Comments

Sheila Newman

Mon, 2014-04-07 16:25

Tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday April 8th) a submission to the East West Link Assessment Public Hearing will be presented by Mr Tom Pikusa on behalf of Royal Park Protection Group and Protectors of Public Lands. It is important that as many as possible attend in support of his presentation of arguments to stop the EW link and save the Royal Park. The presentation is scheduled for 4pm but you would need to be there before 3.45pm. HEARING VENUE: Mercure Melbourne Treasury Gardens Hotel, 13 Spring Street, Melbourne

admin

Mon, 2014-04-07 12:34

Thank you, Jay Tharappel, for having written such a helpful and informative article.

Your article has been republished at http://candobetter.net/?q=node/3775 http://candobetter.net/syria http://candobetter.net/. I trust you will approve.

In 2003, the largest anti-war protests since the Vietnam Moratorium protest of April 1970 were held across Australia against the Howard government's plans to participate in the illegal invasion of Iraq planned by the "Coalition of the Willing".

In spite of the huge turnout, the protests failed to stop the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent deaths of hundreds of thousands more Iraqis on top of the hundreds of thousands who already died as a result of illegal wars and sanctions since 1990.

Also, the occupation of Afghanistan justified by the fraudulent pretext of 9/11, continues.

Your article provides some understanding of why the Australians actively opposed to war and imperialism have been so unsucccessful in recent decades.

DennisK (not verified)

Mon, 2014-04-07 11:11

How fortunate for the Greens and other environmentalists, that it is they, of all humanity, of all time, of all generations now and in the future,who have been lumped with the responsibility of saving the entire world. Yes, this generation, specifically, this generation of "Educated", mostly Western, often privileged people are the ones who hold the entire fate of humanity in their hands. Not only that, they will end racism, sexism, war. Well, we do like to hold grandiose delusions as to our own importance, but this takes the cake! The most moral ideologues usually end up being the most evil.

PostGrowthEra

Sun, 2014-04-06 08:36

Ray Mjadwesh is an ecologist and also a musician in this band - 10th Man.

Galilee, is written by Owen, performed by 10th Man.

The Galilee Basin is where Clive Palmer plans to open up his China First open-cut coal mine. It will destroy up to half of the Bimblebox Nature Reserve affecting the 153 different bird species that call the Bimblebox home, on top of all the other many different species that live here.

If plans by Clive Palmer's Waratah Coal go ahead, the China First open-cut mine will affect about half the Bimblebox Nature Refuge.

In 2011, Palmer's reported response to fears for the black-throated finch was that it "has wings and can fly".

Facebook: 10th Man Galilee

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2014-04-06 08:11

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AP) - Flash floods in the Solomon Islands have killed 14 people and left thousands more homeless, authorities said Saturday. With a 2.3% annual population growth, the Solomon Islands shares with other Melanesian populations the characteristic of a very slow demographic transition resulting in a persistently high population growth rate over the past two decades. Declining marine resources and rapid population growth have galvanised local leaders into considering the emerging signs of climate change and taking action to protect fish and other marine life. The nation's largest commercial fishery, Solomon Taiyo Ltd. illustrates the problem with declining fish stocks as their commercial catch dropped 20 percent from 1993 (Bank of Hawaii). Forced migration already occurs on the smaller islands due to the inability of the land to sustain the rising population.

The rate of contraceptive use - which is 24 percent for the province, compared with an average of 55 percent for all least developed countries - reflects the significant reproductive health challenges facing Pacific Island developing states. Satellite data shows the sea near the Solomon Islands has risen annually by 8mm over the past 20 years, compared to the global annual average of 3mm. Living on the Pacific Rim of Fire with relentless risk of earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones, islanders are no strangers to natural disasters. By 2050, Pacific nations could be grappling with up to 1.7 million climate migrants, according to a recent London School of Economics report, adding to the already 30 million internally displaced people. Progress to ensure universal access to family planning in the Pacific has been inadequate and inequitable. While use of family planning has increased in the region, in many countries the prevalence of modern methods of contraception is still well below the average of 55% for less developed regions and unmet need is among the highest in the world.

"This (flooding) is the worst disaster the nation has seen," the Solomons Star newspaper said. Any natural disaster or extreme weather event is more impacting and disturbing on over-populated countries, where there's limited infrastructure and more people on fragile coastal areas.

Kathleen (not verified)

Sat, 2014-04-05 13:09

Life in Australia is not banal, but Barry Humphries who is extremely critical of his birthplace finds it fertile ground for his material, paints it hilariously in this way and we laugh at it. I should probably use the past tense ,as I think he has retired. We recognised ourselves, or at least our neighbours in his humour. Ironically, one great source of mirth for BH were the cream brick veneer post WW2 homes in the suburbs with their venetian blinds which are now the target of population growth spruikers such as Bernard Salt and David Chalk who say we should not be living in them especially if we are widowed or over 65 or both. We were not given the chance of consolidating our collective identity.and now we can't even protect the local park.

Dennis.K (not verified)

Fri, 2014-04-04 21:16

Hi Kathleen, When I was a teenager in the 90's, I felt a distinct unease when it was "decided" that Australia must become multicultural in order to have any culture. Even back then, this young lad realised that this would 'abort' any true national identity being adopted. While my grandparents had come from continental Europe in the early 50's (and the history and culture that applies to them and me), this perspective has actually made be even more befuddled by Australians who claim they are 'vanilla', have no culture, etc and need to import it. This I put to lack of self confidence. Keating's thoughts of making us more 'international' were misguided and frankly silly. Australia had history, I was utterly fascinated by the explorers, Hume, Burke and Wills, Major Mitchell, Sturt, Strezlecki. There was a connection with the land (evidenced in artwork and literature) and an enviable suburban lifestyle. From my perspective, the rest of the world is just as banal as Australia. You think the average Parisian is a cultures sophisticate? Nope! You think people in Greece eat exotic meals all the time? Most of their meals would be very similar to the much maligned "meat and veg" dishes that Australians think we need to move away from. But this isn't unique to Australia. You can see similar lack of self confidence elsewhere, just the reasons are different.

Kathleen (not verified)

Fri, 2014-04-04 13:47

I speak as a 4th generation Australian with ancestors largely from the British Isles. We, an assorted bunch are mainly the descendants of dispossessed peoples and were the dominant ethnic group (albeit not all from the same parts of the British Isles, with different dialects of English and sometimes Gaelic and somewhat splintered in religious denominations) on this continent after European invasion. We quickly, amazingly and possibly quite accidentally forged a distinctive culture, identity and manner of speaking.This identity and culture is more fugitive, more apologetic than cultures which have had time, possibly aeons in the same place and derive strongly from their environment. Ours was a mixture of adaptation of culture from our origins and absorption of the place we now inhabit.

Australians , like the British have been in the past, very willing to laugh at themselves, Partly I believe this was because of an underlying confidence in our identity and destiny. In my life time the pinnacle of national self derision is the humour of Barry Humphries. To encapsulate Humphries' multi-character portrait of Australians, the words which spring to mind are , complacent, brash , Philistine , pedestrian, insular and bigotted ("in the nicest possible way") We have laughed at this for decades, whilst confidently not applying the traits of individual characters to ourselves personally. Humphries' characters were a mirror of the ridiculous aspects of our society and we had enough self assurance not to cringe. In my view Humphries showed the inner and private side of us, the bits we don't show.

Things are not as funny now. Australia's emerging, likeable but some would say banal national character born of a rather comfortable Post WW2 era was actually quite fragile and the laughter has been muted.

Propaganda in the media and in the education system told us we had no culture and no more right than anyone else in the world to make a cultural footprint, claim any prior knowledge , history or experience of this place even though our only direct aural/oral understanding of our ancestry is in this very place.

Our short history here has become worthless.

PostGrowthEra

Fri, 2014-04-04 12:09

Kangaroos in Canberra have been killed in their hundreds because they are a danger to threatened grassland species such as sun moths, legless lizards etc. But, when it comes to the wholesale destruction of grasslands for urban development, the silence is deafening! Lightfooted kangaroos are vilified, shot, run over and hated, by pseudo-conservationists, but when it comes to the clearing and destruction of land for housing, it's assumed to be inevitable. and human growth is justified by economic benefits!

Dennis.K (not verified)

Thu, 2014-04-03 21:16

Hello Sheila, I've always struggled to empathise with 'beliefs'. Even young, in childrens movies where the children just had to 'believe', ie, "believe in Christmas" to make something happen, I never quite got it. It was all very alien to me. Perhaps thats why I struggle to empathise with how they can be genuinely ignorant and just assume that they do know, but pretend they don't. I think you may be right, they are just drones beholden to an ideology. You're also right in that we are heading towards an older social model. Abbotts getting there, we've got knights and dames, next 'land-lords' and 'serfs'. It frightens me to realise how many Aussies probably would accept serfdom, as long as the politics or economic pushed somehow 'justified it'. People seem to be accepting of having our properties sold off to foriegn investors, of having the house prices high, or becoming a nation of serfs or temporary workers. Even more perplexing, is that many people aware of this, seem to think those who fight against it are strange. The idea of fighting for a birth right seems 'nuts'. In fact, I've been told I'm nuts for being surprised that Australians haven't taken to the streets to demand the goverment solve the housing crisis. I can't work out whether this conformity, obedience and acceptance of loss of rights, degradation of the middle class is new, or always there. There seems to be a lack of confidence to simply ask for ones birthright and assert themselves. If our homes are snapped up by foreign investors, then not only do people just say "well, we can't compete", but they don't even seem to get angry. Doing a google search for "against foreign residential investment in Australia", the first site I get against it and on the side of Australians, is one by Nationalist Alternative. All the others either say its good, or just present facts without taking any moral position. Hence why I mention that the far right may be inevitable. Politicians, as you said, definitely think they own us, so to do business leaders, but what role do you think peoples passivity plays in this? Do we have poor quality politicians because we have poor standards? Or is this better solved by changing our party political system (I think we may be better without political parties and only allow independant people in politics). Thoughts?

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2014-04-03 13:47

Hi Dennis, I agree with you that it is frustrating that so many people give immoral politicians the benefit if the doubt. Such indulgence assumes that those politicians do not have responsibility for their actions. However, I also think that there are drone politicians and highly leader-obedient and peer-conformist politicians who do not question ideology as put to them by those they consider their superiors. And our party system fosters this sort of politician. I think also that economic ideology is exactly similar to religion and gives politicians all kinds of excuses, roles, rules and ranks with which to justify their undemocratic, destructive and stupid activities. Whilst people at the top and sociopaths can probably see through these justifications, the highly obedient, mostly males, in our political party system are probably unable to be objective. And they are also highly unlikely to listen carefully to anyone they consider to be of lesser power and rank, such as a constituent. Financial and power rewards are probably sufficient to blind many to the consequences of their actions, by narrowing their focus to what benefits them. Moral ideology, such as that implicit in the belief that people become rich because they deserve to and the poor are inferior and get what they deserve also seems to dominate the system we are in. Most of our politicians seem to have returned to Victorian times of class consciousness and blame the victim and to thoroughly endorse the creation of feudal empires formed by getting power over assets, resources and banks. I would be interested to read your response to these ideas.

DennisK (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-31 17:38

There is one idea which comes up again and again, that is, that somehow politicians don't know about these problems, and need to be made aware. I don't buy that they don't know. I'd be willing to bet that if they were facing serious punitive measures, they would suddenly 'become aware of the problem'. Even the bushmen in the Kalahari are aware of our housing affordability crisis and high immigration. I see this issue stalling, as long as we give politicans the benefit of the doubt and give them "time" to come to terms. No, we must push answers TODAY, and if they can't provide them immediately, then that is NOT acceptable. Working in the private sector, if you remain ignorant of a problem, and don't have a solution when challenged, you're GONE. You're gone because you A) should have been aware and B) should have had a solution before its too late. Ignorance is no excuse. It saddens me to the point of illness to hear people time and time again, suggest that we need to be gentle and point problems out and make our pollies aware. BTW. While Norway do have a good future fund, they are saddled with very high private debt levels too. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/nordic-crisis-waiting-to-happen... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-04/debt-nations

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-31 16:17

Selling off our land is a market-based system, rather than one based on national and patriotic interest, where "companies are responsive to shareholders and where investment and sales decisions are driven by market forces rather than external strategic or non-commercial considerations." The interests of profits for shareholders shouldn't and can't be allowed to ride rough-shod over the community, and national interests. So, as long as businesses and individuals maximise their sales prices, it doesn't matter who the sales are made to - even foreign interests? It's a sell-out, as the sovereignty of Australian land, resources, and built assets must over-ride individual and group interests. Neo liberalism means no restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs; free trade is seen as the best way for a nation’s economy to develop. Such ideas were “liberal” in the sense of no controls. It means greater openness to international trade and investment, reducing wages by de-unionising workers and eliminating workers’ rights, won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. The beneficiaries of neo-liberalism are a minority of the world’s people. It's contrary to the concept of nationalism, patriotism and sovereignty, all of which imply controls and borders. The neoliberals believe that national success - "in today's global market" - requires the abandonment of national economic autonomy and sovereignty. A 2012 report by Oxfam said that two thirds of investors in agricultural lands in developing countries exported everything they produce. Nearly 60 percent of crops are used for biofuels, yet the vast majority of deals are in countries with serious hunger problems. Selling off land for agricultural use would be a similar disaster for Australia. How much reviewing does the Foreign Investment Review Board actually do? It seems that they are more interested in counting the sheep escape through the unbolted fence!

Sheila Newman

Sun, 2014-03-30 22:50

Assemble cnr Wilson Avenue & Sydney Road, Brunswick (opposite Barkly Square) for speakers.

Then march up Sydney Road to Warr Park on Albion Street, Brunswick. Further speakers.

Got a sign or banner? Bring them!

Moreland Community Against the East West Tunnel (MCAT) and friends.

Michael Petit
Moreland Community Against the East West Tunnel (MCAT)

mobile: 0417 354 169
email: michael[AT]carolinepetit.com

Against Slavery (not verified)

Sun, 2014-03-30 22:31

It looks like a lot of Tasmanian land may be under foreign ownership. Just putting one and one together: It could be that the Tasmanian government, together with the growth lobby, are getting themselves into position to import many foreign farm labourers. So, it may be that this is a double abuse of Tasmanians: to wreck the environment for housing and to bring in foreign labour over the heads of Tasmanians, in guise of growing the population. http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/selling-the-farm-part-1/ http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/specials/foreign-ownership/ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-08/tas-foreign-investment-feature-dairy/5139758 http://www.aginstitute.com.au/announcements/foreign-investment-and-australian-agriculture

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2014-03-30 18:31

It's assumed, under the economic growth formula, that larger population means more consumers of Tasmanian commodities.

Local firms will be able to expand their production and to achieve that they must employ more labour.

It ignores that the present population is underemployed, and production should be expanded using presently wasted human resources. In the north-west, the rate of youth unemployment has jumped 59 per cent since 2012; last month the youth jobless rate was 20.5 per cent. Tasmania has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 7.6 per cent but the charity warns the youth rate could climb to triple that. It's absurd, on these figures, to think that more of the same (more people) can be the solution to the problem. Their population is in overshoot of the economy. As Albert Einstein said:

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

quark

Sun, 2014-03-30 17:22

I remember having a picture book when I was a child called "The Animals that live in the zoo" with a different animal represented on each page. Since the Copenhagen Zoo was happy to have children witness the carving up of Marius, the giraffe to feed to the lions, maybe they could fund -raise with a nice children's book called "The Animals that die in the zoo". They could have different dispatched animals on each page. They could say on page 1 "Monday- One beautiful giraffe was killed to make way for other giraffes who would make better mummies and daddies for baby giraffes. Learn about why when you are older." On another page they could have for example "On Wednesday, this cuddly family of lions with cubs went to sleep forever to make way for different lions who the Zoo thought would make a better lion family. In between Monday and Wednesday we don't know which animals at the zoo were killed but you can be sure that it was nothing to make you sad because the zoo replaced all the animals with better ones. You can't see why they are better but please believe the zoo that they are. Saying goodbye to perfectly healthy and maybe even happy animals is quite OK as long as it is all for the best. Don't worry, children that you will not be able to see the same animals when you go back to the zoo next time because they will look the same to you as the ones you saw last time." The Copenhagen Zoo is obviously keen to educate people including children, so perhaps this could be suggested.

P.E. Smith (not verified)

Sun, 2014-03-30 13:53

I agree. It's a disaster for Tasmania. Residents and visitors alike think Tassie is paradise (now), yet they want to change it! By increasing the population, Tassie will lose much of what makes it special. Already we have to destroy World Heritage wilderness in order to provide wood, hydroelectricity and tourist infrastructure ('eco'lodges, cablecar, roads and so on) for jobs and income for the existing population. A bigger population will increase that pressure, together with land and housing prices and also increase the pressure on native fauna and flora. Fish stocks will decline further (remember the supertrawler furore?). All the commentators quoted in The Mercury assumed that further economic (and population) growth is necessary, without careful reasoning. They should instead be looking at sustainable quality of life for average Tasmanians, plus the tourism experience - then reason from those starting points. Further economic growth might appeal on the basis that it will satisfy the current demand for more jobs and income, but it will do this only for a few years before that itself will attract more people to live in the state, which means that the demand for more jobs and income will be back again and probably bigger than before - so the promise of economic growth (and of population growth as a way to produce it) is false. This argument has a slightly longer term perspective than the conventional view of economic (and population) growth, but the shorter term and deceptive view appeals to business people and politicians (as voters don't think too much). I think we need to attack the pro-economic growth paradign as well as the pro-population growth one. Each is used to support the other. I am currently negotiating to publish a book on this. P.E. Smith, MSc in environmental studies and political science Tasmania

Bandicoot

Sun, 2014-03-30 09:26

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society wait for a much-anticipated decision from the International Court of Justice in The Hague due on March 31, in the case of Australia v. Japan, the captains of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who have famously defended at-risk whales from Japanese whalers’ harpoons in the Southern Ocean for 10 years. In a Statement from Sea Shepherd's captains: "We appear before the international community, in the context of the case concerning Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan), to advocate in favor of the whales migrating throughout the Antarctic region, especially in the area designated as the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. We aim at highlighting the international legal status of whales as marine protected species. Our arguments are based upon ten years of in situ experience in defending humpback, fin and minke whales in the Antarctic, especially in the area designated as the Southern Ocean Sanctuary". ... "Whales are gentle, sentient and sapient beings, capable of communicating among each other. Experts agree about whales’ brains having evolved in conjunction with complex cognitive abilities. Whales, however, cannot speak for themselves before the international community. We can and we advocate for greatest legal protection to the whales migrating throughout the Antarctic region, in the context of the case concerning Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan). Environmental groups have upped pressure on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to raise the whaling issue with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe this week as the International Court of Justice prepares to hand down its decision on Japanese Antarctic whaling tomorrow night. International Fund for Animal Welfare says that nine out of 10 Australians opposed whaling in the Southern Ocean and now was the time for Mr Abbott to represent them. Sea Shepherd Australia chairman Bob Brown said that on the ICJ decision his organisation was hoping for the best but expecting the worst, fearing whatever the court’s ruling whaling would continue.

PostGrowthEra

Sun, 2014-03-30 08:43

There will be a series of public meetings being held on the future of Melbourne by Future Melbourne Network. The seminar series is being held at Deakin Edge Theatre, Federation Square, and is entitled 'Creating a Better Future for Melbourne'. The aim is to generate informed discussion and debate about big ideas for our city and how to implement these ideas, with innovation and efficiency. The first meeting was attended by over 300 people at Deakin Edge on Monday 17th March. The second meeting, on Jobs and Housing, will be held on Monday April 28th, with details as follows. SEMINAR TWO: MAKING ENDS MEET - JOBS AND HOUSING Monday 28 April, 6.00-7.30pm Deakin Edge, Federation Square, Cnr Flinders and Swanston Streets Free entry - no bookings required This seminar asks the following four well known and passionate Melburnians what their vision is for the future of jobs and housing in Melbourne: * Tony Nicholson - CEO Brotherhood of St Laurence * Dr Shane Murray - Dean of Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Monash University * Dr Marcus Spiller - Principal, Partner and Director SGS Economics and Planning * Professor Carolyn Whitzman - Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne The MC is the articulate, intelligent and savvy Michael Short, Editor of The Zone in The Age newspaper. Michael will also invite audience Q and A. We would be grateful if you could let your e-mail groups know of this event. Dr. Janet Stanley Chief Research Officer Post-graduate Research Co-ordinator Monash Sustainability Institute Monash University, Building 74, Wellington Road Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia T: +613 9902 0737 M: +61 (0)418 407 248 [email protected]

Sheila Newman

Sun, 2014-03-30 01:46

Dennis K., wrote, "Besides, the worst form of bigotry I see, is the one where people today think their morality, their tolerance and ideals are somehow much better than those in the past. That people of the past were ignorant, stupid, believed in nonsense and had 'evil' ideals, that we are finally overcoming because we are enlightened. Now THATS bigotry!"

I agree. This prejudice against the past prevents us from learning from history. The ideology of 'progress' is how we are kept ignorant, constantly reinventing the wheel and alienated from our ancestors.

"Progress and the nature of time: In the ideology of progress, time is relative only to human aspirations. Einstein notwithstanding, time is goal directed. According to this perspective, we humans face forward and march onward to perfection, every day getting better and better, continuously improving. We are taught to regard the past and old people with contempt because the further away from now, the further away from the future you are, the closer to imperfection, to ignorance, to naivety, to 'inefficiency', to 'primitiveness' or an earlier stage of 'development'."
[...]

"The Future of magic:
The people who invent and publish explanations about Progress which motivate 'leaders' to drive the rest of us ever further down the one-way road of good intentions have forgotten - if they ever knew - that our industrial revolution relied on coal and oil. If you analyse the logic behind the myths of Progress and economic growth, it seems that most people actually believe that the industrial revolution was entirely a product of human ingenuity. We can infer this because the same people object to concerns about finite resources by saying that human ingenuity will always find a way. This is tantamount to saying that the technology and vast wealth of the industrial revolution were due to magic. It totally disregards the role of fossil fuel reserves, which formed completely independently of human ingenuity but without which 'modern society' could not exist. It is as if religious myths of humans reaching perfection and lightness of being have been confused with earthly reality and that humans have implicitly assumed that they are becoming celestial beings with magic powers due to their unique qualities as a smart or divine species. For the unscientific, modern civilisation must be like an Indian rope trick, or reliant on moral and spiritual bootstraps. Trains, rockets, cars, factories, electric lights are powered by magic. Willing cows, crops, and plastic trees fill the supermarket shelves with milk in cartons, bags of flour, and implements and containers made of plastic. Petroleum mysteriously replenishes petrol pumps on demand. The shops are full of sparkling trinkets like Aladdin's caves. You can pick up a plastic implement and magically talk to someone thousands of kilometers away whom you have never seen. You can press a switch and a virtual world of little laughing, talking, singing, important people appears on a glass screen. You can make all these things happen at once on your computer and on a hand-held device. The quality, quantity and rate of delivery of the magic goodies – particularly the electronic ones from the industrializing countries - seems to be intensifying, but per capita oil has apparently been on slightly variable annual plateau since 1979, if we are to believe the published data. Closer examination reveals that the definition of ‘oil’ has changed and that our fuel sources are increasingly leveraged and socially rationed by price. If we do not personally feel the impact of cheap petroleum energy decline per capita, it is probably because we are in a socially buffered class."

Source: Sheila Newman, Demography, Territory, Law: The Rules of Animal and Human Populations, Countershock Press, 2013, p.42.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2014-03-29 20:35

The lions were killed to make way for a new pride after the zoo received a another male, and to avoid the risk of inbreeding, according to a statement on the zoo's website. Instead of respecting animals as sentient beings, with rights to exist and survive, they are being treated as breeding objects, and warehoused until their usefulness as genetic stores - and then cruelly dispose of them! The four lions were put down on Monday after the zoo failed to find a new home for them, a spokesman said. All four were from the same family. They don't have to "breed" to be of use. The four lions that were killed the same day the new lion arrived (for a seamless transition period) included a 16-year-old male and a 14-year-old female in addition to their two young cubs. The cubs were killed because they were too young to fend for themselves. This zoo has become a clinic, breeding factory, rather than a safe place to protect threatened species. They have lost their vision, and are banking on genetics and not the welfare of animals.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2014-03-29 19:34

Prof Michael Buxton exposed the rort that planning has become. It's become an oxymoron as "planning" has been hijacked by vested interest groups, such as the banks, mortgage lenders, corporations, property developers and other growth-boosting organisations - usually benignly named as task forces, committees and organisations that do "research" and public statements. Successive State governments throw out planning schemes of previous governments, and upgrade them with looser controls and less "red tape". Planning should be a long-term strategy, over 10 years or more, and stripped of political inputs and vested interests. This is the system in Germany, and other wealthy European countries. Norway is wealthy as they have a sovereign fund, but in Australia any sales from privatisation or "surplus" is spent on infrastructure, - to support population growth! Councils do not have the power to oppose State government planning schemes and amendments. Minister Matthew Guy is the master of deceit and all the community "consultations" are a sham - they are simply thrown out! If our population growth continues, Melbourne as we know it will be inundated and destroyed. We will lose our living standards, our heritage, back yards, and more time will be lost in petrol and congestion. The planners promote a "diversity" of housing, but it's a lie. Traditional houses are too expensive to buy, and only 12% of buyers now are first time buyers. Poor Melbourne. She was once a gracious and liveable city, full of heritage and dignity. What's left of many suburbs will be washed away with high rises, multi-apartment blocks, and an expanded CBD full of high rises and wind tunnels of dark and windy canyons. Property developers get all the benefits, and take on none of the costs. As the urban boundary stretches, the costs of infrastructure an services is left for the community to bear - and costs of living keep spiralling out of control.

quark

Sat, 2014-03-29 11:23

Copenhagen Zoo recently killed 4 healthy lions in its "care". I wonder if they are ones who ate Marius, the giraffe. I think management has lost sight of the present and what it has (a bird in the hand) for some future genetic ideal breeding combination. (2 in the bush) and that's putting it kindly.

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2014-03-29 00:57

Victoria’s population grew in the twelve months to September 2013 by over 110,000, a higher number than any other state, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This was part of Australia’s population growth in the year to September 2013 by over 405,000, another massive increase. At this rate of growth we will well and truly exceed the 36 million by 2050 referred to as Big Australia, which a clear majority of Australians have said they don’t want. The 405,000 national increase came from net overseas migration of 241,000, and natural increase of 164,000. This in turn came from 310,000 births and 146,000 deaths. Our birth rate is more than twice our death rate. The demographers who have claimed for years that Australia’s numbers of births would fall, and that we need migration to maintain our population numbers, are wrong yet again. I have founded a grassroots action group, Victoria First, to highlight the many impacts of rapid population growth – traffic congestion, overdevelopment, increasing utility bills and stress on local services. Our next meeting will be this Saturday 29 March between 2 and 4pm at the Central Ringwood Community Centre, Bedford Park, Bedford Road Ringwood. Our guest speaker is Professor Michael Buxton of RMIT University, who will speak on the impact of Melbourne’s population growth on local communities. Professor Buxton has had a distinguished academic and government career, and is an acknowledged expert on Melbourne planning issues. Melbourne’s eastern suburbs are feeling the consequences of rapid and unsustainable population growth first-hand. Growth in the outer suburbs has contributed greatly to Victoria’s recent growth spurt. The City of Maroondah is forecast to grow by over 15,000 people, from 110,000 in 2014, to over 125,000 by 2031.Unit sales in Ringwood increased by 11% just last year. Across the Ringwood Activity Centre there are 14 completed and 16 permits approved for large residential developments, representing 968 dwellings. This high density development means more cars on local roads, more pressure on public facilities and open space, and a poorer quality of life for local residents. Victoria First is a new not for profit NGO established to safeguard and enhance Victoria’s way of life. We are fighting to halt rapid population growth and over development, reduce traffic congestion, stop the increasing cost of council rates and rising utility bills, and seeking to protect Victoria’s unique animals and plants. I encourage residents to come along and join Victoria First, which is campaigning on the issues that matter to all residents and future generations. Kelvin Thomson, 28 March 2014

DennisK (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-28 16:40

In economics, there is an ideal of 'revealed preference', where what someone actually chooses is a better indicator of market desire than what they say, or how they respond to questions. So analysing choice provides better empirical means to determing peoples choices and thoughts than surveys. In this case, you can analyse someone true opinion of diversity, Western nations or whatever, more accurately by studying movement of people than through surveys. So the racism in Australia is proved not to be a major issue, due to revealed preference that migrants make, that is, to move here. The desire for 'diverse' neighbourhoods is revealed by the choice that Australians make to move towards, or away from them. I think this gives a better indicate of future political movement than surveys, or what people say. And in this case, examining movement and choice, one can understand how the far right can arise despite appearances of tolerance.

DennisK (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-28 16:33

Thanks Sheila, thats pretty much it. People usually tend to conflate statement of fact with endorsement of fact. So when a scientist says Humans evolved from Apes, it is interpreted by some as being 'endorsement' of the view that people are just animals, so the Creationist says this has to be wrong. The secular humanist who hears someone talk of cultural differences ascribes this observance as being an endorsement of 'racial supremacy', so the secular humanist says it has to be wrong and hes a bigot. This is why people against racism say "I don't see race", or why a business might push for people to believe "nothing is impossible" and criticise those who point to how something is technically NOT possible. Property spruikers also think this way, where someone who sees an unsustainable bubble is criticised as wanting to undermine the market. What they observe, is somehow an indication of what they want, as if reality is dictated by what one says, and not some independant, immutable fact. This got Galileo into trouble too. We like to think we are modern, but in reality, our society today is not all that different from the oppresive religious society Galileo had to content with. Just replace Catholic Church with Political Correctness. Replace "Heretic" with "Racist". The similarites aren't coincidence. It IS the same thing occuring again. "Hate Speech" laws are just a rehash of blasphemy laws. Todays recording of every 'hate speech' is just a witch hunt. Besides, the worst form of bigotry I see, is the one where people today think their morality, their tolerance and ideals are somehow much better than those in the past. That people of the past were ignorant, stupid, believed in nonsense and had 'evil' ideals, that we are finally overcoming because we are enlightened. Now THATS bigotry!

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-28 12:50

While violence and racial vilification can't be allowed or justified, it's a bit harsh of migrants who complain about how "racist" Australia is, when they know when they come here they will be part of an ethnic group, and stand out culturally and physically. Considering that where most of our migrants come from now, China and India, don't have mass immigration, they are in the lofty privileged position of not having experienced a continual flow of foreigners taking jobs, and housing - yet they expect to have no wave of impact? Australians can't migrate overseas, without dual residency, and usually there are strict limitations to permanent visas, such as only for former residents or children and families. It's assumed that Australia is open international territory, and foreigners can simply slip in and be embraced joyfully, and without any cultural/national values, and with an open patriotic system! Racism and xenophobia are inevitable for all national and territorial groups, and is part of national identity and patriotic fervour. We have cashed up Asians buying property that's unaffordable for most Australian, and privatisation means foreign ownership of public services. Jobs are being opened up for foreign visa holders, and there is little democratic options to change government decisions that are not in our interests. Considering that Australia has years of Multiculturalism, and decades of high rates of net overseas migration, we are probably the most tolerant, accepting and non-racist nation in the world!

DennisK (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-28 10:15

Back then, Communism was in power, but Nazism wasn't, yet. The Italian in the 1920's or the German in 1930 didn't know what Fascism/Nazism had in store, but they had seen Communism. People can only go by what they've seen, and if they've seen one evil in action, but not the other in action, they choose the latter evil to fight the former. You must remember, they had seen Socialist purges and persecution of people and obviously didn't want it, at least, those who thought they would be its victims. The Fascists in Italy were pushed into power, Mussolini almost missed the march on Rome as he wasn't ready! There were of course, Communists in these countries, but they lost out, in Germany, democratically. You must also remember that Ukrainians remember the Holodomor, where millions died due to that system in the early 30's. This system racked up a death toll first. That's important. They didn't have the hindsight we have. In Germany, the Weimar republic was ill equipped to deal with its problems and with Communism.

My point? Not that we need the far right, but that the lurch that way is inevitable unless the rest of the political sphere tackles their issues. Parties like the BNP, Golden Dawn, Front National exist because their respective nations are undergoing unprecedented demographic and social change. The English people are projected to become a minority. It is staggering to think that people are so delusional, that they honestly believe that somehow, this can happen without dissent or a fight. Of course, law enforcement suppresses dissent in England, but the more things progress, the more willing they'll be to push back. Same in Greece, PC laws failed, so now they use force. They'll lose that battle too and it's all over. There is only so long you can tell people not to talk about it, or pretend it's not a problem, or pretend its all about 'boat people'.

This is why sites like this are important. Candobetter.net addresses issues many others refuse to touch and doesn't force a "Politically Correct" interpretation. If mainstream politics honestly tackled social cohesion, demographic change, national integrity, then they could avoid having political amateurs take them up.

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2014-03-28 08:56

Whilst Admin gives a very good history of what happened with the communists in Russia and in Germany, I get the impression that he thinks that Dennis K meant to imply that the Nazi party was a good thing. Reading Dennis K's contribution, I cannot see that. He only seems to be saying that Germans were afraid of the Communists and that the Nazis' proposed solutions to some problems, like unemployment. He is not saying that the Nazis were good; far from it; he then goes on to imply that we are heading the same way, i.e. that Australia and other places are in danger of succumbing to fascism because they are prevented from exercising less extreme 'solutions' - such as democratic voting on immigration numbers, protection for local workers' conditions and security in employment, and secure and affordable housing for locals - i.e. civil rights. Yesterday I was discussing with another writer on this forum how the recent repeal of an aspect of the racial discrimination act in conjunction with remarks in parliament that Australians have the right to be bigots, prepares the way for rough attitudes towards different communities within our now very multi-ethno-racial society of which a large portion are new immigrants, including some much wealthier than locally born. It seemed to us that racial vilification laws had been used to frighten Australian-born and new and old immigrants, from criticising high immigration because 'racism' had been progressively more loosely defined, if not at law, in common understanding. Criticism of high immigration was often popularly conflated, in the press and by politicians, with racism. This made Australians, whether born here or elsewhere, unsure of what they could say and assisted pro-big population newspapers, the ABC and SBS, not to report on good reasons for local objections to population growth. In this way a social environment was achieved where successive governments, notably the Rudd, Howard and Gillard governments, and state governments which included the Kennett, Bracks, Brumby, Baillieu and Napthine governments in Victoria, and premiers from either side of government in all other states, could massively ramp up immigration and massively dismantle worker protection and housing affordability for locals. Now that high immigration is almost entrenched in our society, despite any sensible person's wishes, the Federal government believes that it has something to gain by what amounts to promoting individuals' rights to insult each other on the basis of race. This prepares us for a crude, rough society where the government may feel able openly to support and employ a rough group of nationalistic people to police and head-kick the rest of Australians. A situation has been created where there are enough new immigrants of many different sects and origins present in an Australia with declining quality of life and standard of living (housing, work, space, ammenities) for the social environment to be full of friction and stress. What did Labor and Liberal and Green power in the parliament mean to do when they all worked together to create this situation? Look beyond the political brand names to the corporate motives - for cheap labour in an era where there is declining fossil fuel availability, notably petroleum. There is also pressure on water and land supply and the costs of mounting and running a business are heavily against small to medium enterprises. Revolts are an obvious outcome of overcrowding, unemployment, bankruptcy and loss of self-government. How will having a fascist police composed of young bullies (like the de facto one that seems available from the Socialist Alliance) help the corporate case in a political system where corporations and government are much the same thing? Even though the racial vilification laws remain in force where a person is actually physically threatened on grounds of their race, the initial phase where people begin with insults and foment resentment against certain groups, has been facilitated now by the Abbott Liberal government in a social environment full of multicultural vulnerabilities. Whilst I agree on the importance of free speech, this is how it looks as if it may pan out in a society that has recently been stripped of decent protections for housing and employment and where the institutions guaranteeing some civil rights have mostly been destroyed. We should have had free speech and we need free speech to speak up for democracy, but we may be heading towards a situation where only loud, scary people dare to speak out.

admin

Fri, 2014-03-28 03:47

Dennis.K wrote:

... there was a real fear in Europe that the Communist revolution would enslave them ...

Surely you must be aware that Nazi Germany started a World War in which 60 million people died, including the six million Jewish victims of their holocaust?

No other creed in human history even approaches the vileness and criminality of the German Nazi Party, certainly not the 'communists', even if Josef Stalin and his henchmen are to be included in their ranks. However, given that that Stalin murdered nearly all the leaders of the 1917 communist revolution, labeling Stalin and his ilk 'communist' is a gross libel against communists including his communist victims.

Wikipedia gives estimates of the count of those killed in Stalin's Great Purges as between 681,692 and 1,704,230. Other communist victims of Stalin include the higher ranks of Red Army officer corps, of whom three quarters were murdered according to Wikipedia. This is the main reason, why the Soviet Union paid such a terrible cost in the Second World War of between 20 million and 30 million lives lost. Had the officer corps not been so disastrously reduced by Stalin, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 would have quickly come to grief.

Whilst the Red Army Officers played no role in the internal struggles of the Bolshevik Party in the 1920s and 1930s, Stalin had good reason to fear that they remained loyal to the old Bolshevik leaders including Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Red Army.

The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was the main bulwark against the Nazis and their Freikorps predecessors in the inter-war years. One major social upheaval in which the KPD successfully fought the Nazis/Freikorps is their defeat of Kapp Putsch of 1920.

However, in 1933, Stalin prevented the KPD from uniting with the German Social Democratic Party (SPD – the German equivalent of the Australian Labor Party) to resist the Nazi rise to power. For all its faults and past betrayals by their leaders, the SPD had as much to fear from the Nazis as the communists and would have been the communists' natural allies after 1932.

Instead of fighting the Nazis, the KPD, under orders from Stalin, refused to act against the Nazis, and on occasions, even supported the Nazis against the SPD. Consequently Hitler was needlessly allowed able to seize power in 1933 without any effective grass-roots opposition.

Had the KPD prevented Hitler's rise to power in 1933 as it could so easily have done, and presumably formed government in collaboration with the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), humanity would have been spared the the ensuing catastrophe of the Second World War. Does Dennis.K, with the hindsight of history, truly not see that outcome as preferable to what happened?

Dennis.K (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-27 21:10

I don't think you are paranoid, and you may be surprised to find how many people might see things the same way you do. Quite literally, our way of life that has been built up IS being sold off. In the past, there were barriers which people had to stop their social structure being torn apart, some of it seemed nonsensical, based on mindless custom, tradition, or even some might have said bigotry and backwardness. But as we are seeing, many of these values did have, well, value! Values actually have value! For instance, communities were often tight knit and self controlling, but this value of 'owning your area' was fought against, and now no one feels they have the right to dictate what happens in their area. This is now economically exploited. Or values of traditional families and household structure, which again, resulted in economic exploitation. Or the idea of a common culture and shared national consciousness. Or the sense of national ownership, the importance of social groups, clubs. Multiculturalism seems to be more about manufacturing consent for demographic engineering, than about any actual positive cultural enrichment. Most of these so called "Multicultural" organisations really don't do anything apart from trying to eradicate and marginalise opposing ideas and providing economic lubrication so indiscriminate immigration can realise economic benefits to a few as quickly and efficiently as possible. Lets not forget, the migrants themselves are exploited, many not realising what they are getting into (debt slavery, crappy low paid work, fragmented communities, brutal living costs). I've had more than one I've worked with tell me that if they knew what it would really be like (as opposed to what they were sold), they wouldn't have come, citing reasons of 'work to live' culture and cost of living. Australia is being turned into a generic land, of interchangeable economic units who's value is only to an economy for economic exploitation seems to be where we are heading. But what else is there?

Dennis.K (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-27 20:53

The problem is, that Ukrainians want to detach from Russia and move Westwards, but they are also aware that Europe is committing suicide, especially Western Europe. They don't want that either. So what to do?

It's easy to rag out nationalist parties, and just make accusations of it being Nazism V2.0, but one must realise why these parties arise. Its NOT out of 'bigotry' or 'hatred', but do to real problems which only they address.

People forget that the NSDAP addressed real, critical problems the Germans were facing. Being economically destitute, national humiliation, threat of Communist take over. At this time, there was a real fear in Europe that the Communist revolution would enslave them (Italy had the same fear, hence why the fascists were pushed into power there).

Fast forward a few generations, and Europe is facing another existential crisis, the likes of which occur once every few hundred years, if that. Centrist, moderate powers, and the intellectuals who support them essentially deny this, or try to redefine the problem as a non problem. Effort is put, not into fixing the problem, but trying to reengineer people so they don't consider it a problem. This can work, to a limited degree, but will eventually unravel, as it is now, and as it will here too.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-27 20:42

The two-week-old kittens were found mutilated behind a Blackburn petrol station in Melbourne's east last week. The police constable says: "Police concern is that people who can commit such horrendous acts to poor defensive animals may go on to commit other offences. "These poor kittens suffered, they died a slow painful death," she said. While it's "only" kittens now, many times cruelty to animals is the beginning of a life of crime, rape and even murder. These psychopaths start on animals, and sickeningly move to torturing and mutilating humans. RSPCA spokesperson says it is just one of a number of recent gruesome attacks on animals. "We have a number of dog beatings that have come to our attention, and now the stabbing of two-week-old kittens". We don't usually hear all this gruesome news, considering the crime wave in Victoria. The crime of aggravated animal cruelty carries a maximum ten year jail term. The horror of unspeakable crime against defenseless animals is also spreading to humans, often in family violence. The sub humans capable of this is an indication of society's decline, and disorder in our society. Due to high rates of population, the disturbances create fragmented values, mixed messages endorsing "diversity", and high opportunities to be anonymous and over-looked in the crowded court and justice system.

Cruiser (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-27 14:19

Tasmania was our last bolt hole. A thousand plagues on the growth lobby. It was the bolt hole for Victorians who are being driven out of their city through housing unaffordability and untenable lifestyles. There is nowhere to get away from population growth. This is insanity. And it is all the fault of selfish bastards in government and commerce who would sell their own grandmothers just to appear important and make a grubby buck. How hateful these people are. They are betraying the rest of us. Hell, Port Arthur should be reopened to accommodate these human foxes.

nimby

Thu, 2014-03-27 11:15

The number of family violence units within Victoria Police has tripled since November 2011, with more than 30 now operating across the state. Between 2010 and 2012, assaults arising from family incidents in Victoria rose from 16,740 to almost 20,000. SMH: the growing problem of family violence in Victoria By 2012-13,referrals for family violence had more than doubled to 5010. This financial year, referrals to Berry Street Victorian Northern Domestic and Family Violence unit have reached 5700 with three months still to go. In January, The Age reported that the number of repeat offenders had more than doubled in the past five years. It's a symptom of dis-ease, of stresses on families, and dystopia of constant growth and adjustments. Dr Manjula O'Connor, a psychiatrist and executive director of the non-government Australasian Centre for Human Rights and Health, has been outspoken about family violence within Victoria's Indian community. ''We have become so politically correct that we don't dare talk about family violence as an issue within a particular cultural group,'' O'Connor says. We also have become buried in the political-correctness of the fall-out of heavy and malignant population growth! With full throttle growth in Melbourne, there's not stability, and this means pressures on family for jobs, mortgage stress, unemployment, homelessness, high costs of living and the anonymity of so many strangers of diverse backgrounds flooding communities. Housing is being crushed together, jowl to jowl, causing more conflicts and exacerbating the problems. Whittlesea is a growth corridor, and are experiencing excessive population growth. The City of Whittlesea is diverse, with a large proportion of residents born overs eas (34%) and a larger proportion born in non English speaking countries (32%) than the Melbourne statistical average. Over 40% of residents speak a language other than English at home, compared to the Melbourne average of 29%. The rate of family violence in the City of Whittlesea is at a critical new high at 1249 per 100,000 people, compared to 1071 for Victoria. . This is the highest rate of reported family violence in the Victoria Police Northern Division. Over the past five years the number of incidents reported to police in the Whittlesea LGA has almost doubled (see WCF Family Violence Fact Sheet 1) leading to local agencies declaring family violence a critical public health issue for our community and establishing the Whittlesea Family Violence Taskforce to address this. Whittlesea Community Features: Whittlesea CALD Communities Family Violence Services Housing growth, and the people that inevitably need to be imported to fill the properties, has a high cost, not only in monetary terms and in infrastructure debt, but in human social costs. .

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2014-03-27 02:15

"Australian governments need to come to terms with the prospect that no amount of increase in housing supply will meet demand if there is no limit to that demand." This is a great quote from an article by Kate Shaw, 'Housing blame game here to stay in world of infinite demand', 25 March 2014, 2.45pm AEST, Housing blame game here to stay in world of infinite demand. Kate says nothing that you couldn't read on candobetter.net seven years ago - "On housing affordability", but it is good that she is saying it, although now the horse has well and truly bolted, so perhaps it's no longer threatening to hear. Kate also compares the same damage in Vancouver, as Tim Murray often has on our pages here: Tim on Vancouver city planning and overpopulation. There are many other similar articles on candobetter.net: "Cost of housing and cost of dependency in Australia" and tags covering all aspects, such as this one: "Housing Affordability. The issue is self-government now, since clearly corporate interests have overtaken those of the state. I have yet to see anyone else blow the whistle on the relationship between successive federal governments and oppositions and some major corporations via the utterly benign-seeming The Australian Multicultural Foundation. But those connections have a lot to do with forced population growth and the constant propaganda we endure on the subject. It will be a red letter day when someone else investigates that mystery.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2014-03-25 14:29

You make good points, Denis. It is all about money. Another way to describe the messages used to hook in customers and supporters is 'branding'. I keep trying to write about this. It underlies the decoy politics so many fall for. Call yourself 'Green' or 'Labor' or 'anti-racist' or 'Liberal' - and you get the attention and time of people who want what you advertise. That doesn't mean that you carry out what you advertised. It isn't as if political parties or NGOs can be held to their promises. They have even less to lose than commercial brands, who most people know now to test by experience. I personally like loose political affiliations - like candobetter.net, where, if you don't think you're getting what you came for, you can go away and write for someone else.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2014-03-25 14:22

This is really so discriminatory towards Australians. I wonder what the questions put to immigrants were. I also think that most people, and especially elderly people and women, fear for their safety - largely because the mainstream media focuses on violent crime as if it were a widespread norm. This is one of the ways that they control people. They focus on women and elderly and immigrants as victims. More recently they are focusing on how young men get attacked. It is true that people do get attacked and certain cohorts are more vulnerable to certain attacks than others, but the popular media make this seem imminent everywhere. So, if you read the paper or watch the news, you will probably form the idea that you are unsafe because of your category. You may belong to several categories, for instance, immigrant, young male so if you often watched or read the news you would probably think you were in danger more than you are. The news will also teach that Australians are likely to attack people because Australians are racist, but how strong is the basis for this assertion? As Vivienne implies, population growth exacerbates all social frictions. It is also apparent from the social media that Australians fear being attacked by immigrants - for instance by terrorist Islamic sympathisers. And who promotes this idea? The government.

DennisK (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-25 13:11

You can always tell what values are lacking in, or being destroyed by an insitutuion, or in politics, they are the ones they most loudly proclaim. Hitler went on about Peace. The Spanish Inquisition was about Mercy. Of cource they would insinuate there is racism and work to be done. Isn't that how anti-racist organisations get their funding? It's not like they are going to say "job well done. We aren't needed"! No, this paper is merely advertising for support and trying to sell a product. When a laundry detergent manufacturer says we need to buy it, we know why they are doing it. When a company says we need their services, we know why. This is no different. They exist because there is money to be made from "racism" from Anglo's and to a lesser extent Europeans, so by validating the purpose of their organisation, they can call for more funding. There is no money to be made combating racism in other groups. Racism overseas is far worse, but where's the money in promoting tolerance between say, Sinhalese and Tamils? Business also likes the benefits. Social cohesion limits business exploitation, so who better to push for destruction of social cohesion, than an organisation which says its for Social Cohesion. The fact is, Australia, like much of the West, have been among the first nations in history to volunteer to become a minority, and not only that, but do it peacefully while castigating those who object. It is simply unprecedented in history, where a group of people have volunteered, even grudgingly, to choose to becomie a minority and give up sole ownership over they systems and country. It is just laughable to suggest that we are racist and need to do more.

PostGrowthEra

Tue, 2014-03-25 10:49

People imagine that the dairy industry is benign, with happy and contented cows grazing and chewing their cud, and producing milk for us! People need to realise that cows produce milk when they have a calf, not automatically. For us to have the milk, as an industry, the calves must be removed from their mothers after a few days. Over 700,000 bobby calves are considered "wastage" of the dairy industry, and are slaughtered. The rest either end up being milking cows, or veal. The dairy industry knows that many consumers of milk would find the callous treatment of bobby calves completely unacceptable and rethink their financial support of the industry. If the treatment of bobby calves is to improve, it is imperative that the industry becomes accountable and for the public to exercise their consumer power. Better still, avoid dairy products! Animals Australia: take Action. Demand that animals not be treated as 'waste products'

PostGrowthEra

Tue, 2014-03-25 10:42

A survey on racism in Australia, to be released on Monday, is the latest in a series, Mapping Social Cohesion, funded by the Scanlon Foundation Asked to nominate what they ''least like'' about Australia, racism and discrimination was listed among migrants' chief concerns. Those from non-English speaking backgrounds were almost twice as likely to report suffering discrimination than those from English-speaking countries. The Age: Migrants fear racism and being victims of crime The fact that Australia has third world rates of immigration, and the source countries of migrants have nil or minimal, is not being taken into consideration. It's assumed that Australia is an open-bordered nation, with no claims to sovereignty or territory? The survey shows migrants who have arrived in Australia over the past two decades often feel singled out because of their skin colour or faith and report a disturbing lack of trust, both in other people and political institutions compared with the rest of the population. Rather than "racism" it's more likely to be a by-product of the negative impacts of high rates of population growth, and patriotism. Every national, and every patriotic person, must feel loyal to their own soil, and borders. It's more about being ethno-centric than racist! Migration rates have doubled from the 1990s, shifting from an emphasis on family unification to job skills. With rising unemployment, there's hardly a shortage of skills, or human resources to train! Migrants are more about housing growth, property development and mortgages. The government is preparing a new Racial Discrimination Act, to facilitate and force acceptance of high immigration rates. Interestingly it's the Scanlon Foundation doing this survey. Mr Scanlon, whose family wealth is estimated to be more than $600 million, set up a foundation with the aim to create a larger and socially cohesive Australia. It also happens that Mr Scanlon has extensive property development interests, which clearly benefit from immigration-fuelled high population growth. "My primary driver in (setting up the foundation) is if we don't have growth we are going to lose all our youth because the world is looking to train people around the world," he explains. "Instead of having stagnant growth, we're going to have a serious decline." Scanlon backs population growth- Herald Sun December 4th 2009. This organisation has vested interests in growth, the property development, and have obvious interest in quashing debate and utilizing the "racist" fears to make implementation of growth easier!

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-25 10:15

Youth unemployment in outer east including Maroondah, Knox, Yarra Ranges, Whitehorse and Manningham jumps nearly 50 per cent.

As reported in the Herald Sun, 24th March, youth unemployment in Melbourne’s outer east has spiked nearly 50 per cent during the past two years, with a welfare advocacy group labelling the jobless rate a 'generational crisis'.

Melbourne’s outer east, which covers municipalities including Maroondah, Knox, Yarra Ranges and parts of Whitehorse and Manningham, experienced the biggest rise in youth unemployment across Victoria.

Youth unemployment in outer east including Maroondah, Knox, Yarra Ranges, Whitehorse and Manningham jumps nearly 50 per cent

How can housing growth be justified when jobs are being created to keep abreast with our artificially boosted population growth? On one hand we have dysfunctional "growth" policies and short-cuts to public services, but not for profit social organisations must pick up the debris. Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Tony Nicholson said the statistics showed Victoria was facing a "generational crisis'.

TAFE cuts too have hit hard, but "skilled immigration" continues with impunity! It's a case of reverse racism, of our government preferring overseas skilled workers rather than our own human resources.

nimby

Mon, 2014-03-24 11:29

The total minerals and agriculture workforce is only about 5% of the Australian workforce; which is less than the number of unemployed people. The big mining boom was meant to be a platform for "big Australia" and great economic growth. However, all the empirical evidence is otherwise. A youth jobs crisis is threatening to expand across Melbourne after the biggest rise in the unemployment rate - in the eastern suburbs instead of the struggling west. It's a spreading threat, and a symptom of population overshooting our economy. It's not only in Melbourne, but across our country. There has been a shrinking of labour-intensive workforces and a shift by employers from being skill developers to skill buyers. Importing skills from overseas is a quick fix, instead of having to train locals. In the face of an ageing population, there is little doubt that a continued high rate of youth unemployment will adversely add a heavy burden on tax payers and welfare. Compliant temporary workers from overseas are more likely to be an attractive option for big businesses as they lower wages and conditions, and they are willing to get sponsored for PR. Our government is obsessed by high rates of GDP, increased by a continual injection of people from overseas. There's no correlation between grass-roots lobbying, the real world of struggling in the face of excessive numbers of skilled workers who are unemployed, and population overshoot. The "skills shortages" being advertised across the world is looking more of a lie and based on pure political spin with no basis in reality. Our educational institutions are failing to address educational requirements of our country, and instead have become degree factories, and part of the immigration program to lure people here for a "better life".

Matthew Mitchell

Mon, 2014-03-24 11:25

According to some early pioneers Carrum was a paradise - William Bruton's memories were:
From Carrum Cowboys:

"When I first visited Carrum, there was no ti-tree (or tea-tree) on the foreshore from Mordialloc to Kananook Creek. There was however a small patch of ti-tree about two miles from Mordialloc, called the scrub, which had not grown to the height , or spread as it has since done, but there were plenty of the east side of the road. The foreshore was a growth of honeysuckle ferns and wild currants, and when the trees were flowering, a large number of birds were seen, Magpies and crows preferred the other side of the swamp.

The call of the Kookaburra was heard everywhere and amongst the trees wattle birds, leatherheads,woodpecker, thrushes, kingfisher, robins and many different kinds of parrots, and as we camped near the swamp ti-tree when - Oh! wild turkeys - they know the human beings, and are up and off quickly. But what are those tall things over yonder? a flock of native companions. Rare as they are, they are still birds, but they are far more conceited than any other bird.

Here the gum trees lay prone where they have lain for hundreds of years, and others in the full glory of life send their spreading limbs and luxuriant foliage out, displaying their pride of life. Here also are the possums in plenty disporting themselves amongst the branches.

And so it seem that the energy of the axeman, the drainer, the builder have turned this heavenly paradise of thousands of years, into a joy somewhat like unto the dog of old, racing with the jam tin, which rascally boys have attached to his tail." [5]

(image: Carrum Carrum Swamp. Watercolour, James Curtis. 1872)

PostGrowthEra

Sun, 2014-03-23 11:17

The latest 5 year report by UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details a litany of global impacts from intensifying climate change including the displacement of hundreds of millions of people, reduced crop yields and the loss of trillions of dollars from the global economy. The Age: new IPCC climate report predicts significant threats to Australia The world is hungry and increasingly so. Demand for the three staple food crops - rice, wheat and maize - is expected to grow 14 per cent a decade to 2050. Overall, food production globally must be increased by a staggering 70% to feed a world population that is growing at a rate of 1.16% (78 million people) per year. Meeting that demand will be hard at the best of times, especially with less resources such as nutrients and water, and more extreme weather. CSIRO's Dr Mark Howden says the food produced (yields) by most primary crops is presently growing by only about 1 per cent a decade, and will fall short of demand. The link between climate change and war is not clear, but inevitably there will be more conflicts of limited natural resources, such as food supplies. The pressure on living systems can't be assumed to be capable of being ramped up to meet the demands created by humanity's aggressive growth. We are walking blindly into catastrophe if we expect biological, ecological systems and food chains to increase their outputs at a time of increasing scarcities of land, natural resources such as water, energy and nutrients. Do we expect them to super-boost their production outputs, on less? The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 – 1834) was an English cleric and scholar, widely known for his theories about population. His observed that sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease. He's been discussed, dismissed and "disproved", but surely the present global "food security" crisis is another name for what he warned us about in the 19th Century- the Malthusian trap? Our governments are forced to take a climate change denial stance, to continue their economic model of growth and "business as usual". Just how compatible is our economic model, based on ongoing consumption of non-renewable energy sources, mining and "big Australia" compatible with global threats and trends?

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2014-03-23 10:05

After decades of economic growth, debts are accumulating and austerity measures are being distributed onto the public. Australian economy has performed remarkably well over the last two decades, as we've been told. However, why are there cut backs all the time, especially to health?
Prime Minister Tony Abbot was giving a speech to the Australian-Canada Economic Leadership Forum in Melbourne, hinting at just this – as summarised bluntly by Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education:

"[The Prime Minister] said that the current growth in education and health expenditure was unsustainable, and that is true."

Australia: an economic ‘star’, but are we happier?

What's Tony Abbot's vision for economic growth? If vital spending such as education and healthy are being trimmed, and declared unsustainable, then why is our economy intricately linked to the housing and property markets, and population growth? Surely the purpose of our economy basically, is to serve us, and provide for the basics such as education and health, and high living standards. Instead, we've become slaves to it, and it's being forced to "grow" to our detriment.

A "surplus" is what is aimed for, but at the cost of how many cutbacks? Considering we have the highest unemployment rate since 2003, along with an increase in those registering as “long-term” unemployed, up 13.5% since January 2013, and more part time jobs being created than full time, surely we have over-shot our economy with regards to population size that can be employed and accommodated.

At present trends, each generation will be worse off, and our descendent will be sacrificed on the altar of "economic growth". There will be more people living outside participating in the economy, and less home ownership.

The housing boom can't be maintained, and it must implode through infrastructure debt, costs of living, and unaffordable mortgages.

Our economy has become, due to it's inherited basis, a big Ponzi scheme, heavily based on rising new taxes from population growth, and revenue for land subdivision and housing. The promised "prosperity" is not being produced, for the majority. Yet, we are trapped in this juggernaut of growth, debt, spending, importation of more people (taxpayers and buyers) and it becomes an addiction cycle.

PostGrowthEra

Fri, 2014-03-21 12:44

Spring Creek housing development at Torquay, on the Great Ocean Road Victoria, gets go-ahead from planning minister. Democracy isn't allowed to get in the way of property development! The Surf Coast Shire had written to Planning Minister Matthew Guy urging him to limit the town's boundary to Duffields Road, thereby protecting the Spring Creek area from development. But the minister has agreed with an independent panel, which found the area is the next logical extension to meet population growth. There's nothing "logical" about it! It's all about greed for growth, and promoting the housing industry! Our government is not "meeting" population growth, but encouraging and endorsing it! The more houses are built, the more people will come! There have been a number of community protests against the Spring Creek development but Mr Guy does not expect a community backlash. The public are being overwhelmed by the power of developers, strongly supported by our "planning" minister! The Mayor of the Surf Coast Shire, Rose Hodge, said the decision is disappointing. "This has been a difficult and complex issue, which has included extensive community involvement and strong views expressed," she said. "I know many people will be disappointed by the decision of the Planning Minister." There needs to be a diversity in Melbourne's economy, one that can survive any slowdowns and recessions. What we have now is a one-trick pony, property development based on the housing bubble. With jobs, infrastructure, public services, and amenities failing to keep abreast with growth, living standards and our economy can only decline. ABC: Spring Creek housing development gets the go ahead Matthew Guy is a front-man for the property developers' lobby group, moonlighting as our elected Planning Minister - however "planning" simply means giving ticks for new zones, and new housing schemes.

Bandicoot

Fri, 2014-03-21 12:19

Thank you Cienwen for a very informed and excellent article. There is a clear conflict of interests with the Minister for Agriculture also administering the Wildlife Act. It's a case of the prisoner, or exploited, being supervised by the same person, or group, that's also their advocate and defence! How can the welfare, and the protection of wildlife from cruelty and inhalation, realistically and objectively be under the same department as the one in charge of giving killing permits? The permit holder is likely not to be a professional or accurate shooter, and there are some horrific examples of jaws being blown off, and the animals being left to die in agony! What about joeys? We have dedicated wildlife carers spending hours trying to heal and nurture wounded kangaroos. Where can they be released to be safe? The same departments shouldn't be promoting the killing of kangaroos, and dispensing with ATCWs, and be responsible for the well-being. Previously, there were 30,000 carcasses of kangaroos left to rot, and going to "waste", in Victoria. Now, the number is up to 70,000! Once there is monetary gain, the number of shootings will increase, and there will be orders for pet food to fill! Kangaroos are seen as a "free" resource, and there for the pickings. What other native animal is so maligned and hated as our own symbols of Australia, the kangaroo? Please sign the petition| Stop the killing of kangaroos for pet food in Victoria, Australia

DennisK (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-21 08:51

There is ony one city in Europe more populous than Melbourne, London. The scandinavian countries which are highly regarded, have lower populations than Australia. The idea that Melbourne has to become big is a sick joke, laughable and silly, spoken by puling lackwits. How people don't laugh right at Doyle's face when he says that is beyond me. Melbourne is already bigger than many world class first word cities not just in size, but population. His statement isn't just poorly thought out, its absurd. It's like a 140kg man saying he needs to put on more weight. Another 3 million, thats an entire Berlin moving in. Are we going to gain a Berlins worth of culture, living standard, infrastructure and wealth? No.

DennisK (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-20 10:45

Doyle just says the words which he needs to say to keep the important people happy, thats it. It matters not whether they make sense, words are all that matters, and he says the right words at the right time. Thats true with most things now. Melbourne can't pull off high density living. I'm coming to the realisation that our growth mania is largely due to lack of leadership talent and sense of inferiority and insecurity. Melbournians (and likely Sydneyites too) have a nagging sense of irrelevance, and are trying to prove themselves "on the world stage" the only means we know how, mass, pointless and very messy growth. Doyle and cohorts simply have nothing at all, and submit to growth in a vain attempt to make Melbourne relevant.

nimby

Thu, 2014-03-20 10:12

The state government says its move to allow kangaroo meat to be turned into pet food will stop the waste of good meat. Just what are parameters of this "trail"? Until all the kangaroo are gone, and dead in Victoria?

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh told 3AW Breakfast the new ruling would not increase the number of kangaroos culled, rather carcasses would no longer be wasted. So, instead of being "wasted", and let to rot, the kangaroo carcasses would be processed into dog meat!

No more kangaroos would be killed, but the kangaroo industry's John Kelly is wringing his bloody hands with delight! Kangaroo Industry Association spokesman John Kelly said they were lobbying the government to go one step further! This seemingly small step, of not "wasting" the dead kangaroos, is a defacto introduction to a full blown commercial kangaroo meat industry in Victoria- by small steps.

While our State governments sees the industry being worth over $1.4 million, there are aspects that need to be considered.

The government has no idea what the current population of kangaroos is in this state, or any state. Aerial surveys are sporadic and unreliable, and tainted by industrial motives.

Even though the government states 30,000-70,000 kangaroos are killed each year via the permit system, it has no idea as they have cut staff in DEPI to such a level no checks can be made before or after a permit is approved. These permits are easily dispensed over the phone, and there's no staff to check the "pest" impacts on farmers, or give advice on non-lethal alternatives to the ATCW killing permits.

Each year kangaroo populations in this state are devastated by bushfires and extreme weather. There were fires in the Grampians earlier this year.

Kangaroos do NOT breed like rabbits. Kangaroo joey mortality rates are on average 75% as joey survival rates to adult hood are very fragile. There are many limitations, such as "management", roads, habitat loss and fires.
Studies have shown that a female kangaroo will only effectively replace herself once in her lifetime (12 years). The "explosion" of numbers, and their infinite numbers, is a myth created by the industry itself.

Farmers tend to believe one kangaroo eats as much as one cow when in fact it would take on average 15 kangaroos to eat as much as one cow and they do not prefer to eat the same pasture as a cow. The grazing pressure of kangaroos is minimal compared to livestock.

Kangaroos are continuously hounded, harassed, maligned and hated by their own country-men. This malignant attitude towards our famous native animals is a result of many years of slander and mis-information to suit governments and the industry of skin and meat.

Just how will this "trial" be deemed successful, or not? By the death of our mobs in Victoria? Already in the early 1980s, the idea of a commercial kangaroo industry in Victoria was dismissed. Aerial surveys by the CSIRO deemed that there was too much intensive farming, and kangaroo densities were too low. Nothing has changed, and the pressures on kangaroos would be even greater, not less.

Vivienne Ortega

Thu, 2014-03-20 09:46

Melbourne in the 1970s was something to aspire to! We had very affordable housing, and many people even had holiday houses, high living standards, roads that weren't congested, education was available at a minimum cost, and there was room to move. Life was simple and we had high rates of employment. Food was cheap, and we didn't have the "growth corridors" causing high rates of crime, and social disquiet. We used to have the Gas and Fuel corporation, SECV providing cheap and reliable power, the Board of Works, and our water supplies weren't expensive as they are today. Our public services provided training, apprenticeships, and jobs. There were no "skills shortages", or massive public debt. We had our own traditional music and dance venues, and folk and rock music was thriving. The "reason" for justifying our present rate of population growth is because it's for the business elite, and to drive the property development industries - both powerful lobby groups. It's not in our interest, the public, and Doyle knows this!

Vivienne Ortega

Thu, 2014-03-20 09:24

LORD Mayor Robert Doyle has slammed the destruction of market gardens on the city fringe to make way for housing. Cr Doyle said that places like Clyde in the outer southeast were prime food-growing areas, but were threatened by urban sprawl. With Australia having only 6% of our land arable, for continual food production, and 3% of it in Victoria, it's high time someone spoke up about our aggressive housing and property industry in Victoria. With other economic activities struggling, this industry is thriving due to our immigration-driven high rates of population growth! The political control of population can't be ignored forever. What's incongruent is Doyle's irrational lack of logic. Cr Doyle urged governments to stop building new suburbs where there were no jobs, no public transport and a lack of other infrastructure and services. So, we wants ongoing high rates of population growth, but more people crammed together in a rat-race of congested housing and roads! “I believe in a big Melbourne, but I believe in a big smart Melbourne,” he told a Future Melbourne Network event this week. So, "big" and "smart" are synonymous, and not a contradiction for Doyle! There's nothing "smart" about ecological overshoot, or population overload. People should have more intelligence that bacteria, happily eating away at the substrate in their petri dish, reproducing with impunity, until they reach the limits of their tiny universe- the edges of the dish! While humans have more ingenuity, intelligence and creativity than mindless bacteria, there are always natural constraints to any growth. How does Doyle expect to "grow" and be a "big" population without expanding over our salad bowls? The only solution would be to force people to live in ever-climbing towers, and cram together in high rise apartments like those in Hong Kong and may parts of the world. Migrants come here for a "better life", with high standards of housing, room to move, job opportunities and better living standards and opportunities for their kids. Emulating a high rise future is not the Great Australian Dream! Cr Doyle said that Melburnians had to get used to higher density living in existing suburbs because of the exorbitant cost of creating new communities in fringe areas. What we "get used to" should be a choice, not imposed upon the public because of the megalomaniac growth policies of the elite, who themselves will reside in leafy residential streets, pampered by privileges. At least we have the new organisation, "Victoria First", to address the spin and illogical statements coming out of the mouth of our growth-obsessed administrators.

quark

Thu, 2014-03-20 09:08

Doyle asserted on ABC radio this week that none of us would want to return to Melbourne of the 1970s with only 2 million people. He then went on to attribute Melbourne's contemporary "vibrancy" to its higher population. It was really just a silly muddled rave. He did not explain what was so unpleasant about 1970s Melbourne, nor did he separate positive changes that would have occurred anyway with or without population growth.If he has any intelligence, he must have put it on automatic pilot for his interview with Jon Faine. For a topic as serious as Melbourne's population growth, he really owed it to the radio audience to give better reasons to be in favour of an ever growing population and creating high density urban living. Doyle's concern for market gardens impacted by urban sprawl (in an article yesterday) is reasonable but about 10 years behind the rest of us and just seems a justification for hyper densification.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-20 08:58

"Immigrants have a greater entrepreneurial spirit and benefit the Australian economy in numerous ways we were told". It seems that there is evidence of Lowy's low self esteem, and cultural cringe that Australia is inferior, and home-grown talent is of lower quality than what's from overseas. Unemployment is generally higher amongst immigrants. Fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows people born in non-English-speaking countries have a much higher unemployment rate than the standard rate. Migrants face a range of barriers that people born in Australia don't, including language difficulties, unrecognised qualifications, unfamiliar workplaces and job application processes and a lack of networks and contacts. Net migration into Australia is around record levels. In the year to January, a net 380,000 people entered the country on a long term basis. This is well above the long term average of around 150,000. But since 2004, the average has been closer to 300,000 per annum. This stimulates the economy in the short term, as migrants settle and buy housing, consumer goods and pay taxes. However, the long term costs are ignored - in the debt of infrastructure, public service overload and congestion. This means mega-dollar spending to fix the mess, and by then there's a new government who predictably blames the previous government for financial mis-management! "Research shows there are high levels of under and un-employment amongst CALD communities particularly new migrants," Greens Mr Bandt said. "If you have skills but come to Australia from a non-english speaking country you are twice as likely to end up in a low skilled job as someone from an English speaking background." Greens Adam Bandt MP, will introduce a private members' bill to require the public service to double its employment of people with disabilities and people from non-english speaking backgrounds over the next five years. Migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds are grouped with those with disabilities? It seems that the Greens will continue in their denial of high immigration rates as a burden to Australia, at all costs! According to a report prepared for the Department of Immigration in 2011, refugees who have settled in Australia have a higher incidence of business ownership than other migrant groups – and are more likely to be self-employed than people born here. However, refugees only make up a small proportion of our immigration intake!

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2014-03-19 21:37

Last night there was the Melbourne conversation night at Federation Square on the Future of Melbourne with Lord Mayor Robert Doyle on the panel as well as Rob McGauran (well known to a lot of us from VCAT). Robert Doyle talked about how wonderful Melbourne is and how it is going to get bigger and outstrip Sydney and had to stop going out but must build up to hold more people and that was good as it made a place more active and alive and it was far cheaper to upgrade infrastructure than put in new etc etc. He said he was talking about this to Ros Hanson too. McGauran talked among other things about how we needed to get denser as we were increasing in numbers. At question time Mary Drost challenged Doyle to debate Kelvin Thomson on the rate of increase of population. Doyle said he would because he does not agree with Thomson. Drost asked, when and where? In conversation later, according to Drost, Mr Doyle said that Kelvin Thomson would need to agree to the project and that it would need to be organised by Planning Backlash. Mary Drost suggested that the venue should be Melbourne Town Hall. Mr Doyle invited her to call him and talk with him about this.

Bandicoot

Wed, 2014-03-19 19:02

The Victorian government has announced plans to trial commercial killing of kangaroos in Victoria. Already across rural parts of Victoria tens of thousands of kangaroos are being labeled as 'pests' and shot. But these slaughtered animals cannot be sold. The Victorian government's plan to allow these animals to be sold for pet food would effectively put a price on our national icon's head — and could lead to more deaths, greater pressures on kangaroo populations and more suffering. While shooters are supposed to kill kangaroos with a single shot to the head, there are no guarantees and no effective monitoring to ensure animals do not suffer. Worse still, government guidelines encourage shooters to 'dispose of' orphaned joeys by beating them over the head with a blunt object. The shooters are not professional, but farmers with firearms. The government assures us that no more kangaroos will be shot than normal, but "only" 69,000 per year that goes to "waste" by rotting in the paddocks! This is an introduction to a commercial kangaroo industry, by stealth. Once there is monetary gain to be make from "culling" native animal pests, there will be more processed for pet meat. It's inevitable, and then the rest will be sold to restaurants. Please sign the petition: Stop the killing of kangaroos for pet food in Victoria

ChrisI (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-18 14:29

DennisK those figures on Sydney/Melbourne versus famous international cities is interesting. Although actually I believe Australia's current population growth rate is somewhere between 1.6-1.8%, which is just shocking. And when I try to tell people this, they either don't understand how high this is or simply don't care. But the problem is that from colonization (invasion if you prefer) until recently, Australia probably was underpopulated. We could afford to grow at 1.6% or higher. This is our collective self image. A young, empty, newly settled land with huge growth potential. Look at our national anthem "For we are young and free...We've boundless plains to share". Well this is no longer the case. Let me quote "Overloading Australia" by Mark O'Conner, end of Chapter 3. "All countries start small, that is the nature of exponential growth. But once they pass 20 million, as we did recently, they are out of the nursery - and only two or three generations away from turning into another obese behemoth of 100 million or more." We've passed the tipping point from being a young, skinny nation into a fattening, middle aged nation. We can no longer afford to grow at 1.6% or more. But our self image is tied into this rapid growth. Probably our economy is too. This scares me. I want us to gracefully allow our population to stabilize, as soon as possible. I don't want to see Australia grow into "another obese behemoth of 100 million or more". But I don't know if this can be avoided.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-17 15:55

Last year there was a sadistic and brutal massacre of about 800 native waterbirds at Box Flat, near Boort Victoria. The State government is investigating the matter, and have information about the perpetrators. However, Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh is sitting on the report, yet at the same time erroneously permitted another duck shooting season in Victoria. There are about 45,000 licenced shooters in Victoria, and the season will continue until June, with 10 birds per day permitted! With such savage quantities of birds being shot, the wetlands will be quiet once the carnage is over. The season brings in $100 million in economic benefits. The massacre meant the some endangered species, such as the Speckled Duck, and swans were killed. However, the Government's forces are still patrolling the State's wetlands, and fining duck rescuers. The fines have been increased, for simply being in the water! Laurie Levy from the Coalition Against Duck Shooting was among those slapped with a $360 fine and a ban on returning to the northern Victorian Lake Elizabeth wetland until Monday. The number of ducks was low, making for a slow beginning, so the alternative entertainment is bagging the protestors and rescuers! People hate do-gooders, and those who practice compassion and speak reason! Instead of targeting the rescuers, out of respect for the dead birds, this year's season at least should have been cancelled, until the results of the enquiry were known and publicised. There are some red-necks who delight in victimising and vilifying Laurie Levy, and CADS. Minister Walsh is covering up the Box Flat massacre information, and is actively supporting shooters. The season should have been cancelled, and the killing fields of dead and rotting waterbirds cleared up.

harry cohen (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-17 12:52

There is a Federal Labor member who has spoken out on population growth for some years — Kelvin Thomson. He has detailed a 14 Point Plan to Reduce our Population Growth (pdf, 92.6k) but it seems to have gained little traction even amongst his colleagues in the ALP. We need a new approach to grow to a critical mass of people able to counter the growth development mainstream media lobby which is all powerful.

DennisK (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-17 11:09

This might be rehashing stuff people know, but you would be astonished as to how many people don't know this. When I tell people that Melbourne is bigger than almost all cities in Europe, they are more often quite surprised. They google and are shocked to find that their well known and loved cities are actually smaller! How can they be? The idea that Australia still needs to grow to 'compete on the world stage', to 'become somewhere' or make our cities livable is a lie. Here are some well known countries, some of which had contributed greatly the world, some still do, some still envied. All these numbers in this post are from Wikipedia. Sweden 9.517 million (Held up by many as an ideal country) Denmark 5.59 million (See above) Greece 11.28 million Israel 7.908 million (Major regional mover and shaker) Austria 8,504,850 Switzerland 8,112,200 Croatia 4,290,612 With cities, it becomes more interesting Hamburg 1.799 million Toronto 2.503 million Vancouver 578,040 (2006) Rome 2.753 million [em]Melbourne 4.077 million[/em] Paris 2.211 million Berlin 3.502 million World class cities, with fantastic infrastructure, smaller populations than Melbourne. Yet we are told we need to grow to have nice things... Lets look at large, cities, the ideal. Whos here? Lagos 16,060,307 (this is the 2nd largest in the world) Karachi 13,969,284 Moscow 12,111,194 Guangzhou 11,185,600 Shenzhen 10,467,400 Kinshasa 9,735,000 Tianjin 9,341,844 Tokyo 8,967,665 Faisalabad 7,310,691 Wuhan 6,886,253 Foshan 6,151,622 Shantou 5,391,028 I did leave out some well know examples (like New York, London), but this list is to point out that there are large cities, which most of the world probably hasn't heard of. Tianjin. Wuhan. Faisalabad. Size hasn't put these on the map culturally or politically. I think Australians have a sense of inferiority, whereby we are convinced we can make up for this by either just becoming big (bigger cities, bigger population, biggest buildings) or slavishly copying other cities and their attractions. The idea that 'we must be bigger' is just wrong, most likely a lie foisted upon us to play on peoples insecurities and make us thing that we achieve relevance, when we hit 30 million, or 40 million, or is that 30 million in Sydney alone? This sense of national insecurity is then used by the grown lobby to tell use that growth growth growth will make us something. That is to say, the prime reason for this crime isn't even true. There are no redeeming qualities of massively expanding population or having a high growth rate. The numbers inidicate perhaps the opposite. Either way, quality and good management are paramout. Growth is NO substitute. I do not accept there are major issues moving away from growth. The only issue is that we are run by people who have no idea to run any other type of economy. Here are countries by population growth rate as a percentage (2013 List by the CIA World Factbook), from Wikipedia Germany ?0.19 (European powerhouse) Austria 0.02 Finland 0.06 Korea, South 0.18 Norway 0.33 Italy 0.34 Hong Kong 0.39 China 0.46 France 0.47 Sweden 0.18 Russia -0.02 Here are some 'high growth' countries, the ones we think we need to emulate. Libya 4.85 Zimbabwe 4.38 South Sudan 4.23 Uganda 3.32 Liberia 2.56 Afghanistan 2.25 Australia 1.11 (note there are very, very few high quality countries above us). When I tell people that almost all European cities are smaller than Melbourne, they don't believe me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_cities_of_the_European_Union_by_pop... London is the ONLY one bigger (and London is fast becoming a mess). All of Europe, all that history and culture, and NO larger cities than Melbourne or Sydney. Yes, many countries have populations larger than ours, but they are far older countries. Even so, their growth rates are almost all lower than ours. So despite the population size, they do without 'growth'. Again, the point isn't to get off track, but to demolish the ONLY argument, sorry, [i]excuse for a crime[/i] that the growth lobby has pushed. "Growth" is just not necessary. Big cities are not necessary. This mentality is the mentality of people who simply have no ideas, no vision, and its just lazy. Its how poor countries operate, through nothing but sheer scale. Managing high population growth isn't a 1st world problem, its a 3rd world problem. If we are having that problem, we are running Australia like a 3rd world country which is what I see happening. We virtually no quality leaders either in business or politics.

DennisK (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-17 09:26

Economists are like priests of days gone by. They claim that the society needs to be run by them, and when failures occur, rather than it being their fault, it's because people weren't following them closely enough. People used to whip themselves till bleeding and going without comfort and convinced this was for 'the good'. Today, we let our standards of lifestyle fall and impoverish ourselves with increasing economic inefficiencies, and are convinced this is for 'the good'. People who say we should accept high house prices and crowded roads and degradation of social cohesion for 'growth' are to me, exactly like those religious zealots of days gone by who used to self-flaggelate, live a life of chastity and privation and self imposed harsh conditions for religion. Silly. It made no sense. Neoclassical economics is the new religion and our politicians don't know anything else.

This article made the very pertinent point that advice on running a country must extend beyond just that from economics. In fact, economists should be far down on the list, because they can't say why a decision should be made, only what would happen. But look at the qualifications of our leaders. Very narrow, and few, if any of them have ever had truly productive work.

DennisK, The correct tags for italicisation (aka 'emphasis') are shown in these examples: <i>exactly</i>, which is rendered as exactly, or <em>why</em>, which is (usually) similarly rendered as why. The [i]why[/i] style of rendering is similar to what is used in the WikiText markup language, except that double brackets are used. - Ed

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-17 08:35

I've had similar thoughts , but I've usually dismissed them as being "over the top" or too paranoid or radical to vocalise. It's that Australia is too dry, with a population too "small" on global scale to be a nation. It's as if some conspirators in government have already agreed to increasing the monetary value of our country, selling off our nation as an international resource, for international population, to be exploited for minerals and food. Australia is to be phased out and made a generic land, without identity, history, territories and sovereignty. Why would our real estate be sold to Chinese investors, along with businesses and land? The "multiculturalism" ignores any culture, or heritage, of Australia! The drive to globalise Australia, and ignore our culture and history, is insidiously part of the plot. The loss of biodiversity, despite the EPBC Act and other State legislation, is contradictory and is all part of the generic drive. The ruling focus on GDP and economic growth as the indication of measureable government success, despite lowing living conditions, joblessness and the squeeze on public services because of population growth, is a business plan for increasing our wealth, and making Australia more saleable for corporations. The downward push on working and pay conditions for Australia is a reversal of the Trade Unions and Labor party history and policies. Population growth now is stealing the future from our descendants, leaving them bereft of the Australia that was handed down in previous generation. Policies from our government are too irrational, contradictory and with high rates of immigration, it makes the population too fragmented and concerned with struggling for economic survival to actually be effective in lobbying for change.

Cruiser (not verified)

Mon, 2014-03-17 01:30

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/464548/Hidden-cost-of-mi... It has been revealed that between 1995 and 2011 immigration cost us a staggering £148billion which equates to £5,600 per household. Such an amount of money would be heartily welcomed by the British people who are sick and tired of working hard to get ahead while immigrants pick up jobs and benefits. The figures unequivocally show that the Left’s claim that immigration benefits this country is simply untrue. Uncontrolled immigration from the EU and a failure adequately to regulate immigration from the rest of the world has caused far more harm than good. Net migration to the UK was up 30 per cent this year with the number of immigrants rising above half a million. This is far more people than the UK can accommodate and a clear recipe for disaster. A series of weak and misguided immigration policies costing us billions of pounds is outright scandalous and the politicians must recognise that they have to listen to the people. We have had enough of soaring immigration. It is damaging our public services, it is eroding our sense of community and it has left us billions of pounds out of pocket. It has to be stopped before it costs us even more. Labour shows EU colours Ed Miliband’s latest attempt to fudge the issue when it comes to EU membership has been an unmitigated disaster. His promises are confused and ineffectual. As columnist Leo McKinstry notes today, in 2007 Labour refused a referendum on EU membership despite promising us that there would be one if Britain was asked to sign up to a new treaty. The right of the British people to have a referendum before giving away more powers to Brussels has since been enshrined in law by the current Government but Miliband’s love for the European project is such that we can be sure he will do anything he can to deny us a vote. One thing is for certain. A vote for Miliband is a vote against a British referendum on EU membership. After the wet now it’s dry We are now on course for the driest March on record. Following months of rain we have certainly earned a spell of nice weather. At this rate by the time April arrives we’ll be hearing the phrase that characterises the British summer for so many people: “Hosepipe ban.”

quark

Sun, 2014-03-16 21:50

The high population growth policies of both Liberal and Labor governments in recent years in Australia definitely amount to social engineering. The 2011 census showed that more than one quarter of people living in Australia were born overseas. Five years earlier “22.2% of Australians counted in the 2006 Census were born overseas”. In 2011 only 53% of Australians were children of 2 Australian -born parents whereas the 2006 census showed than 70% were of 2 Australian born parents. . The ABS says –

“Australia's population has increased each year since the end of World War II, due to a combination of high post-war fertility and high levels of migration. In 1901, 23% of Australia's population was born overseas. By 1947, the proportion of the overseas-born population had declined to 10%. The creation of a national government immigration portfolio in 1945 accompanied a gradual increase in the proportion of overseas-born Australians, reaching 22% by 1977. During the 1980s, 1990s and the early 2000s the overseas-born population fluctuated between 21% and 23%. At 30 June 2008, the number of overseas-born Australians was 5.5 million, representing just over one-quarter (26%) of the total population.”
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/lookup/92C0101965E7DC14CA25773700169C63?opendocument

The 26% of people living in Australia being born overseas is of course not the highest it has ever been. In the 1890s it was over 30% but the proportion is now on the rise.

So, with only just over half of us being of 2 Australian born parents we cannot really as a whole “people” have more than a superficial grip on the land. This has been the problem ever since Europeans came here. There just cannot be the incidental oral history that you pick up from your father and mother as you grow up about the place you live in if your parents were not born in that place. You may be very well educated in the customs of your particular cultural origins, but there cannot be but minimal experience of the local environment historically and geographically unless you have made a special study. People who come to a new country cannot compare the past to now so a newly arrived couple bringing up children can make an effort to give their children experience of the natural world around them, which is really essential but they will still not know experientially what was lost in the last 10 years. (Natural places and open spaces are being lost very rapidly) The Australian Aborigines must have apprehended this loss and the un -knowingness of the new arrivals very keenly as their own history and sense of the world around them is passed down orally and they would have been able to see that this was impossible for the new arrivals to do.

In the context of a declining proportion of Australian born people in Australia , “multiculturalism”, another piece of social engineering has been very much encouraged with heavy propaganda alongside very high immigration. This seems a recipe to persuade new arrivals that their customs from somewhere else are more important than the awareness of the place they are now in, which in reality is what links them to others who share this place. It is a fact that the destinies of disparate peoples, through immigration have become entwined and this is the reality that must be embraced as a priority rather than focussing on all that which is not shared with others living on the same continent, in the same country.

As the overseas born proportion of people who live in Australia continues to increase we will further lose our connection to the land and its history. We will in the process lose our ability to care for and protect the land for future generations. Governments do not exhibit a sense of obligation or belonging to an entity called Australia as they sign away rights to protect the environment in the face or the commercial imperatives of corporations (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) and in a country with over 700,000 people unemployed increase the pool of available workers (by increasing 457 visas) with impunity and no explanation. They seem to be engineering “Australia” out of existence.

Sheila Newman

Sun, 2014-03-16 15:03

Sounds like a ruse to ruin the land and fragment and dissolve populations of animals so that it can later be resubmitted as a site for development. There seems no sincerity, science, kindness or notion of what our ultimate survival depends on in this decision. It's the ultimate deception and betrayal of hardworking conservationists and the public at large. Devil Bend on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria was subjected to this sort of delay and disorganise tactic. Groups supporting nature were gradually disorganised by seducing some into currying favour with government and politicians and sidelining others. Parks Victoria seduced some, then claimed it had no responsibility for wildlife. Ultimately the leaders of DevilBend became too old to fight. Frankston Reservoir nearly suffered the same fate, except that Quinn McCormack was able, with 'renegade' Frankston [once Liberal, now independent] MP, Geoff Shaw, to save this from becoming a Natural Features Reserve, in favour of a Nature Conservation Reserve. I later communicated with Geoff Shaw, asking how he felt about Victorian Forests, but was disappointed to get back a reply evincing total faith in Liberal forest policy. I spoke to someone who was a long time client of Shaws when Shaw was an accountant. He said that Shaw was very honest and a careful accountant and very religious. He said also that Shaw, like many politicians, is likely to embrace a project that has captured his attention and enthusiasm, but that this is a very hit and miss affair. I must say that I admire Shaw's ability to stick up for himself, and don't find him any more of a 'loose cannon' than most of his colleagues who stick together in a kind of feral herd.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2014-03-16 12:03

About 18 people were killed, and seven people confirmed dead, and dozens left injured in Nigeria's capital after thousands of panicked job-seekers stampeded during a government recruitment drive. Thousands of job applicants were at a stadium, for job recruitment for immigration department. There was a stampede as the hordes raced towards the stadium!

Millions had participated in the job seeking exercise all over Nigeria.

The 60,000 stadium had only one entrance, but it's not known how many people were there.

An AFP journalist on the scene counted seven dead and dozens injured. The hospitals were also overloaded, and many people could not be admitted.

The applicants, mostly youths, had certificates ranging from master’s degree to bachelor’s degree, Higher National Diploma, National Certificate in Education, National Diploma and Senior Secondary School Leaving Certificate. Like Australia, there is a crisis in youth unemployment, not lack of education and skills!

Unemployment in Nigeria stood at 23.9 per cent in 2011, while urban unemployment was estimated at 29.5 per cent in 2013. A report forecast that the misery index would likely increase further in 2014, from the 38 per cent it stood in 2013.

Nigeria has experienced a population explosion for at least the last 50 years due to very high fertility rates, quadrupling its population during this time.

Current population = over 171 million. The population of Nigeria has been projected to be 440.4 million by mid-2050 and 239.9 million by mid-2025.

This means that over the period of 37 years, Nigeria’s population figures will overtake those of the United States of America, which will be 399.8 million in 2050; Brazil, which will be 227.5 million; Pakistan, which will be 363.2 million; and Indonesia, which will be 366.2 million.

They are not only in ecological overshoot, but in economic overshoot!

18 die in immigration recruitment exercise

Vivienne Ortega

Sun, 2014-03-16 08:59

900 hectares of the former ADI Site at Penrith/St Marys has been spared from a massive housing development proposed by Lend Lease. This 900 ha contains about seven ecological communities listed under the NSW Government Threatened Species Act. Half the bushland is critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland. The area provides habitat to hundreds of species of plants and animals. Many of these are threatened with extinction. The site contains Emus and Kangaroos. These are Sydney's last wild Emus. Communities and conservation/wildlife groups are now being forced to fight for every bit of "vacant" land around their cities. As human numbers swell, wildlife are forced to the very edges of survival - and ultimate extinction! However, instead of a Nature Reserve, the government wants to use it as a Regional Park! The focus will be using it for recreation, not conservation! It seems that one way or another, Mother Nature must cave in and just herself as being "useful" for humanity, and for economic benefits, not just for natural values and the ecological communities! This "win" from the clutches of property developers has a sting in the tail! This proposal means Emus and Kangaroos will be displaced from their preferred habitat and confined to a small area of the Regional Park. They don't fit into this anthropocentric plan! The Nature will exist, but Emus and Kangaroos don't fit into the recreational agenda. There is no need to open this land up for public recreation. Only 5 minutes away is the 2000 hectare Penrith Lakes Scheme which is an old gravel mine site being rehabilitated. It has no endangered species on it. This area is more appropriate for people to trample than critically endangered bushland. PETITION: We want a Nature Reserve, not a regional park at ADI Site as agreed at recent community consultation workshops

Cruiser (not verified)

Sun, 2014-03-16 01:04

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel (Daily Mirror) launched an online survey on March 6th, asking its readers how the West should react with regard to Russia’s incursions into Ukraine. What follows were the different answers from which the readers could choose.

- Russia’s exclusion from the G8 summit should be considered
- The conflict can be only solved diplomatically, and the G8 summit is important in this respect
- Western censure is hypocritical, since Russia defends legitimate interests
- If the escalation continues, a military intervention by NATO forces should not be excluded

By four o’clock in the afternoon, 9420 readers had answered the survey, and what they had to say filled the presstitutes from the Tagesspiegel with sheer horror. Because only a puny four percent, and we know who those are, favoured a military intervention by NATO forces. Whereas a staggering seventy eight percent believed that Western hacks like Kerry or Merkel were mere hypocrites and that Russia defended indeed legitimate interests.

So what happened? At four o’clock and five minutes, the survey was abruptly taken off the net and never seen again. Which clearly indicates that the propaganda lies of our hostile elite and their once invincible media outlets are losing ground. And which, as you will agree, is a ray of hope in the murky Western skies, particularly since the once so totally indoctrinated and docile Germans are seemingly waking up.

Transl. Michael Colhaze
Freeman of All Noise and Smoke , posted Saturday, 8 March 2014
http://alles-schallundrauch.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/die-deutschen-reagieren-nicht-wie.html#ixzz2vSyNBTDc

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2014-03-15 10:44

I just received news that it was reported on 774news that Bruce Atkinson has probably been asked not to contest the next election to make way for Mary Wooldridge. Seems that standing up for democracy did not do his career any good. (See comment to which I am replying where he crossed the floor to vote against the Summary Offences Bill presumably because of concerns expressed in VCoss, Human Rights Commission and Fitzroy Legal service submission.

Sounds like Bruce Atkinson is the kind of politician Australia needs. We have precious few honorable ones who actually feel they have a duty to democracy rather than a duty to their party.

Let's hope that the Liberal Party realise that he is an asset or that Bruce will run as an independent.

Bruce Atkinson (Lib) is the President of the Legislative Council in Victoria.

He has written a paper, "Is it time to abolish state governments?" and originally trained as a journalist, working for suburban newsgroups and for Fairfax, then was a councillor and mayor. Below are some more details about this Liberal politician who seems able to think and act for himself.

From his "Profile"

"The Honourable Bruce Atkinson is the President of the Legislative Council and a Member for Eastern Metropolitan Region which includes many of the eastern suburbs and north eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Trained in journalism, Bruce began his career as a cadet for the Newsads Group and later worked with the Fairfax and Leader newspaper groups. After undertaking a youth research study in the Waverley area, Bruce was a marketing manager and centre manager in major shopping centres.

He then established his own public relations, marketing and publishing business with a focus on the retail industry and small business.

Bruce was a Councillor of the city of Nunawading prior to his election to State Parliament, serving two terms as Mayor of that city, which subsequently merged with Box Hill to become the Whitehorse City Council.

A member of the Liberal Party since 1969, Bruce was first elected to the Victorian Parliament in 1992 as the Member for the former Koonung Province and was elected as a Member for Eastern Metropolitan Region in 2006 and again in 2010.

Prior to being elected to the role of President of the Legislative Council, Bruce has held a number of roles in Parliament including: Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Local Government, Shadow Minister for Small & Medium Enterprises, WorkCover and Sport & Recreation, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Business Development and Deputy President of the Legislative Council.

He has held public office in the eastern suburbs for more than 30 years, 17 in local government and more than 20 in state parliament.

Bruce is a member of the Rotary Club of Nunawading and has a keen interest in sports including cricket, football and soccer. He is also involved as a member of the Knox Club, the Mitcham RSL Club and the National Trust.

Bruce attended Nunawading Primary School and Mitcham High School (now Mullauna College) and lives in Donvale."

nimby

Sat, 2014-03-15 09:30

Conservationists working to protect cassowaries in north Queensland are worried the species' numbers have dropped to an all-time low. But Jennifer Croes from Rainforest Rescue says it is estimated there is fewer than 1,000 that remain in the wild.

"The biggest challenge now is surviving in a modern world with us, humans." Ms Croes says the biggest threat to the birds is a loss of habitat, caused by development and cyclones.

Aggressive human population growth is denying the right of existence to these "dinosaurs" of the rainforests. They have lived in the region for about 80 million years, but they are struggling to survive the "modern" world of housing, land clearing, population growth and human destruction of their habitats.

Losing the ability to fly allowed the Cassowaries and their ratite relatives (with the exception of kiwis) to grow much larger than other birds. There are three species of Cassowary, but only the Southern Cassowary is found in Australia. Their closest relative is another Australian bird, the emu. These birds probably diverged from a common ancestor 25-30 million years ago.

Cassowary numbers in North Queensland at all time low: ABC
The disease of urbanisation is one that our native animals are not managing to adapt to, and it's happening too fast for evolutionary tactics. It's a dead-end street, and our rainforests can only end up becoming generic urban landscapes.

Ms Croes says when the animals venture into urban areas, they are often hit by cars as they are crossing roads.

On the other side of the spectrum, Agile Wallabies have grown in numbers because of land clearing at Mission Beach. The council want to "cull" them, but the responsibility of the State. They are now at loggerhead.
Environment and Heritage Protection Minister Andrew Powell said five current damage mitigation permits (DMPs) would allow for the removal of more than a thousand wallabies.

Dennis.K (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-14 22:29

It's good people are trying a different approach, as the issue hasn't gained much traction, despite the potential support for it. Abbott is doing some of the work for you. His proposals to allow business to expand their intake of 457 visa workers has caused much ire, particularly since unemployment is rising here. My POV is that the media silence on the issue is the biggest factor. Refugees can be an issue, because refugees have no money. Legal immigrants do have money and can bid up property prices, so the media does not touch the issue because they cannot be 'an issue'. It is met with 'silence'. In fact the BIGGEST issues affecting us, the MSM ignore, deliberately. What makes it worse, is no one ever reads anti-growth arguments, so are unarmed with discussing the issue. The problem I see, is that groups like the SPP, don't have digestible, reproducible arguments that laypeople can use in conversation, or to respond to comments. Sure, there are nice articles, educated opinions, facts, etc, but educated opinions and facts don't mean success. Appealing to intellectuals doesn't result in success (if anything the opposite). People need to hear short talking points, repeatedly. Points they can remember and use.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-14 13:54

Based on year ending 2013 figures, humanitarian and asylum seekers formed less than 5 % of our population growth, yet the media gives them almost 100% of air time! The rest are lost, or ignored. The mass of our immigration figures are from skilled migration, and family reunions, etc. There was an interesting revelation in an article recently. The executive director of the Australian Mines and Minerals Association, Scott Barklamb, slammed the unions for using scare tactics regarding the loosening of "red tape" preventing businesses hiring foreign workers on 457 visas. ''The resource industry is not a large user of skilled migrants, but we do welcome any move to ensure that when employers do need to access overseas skilled labour, they cando so through an efficient and responsive system,'' Mr Barklamb said. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/panel-reviewing-45... Wasn't Kevin Rudd's rationale for increasing the number of skilled workers because of the mining boom, and their chronic skills shortages? Now, they are saying they don't are "not a large user of skilled migrants"!!! They would prefer the willing and flexible from (mainly) third world countries, who ultimately want a good work record, and then have their employers sponsor them for PR.

George Gordon (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-14 13:08

I read "Population Growth Slow Down" aims to raise both the public profile of the population issue in Australia and to lobby for change. I understand that tigers do not change their spots and politicians are reluctant to change their established policy position. To gain traction requires one person to be elected to one parliament in Australia . The maiden speech would be recorded in Hansard and would be available for widespread public edification and help to change voters attitude at subsequent elections.

Martin Tye (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-14 07:02

Dennis,

Reply to first paragraph: This is not a duplication of efforts it is complimentary! If you read the website you will see that it is a re-branding of the issue. There is currently no 'membership-fee free' non-political organisation which can be seen as a place where anyone can go to register their disapproval of current population growth policies- like a petition.

I ran in the last election for the seat of Eden-Monaro representing the SPP who are doing a great job but I realised the public mind is so far from the understanding people like us have of the issue, that we needed to build a bridge to connect the ordinary person to organisations like SPA and SPP. I have put my time and money into this new organisation to 'open a new front' and attempt to reach into a new market. If an organisation like SPA were to re-brand in this way it may trivialise their efforts. As I see it, they are the engine room and we are the window dressing.

As for your economic comments, you seem to assume that we support slowly reducing our intake. We don't, our views on limiting population growth are drawn very much from sources like SPA and SPP. We fully appreciate that the need to stabilise our population (maybe reduce?) is urgent, but the 'business as usual' approach to marketing this idea is failing miserably. Any policy will have a 'slow down' period before stabilizing, we just choose to market the 'slow down' period' to keep people reading rather than 'shutting off'. I hope this makes sense.

I believe we need to try new things in the quest to achieve mass appeal for this issue until we find the magic bullet as no one has really 'cracked it' yet. We need an organisation with tens of thousands of members (not just hundreds). This is a chance to build that organisation. I hope all those concerned with population growth will get behind this new initiative. It does no harm to, and can only benefit existing organisations.

      Martin Tye, Director www.populationgrowthslowdown.com.au

Martin Tye (not verified)

Fri, 2014-03-14 06:31

You are absolutely correct. But we must be smart about how we sell this to the public. PGSD advocates zero NOM but chooses to highlight the 'slow down' period you have mentioned as a marketing strategy. We aim to win mass support for the population issue. We must read the public mind carefully and lead them to the 'end of growth' conclusion, trying to hit them over the head with it just alienates them. We need to show them a calm, measured response so as not to scare them off. I hope this clarifies our position. Martin Tye Director PGSD

admin

Fri, 2014-03-14 06:08

I share your concerns about all the listed supposedly humanitarian organisations, particularly "Amnesty International" (Amnesty).

In 2011 Amnesty supported the illegal invasion of Libya3 in which at least 30,00 died and another 50,000 were wounded. That year it added its support to the war against the Syrian people when it it "organised a demonstration last year, outside the London Syrian Embassy, with CAABU (Council for Arab British Understanding) calling for the overthrow of the sovereign Syrian government"1.

In 1991, Amnesty demonstrated that it was a mouthpiece for imperialist propaganda, rather than a human right organisation, when it endorsed the war against Iraq, falsely claiming that invading4 Iraqi soldiers had thrown babies from incubators and left them to die.2

The best way to prevent Amnesty and other phony human rights organisations from using this vigil to harm the people of Syria is for those who genuinely want peace and who support Syria's right to self-determination, to attend the vigil tonight at 7pm at Fed Square in Melbourne.

Footnote[s]

1. ⇑ Amnesty International: Imperialist Tool (24/10/2012) by Francis. A Boyle and Amnesty International: Imperialist Tool (8/8/2014) by Felicity Arbathnot on Global Research.

2. ⇑ CTE Kuwaiti baby incubator lies (26/8/2010) by Barry Zwicker on YouTube.

3. ⇑ See Amnesty International Killing Syrians (22/6/2014) on the Syrian Girl Partisan's YouTube Channel, Amnesty International, Avaaz helping to kill Syrians (23/6/2010) here on candobetter.net .

4. ⇑ After Kuwaiti oil companies began 'slant-drilling' under the border into Iraqi oil-fields, Saddam Hussein, the then dictator of Iraq, was set up by April Glaspie, the then US ambassador to Kuwait. Glaspie led him to believe that the United States would not respond if Iraq retaliated militarily against Kuwait for this theft of its oil.

Against Slavery (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-13 23:07

Revealed in the news tonight. Tony Abbott has purchased a stack of drones to patrol our coasts. Was the fuss about asylum seekers contrived from the start to prime the Australian up to accept having our coasts and our own lives continuously surveilled in this way by drones? For, once you have drones supposedly out there looking for asylum seekers, then they can be used to spy on anyone. In a country where protests are being marginalised and our borders are actively disabled by government regulations encouraging entry to all and sundry via plane, we can expect no good of these drones. A new evil.

Against Slavery (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-13 22:57

I see that Save the Children, Oxfam, World Vision, Amnesty International, Act For Peace, CARE and Caritas are going to supply speakers. Let's hope that these organisations are not going to present yet another western version of events there, like we hear every night on the news. Will they highlight how Syria looked after a huge population prior to western interference with tribes and will they acknowledge that it is Australia, the USA's and other 'allies' interference in politics thru illegal wars in the Middle East that is causing most of the asylum seekers that try to make it to Australia?

Dennis.K (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-13 21:38

I find people who think they are doing the world a favour by having mass economic immigration both hypocritical and vulgar.

Immigration is a zero sum game, almost. A doctor moving here, is one moving away from somewhere else. Each skilled migrant, represents a loss of skill elsewhere. If "growth" is good, then our "growth" comes at the cost of another nation which spend money and resources to raise and educate the skilled migrant.

I say it is almost zero sum, because there is a loss. The host country has to spend to accommodate the move. Immigration for nation building purposes is essentially morally selfish.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-13 21:04

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2014-03-13 21:03

Bruce Atkinson, the President of the Legislative Council, and Liberal Party Member for the Eastern Metropolitan region, bravely crossed the floor on this issue and voted with Labour and the Greens. He had written, prior to voting, that he was researching the matter very seriously and had paid particular heed to the submissions of VCOSS, Victorian Equal Opportunity, Human Rights commission and the Fitzroy Legal service and had considered the possible impacts on vulnerable people, including the homeless and mentally ill.

Unfortunately, the Bill still passed and is now an Act.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-13 11:00

Syria's healthcare system has crushed down to highly concerning levels with unheard diseases getting epidemic, doctors running away, and medicine shortage so dire that people get unconscious for medical treatments with metal bars.

"Across Syria, 60 percent of hospitals and 38 percent of primary health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and production of drugs has fallen by 70 percent. Nearly half of Syria's doctors have fled the country.
See more at:

Other side of war; Horrible report of health condition in Syria

Children not just dying from violent means but from diseases that would previously either have been treatable or prevented.

Children having limbs amputated because clinics don't have necessary equipment for appropriate treatment

  • Newborn babies dying in their incubators during power cuts
  • Patients being knocked out with metal bars owing to a lack of anesthesia
  • Patients undergoing potentially deadly person-to-person blood transfusions

According to recent estimates, more than 120,000 people had been killed through the end of 2013 and more than six million have either been displaced within Syria or driven out of the country. On average, children are sick for a staggering 10 days out of each month. A doctor says that there is widespread bedwetting in the camp among children as old as 15 – to him, a symptom of deep psychological trauma.

Doctors use false names, even with each other. Carrying medical equipment is a risk and getting caught with a stethoscope at a checkpoint could mean death or detention. An increasing number of Syrian doctors are being killed or tortured as the war grinds on between President Bashar al-Assad — who was once an ophthalmologist in England — and rebels seeking to overthrow his regime.

Doctors risk murder and torture for treating the wounded in Syria’s civil war

Syria has descended from a secular society that received asylum seekers, to a cesspool of human misery, rebellion, and crimes against humanity. There seems to be axis where the evils of our globe settle, to cause festering of pain, and death. When children are caught up in the fire, it's particularly poignant and disturbing. What's more important than ever is world peace. The life-boats are full, and there's no room for conflict without loss of homes, tranquillity, sovereignties, security and lives.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2014-03-13 09:35

Workers with 457 visas have to continue to work in the same position at the company for two years before they can apply for permanent residency — and they have to remain at the job while their PR application is processed.

There are also pathways to permanent residency available to people who originally came to study; in 2011-2012 a whopping 30,978 of permanent residence visas were given to former student visa holders.

If your spouse or de facto partner is the holder of a Temporary Business (Long Stay) visa (subclass 457) and you can demonstrate that you are married to your spouse or that you have been in a de facto relationship (hetrosexual or same sex) for at least 6 months you can qualify for a visa as a secondary applicant on your spouse/de facto partner's visa.

Rather than qualified migrants putting up their hands to come to Australia and then seeking appropriate employment after they arrive, business recruits directly from overseas. Rather than public servants in Canberra attempting to predict which skills the economy will require next year, business hires the foreign workers it needs, as and when it needs them. In other words, there's no planning - just come and see what happens! It's open borders to Australia.

Almost 40 per cent of 457 visa holders have gone on to become permanent residents.

Or, to look at the statistics in another way, about half of the skilled migrants granted permanent residency last financial year were already living here on a temporary basis, mostly as migrant workers on 457 visas or as international students who had graduated from Australian universities and colleges. - See more at:

Temporary migration is a permanent thing

There's nothing more permanent than a "temporary" visa holder.

Jill Quirk (not verified)

Wed, 2014-03-12 23:12

Last night I attended the opening of "Last Summer for Royal Park" photographic exhibition by photographer David Tatnall at "45 Downstairs" Gallery (45 Flinders Lane Melbourne). The photographs of different aspects of Royal Park are superb, some in black and white and others in colour. All photographs can be purchased either framed unframed and proceeds will help run the case to stop the EW link through the park. Mr. Tatnall's photographs bring together the variety of beautiful parts of this wonderful bushy expanse so close to the city.

P. Tassium (not verified)

Wed, 2014-03-12 16:52

"NEW evidence of the hijacking of Labor’s flagship social housing scheme has emerged, with the companies behind a major Sydney development tapping $80 million in taxpayer subsidies to help build units for wealthy foreign students rather than the low-income Australian households the program was designed to help. Earlier this month, The Australian revealed that universities had won thousands of grants under the National Rental Affordability Scheme and were filling hundreds of these government-sponsored units with fee-paying international students. The revelations have prompted one of the architects of the scheme — National Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski — to call for changes to ensure it delivered truly affordable housing to those in need. “As one of the people who thought up NRAS in the first place, the original intention was not (for it) to be used for international students. The intention was to house low- to middle-income Australians,” he said. “To the extent to which it’s happening, it needs to be monitored and the intention of the scheme allowing that needs to be reviewed or at least given serious consideration. It should not be what the NRAS becomes.” He said there was evidence some international students faced difficulty in the private housing market and some student housing for them could be part of the mix, but the overall goal was to address the dearth of options for those on low wages. The $4.5 billion NRAS was launched by the then prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2007 as part of his public campaign to tackle homelessness and the “BBQ stopper” issue of rising housing costs for struggling Australians. It was designed to provide subsidies to developers of housing that would be rented to “low- and middle-income households at a rate that is at least 20 per cent below the market value rent”. A promotional brochure issued by developers Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia, and seen by The Australian, tells would-be investors in the Central Park development in central Sydney the project is “NRAS-advantaged” and that foreign students pay higher fees than locals, with their total expenditure topping $55,000 a year. “This provides some guidance as to the calibre of tenant typical of off-campus student accommodation facility such as Abercrombie Street,” the document says." [...] Read more (for a fee) from that Big Population promoter, the [Anti-]Australian, here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alp-housing-scheme-abused/story-fn59niix-1226850865063

DennisK (not verified)

Wed, 2014-03-12 14:41

"It is very important that we establish and defend the sovereignty of our borders... One of the reasons why it's so important to maintain that policy is that the more people think our borders are being controlled the more supportive they are in the long term of high levels of immigration. Australia needs a high level of immigration. I'm a high immigration man." – John Howard, RN Breakfast program, 29/01/2014 1

The Liberals tough stance on refugees, from day one, has been nothing more than a ruse to get the Australian people to consent to mass immigration and destroy the Australian nation. To the Liberals, Australia is nothing more than a resource for a few big business owners to use and exploit. The Australian nation, the people, are no different in their eyes to the resources in the ground.

Hopefully we can get a political party, which promises to charge this government, and past politicians, for treason and sentence them accordingly.

Footnote[s]

1. ⇑ Editor's comment: The story was not found here – could you post the URL of the program? An example of a "URL" (Uniform Resource Locator) is:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/past-programs/?page=5

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2014-03-12 13:54

This undemocratic and unpatriotic move is malignant considering the welfare bill blowout, unemployment rate, and the threatened end to the Age of Entitlements! The White Australia policy has been condemned and pushed into our history books, but it was more than about skin colour. It was about protecting our work force, our employment opportunities and our standards of living from the masses of those would have flooded our country from the Third world. Gina Rhinehard says that the welfare costs are too high and digging a hole in mining profits. Africans are willing to work for $2 a day! This move by stealth is a threat to wages and working conditions, and will push down Australia's living conditions to be more competitive with Asia and Africa. Immigration in Australia is out of control. We may as well give the role of government to mining industries, global and national wealthy corporations, and property developers! Policies that control our population growth and immigration are being left to those with vested interests, at the cost of the community.

Matthew Mitchell

Tue, 2014-03-11 16:02

David Horton edited the Indigenous map of Australia . Here is his thoughts on our current divisions of land based on his blog: So, it’s time twenty first century Australia began to adapt to the country. Two hundred and twenty years is surely enough to understand that straight lines drawn on a map in the British Colonial office have little relevance now. So rub them out, rather in the way that a pavement artist would scuff out the lines and boxes of a children’s hopscotch game before settling down to draw a masterpiece in chalk. We don’t need 18 regions – many of the historical factors don’t apply, language isn’t an issue, modern transport and communication remove some of the constraints. So, what do we need? Well, first the big one. Just as for the Aborigines, the Murray-Darling basin is an obvious unit. We could call it … Riverland. And then the others follow naturally – Desertland, Tropicland, Coastland, Mountainland, Westland, Forestland. Seven in all, same as now (assuming there would still need to be an ACT in which to hold the annual corroboree), each representing distinct geography and ecology. So, what would these new states do (apart from playing cricket)? Well, they would be responsible for setting appropriate population levels, and sustainable resource use (including sun and wind and tide for renewable energy) practices. And there would be responsibilites in looking after the fauna and flora of each region (the governor of each state would have a list to make sure that each generation handed on the same biodiversity to the next). And there would be duties specific to each region. Riverland would be responsible for ensuring that a raindrop falling in Queensland could eventually reach the Coorong, that wetlands were maintained, big irrigators sent to dryland agriculture school. Tropicland would need to keep an eye on northern agriculture and damming rivers, and the spread of cane toads. Coastland gets to keep developers off sand dunes and out of mangroves, and establish fishing exclusion zones; Mountainland has to keep water catchments in good shape, and keep cattle out of the high country; Desertland has to stop dust blowing and nurture bilbies; Westland is responsible for maintaining its aquifers and its honey possums; and Forestland is responsible for, well, not having pulp mills would be a start. You get the idea.

quark

Tue, 2014-03-11 12:39

It's interesting that the compound, sodium chloride, (common table SALT) is also the one that is fatiguing our land as an effect of excessive demands for water and the flogging of the whole system for larger yields for ever larger human populations.

DennisK (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-11 12:19

Maybe it's naivety, but I would have thought it better for those interested, to join an existing structure, rather than duplicate efforts. Unless current parties are not open to change and new ideas... I think 'economic collapse' due to a sudden drop in migration is a bit of a furphy. Thats what the growth lobby use to push their agenda. Has growth increased our standard of living? No. It's driving up prices, damaging our community and overall, results in a net loss. The benefits don't outweigh the costs. Who would suffer should NOM be reduced drastically? Developers and those who directly profit from it. Why should we continue to pay to give them a soft landing? What obligation do I have to the property industry or even the construction industry to keep them going? But more importantly, lets say we slowly reduced our intake, would that make much of a difference? No. Much of this speculative investment is based on current trends. It would be good for sustainable population parties to offer ideas on how a drop in net immigration could be managed.

P. Tassium (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-11 10:34

I am at a holiday resort and yesterday I bought a Bernard Salt book for 50c. Started reading it last night, but got bored almost immediately. I think I might have reading on paper fatigue syndrome. ..or is Bernard Salt fatigue syndrome? It says on the page before the title page that he is "one of Australia’s leading advisors to the property and development industry and for almost 2 decades his commentary on demographic trends , aimed at business, has been widely reported in the national media.” That says a lot about the national media doesn’t it? Happy to report someone whose comments are aimed at business but not so happy to report those whose comments are just scientific or aimed at the common good.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-11 09:39

Even if NOM was stopped now, our population would still continue to grow as births outpace deaths, due to the momentum of growth and the number of young people. Our population would slow down and stabilise by mid century. With all the constraints and scarcities and threats of climate change, this should be the decision for now - slash the main sources of our population - net overseas migration except to wind down present visa applications, and continue with our humanitarian intake. Our economy collapse? There would still be enough growth for property developers, and for businesses to growth their customer base. There would be more opportunities for existing locals to obtain jobs and houses. There's no point in pretending we can continue as we are - the industries parasitically profiting from population control will eventually have to make a U turn to more productive industries and economic activities.

Sally P (not verified)

Tue, 2014-03-11 00:52

Tonight on Australian Story there was a story of a bloke who in his middle age took up bird photography in Mandurah WA. Inevitably when anything is about nature came the sad part. The place is being ruined through development A woman — someone Starr from the local conservation group –probably an important one– put forward the extremely outrageous suggestion that they should find new ways of developing …..or perhaps…….. not developing at all (this bit was in a small voice)

Photos were superb – all sort of migratory water birds..

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