide basic welfare, public services, social housing and jobs for all the people!

The Age: Salvation Army survey reveals thousands living off less than $10 a day

The Salvation Army should be for emergencies, and for unpredicted family fallouts, and individuals facing harsh times, not to represent the mainstream and fill in for government's harsh policies and economic model that provides for the elite.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2015-05-26 17:56

Melbourne's heavy and unprecedented population growth is threatening our biodiversity. Ecologists have warned that Melbourne is at risk of losing more than half its native plant species over the next century, with grasslands in Melbourne's west most vulnerable to the city's urban sprawl.

Our population growth overload is turning deadly for native species.

Compared to 22 cities around the world, Melbourne had the largest "extinction debt" in terms of the proportion of native plant species likely to go extinct. This result is not surprising as our rate of population growth is outstripping other developed nations, and is unsustainable ecologically, ethically and economically.

Research found that 55 per cent of the 1200 Indigenous plant species found in greater Melbourne are threatened with extinction over the next 100 years. Housing is killing off our ecosystems, and species. We have governments in the palm of property developers, and their sponsorship means that any conservation or management is being thrown out the window.

Just 2 per cent of original grasslands between Melbourne and Adelaide still remain. 2% remaining is unsustainable, for reproduction and to maintain robust reproduction and wildlife. We are heading towards a dead-end of destruction, and deserts of housing, concrete, roads and infrastructure.

This is not "planning" but growth, and then trying to "manage" environmental impacts in hindsight. All environmental groups that are genuine should be addressing the threatening process of urbanization and destruction not only of native species, and grasslands, but of our food bowls! Nobody can eat houses.
"This is Australia's natural heritage. When we destroy it, it will not exist anywhere else in the world" says Mark McDonnell, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens' Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology.

The Age: Biodiversity under threat as Melbourne's grasslands become suburbs

Dr McDonnell acknowledged development wasn't going to cease, but said it was important to work with what remained and try to incorporate grasslands in new housing estates. Trying to avoid the issue of unwanted, unwarranted and socially-engineered population growth means trying to "offset" the losses, but he should admit it's pure tokenism - existing green wedges are also under threat from being nibbled away!

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2015-05-25 19:47

Subject was: Of course he's innocent - Ed

I'd like to see the same.

Australia's corrupt succession of governments will do anything to push for increasingly oppressive laws, determined to make every Australian powerless and defenceless. I'm sure they have their reasons, though they'll never tell the rest of us what those reasons are, because they know there'd be a bloody national riot if we ever find out.

This is all no doubt at the behest of the Yanks, who every Australian PM has always been sickeningly submissive to.

It's repugnant, disgusting and vile, just like our politics.

Hussain Almousawi (not verified)

Mon, 2015-05-25 17:54

Saudi conflict with Yemen goes back to the 30s of the last century When Then (king) Abdul Aziz (Bin Sa'ud), had attacked three of Yemeni provinces (Aseer, Jeezan and Najran). Bin Sa'ud was defeated. He was forced back to Tai'f after counter attack by the Yemeni Imam Yahya's forces. Bin Sa'ud on his part, did not give up. He seek d British colonial help, (was based in Aden+south coast of Yemen today) in the same time he had besieged Yemeni (Huday-ydeh) port. By this Imam of Yemen was forced to singe agreement with Bin Sa'ud Known as (Tai'f Agreement) to lease those three provinces to him for 20 years, so to be renewed every 20 years after. Ever since the Sa'uids kept creating all sorts of conflicts in Yemen internally and externally, including buying loyalties among notable Yemeni tribes,army officers and conducted Wahhabi religious Missions to brain wash Yemenis. This continued up-to 2004 after the rise of the (Ansaar-ullah, Huthy) movement in Sa'ada provence in the north of Yemen, who refused the continuation of the renewal of the lease of those three Yemeni provinces. Hussain Bader-u-ddeen Al Huthy (was the sole founder and spiritual leader of that movement) was killed during that year in cooperation by the Yemeni government under president Ali Abdullah Salah and the Sa'udi forces. Leader Hussain's killing fueled up his message more, expanded through most of north Yemeni tribes and grow rapidly to covered almost all of north provinces rather than Sa'ada. Between (2004-2014) Huthy movement became formidable force that was able to challenge both the Sa'udi and Salah government. Also witnessed massive enrollment from the Yemeni army ranks and troops, to the movement. It became impossible to distinguish between the army and the movement. In 2014 this total mass managed to control the capital Sana'a distributed over all government's offices and organizations maps of Yemen which included, the above three provinces (Najran Jeezan and Aseer). As a mater of fact it created grate panic to the Saudis who know what that (can result into)+the discovery of huge oil reservoir in Yemen (Jouf) province north, close to Saudi borders, THIS IS THE REAL REASONS FOR THE SAU'DI AGGRESSION AGAINST YEMEN. It is nothing to do with any thing else.

Stop the slaughter (not verified)

Mon, 2015-05-25 12:10

It's incredible that a leader of the Greens, Shame Rattenbury, actually endorses the mass slaughter of kangaroos in the ACT! He claims they do "damage" to the environment, despite being native animals. It's an oxymoron, and contradiction in terms, for animals that evolved and co-evolved in Australia over millions of years. These "Greens" or pseudo conservation extremists are worried by the smaller species in the grasslands and kangaroos damaging the earth and soils? With Australia's vast land clearing and potential sacrifice of a world Heritage Great Barrier Reef for coal mining, surely they are being myopic and extreme? The "real" reason for this cull of kangaroos is probably very hip-pocket, monetary based and mundane! It's probably about traffic restrictions and accidents because of kangaroo collisions. Creating overpasses and underpasses means spending money on innovations, something that's in short-supply in Australia.

Ytzak (not verified)

Mon, 2015-05-25 09:19

Why is the world standing by while the Saudis invade, bomb and ethnically cleanse Yemen? Why would anyone support an extension of the Saudi Royal Family's depraved and brutal dictatorship? Yet Australia supports Saudi Arabia, along with the USA and NATO. This is mad. I mean, if you don't care about women's rights, what about gay rights? There aren't any of either in Saudi Arabia.

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