Congratulations on achieving so much by doing so little.
You are an inspiration to a world that must embrace the art of having far fewer of us, each getting much less done so that we can all have so much more.
Best regards to the non-family.
Hope to see you this side of oblivion.
Comments
It's all relative
I'd happily accept a large drop in my property value if all such values dropped respectively. Would save a shitload in Council rates and insurance costs.
Baby Boomers aren't to blame
The high price of land and housing is not the fault of Baby Boomers. Why should they shove off and exit their properties so younger people can access them? The unaffordable prices are not driven by the ageing population, but by high rates of population growth driving scarcity, and thus peaking prices.
The "ageing population" demographic trend is being exaggerated by politicians and growth-ists, to divert focus on the main problems caused by population overload. Young people are being dispossessed from land ownership, and the rights of citizenship are being diluted by the porous borders we have.
Why are Chinese nationals allowed to access and invest in our housing market? It's to maximise profits for investors, and the public remain silent and politically-correct.
An intergenerational war is the ideal conflict, and one that will keep the public diverted from the real cause - heavy immigration rates!
Futile resentment
A the risk of furthering a generation battle by categorizing people according to age , it must be remembered that Baby Boomers are people who 30 years ago were in their 20s and 30s. It would be interesting to know with hindsight what they were supposed to do. Should they not have purchased houses when they had the opportunity? Should they have spoken out more as their own working conditions gradually worsened? At what point should they/could they have taken action? What would this action have been?
I am sensing in Dennis’ post an underlying resentment which is directed towards a whole lot of people he doesn’t know. Taking that attitude is not constructive and in fact could be quite paralyzing. As you, Dennis intimate that Baby Boomers’ actions or inactions are responsible for your situation now, then if you are Gen X or Gen Y then you must be responsible for Gen Z and beyond. What are you doing for them now to ensure that their future is bearable or not worse than your present ? Australia’s standard of living is in decline, that is clear as is our quality of life. This is happening right now. Every day it is a little worse. You will experience heavier traffic, longer commute times , inadequate services and infrastructure, loss of open space, a deteriorating natural environment ,the eroding or working conditions etc. You are here watching this and living through it just like the rest to of us. Do you really think that the Australian people can save their country if they expend energy resenting one group who happened to be young at a different time to you? Much as the corporate media tries to fragment us across culture, age , sex , we are still the people who live here.
(By the way you are quite unrealistic if you expect anyone selling a house to sell it to a stranger for any less than the optimum price. We all choose to whom we give charity. Why should a person selling their most valuable asset and who presumably wants to leave something to their children, give a large amount of charity to a stranger , one who is possibly buying a house as a 5th investment property! Sorry, it’s preposterous. )
International purchasers/immigration drives unaffordable housing
I disagree that 'babyboomers' should be held responsible. No-one was consulted as successive governments, beginning with Fraser, removed restrictions on overseas purchase of housing in Australia. No-one was consulted as successive governments, but notably the Howard, Rudd and Gillard governments increased immigration to massive proportions.
The majority of 'baby-boomers' would be the last to endorse this high immigration and foreign investment. Almost no-one but 'high flyers' does.
It would be crazy to then reward the private and government maggots who have forced on the rest of us overpopulation and high housing prices and a real-estate land-speculation economy where everything costs too much. To force babyboomers out of their houses to reward those who caused these problems would only encourage more of the same high immigration and removal of local protection for housing and land stock.
What would both punish the people who have invested in their gross manipulation of population and democracy in Australia would be the stabilisation of the population. Immediately land-prices would decline because pressure and demand would decline, therefore inflation would drop. Those who have benefited from the inflation would lose their financial power over government and other institutions like banks. That would give small business and ordinary people much lower costs of living and bigger margins for survival and profit.
Finally, to move babyboomers out of their homes is to subject elderly people to one of the biggest stressors there is. We are constantly warned of the rise in dementia among elderly people. Well, the first thing to go is orientation in space/place. People can continue on for ages, even with quite seriously failing memories, if they are not moved away from the homes and streets they memorised when they were younger.
Move those people out and they may immediately become candidates for expensive nursing homes which will soak up any inheritance for their children.
Those who call for pushing elderly people around, using Bernard Salt's et al's aguments blaming those people for the impact of land speculation, seem to be serving the cause of our oppressors by succumbing to a misplaced desire for revenge. We should treat elderly people well and respectfully, as we should treat everyone. Unfortunately, successive Australian governments, with the help of corporate press and private land-speculating industries, have set a very poor example in elderly bashing.
I agree, Boomers (the 60's generation) must be held responsible
Good response, Matt. You beat me to it. There is a lot of resentment against Boomers, A lot.
It is unfair that people are being coerced to move out of their lifelong home. Where I live, the suburb was created tailored for families. Decent family homes, nice blocks, open spaces. Now it is just retirees who collect pensions, despite massive property capital gains, and when they ocassionaly sell, accept not a cent less than 'astronomical' They generally rather let the home go empty for another year, than make less of a profit. I would have to work twice as hard as they ever did (they are working class, not ex-doctors), to just secure a dogbox in a crappy new unit, while they hold on to their 3-4 bedroom home, most of it unused. I will have a smaller family than them, but my two kids will have to grow up crammed in a small house, sharing a room.
So yes, their space IS going to waste. There is a premium on land now. There is a premium on location. They let this happen. They cheered it. They were happy to have working people have to move away from where the work and schools are to raise a family. Now they are moaning that people are after their homes. Now the government is having to move resources where they are more needed and questioning why people have such a VALUABLE resource when they don't actually need it.
Well, DUH!
I spent ages debating with boomers, that rising property prices MUST be paid for some way. It could not possibly be pure gain. If you're asset becomes more and more valuable, you have to EXPECT people to come after it. If your space becomes more and more needed to keep the country going, you have to EXPECT people to come after it.
A friend of mine went to an open for inspection, for a small unit he may be lucky to afford, and the queue of people literally went down the street.
Land is very expensive, it is in high demand. When it is in such high demand, do you think that the state will hold the same attitutes towards retirees holding this land as they did when it was much cheaper?
How to create secure employment for Australians
Anarchist Media Institute
Although it goes against the grain, I've decided to give Murdoch's Minion Tony Abbott some unsolicited advice about how to save his political bacon. Leaving job creation to market forces creates the political instability that will see Turnbull, like Gillard before him, catapulted into Abbott's shoes within the next 12 months.
Faced with first term political oblivion, Abbott could embark on a job creation journey that could see millions of potentially unemployed and unemployable Australians find regular, secure, worthwhile employment. All the Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Mr. Tony Abbott has to do is to convince his parliamentary colleagues to pass legislation that sets aside 1% of Australian worker's superannuation contributions into a fund to provide seeding capital to establish co-operatives and collectives.
Co-operatives and collectives have the capacity to create an alternative economic system that is not dependent on government support and that can work towards breaking the monopoly that is exercised by privately owned corporations whose major responsibility is to their majority shareholders, not the country as a whole. In an era when government owned or supported companies are being phased out and replaced with privately owned companies who have Buckley's chance of satisfying real community and national needs, the Abbott led government could, if it removed its ideological blinkers and supported the establishment of co-operatives and collectives, solve the many problems that have been thrown up by structural adjustment over night.
Dr. Joseph TOSCANO / Spokesperson / Anarchist Media Institute
Level 1/21 Smith Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Tel: 0439 395 489
It's actually worse than that
"In the end, in the Australian Press, the lack of compassion, the utter fervour of cruelty in insults, failure to publish evidence, and publishing prejudicial and incorrect information at the time of Shapelle's trials and appeals, takes your breath away. It is like reading the ravings of Nazis."
Its more like a privatised flogging in the public square. And don't far too many of the yokels just love it to bits.
The more arcane horror inherent within this ritualised violence is the implicit message it sends to all and sundry to keep your head down and your feet in line lest you be the one next put into the stocks. The lustful media jocks and their conniving employers provide no access within their patterned attacks upon the maligned for appeal to truth and reason. What happened to journalism? Did it get a funeral?
Most baby boomers are not in Charge - reply
(sorry Sally for some reason I cannot reply to your comment below, so I will do it here).
I accept that most are not in charge. But some were, even if a small minority of privileged people, and I still hold that they will have to live with the consequences of our impending civil collapse. Even these elite will not be insulated as they expect.
And perhaps there is an argument that the less elite baby-boomers (on the whole) could have been much more active in their resistance of many of the negative changes that have taken place - in the interests of their children and grand children. But there is no doubt that have been manipulated, it is just that since the 70's the problems and manipulation have been blindingly obvious, so excuses don't wash so well. To their credit there was some action around protecting the environmen, particularly in the 70's, etc, but in the last decade or two - during which the boomers were perhaps holding most positions of power and authority, a lot has been stripped away, and since it was on their watch, the boomers are ripe for blame - justifiably or not.
Matt
Gratuitous Australian press cruelty to Schapelle shocking
It is astonishing how cruel the media are to this woman, who, as you say, has been convicted due to failure by the government of Australia to provide necessary evidence for her defense.
Given the general tolerance of cannabis use and trade in much of Australian society, it is also very strange that the media carry on this way, as if she had been accused [and convicted] of torture or murder or treason.
Comparable treatments by the Australian Press all seem to apply to women. Lindy Chamberlain and Prime Minister Julia Gillard come to mind (even though the PM was not accused of any crime.)
When you consider the rate of experimentation and usage of cannabis in Australia it is truly bizarre that Australians are not more tuned into the injustice here. Maybe, however, what we are seeing, is a sort of nasty smarty-pants attitude among journos et al, who would expect to get away with cannabis use and so hold anyone caught in contempt. However it actually seems likely that Schapelle Corby never even tried marijuana, let alone smuggled it - so this makes that contempt even harder to understand.
In the end, in the Australian Press, the lack of compassion, the utter fervour of cruelty in insults, failure to publish evidence, and publishing prejudicial and incorrect information at the time of Schapelle's trials and appeals, takes your breath away. It is like reading the ravings of Nazis.
Most "Baby Boomers" are not in charge
Most Baby Boomers do not set the agenda of our economy. They are pawns like most other people. If any are complacent just because they live in and own a half million or million dollar house, they are kidding themselves. It is still just a house as it always was. This was called "the Australian dream" and it was what most people wanted. Even if they didn't want it, at least it was a choice open to many if not most. This was democratic and very important. To watch another generation slaving to attain anything like it is to see the evidence of serious failure. It is interesting that in my experience environmental groups and rallies at Parliament House Melbourne trying to save our natural heritage are over-represented by older people. I think there is a general understanding amongst these Baby Boomer activists that the younger generation (Gen Y) is time and energy strapped. This makes it even more difficult for younger people to galvanise and unite against what amounts to theft of their future well-being.
Koalas will be deemed as disposable compared to housing
One year ago, Sir David Attenborough said that only way to save the planet from famine and species extinction is to limit human population growth. "We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde.
Humanity's rapacious appetite for growth, and consuming numbers, is pushing wildlife and natural vegetation off the planet.
Australia's extinction rate is the highest in modern times. However, we have an economy based on housing, land subdivisions, and an increasing consumer base through high immigration levels.
Population Matters: Sir David Attenborough – 'I've never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder and ultimately impossible with more. On a finite planet nothing physical can grow indefinitely."
Matthew Guy, our "planning", minister has locked in Victoria's economy to be based on population growth. Jobs are disappearing, and the growth is at odds with economic performance - and this stretching of the urban growth boundary, again, can't be justified.
The loss of koalas in the Peninsula would be another nail in their coffin, and no doubt Matthew Guy will proudly say these species are as disposable and not important as the economic benefits of high immigration and housing profits.
Brisbane Times: no motive, but Schapelle guilty regardless
Brisbane Times columnist Sam de Brito, like every other Australian mainstream journalist reporting on the latest developments in the case of which I have become aware, is repeating the lies and slander used to convict the innocent Schapelle Corby in 2005:
- Schapelle labeled "the 36-year-old ganja queen";
- "... it's only the Corbys and rusted-on nut-jobs that have proclaimed her innocence."
Sam de Brito's labeling of a woman, regarding whom there is no evidence, or even claim, of having used marijuana or any illicit drug before her trip to Bali in 2005, a "ganja queen" seems slanderous.
This otherwise misleading article contains a small hint of truth:
She was convicted of an idiotic crime that had us all shaking our heads asking "aren't you supposed to take drugs out of the third world?". (emphasis added)
Evidently de Brito was not motivated by the clear lack of motive for Schapelle's alleged crime to further question her conviction by the corrupt Indonesian legal system in July 2005 and the complicity of corrupt Australian governments and a corrupt newsmedia.
Had he done so, how could he have failed to notice the mountain of evidence which proves Schapelle's innocence?
Moron or Liar?
How then do you rate this reply (in series with a slew of others waxing adamantly that Schapelle is guilty, amongst a slew of other more intrinsic character attacks).
'Discussion' at:
http://theconversation.com/did-she-do-it-the-ethics-of-the-schapelle-corby-telemovie-22485
Editorial comment: Discussion on that site, with a few exceptions, including the comment included below, seems lame and a waste of time.
Ken Alderton commented:
"What I did was to look at the source you use as the basis for your argument, “Roy”’s presentation and asked these questions: who is this person, what are his credentials for making this proposition, is there evidence for the propositions, is this evidence credible. “Roy” could be anybody. He cannot be identified. His credentials are that he is a family friend, no training in the law, no experience with Indonesia. What is his evidence? He claims there are four key procedural flaws: no fingerprints taken, no forensic identification, no dealer network identified, no corroboration of “secondary evidence”. The need to prove a distribution network is irrelevant because she was convicted of importation not trafficking. The prosecution asserted in public that the cannabis was Australian. The AFP told Corby’s lawyers they had no jurisdiction to test. Corby’s lawyer said in public that the defence had a sample they could have tested. Mick Keelty said in public that the defence told the AFP not to test the cannabis. Every other source I can find says that Corby requested the Denpasar CCTV footage to show her surprised reaction when the bag was opened not to disprove the testimony of the prosecution witnesses. Roy provides no detail. The evidence about the lack of fingerprinting is credible on the surface. The verdict confirmed it had not been done. I can find no independent account of when Corby asked for fingerprinting. I can also find no indication whether under Indonesian law it would have made a difference. What I have found is that two High Court judges would have said that it would have made no difference under Australian law. They held that possession was sufficient to prove importation. I have provided no sources to keep this to a manageable length. I’ll provide them if you want them. "
To add your say go to http://theconversation.com/did-she-do-it-the-ethics-of-the-schapelle-corby-telemovie-22485
If you don't want to receive notifications for this article, ...
Zoo has lost its vision of caring for animals, not killing them!
Marius the giraffe was considered to be of little value due to his "common genes" and thus not suitable for breeding! Surely these zoo keepers can look beyond the animals in their charge as being more than a handful of genes?
The zoo ignored a petition signed by thousands and offers from other zoos and a private individuals to save the animal. They were intent on his destruction, in a cold and clinical fashion.
Visitors, including children, were invited to watch while the giraffe was then skinned and fed to the lions. This is far from a dignified end for one of the world's most fascinating and unique animals!
The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria to put down Marius by because there already were a lot of giraffes with similar genes in the organisation's breeding program. The giraffe didn't have to "breed"! What about their intrinsic value and an individual animal that deserved to live?
Copenhagen Zoo has lost their vision if they think that zoos exist for artificial breeding purposes and for human entertainment. Instead of "conserving global biodiversity and achieving the highest standards of care and breeding for animals", they have become a commercial organisation with the callous and anthropocentric view that genes can be unethically manipulated for convenience, even at the expense of killing healthy animals!
It's a Nazi-like program to exterminate the "undesirable", the common genes no matter how healthy, and propagate the genes they unwarrantably think are more "worthy"!
Human blind spot- population numbers
Nothing can grow forever, and there's a blind spot in human mentality that assumes that when it comes to our own numbers, growth can be perpetual and increases in population can go on indefinitely. We all recognise that farmers can over-stock their land, and there can be "too many" animals on finite landscapes, but when it comes to our own species, growth can be indefinite without impacting on ecology, housing, costs of living, social cohesion and food supplies.
Once there are borders, boundaries, limits to human expansion, populations will be forced to reconsider their numbers and their fertility levels. International migration is giving an appearance of escape, of plenty, of new lands to give migrants a "better life style".
Germany: 1.4 ( 8.2% are foreigners).
Holland: 1.8 (4.4% are foreigners).
Belgium: 1.8 ( 9.8% are foreigners).
Spain: 1.4 (12.4% are foreigners).
Italy: 1.4 ( 7.1% are foreigners).
The fertility rate of half the world is below replacement level, but immigration from overpopulated developing nations is undermining national ethnic cultures and demographies.
What has peaked is the rate of population growth. It took just 12.5 years for the world’s population to grow from four to five billion, 11.8 years for it to grow from five to six, but it has taken almost 13 years to grow to seven billion. Japan’s fertility rate has been below replacement level since the mid-1970s. But unlike Europe, Japan has almost no immigration. However, their economy is healthy and living standards can only improve.
There seems to be a population blind-spot in human thinking, and vortex of illogic that must be overcome by legislation, and policies. Generational growth must be stemmed as people wake up and realise that living standards are declining, and "food security" issues are a symptom of ecological overshoot - globally!
No one will escape Australia's future
Good point Sally, we are all in this together. And whatever mistakes previous generations of Australians have made - though either bad actions, or inaction - are now coming home to roost. Those retiring now, who had the benefit of massive economic growth, great careers (due to that growth) free education, generous super (not the measly pensions their parents had to survive on) will now face the same uncertainties that their children and grand-children face. Having allowed many jobs to go OS in exchange for cheap goodies, and having burdened their kids with education debts and high house prices, and expensive privatised utilities, they are now hoping to skip the scene with their cashed up funds, highly valued house and live comfortably leaving everyone else to clean up the mess (not all of course - but some - perhaps even many?).
I am very sorry for these people, because I fear greatly that their expectations will not be met. I seriously suspect that as the economy crashes here (and probably globally) that their "investments" will evaporate (as they did in the GFC) and they will have to experience the full horror of the system they have left behind rather than be insulated as they are no doubt expecting.
I know quite a few people at or near retirement age who are finding the current corporate environment (callous, "flexible", demanding) that is now endemic - and which they helped bring into existence - too unpleasant to cope with, so they are either retiring or expecting to retire soon - happy to leave their younger colleagues to deal with the mess, lack of care, and pressure to work for as little as possible, whilst producing as much as possible and still going further into debt.
Given all this I really feel that there may well be bad feelings towards baby-boomers, but perhaps, just perhaps, the younger generations will have more heart than the older ones, and will forgive them, look after them, even with all the massive problems and poverty they have been left with, and hopefully, eventually fix the system creating instead of a system of selfishness and greed (and there is no denying that that is what we have) one of compassion, care and community.
Matt
Real democracy
Very interesting! Thanks for reporting this Sheila.
Matt
We can't give up on a Population Plan
"It assumes that you can choose to leave a resource unused, space unfilled. It assumes that you have some control over the population, which you don't...This means the idea of a 'population target' must be dispensed with completely."
That is exactly what population activists---such as myself---would dispute. That is why we are in this business, to lobby for a Population Plan for our respective nations which would defend our unused resources and our "empty" spaces. Our aim is to first stabilize then reduce our population levels. An uphill struggle no doubt, but one we must engage in nevertheless.
The question is, how do we achieve sustainability? We cannot ignore the P in IPAT. We must resist population growth, not yield to it with a defeatist attitude ("for every child you don't have the government will bring in two people").To do this, we must treat migration, fertility rates and refugee intakes as variables which can be adjusted up or down depending on our priorities and preferences. Migration quotas and refugee intakes are relatively simple to set. They simply require a stroke of the parliamentary pen. Fertility rates, on the other hand, are more resistant to government suasion, but they still can be nudged up or down by financial incentives or disincentives. To concede to your point however, in the Canadian context, our priority must be to slash immigration intakes since our TFR is relatively low at 1.7, and migrants are having more babies than native-born residents. The demographic shift you refer to.
Bottom line, we must get our population down as rapidly as is humanely and politically possible. We must have a population goal.
Our primary target, however, should be the mentality of Ponzi economics, which asserts that a)economic growth is desirable, necessary and physically possible going forward and that b)population growth is necessary to promote economic growth. Until we defeat this central assumption, our arguments about birth rates and immigration levels will continue to be swept aside.
Thank you, but credit mostly belongs to Roy.
Marayana,
Thank you so much for your kind appraisal of my article. However, most of the thanks, rightly belongs to Roy, whose talk at an earlier meeting, my article largely paraphrases.
Anyone who examines the evidence for no more than 5 minutes, can see that Schapelle Corby could not have possibly committed the crime of which she was unjustly convicted. Any journalist who persists in describing Schapelle as a "convicted drug smuggler," in the face of the clear and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, as many are doing right to this very minute, must be either stupid or dishonest.
Unfortunately, since I wrote the article, I have not been able to further contribute as much as I would have liked to have. This is because, on 18 May 2010, eight months after I wrote the article, as noted at the very start of this article, I was incapacitated as a result of being run over by a car on my way to work on my bicycle. Since then, I have somewhat recovered, but I still have:
- diffuse axonal brain damage;
- less balance and coordination;
- less mental stamina, hence less physical stamina; and
- faulty memory of my past, both since my injury and before.
Thankfully, my friends tell me my intellect is still good, so, in spite of my above deficiencies, I expect to still be able to contribute to the fight for justice, including for Schapelle Corby.
I see this proposed future playing out
You're right. When people simultaneously expound how uncontrolled immigration was bad for the Aboriginals, and that it was their land for their nation, while at the same time arguing for open borders and that we have no right to say this is 'our', I laugh a little inside. That is, until I realise that that person is probably driven not so much by a desire to foster reconciliation, but simply to deconstruct and attack the Australian identity. At that point, the reason for the double standard appears painfully clear and logical.
The idea that a country could just be an arbitrary collection of people, who simply paid tax to the same tax office is an old 20th century idea. Unworkable then, clearly failing now. Its' the 21st century, and its sad to see people holding this idea. It's depressing to see countries still pushing this outdated view causing much antagonism and cultural destruction.
Not all boomers are bad
I've spoken to at least a few Baby Boomers genuinely concerned about house prices and the availability of housing to my generation. While many aren't, and I've met some whose comments filled me with utter revulsion, at least SOME are. I remember speaking to one older lady while waiting for pizza who was concerned about the future our my generation and our inability to get a home. She wished it wasn't like that and while a home-owner herself, wanted to see other people prosper too.
I was actually quite shocked to see so many people quite a bit older than me at Victoria First.
At least some Boomers will support me and speak up for us.
I don't have the same expectation from some other classes of investors in real estate at the moment.
Firstly, I agree that people need to control reproduction.
Firstly, I agree that people need to control reproduction. I've heard quite a few women say they choose not to add to a populated planet, or bring in children when there are other more needy ones who need resources.
The issue is, for every child you don't have, the government will bring in two people. There are plenty of places in the world where women are still willing to have larger families, where there isn't as much desire for open spaces. Less children born? Increase intake to ensure we meet population targets!
Eventually the demographics will shift, and those who choose to have children will replace those who don't and a new standard will be set. They'll be given incentives if need be to have children. If there is a population target, you can either choose to contribute to it, or have someone else do it. Given that scenario, I would much rather do it myself than outsource my breeding. At least I know my children will have a conscious awareness of these issues and a stake in the future of this country.
I'm not saying you must have children. I'm saying that this may be a self defeating strategy, because it assumes that there is no competition for a niche, which there is. It assumes that you can choose to leave a resource unused, space unfilled. It assumes that you have some control over the population, which you don't.
You must FIRST ensure that your nation has collectively, control over population growth and demographics through peoples individual reproductive choices. This means the idea of a 'population target' must be dispensed with completely.
Att: Digital artists - how not to lose digital pens
Common design faults in digital drawing pens & pads needs simple fix.
I have been using digital drawing hardware for years now. With some exceptions, most pens and pads are black and the pens, particularly, are in constant danger of being lost in dark spaces. They usually come with pen rests, often inkwell shaped, which you lay the pen on or stand it in. The pen rests are also black and easily lost. The pads are also black and fairly hard to pick among various tools and electronic ware. But the worst thing is dealing with three separate pieces. When I travel, I tape my pen to its pad. And I immobilise the pen in a desk recess, using bluetack at home. However I use more than one computer.
Here is a proposed solution. Put grooves and holes in both electronic pens and pads so that they can be connected with fishing line. It is ridiculous to have to make these modifications oneself to these otherwise wonderful electronic tools.
well done
Your article left me lost for words. the words, the evidence, the comments, your thoughts and ideas of the different ways she could have proven her innocent is impeccable.
I do not know how to tell you how much I adored your piece of writing, what you said was beyond amazing. well done!!!!!
may God bless your soul
Not that complicated, unless we allow it to seem so
I agree that this dilemma exists but the superficiality and self-imposition of its construction has to be exposed.
In reality the problem is not based essentially upon our denigration of another race/culture/religion, but instead upon a lack of recognition and connection by the average citizen to our own culture and values. By comparison for example the French, by and large, don't have this same coyness about the matter. Neither to any of the major Asian societies. It is only the innately dis-possessed Anglo settler communities that seem to have abandoned themselves to this fear and dreadful avoidance of being 'exclusive'.
A sensible approach would be to recognise some effective 'rate of change' measures by which to assess the resilient bounds for impact upon critical qualities within both the landscape and the social base. This then bears the political focus away from a supposed negative 'fear of the intruder' and toward a positive awareness and care for extant qualities that are commonly identified and deemed to be valuable.
Native Australians are treated as aboriginal Australians were
Dennis K observes:
"One could legally work towards eradicating an ethnic group from the face of the planet through legal population policy."
Dennis, isn't this already the tragic condition faced by Australia's indigenous population? How on earth might accelerated immigration help the oft called for need for some useful form of reconciliation between the original and the successively dominant populations of our 'nation'? How can a rapidly hurtling object ('us', collectively) possibly be reconciled with? In fact, on this current trajectory, we'll soon all be lining up alongside the first nations' people also seeking reconciliation with a rapidly emerging new body politic dominated by ownership and customs that are entirely alien and careless toward our current, but rapidly flagging standards. That would be a bitterly ironic form of reconciliation between the current dominant and indigenous strands of culture.
I find the concomitant cheering by quite a few community sectors for both higher immigration and reconciliation to be utterly confounding, where it isn't just plain machiavellian.
More broadly, the dissolution of social identity is a key instrument in wreaking this holocaust of asset alienation and depletion upon us all. Others include the escalation of mental and spiritual trauma via compressing people into behavioural corridors of undue complexity and severe financial and time stress.
So Pauline Hanson was right - we are being swamped
... by Chinese, Poms, Indians, and our politicians are selling us out.
Reckon she's owed a big apology.
MASSIVE Chinese run on Aussi housing imminent
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/2/10/economy/why-australias-economic-debate-doesnt-rate
Dannielle Harnett, Mon, 2014-02-10 21:27
yes Steve there is also big changes afoot in China right now with the recent generational change in the communist party. Trillions of dollars are currently being unlocked into foreign markets such as Australia and Canada.
The special visa program of wealth immigration into Canada has been so over subscribed by mainlanders bending the rules and applying through Hong Kong that the application centre has been closed for 12 months under a Tsunami of applications. Canada's housing market has now been so distorted by foreign investment in their residential housing market that locals are now spending 70% of their income on housing. Rich mainlanders now own entire suburbs, many houses sit empty while Canadian workers are forced to live hours from their workplaces and massive salary commitments to basic accommodation has effectively left them as the working poor.
With Hong Kong bringing in legislation to deter foreign purchases and Canada closing their special visa application process at the same time as the communist party is liberating trillions of dollars of private wealth - the Australian property market is in the eye of the storm for a flow of cash into our housing of a size that has never been seen before.
Our government both incumbent and otherwise are so parochial that they don't seem to grasp the size of this issue.
What has been sold can NEVER be unsold!
Re: Schapelle Corby is innocent - part 4
I believe it was simple but stupid trick to suck good money from Australia! Schapelle is a good Christian and this also helped her to survive the hell.
Need for an Independent Office of Animal Welfare in Victoria
Back in 2011 saleyards across the State were under fire by animal welfare groups, who are targeting the treatment of livestock and the condition of saleyard facilities.
Animals Angels, and international animal rights group, submitted a damning report to the State Government that included photos, video footage and a detailed veterinarian report after visiting western Victorian saleyards.
The report included sheep being unloaded from a trailer and ute without the use of a ramp, causing sheep to land on their heads and necks. There are also issues about post-sale feeding and water.
The Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association (ALPA) issued a warning for all members to review their animal welfare standards as a matter of urgency. ALPA Victoria/Tasmania State management committee member Rob Bolton said one of the main issues was livestock being received at saleyards that should never have been loaded for sale in the first place. The animals should be fit for human consumption and therefore also fit to be loaded.
So much for "urgency", as little has changed.
There is a clear conflict of interests within the DEPI. The State department responsible for supporting livestock industries, and economic benefits for farmers and from agriculture, is also responsible for animal welfare! There needs to be a truly independent Office of Animal Welfare, distinct from politics and lobby groups.
Vic saleyards under scrutiny Dec 2011, Animal Angels
Convicted under a corrupt system
Schapelle Corby did not come from a conservative middle class family, but that doesn't make her guilty. She was condemned under a corrupt legal system in a third world country.
Now, she is officially a "convicted drug smuggler" and that means her guilt is affirmed!
There are no recorded weights of luggage before or after boarding the plane. There is no CCTV films of Corby's bag inspection, or her reaction. It's only the security guard's words against hers.
She admitted the bag belonged to her, but it was out of her hands during the transfers and the flight. The drugs were not checked for finger prints, or for the DNA to determine their origin.
The legal system in Indonesia relies on bribes, and corruption. The evidence was insufficient and inconclusive. Drugs are freely available in Bali.
It's as if the government needed a victim, an Australian, to set a precedent on drug smuggling, and Corby fit the profile.
Aid to Indonesia should end. They have a growing economy, and their poor living standards is due to overpopulation not lack of GDP.
More on giant jellyfish takeover
Have a look at this article on giant jellyfish : Why Jellyfish are taking over the world - Lisa-ann Gershwin’s “Stung! On jellyfish blooms and the future of the ocean”
Wed, 2013-10-09 13:37 — Alice Friedemann
"Move aside Steven King, jellyfish are worse than any of your demons, worse than any Grade-B monster that’s graced the silver screen. Unlike The Blob, which can be stopped by freezing, you can’t kill them. Not with chemical repellents or biocides or nets or electric shocks or introducing species that eat jellyfish like the striped sea slug. If you shoot, stab, slash, or chop off part of a jellyfish, it can regenerate lost body parts within two days. Not even the past 5 major extinction events which killed up to 90% of all life on earth, killed off the jellyfish."
Well done Tim Diamond Lawrence!
Well done SPP and Tim Lawrence.
The public are reliant on the 'education' they get from the ABC and the commercial media. Those media hardly mentioned the Sustainable Population Party and they suppress useful discussion of the problems of population growth whilst pushing the idea that growth is irresistible and must be accommodated. Australian voters are treated by the press rather like Saudi women, taught that they cannot think for themselves and can change nothing and must be subservient to those deemed to have authority.
Our mainstream media and government are ideologically corrupt to the bone.
The candidate, by the way, was a software engineer. I tried to publicise him by doing a film, but to win an election you need thousands of people to publicise you, and to spend years door-knocking and currying favour.
If the film I had done of Tim Diamond Lawrence had been aired on the news on every channel, and there had been newspaper articles day after day mentioning how he does his hair and what he said about football, he would have had a chance.
That's no reason to give up; every reason to keep trying, harder and harder. Ecologically sustainable population advocates have to take themselves and the battle seriously; the growth lobby does.
Huge jellyfish washes up in Australia
"In my 20-plus years of working with jellyfish, it is the largest jellyfish I have seen. It really is gob-smackingly huge" said CSIRO scientist Lisa-ann Gershwin. She said the newfound specimen should also belong to the Cyanea genus, which is called a lion's mane jellyfish or a "snottie" thanks to its extremely slimy disposition and can grow to 3 meters across. Gershwin said is unprecedented for the area—much bigger, denser, and longer than previous years.
Dr Gershwin has been working on jellyfish for 20 years and says it is probably the biggest the state's ever seen, and could rival interstate finds.
"There's something going on that's causing a whole lot of species to bloom in staggering numbers and we don’t know why yet," she said. "It's so thick with jellyfish that it’s like swimming in bubble tea."
Recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. As the world's oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and become more acidic, coral growth is inhibited while jellyfish populations expand.
The public are deluded by football team style of voting?
So far, SPP has 577 votes, an increase of +0.7%. The mainstream parties gained overwhelming support, and Terri Butler (ALP) is on track to maintain the Griffith seat. It seems the electorate are dug in at the heels and can't see beyond the main parties!
It's not that population isn't a major issue, but the effects are subtle and incremental, so it's become a background to our lives, and the costs of living and squeeze on our cities.
Few people think deeply about cause and effect, or associate events to causes. A software engineer would be well suited to being a candidate for SPP, with analysis and understanding of logic, inputs, mechanisms and outputs. He wouldn't be distracted by social engineering and political machinery based on economics and meta-data.
It also questions how seriously do voters really question the parties, and candidates. They seem to be locked into tradition and voting for the biggest "winners" rather than spend time thinking about the issues. It's on the level of football - teams, colours, personalities, loyalties and "winners"!
Griffith By-election is today
Given that there is one party that intends to do all it can to rectify the situation described above and it is first on the ticket, it will be intersting to see how the Sustainable Population Party goes today.
See article, Griffith By-Election 8 Feb 2014: Timothy Diamond Lawrence - Sustainable Population Party Candidate of 1 Feb 2014. - Ed.
Lifeboats on Spaceship Earth are full
According to Italy's deputy interior minister, Filippo Bubico, the number of asylum seekers landing in Italy rose 10-fold in January, "in an incessant and massive influx of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East".
The Italian government rescued 1100 asylum seekers off Lampedusa coast. Calmer seas could see more people trying to take the journey. There are about 3000 people trying to take the journey every month.
Immigration charities estimate between 17,000 and 20,000 asylum seekers have died at sea trying to reach Europe over the past 20 years.
"Europe can neither save nor welcome the whole world," said Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament (the EU's directly elected legislative wing) to a meeting of EU leaders in October following the Lampedusa disaster last year in which 360 people were killed on an overcrowded vessel.
The Italian government this week described the numbers as "an incessant and massive influx of migrants." War in Syria, and overpopulation in the Horn of Africa take a heavy toll.
One long-term proposal is to explore avenues for legal migration, including for "protected entries" that would-be migrants could use to access asylum safely to the EU without resorting to potentially fatal journeys. At least this would bring some control over the situation, but the Spaceship Earth's emergency life boats are already full!
Dingo Day Rally
There's been confusion about the location of the Dingo Day rally. It is actually on the STEPS of PARLIAMENT HOUSE, Melbourne, not opposite!
Action at Zoo Twilight Concerts Deferred due to heat
Action at Zoo Twilight Concerts Deferred - Tomorrow Friday 7 February 2014 and Saturday 8 February 2014 Events Cancelled Due to Heat.
Thanks again to volunteers who have attended the Zoo to hand out flyers and put up posters. We have had to cancel this Friday 7 February as the weather forecast is for 36 degrees and Saturday 8 February as the forecast is for 40 degrees.
We will keep going so mark in your diaries 4:30 pm to 7 pm the following Friday and Saturday nights weather permitting. The Zoo Twilight Concerts continue every Friday and Saturday until 8 March 2014.
II Drilling on Ross Straw Field in Royal Park - Watch for Word on Snap Protest.
We are advised that drilling will take place on the Ross Straw Field after compliant Melbourne City Councillors gave the OK go ahead at last Tuesday's Council Committee meeting. The drilling team will not have the big rig but a smaller truck as they will be taking samples from the Coode Island silt of the Moonee Ponds flood plain. Even so stay alert as there may be a snap protest at the drill site.
See Sue Jackson's Blog Site on "Melbourne's Endangered Species at the Zoo"
http://suejacksonnews.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/melbournes-endangered-species-potential.html
Population is THE key issue
According to the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH):
Bill Glasson heckled at Griffith by-election forum far as political gimmicks go, it was hard to look past Stable Population Party candidate Timothy Lawrence, who offered free condoms to all in attendance.
The comedic approach highlighted the serious platform on which the party is based – controlling Australia's population so it does not exceed 26 million by reducing immigration and phasing out government birth payments to families at two children.
“Under tripartisan policies, Australia's population is currently growing by over 1000 people a day,” he said.
“That's a new Gold Coast every 18 months.”
Clearly, population is really THE issue! It's assumed that population growth is an indication of consumer confidence in the economy - whereas it's largely a political choice.
The Liberal National Party candidate, who left before the questions from the floor due to another commitment, faced an at times hostile audience in the the Labor/Green heartland of Griffith. The tide may be turning against the government?
KIlling dogs?
What a stupid, unprofessional statement. "OK to kill dogs with a hammer." Time to get out Mr Walsh. Anyway I agree dogs are not "livestock." So, why are they under your control? You've already stuffed up the codes. Back to the farm for you. Why not, Sir, concentrate on the abuse and cruelty that exists around the sale yards on Victoria? Silly me. Too hard "conflict of interest" also. I can assure you, Mr Walsh, that you or your Inspectors will not find cruelty in your office. It's all outside
Issues raised by complementary post with advertising included
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Immigration policy must be Politically Correct
Almost everyone who wants immigration reduced, seems to also object greatly to immigration reduction based on race/culture/religion.
For this reason, I can't see mainstream population control parties being very successful, or at least, keeping any victory. More likely, a far right organisation will take the ball and run with it. People who want immigration control in Britain, often vote BNP, even though they don't like the BNP's nationalism.
It's not that I want it to be that way, but that logically, having some criteria for assessing immigration as valid and good, and some as invalid and not to be touched, is less logically congruous than simply saying that any criteria a nation needs to assess immigration is A-OK.
This is the simplicity of not having to be Politically Correct, you don't have to justify why some criteria are OK to enforce and others evil.
Editorial comment: The embedded 57 minute video below by Betsy McGee is better than I had imagined possible. Watch it as soon as you can find a spare 57 minutes. If you delay watching this video, you will almost certainly regret having done so, once you have seen it. The video tackles head-on the critical issues that none of the Internet's politically correct 'progressive' spokespersons will raise, including:
- the immigration rort;
- false flag terrorism, particularly the Boston Bombing of 2013
This video can also be viewed on BrassCheck TV
A concern I have with this video is that, on at least two occasions, it implicitly condemns those who want to stabilise human population by claiming that a number of powerful global vested interests have plans to depopulate the globe of most its human population. However, even with this apparent flaw, the remaining content of this video is still essential viewing.
Carlos Arredondo - Boston Hero or NWO FRAUD?
Victimising the aged to pursue economic growth
A family home is not a source of income, but a place to live. The only way it can create any revenue is to downsize, and move out into an area outside family, friends and support groups, and be alienated. The difference in price will give some short-term cash, but it's predatory to expect older people to capitalise on the home that they would have worked and saved hard to buy.
Some of the "profit" will also go on stamp duties.
After 20 odd years of economic growth, why is our economy failing to perform its basic duty of care to provide for the most vulnerable - the older, sick and disabled - and educate the young?
Ponzi economics means that as the economy gets bigger, it's more expensive to maintain, and the disparity between wealthy and poor becomes more acute. The size of the GDP gets bigger, but a bigger and bigger proportion must be churned back into it to keep the whole system operating. It's said that $1 million is needed in superannuation funding to live a comfortable retirement. How are the working public supposed to save this amount, even with employer contributions?
Ponzi economics also requires on-going population growth to create housing investments, for pensions and super funds. This false scheme will eventually collapse under the weight of ever bigger and successive ageing populations - like a beached whale with insufficient skeletal bones to support its frame!
Australian Democrats Population Policy
As the former National Policy Coordinator for the Australian Democrats, driving the development of this policy was difficult. The previous National Policy Coordinator pretty much squashed the policy from the start. It was revived by a group of hard working policy researchers and was driven under my direction towards becoming official party policy.
It is not a perfect policy by any means. If there were perfect policies, there would be no disagreement, argument or controversy.
Personally I would have liked the policy to actually contain concrete measures rather than fluffy general aspirations. The reality is that as a small political party with next to no funding or paid staff, it is next to impossible to come up with specifics as they would need costings, modelling and impact statements.
I have since left the Australian Democrats. The pro-growth faction of the party threatened to suspend my membership. It caused me great emotional stress that the party that I loved and served to over a decade could treat me so poorly for defending Sandra Kanck the right of any member to also support other issue based organisations. In the end I had to leave to sort myself out.
Politics is a brutal business, even when it comes to the behind the scenes work.
QLD government bizarrely out of touch, out of mercy
Cloncurry is on the brink of being evacuated because it is running out of water and beasts are dying in droves, yet the dryland sharks in Queensland government are still trying to get migrants to settle in regional Queensland - for property developers!
Family home as assessable asset for Age Pension
Regarding Paul Howe's suggestion that the $ value of the family home should be assessed when looking at eligibility for the age pension, this looks to be a way of forcing people out of their homes in old age possibly to live nowhere near where they are used to living and nowhere near the facilities they need. The $ value of a house is almost meaningless as house prices have risen rapidly with population growth. In Melbourne for instance house prices have risen at over 10% per annum in recent years . Advocates of making the family home assessable for the age pension talk of houses worth $1 million as though the owner occupant is rich. A house bought for $40,000 30 years ago on a salary of $20,000 p.a. is still the same house. It may have been well maintained and improved, but it still sits on the same block of land. The dollar of today is not the same as the dollar of 30 years ago largely because of rising house prices. Following the logic that a couple who live in a 1 million dollar house and need the age pension are in fact rich is as logical as converting the Australian dollar into Indonesian rupiah (In Indonesia daily transactions at the supermarket may amount to a million) and saying "oh, your house is worth 10 million of these, so you're rich!” The houses were bought in a different era with a different salary. It is totally unfair to deny people the age pension because government engineered population growth has pumped up the $ value of their ordinary homes.
If it is fair then then it has to be admitted that our standard of living has fallen badlly and we are on the wrong track.
Post scipt: the houses targeted by both Howes and Salt are the ones over which Barry Humphries had us rollng the aisles because they were so familiar and which artist, Howard Arkley depicts in a way that made us look again at the ordinariness of Australian suburbia.
Cloncurry, rural banking, Katter, Joyce, et al
Cloncurry is the Hon Bob Katter MP's stamping ground. Check below for some press releases he has made on these matters.
It is sickening to realise that Australian suburbs and farmland are being marketed for sale to people all over the world rather than being protected for Australians. http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/house-hunters-gallop-into-chinese-new-year/story-fnii5v6w-1226818350666
Ours is indeed a very harsh land to farm, especially when forced to compete with the absurd rates of profit in the speculative real estate and mining sector, which mean that banks view most other activities with disdain.
It is not surprising that farmers commit suicide in the face of the manifest lack of support from their political representatives. We are abandoning the people closest to the land and responsible for Australians' capacity for basic survival (over and above making money on the market). Of course the suicide rate is also up in the cities, where lack or representation, role or a future also erodes citizens' capacity to survive.
Some press releases from Katter below. Katter and Barnaby Joyce are pushing for a bank to serve the rural sector better than the corporates ever will. Note that Katter and Joyce are Catholics and a big population enthusiasts like their counterparts (who also has a cattle station) Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott. The Santamariarist nuances tickle the imagination. I would love to publish more articles on rural and related matters.
"Pressure on Government to deliver $7 billion rescue aid for farmers in crisis"
"KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has welcomed Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce’s position on pushing cabinet for $7 billion in relief aid to farmers.
Ultimately however, the proof will be in the pudding with the pressure on Minister Joyce to deliver outcomes for Australian agriculture.
Mr Joyce’s announcement follows a crisis meeting of farmers in southwest Queensland last weekend.
Mr Katter said he was pleased to hear that Minister Joyce supported calls for an Australian Reconstruction and Development Board (ARDB) to be formed within the Federal Reserve Bank to buy bad rural loans from the private sector.
“I strongly urge the Federal Government to adopt this proposal as the crisis will dramatically worsen if the banks and the Government do not come to the party,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter reiterates that without this assistance and the ARDB, Australian cattle will continue to die at a rate of five to 10 thousand head daily.
Rural debt has become a major crisis with the average farm debt rising from $700 000 two years ago to now being over $2 million per farm, and without immediate action Mr Katter warns, the debt will only grow larger.
“It is vital for everyone to grasp the ARDB model and understand that the initial approach will cost taxpayers money but ultimately makes money for the taxpayers; the concept is to reconstruct loans in the industry that can be rescued.
"The $7 billion request by Minister Joyce is a culmination of two years work for all those that have been associated with the National Rural Debt Crisis Council, under the great leadership of Rowell Walton and the Cattle Crisis Council with Barry Hughes at the forefront," Mr Katter praised.
Mr Katter, unmistakable for his unshakable resolve in pushing for a sustainable Australian agriculture industry, said "whether we agree with Minister Joyce’s approach or not, it is imperative for each of us to stand as a force behind Australian farmers and Australian industry".
For more information about the bill to establish the ARDB click here."
Here is what Katter has to say about the Libs policy on rural industry assistance.
"Abbott to wipe out Aussie farmers"
"KAP Federal Lead and Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has forecast a great tragedy after the Federal Government’s checkmate move denied SPC Ardmona’s request for industry assistance.
“The decision by the Federal Government to do nothing about SPC Ardmona is the same decision to do nothing about Holden,” Mr Katter said, who has previously moved a motion in Parliament for Government to protect Australian food producers.
Mr Katter said, “It is about time that the farmers and workers of Australia realised that they have a commonality of interest, which is not served by a Liberal Party that caters to the slithering sharks and snakes of big cities.
"It is completely hypocritical that the government was able to give $16 million to Cadbury’s Hobart factory, while denying $25 million to SPC Ardmona.
“Let every Australian understand – SPC Ardmona is not just our country’s last fruit processor; it is also the Goulbourn Valley’s biggest private employer, injecting some $63 million into the local economy through almost 900 direct full-time staff and supporting a further 2700 jobs,” Mr Katter said
“It is not only the factory workers that will go down, so will the farmers that grow the fruit and vegetables and if we lose the packaged market in Australia, farmers will watch their produce rot on the ground,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter condemns the Government for facilitating the unfair playing field that is the “free market”, demanding direct and immediate action to protect Australian industry.
Mr Katter estimates that as a result of the Government’s failure to assist SPC Ardmona more than half of all foods will be imported. SPC Ardmona, Simplot, McCain’s and Golden Circle, accounts for 83 per cent of all packaged foods on supermarket shelves.
Mr Katter is calling on all Australians to support Australian producers in buying Australian farmed and processed canned products."
Chinese property developers grabbing "bargain" housing
Another threat on our democracy and sovereignty is not "just" immigration numbers. Foreigners, namely Chinese real estate investors, are swooping down on our properties in a bargain basement sale!
In anticipation of sales growth, real estate agencies are launching websites exclusively at the Asian property market. The Year if the Horse could be lucky for the wealthy Chinese - at our expense.
Sales and marketing director of one, ACproperty.com.au, said affordable property prices, a stable political situation, education opportunities and a clean environment made Australian properties attractive to Chinese buyers. Must wonder if the Chinese ever wonder why we have so many properties not selling? A glut in apartments, and unaffordable housing!
Some are pure investors, some have children studying here, and others plan to immigrate.
Real Estate agents said the Chinese like our clean air and lifestyles - the former disappearing due to congestion and crowding in our cities.
Melbourne's west is proving a hit with Chinese investors with Werribee and Truganina emerging as unlikely hot spots. These new hot spots come just months after Foreign Investment Review Board figures revealed Chinese investors had spent a hefty $4.187 billion on Australian real estate across the 2011-12 financial year. Our sovereignty is being diluted for "economic growth" at all costs.
The Chinese city of Shanghai hosted a seminar on buying Australian property almost once a week.
We elect our governments in the naïve belief that they will do their best for the electorate, the citizens of Australia. Now, patriotism is being attacked and we are being invaded by stealth!
Immigration is out of control. At least in the condemned "White Australia" policy era, there was tight control over immigration, despite its flaws and racism. Now, the flood gates are open wide, and Australia is being globalized at a rapid rate. How can Australian home-buyers compete with millions of cashed-up Chinese migrants - and predatory investors?
This is another aspect of immigration that the Stable Population Party needs to address.
House hunters gallop into Chinese New Year
Cloncurry ready to evacute
CLONCURRY has been forced to plan for an evacuation of its entire population of 3000 because it is running out of drinking water. The drought in Queensland is now so severe that some towns are moving to severe water restrictions as their supplies dwindle. More than two-thirds of Queensland is now officially drought declared. A lot of farmers are quite desperate, and they've had quite a few suicides recently. A grazier who had to shoot a hundred cattle then he shot himself.
Cloncurry mayor Andrew Daniels said the shire did have a disaster management plan in place in line with current government regulations that had provisions for a complete evacuation of the town as a last resort in instances of extreme water shortages.
Already restricted to using water only for the bare essentials of bathing and cooking, locals may soon have to resort to the "third world" option - as the local mayor, Andrew Daniels, calls it - of boiling bore water to drink.
The "Food bowl of Asia" is hardly based on reality. There are limits to any growth - but stealth fully being ignored by cornucopia government attitudes.
Make sense.
Actually this makes sense. It's kind of what we have all been arguing for, right? A country has to be based on something, or else the existance of the country makes no sense. It used to be that Western nations were based on a common nationhood, culture/ethnicity/race, that that was their reason for existing. But since we've determined in this age that this is wrong, you have to find some other basis for a nation. So the UK isn't a nation for 'a people', but a nation based on people who share an idea. This is what we say about Australia all the time, right? That being Australian is just a matter of what ideas you hold and accepting the Australian proposition?
So if the common idea is the basis for the country, then to maintain the country, you have to control ideas and speech. It's just more difficult, because our old ideas of nationhood just meant keeping people out, whereas now, because people can change ideas and they aren't inherited, they have to be policed more.
Eh? Most newspapers market population growth continuously
Gee, PostGrowthEra,
I would have said that the newspapers talk of almost nothing else. They just ignore that most people do not want it. They promote it constantly, dishonestly as universally desirable, and dishonestly, as inevitable. Population Growth is one of Murdoch and Fairfax media's principle marketing subjects.
Most newspapers and community groups ignore population growth
It's not only the ABC that's being intellectually dishonest about increasing greenhouse emissions and its direct relationship to population growth. How can anthropogenic climate change be addressed on a platform of growing numbers of people? An economy, and pensions/superannuation funds, based on property inherently demands a growing population.
Newspapers and many "environmental" and planning NGOs also claim to be addressing the environment, traffic congestion, housing standards and permits, but do not acknowledge the obvious cause - rampant population growth.
"Climate change" is the convenient scape-goat for environmental problems, and scarcities of water and food. When converging with increasing demands because of global and local population growth, it comes down to skirting around the obvious and addressing the symptoms - and ignoring the cause!
Michael S's article
I forgot to mention in my earlier comment that I though Michael's article was excellent, and he's done a great job bringing a new point of view and a 'realisation' to us.
20 million people in Africa's Sahel need urgent aid
The United Nations appealed on Monday for more than $US2 billion ($2.28 billion) to feed and care for a record 20 million people across Africa's Sahel belt.
Sahel forms a transitional zone between the arid Sahara (desert) to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south. The Sahel stretches from the Atlantic Ocean eastward through northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, the great bend of the Niger River in Mali, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), southern Niger, northeastern Nigeria, south-central Chad, and into The Sudan.
Aid workers said they feared donor fatigue and a weak global recovery may prevent them from reaching the target. The pleas for aid are surmounting to massive $$ and numbers of aid workers, quantities that should be national budgets, not one-off "aid".
Read more: UN appeals for Sahel aid as conflict, climate change take their toll at http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/un-appeals-for-sahel-ai...
A prolonged drought has devastated the already dry Sahel region of West Africa. Crops have failed, and the lean season – when food from the last harvest has run out – has arrived early.
In order to respond to the urgent needs of farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists affected by repeated crises in the Sahel, FAO seeks USD 115 million in 2014. The November 2013 floods were preceded by inundations in August and December 2012 that resulted in local economic losses estimated at close to $20 million, and again in August 2013.
The area is also home to an estimated 37,000 people who have fled fighting in northern Nigeria, a massive refugee influx that has placed further pressure on the meagre resources of communities. This accumulation of factors often forces people to take drastic and ultimately self-defeating steps to survive.
As the global population grows from 7 billion to almost 9 billion by 2040, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially. By 2030, the world will need at least 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water — all at a time when environmental boundaries are throwing up new limits to supply.
Violence in northern Nigeria, northern Mali and the Central African Republic combined with high fertility rates have fueled food shortages and high food prices across the savannah region. In Niger alone, the fertility rate is 7.6 children per mother.
16 million risk hunger in Sahel despite good harvest at http://www.trust.org/item/20131210154923-896sm
The convergence of overpopulation with increasing scarcities of natural resources and the devastation of climate change results in more conflicts, and the cry for "aid" and charity is becoming an increasing demand on developed countries.
Aid must become irrevocably linked to the implementation of family planning, and reduced fertility rates.
That should be no problem
Hello Sheila,
That should be no problem.
Ridicule is part of hostility
Gathering momentum from Deniss K's comment, I have observed an undermining or attack on Australians for about 2 decades, perhaps longer. I don't know where it started, but probably in a mainstream newspaper, talkback radio, or from one of the popular recognised intellectual "gurus" but I started to hear people questioning the identity of an Australian and saying that maybe there was no such thing. There has also been an attack on the 1/4 acre block for this long and on the way Australians live. People started comparing our way of life unfavourably to that in Europe. I have heard it repeatedly amongst the chattering classes which I inhabited. The commentator Bernard Salt has made it his business to ridicule Australians. I heard him at a meeting to do with accommodating population growth in one of the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne one hot irritating morning. In his speech to those concerned citizens giving up their morning for this, he made an attack on widows "rattling around in their brick veneers" implying that they should move into smaller accommodation to make room for others. One of the said widows came home from that session convinced that she should move house.
About 15 years ago during conversation when dining with Vietnamese friends, one of them told me she was studying "multiculturalism" at one of the TAFES or universities. I asked if the pros and cons were debated. She replied that there are in fact no arguments against multiculturalism as Australia has no culture , and the only culture in the country is through immigration. I assume that this was taught at the institution she attended.
If you are told often enough that you are people without "culture" and living a ridiculous lifestyle that should really be like that of some other country, then you are ripe for being changed, to be socially engineered. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that this ridicule that becomes self ridicule is preparatory to this process. If you are in fact not “a people” then you can be simply over ridden.
We would like an article Dennis K
Great post, Dennis.
Glad Michael S's complex article has stimulated such a response. You have summed up the crime eloquently - " Rather than being loyal to the people who have given me power, I'm using that power to supplant them."
We could convert this comment to an article, with difficulty, but how about sending us an article on this subject or some other aspect? Just send it as a comment but with the Subject "Proposed Article"
Sheila Newman
An alternative take on the criminal aspect of population targets
It is much better to approach this as an issue of criminality and hostility against people than simply "poor" policy. I take issue with people who say this is 'near-sighted' or 'poorly thought out' because it gives the growth lobby the benefit of the doubt, as if they do not have moral responsibility over the outcome of what they do and what they promote. This might be true if they were genuinely ignorant of what they are doing. They DO know though. The language in this article is more emotive than the general article against growth and a fairly compelling case can be put to justify use of such language.
This article is recognising the need for responsibility and accountability, but makes I case which I don't consider to be very compelling. Particularly since the climate denial lobby tried a similar argument and failed (presumably because it was difficult for people to believe that wealthy conservatives are 'concerned' about poor Africans. They don't really use this angle much any more). The argument that the crime is against OTHERS by reducing our capacity to provide foreign aid seems a stretch. While the logic is somewhat sound, you are arguing that a nation has an obligation to provide a certain level of foreign aid, and supporting competing economic activities causes harm. True, but then people who decide to buy a larger car instead of donating, or who buy an entertainment system instead of donating could also fall under that category.
You also run the risk of inadvertently arguing for INCREASED migration, i.e., to expand the program to poorer people and just open the borders more. This could be put forward as a solution by the growth lobby of providing more 'aid', as it is a solution which helps more people abroad AND satisfies the lobby, a 'compromise', so to speak. Obviously, this is not what we want so we must be careful with what we say.
The issue I think here is more direct and more controversial. That is, having a system whereby a nation is subject to arbitrary population policy is a crime against that nation of people. Period. Policy which may influence birth rates through incentives or disincentives is different, as population in those cases is still determined by peoples individual reproductive choices. Encouraging someone to lose weight is different to axing off an arm to acheive a weight target.
If, for example, you took control of Nepal and convinced them to have a population policy, and that the primary political endeavour would be to expand "Nepal" economically and structurally, then you would have essentially changed the nation to one which exists for its own sake because it is a nation of people, to one which is working for defined objectives (Growth, etc.). The people are now a means to an ends, rather than the ends in themselves. Now having established that, you can implement any legal population policy you like, even if it is one which results in rapid growth and the original population becoming a minority or even being assimilated into the population you constructed and defined. You have also severly undermined the moral authority of the people to oppose you.
This is a direct act of hostility against the nation. If my goal is to engineer, modify the nation, or even completely change it demographically, I have targeted them, their way of life and identity for destruction. Even if not done with maliciousness, I'm still responsible, especially if I've been made aware of what is happening. One could legally work towards eradicating an ethnic group from the face of the planet through legal population policy.
High immigration may be bad policy, but if I'm doing it against the will of the people, knowing that it is my personal vision which is going to shape the future of the country, and not the peoples natural progression and natural outcome through their own personal choices, them I'm engaging in implicit hostility. I am over-riding the future of an identifiable group with my own vision, which rather than enhancing their future prospects, is diminishing them. Rather than a more secure future, I'm placing it in jeopardy. Rather than being loyal to the people who have given me power, I'm using that power to supplant them. Rather than upholding the culture and identity of the people, I'm engineering it. I'm doing it for my own purposes, for my own interpretation of the countries objectives. Even if voted in, I'm taking a moral authority that is not mine to take.
Unfortunately, in the West, we avoid this avenue of thinking and prohibit ourselves from viewing ourselves in this manner. There is a reluctance to follow this train of thought, as if we are scared of where it may lead, but I think it is utterly crucial.
Sea Shepherd vessel rammed - and our government sits
Japan on Monday said it was asking the Netherlands to take 'practical measures" against a Dutch-registered vessel that collided with a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean.
The Sea Shepherd environmental group said the Japanese had attempted to damage the fleet's propellers with steel cables, had thrown projectiles including grappling hooks at a second Sea Shepherd ship, the Steve Irwin, and fired water cannon on the Bob Barker's crew as they tried to cut the cables from a small boat.
Read more: Japan asks Netherlands to act against anti-whalers - Latest - New Straits Times at http://www.nst.com.my/latest/japan-asks-netherlands-to-act-against-anti-whalers-1.476175
In Australia, the Federal government's lame "anti-whaling" policy is to do nothing! Their inaction on whaling has been likened to bushfire fighters coming across arsonists armed with flame-throwers - and being told to do nothing.
Bob Brown, former Greens leader and chairman of activist group Sea Shepherd Australia, says a clash between the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Bob Barker, and Japanese whalers on Sunday amounts to brigandry.
'Either these governments support whaling or they oppose it. If they oppose it they should get down to the International Whale Sanctuary and stop it' he said.
Nobody believes the "scientific research" claim, yet each side continues the theatre of believing it, and the brutal lethal hunt continues, with high-powered harpoons. It's like hunting in a national park, in which the native species are protected by law.
Then Environment Minister Greg Hunt, instead of doing the job of upholding the legality of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, says that "whalers and activists must respect the law..." The laws are there to be enforced, not just be "respected" while allowing the eco-criminals to continue!
Mr Hunt said while the alleged incident occurred in New Zealand waters he had ordered an investigation and briefing on the matter. For years the Australian government's promises and posturing on Japan's illegal whaling has come to nothing but empty words and futile platitudes.
Support Animalia's new Triage & Treatment Room
I have personally used Michele Thomas's kindness and skills in a home visit to help injured wildlife and have followed her career now for fifteen years or more. I also know Craig Thomson who works with Michele and have no doubt of his dedication to preserving habitat as well as caring for wildlife. For this reason I am publicising the modest request for funding for their wildlife shelter below. You can make a Donation at any WESTPAC BANK BSB 033138 Account 434072 or support Animalia through Ritchies Community Benefit cards organisation number 81621 - Sheila Newman
Animalia wildlife shelter is currently undertaking the fit out of a new Triage & Treatment room. This room will be utilised on a daily basis for the wildlife in our care, the majority of animals that come into care will start out in this room and as such we have quite specific needs to fulfil to enable it to be what we require of a treatment room. We have purchased so far over $5695 of product and our resident shop fitter John has been hard at work turning it into what we desperately need. The room is near completion and spring has arrived meaning we have animals pouring through our wildlife shelter in need of our help. We are hoping your venue may be able to help us out financially to finish this project off. We have just received a quote from the electricians which is quite an unexpected amount $2000 which we do not have. This has stalled the project, mean while the animals continue to flow through the doors.
We estimate we will need $4000 to finish this project and are wondering if you would be able to
make a financial contribution to assist us towards our goal.
This comprises of the purchase of water tanks and the cost of the electricity being hooked up, being
so close is heartbreaking when the animals desperately need the facilities now.
About Animalia
Animalia Wildlife Shelter is located in Frankston, Victoria and is run by Michelle & John
Thomas. Animalia is a registered not for profit community organisation overseen by a
committee of management of dedicated people. The wildlife shelter is a temporary home of
many animals that have come into care for various reasons. These may include cat or dog
attack, vehicle collision or young animals that have found themselves orphaned due to any
of the aforementioned reasons.
Animalia Shelter takes in Grey Headed Flying Foxes, Microbats, Wombats, Wallabies, Koalas, Possums, Ducklings and all species of birds including Seabirds and Penguins. Animalia undertake rescues of all species of Australian native wildlife with many members who are volunteer rescuers
California in grip of 'worst drought in 500 years'
California is being loved to death!
We should take a warning from California's drought, the worst in 500 years. 17 rural communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out of water within 60 to 120 days.
This latest development has underscored the urgency of a drought that has already produced parched fields, starving livestock and pockets of smog.
SMH:California in grip of worst drought in 500 years
The State water authority did not have enough water to supplement the dwindling supplies of local agencies that provide water to an additional 25 million people.
Farmers and businesses use 80 percent of the water, a rate that's driven by human demands.
Researchers have documented multiple droughts in California that lasted 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years, yet the population of California in 2013 has recklessly continued to swell to an estimated to be 38,041,430, which is the largest population in the United States.
Demographers and economists said the state’s slowly improving economy is attracting more foreigners to California.
Similarly, our country's population growth is hovering near 1.8%. This is despite Australia being the driest continent, vulnerable to extreme weather events and a high rate of extinctions. With the addition of climate change, we have a deadly convergence of less rain, more heat, the heat-island effect of our concrete cities, and swelling populations!
Our governments celebrate growth as being an indication of consumer confidence in our economy. However, any nation comprises of more complex values, and profound dimensions, than what monetary values can include.
More of the same from fake Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
More of the same - it's only the FSA-aligned Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) who says 'civilians' are killed by the bombing of sectarian terrorists, many of whom themselves say they are civilians in Syria on 'humanitarian' missions – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26008512
BBC misreporting, 1 Feb 2014 :
Syria barrel bombs 'kill dozens of civilians' in Aleppo
Syrian government forces have killed dozens of civilians in air raids in the northern city of Aleppo, activists say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says about 90 people - most of them civilians - died when helicopters dropped barrel bombs on Saturday.
...
Attacks using barrel bombs and Scud missiles by President Assad's forces are believed to have killed hundreds of people in Aleppo since the conflict began almost three years ago.
The use of the barrel bombs - essentially barrels packed with explosives - has been condemned by rights groups as indiscriminate.
Among those killed on Saturday were 33 civilians, including women and children, who died in a bombardment of the al-Bab area of Aleppo, while at least 13 civilians were killed in eastern areas of the city, SOHR said.
...
Russia has blocked statements at the UN Security Council condemning the Syrian government's use of air strikes against civilians in Aleppo.
...
Suffering in Australia results from high population growth
High population growth diminishes housing affordability and exacerbates homelessness. People in housing stress even if not actually homeless live in accommodation that heats up easily and often lacks air conditioning . The loss of vegetation and gardens due to process of densification of cities in Australia to accommodate population growth means that during heat waves when temperatures can be over 40° C in Melbourne for consecutive days the heat is retained more than when the local environment was more vegetated (urban heat island effect). The heat puts a lot of vulnerable people at risk and during the heat wave in the 3rd week of January there were several unexpected deaths amongst these people, clients of one of the inner suburban services.
Calls for better responses to heatwave health challenges
With predictions that Victorians should expect more extreme weather conditions, there's increasing pressure for a more co-ordinated approach to dealing with heatwaves.
Fabulous new Save Royal Park page: superb photos
Save Royal Park
Whether you are from Victoria or another state, please have a look at what Melbourne stands to lose very soon to the cause of perpetual growth of population and traffic.
Offensive to unemployed Australians
How offensive and absurd that Australians are incapable of being trained as hairdressers or cooks? In Victoria there have been $billions cut from the TAFE budget, and university fees are prohibitively high.
Hairdressing and cooking are not highly sophisticated skills, so how could our young be overlooked? The skill shortages is a myth and is really generic "growth" scheme towards "big Australia", and a way of luring foreigners here to propel more housing for developers.
Former PM John Howard recently confessed that his tough stance on asylum seekers, and "border protection", was really about supporting economic immigration, and hiding the fact that most people who come to Australia are arriving by plane.
It's quite evident that our government is intent on creating a bigger GDP through population growth, at the cost of services, living standards, jobs, health care, education and training and human welfare. We can only descend further down the economic ladder towards a third world level.
Destruction dictated by extreme population growth
Once the key economic foundations for short term growth and greed are put in place the rest is difficult to control.
The root cause of this problem is extreme population growth. This policy "is a policy by stealth, a policy without consensus" and it is a driver of all other policies.
If you are interested in addressing the root cause I suggest reading this petition and deciding whether you wish to forward it to as many of your contacts as possible:
http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/australia-requires-a-public-inquir...
Green Day’s transformation of ‘Scream’ image was fair use
The MPG is planning a launch presentation to outline its new standard, and is calling on labels, rights administrators, artists and managers, broadcasters and industry trade groups to get behind the initiative.
TMZ reports that in papers filed last month the rapper is asking for a judge to rule that Demetri and Donna Evans-Brown should be forced to stop using the phrase, as well as pay him damages and his legal costs.
I drove into Cumbria picked up 15 k underneath the noses of a few haters not everyone was … just a few …Fear no area or no human .Amen . &— Wiley (@WileyUpdates)?July 20, 2013?
Editorial comment: It's not clear to me how this post relates to the article. Perhaps another reader or the original poster could explain? - Ed
Pirate bay founder charged over hacking
And in another name spat, US sexual assault awareness charity Take Back The Night has issued a complaint via lawyers over the new Justin Timberlake ??very sexual?? single, which bears the same name and the charity believes the single could have a detrimental effect on the charity’s online presence with Executive Director Katherine Koestner explaining: “Everyone at Take Back The Night is really shocked, because normally, we get asked when people want to use the name. Normally entities as large as Justin Timberlake do very kind and thoughtful things to support our cause. We have some big concerns. For example, all of a sudden on Wikipedia, "‘Take Back The Night’ has a different definition. That’s not been helpful". The legal grounds for any complaint remain unclear to this blogger and for his part, Timberlake has now issued his own statement, saying he hopes this dispute can be turned into a positive, by winning the charity more attention saying ??It is my hope that this coincidence will bring more awareness to this cause”.
Editorial comment: It's not clear to me how this post relates to the article. Perhaps another reader or the original poster could explain? - Ed
Vimeo open to liability claims from record labels
Lawyers for the two members of Pussy Riot jailed for their involvement in a protest performance in a Russian cathedral are set to take the case to Russia’s Supreme Court. Originally three members of the Russian punk outfit were jailed last August for taking part in the performance of a protest song in a Moscow church. One of the jailed women, Yekaterina Samustsev, was given a suspended sentence on appeal and freed, but Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova remained incarcerated after the appeal hearing in Gulags. More recently both were denied parole. Lawyers hope to argue in the Russian Supreme Court that the ruling that members of Pussy Riot were guilty of 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred' was in fact illegal, and the convictions should be reversed.
Editorial comment: The following excerpt from a Global Research article of August 2012, may help put this comment about "Pussy Riot" in context. - Ed
US is attempting to undermine and overrun the Russian political order
The US State Department has been recently exposed interfering heavily in Russian politics. From funding so-called "independent" election monitor GOLOS, who sought to write off recent elections as "stolen," to street protests led by US-funded opposition members who have been caught literally filing into the US embassy in Moscow, the US is clearly attempting to undermine and overrun the current political order in Russia. The recent "Pussy Riot" publicity stunt has also been arranged by US-funded opposition as well as fully leveraged by these organizations, their foreign sponsors, and the Western media.
Latest edition of English Language Syria YouTube News
The Syrian government continues to defy attempts by the governments of the United States, Australia and their allies to replace it with a more government that is willing to impose the dictates of the International Monetary Fund on the Syrian people.
Save Australia's Endangered Dugongs and Sea Turtles
Many people don't realize it, but The Native Title Act of 1993 section 211 still allows the hunting of endangered and vulnerable species within our country.
Dugongs, turtles and fifty other Australian animals are hunted and inhumanely slaughtered in large numbers, under the guise of traditional hunting practices.
This outdated act does not reflect the endangered status of these animals and we demand they be protected. No one is starving in Australia, one of the most affluent countries on the planet - and there is no need to hunt these animals for food.
The killing has to stop. Dugongs and turtles are endangered, and we are witnessing a rapid and unwarranted decline. We can no longer stand by and watch, witness to the impending extinction of this precious marine life.
We therefore call for an urgent change to the Native Title Act 1993, so that any endangered or vulnerable animal or marine life is excluded from hunting by any means, for any reason.
Petition to Environment Minister Greg Hunt
by Colin Riddell
Take Action: save Australia's Endangered Dugongs and Sea Turtles
Citizenship a privilege, not a right, in the UK?
UK Home Secretary Theresa May introduced an amendment to an immigration bill which would allow a British passport to be removed from any naturalised person whose conduct is deemed 'seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK'.
This is part of a Conservative-led coalition government's attempts
to toughen up the immigration system, with a general election due in 15 months' time and the anti-immigration UKIP party applying pressure.
'Citizenship is a privilege, not a right. These proposals will strengthen the home secretary's powers to ensure that very dangerous individuals can be excluded if it is in the public interest to do so' said immigration Minister Mark Harper. Just this week, the UK Tory govt. shelved a report on EU immigration, especially related to current hot air surrounding Romania and Bulgaria.
Someone said: "They can't bring themselves to publish the report before the European elections because they would have to admit that freedom of movement is a good thing. ..."
At least the whole libertarian concept of open borders and citizenship is being questioned, and the "right" to citizenship is being questioned.
See also: [UK] Labour's surrender monkeys dare not criticize Britain's conscript economy, republished on 28 Dec 2013 from article of same name of 16 Aug 2014 by Tony Gosling on Russia Today. - Ed
Meeting Victoria First TOMORROW 1:45p (Saturday 1/2/14) Fitzroy
Dear Victoria First Inc members and friends,
Reminder: Here is a reminder and more detail concerning our first general meeting at 1:45 pm for a 2 pm start until 4 pm on Saturday 1 February 2014. The venue is the “Community Room” at Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy.
Guest Speaker: The guest speaker is Dr Ernest Healy of the Centre for Population and Urban Research of Monash University. He will speak on "Melbourne – Heading for 'CARmageddon?” - increased car ownership and dependence with our population boom.
Venue: The venue is the Community Room in the Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy. The Melways Map reference is 2 C 1c. A narrow asphalt road leads off Brunswick St at the Tram shelter at Stop No 20 next to the Fitzroy Bowling and Sports Club. Follow the road a short distance to the Community Room which is located under the huge Fitzroy Football Ground Stand and next to the tennis courts We will sign-post the route on the day.
Transport: Tram along St Georges Road and Brunswick St. Get off at Tram Stop 20. Unfortunately there is no parking outside the "Community Room" but there are 2 disabled spaces. Along one side of Alfred Crescent on the east side of the Edinburgh Gardens there is unlimited parking. There is 2 hour parking, some along Alfred Crescent but some along Brunswick Street and in side streets.
Contact: Please contact Julianne Bell Secretary for any enquiries about the meeting or if lost on the day in the Edinburgh Gardens on Mobile: 0408022408.
We look forward to seeing you at our first public meeting of Victoria First Inc.
Regards
Kelvin Thomson
President
Victoria First Inc.
Order Of The Toad 2014
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY-:
Whatever will benefit Australia - that we are for;
whatever will harm Australia - that we are against. William Lane
PRESS RELEASE
Recipients Of The Prime Native Australian Australia Day Award 2014Announced
THE ORDER OF THE TOAD
Robert J Hawke
For excelling as a Quisling for Chinese imperialists to secure
the purchase and control of Australian Assets.
Campbell Newman
For colluding to violate the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution
by purporting to criminalise freedom of association.
Quentin Bryce
For excelling in the low grade status of the political caste
through the promotion of degeneracy.
Robert Carr
For Foreign Aid allocation to Asia Pacific Nations exacerbating
population chaos to the detriment of Australia.
Australia First Party
Identity - Freedom - Independence
P O Box 223 Croydon 3136. National Contact Line 02 8587 0014 www.australiafirst.net
email: [email protected]
Australia First Party - Reclaiming Australia for Australians
The Protocol for The Order Of The Toad
SALUTATION
In addressing a recipient of this Native Australian Award, "Toad"
replaces the common usage of Mr/Mrs, or any other norm of address,
such as those relating to profession, status, position or office.
The salutation "Toad" should be used in both verbal and written
communication as an acknowledgement of the personage of the
recipient.
Toad Award salutation surpasses accreditation attributes of any other
Australian award.
In personal conversation, when addressing a recipient as "Toad", the
inclusion of a Christian or first name in the appellation is not required.
"Toad" is consummate.
In a personal greeting, particularly when in company, the addressing of
an award holder with the salutation "Toad", should be as a loud
voiced shout, as a full acknowledgement and recognition of the
character of the recipient.
In written communication, it is not considered appropriate to use the
letters OT [Order of the Toad], following the name of a person issued
the award, This is a norm for certain bourgeois awards, but for
Toads, such is considered likely to decrease community regard for
same, and is therefore unsuitable. "Toad" at the start of the
appellation address fully completes the protocol requirement.
The appellation "Toad" continues in usage not only whilst the
recipient remains on our Native Soil, but also elsewhere. after either
voluntary departure, or deportation under an Australia First Citizens’
Community Order. It is a lifelong accolade.
Immigration out of control
Such is the volume of immigration coming to Australia, it's open wide to scams and corruption. It's a whole revenue making industry for the Australian Government.
Experts say the system is being swamped by the popular route of partner visas for permanent residency.
In some countries, marriage itself is an industry. For a great majority of recently arrived migrants from Asia, India, China, Vietnam, when they're looking for a spouse they go back home. According to demographer Bob Birrell, "partner visas do require an assessment after two years, to establish whether or not the relationship is genuine and continuing, but hardly any of such assessments turn up a negative. And I think that's largely because the department is just simply swamped."
Partner visas for married and de-facto relationships make up about 77 per cent of family migration.
Of the 1053 cancellations:
- 31 were cancelled for the provision of incorrect information and or bogus documents.
- 108 were cancelled for people with temporary visas in temporary visas in Australia or temporary and permanent visas of visa holders outside Australia.
- 809 were cancelled for people with a permanent or a temporary visa to be cancelled, without notice, for visa holders who are outside Australia at the time of cancellation.
- 72 were consequentially cancelled for people for visas held by members of the family unit of a person whose visa has been cancelled under one of the provisions above.
- 33 cancelled for permanent or a temporary visa holders on character related grounds.
Premier Colin Barnett's kill policies - for population growth
The West Australian Premier Colin Barnett is struggling to sell his shark killing policy.
Most people are against the shark cull policy. Sharks play an important part in maintaining marine ecosystems.
With heavy population growth in WA, more people than ever are swimming in the coastal waters. Western Australia has the fastest population growth of any Australian state, there is likely to be an increasing number of people venturing out into our coastal waters every year. Thus, the likelihood of someone encountering a shark increases and with it a corresponding increase in shark bite incidents.
New research shows that rip currents are the cause of an average 21 confirmed human fatalities per year in Australia, compared with 7.5 for cyclones, 5.9 for bushfires, 4.3 for floods, and 1 for sharks. Do we stop people entering the water, or change the currents?
With the correct information, we can make an objective judgement as to whether or not we accept the risk to enter the oceans.
"We need to educate people about the risks involved when entering the ocean" says University of WA's Oceans Institute expert Dr Collin. Currently testing new methods of shark deterrents using light, sound and walls of bubbles, through funding from the WA Government.
Mr Barnett said today that steps would have to be taken to control the southward drift of crocodile populations in WA's north. So, kill the sharks, kill the crocodiles, clear the land, chop down the tall trees of the Carnaby Black Cockatoos and amass more and more people for housing profits until the land is denuded, hot, dry and barren!
Thank god for these brave protesters
Thank God for these brave protesters. Without people who can see that our democracy is seriously deficient and our wildlife have no protection and are disappearing there would be no hope. I urge anyone who can do so to go and assist their fellow Australians in this urgent, patriotic and necessary work. Open cut mining is insane when we are continually increasing demand through overproduction and overpopulation. Greg Hunt and his government are creating rather than solving problems. Their policies are nutty, done without consideration of thermodynamics, and are creating an impoverished natural world whilst depriving the rest of us of our rights. The Labor opposition is very similar and citizens are therefore left with no choice but physical resistance.
Infrastructure and population growth
In recent decades we have been producing slum-like developments with closely packed houses, few public spaces and amenities and a shopping centre dropped in the middle. These suburbs look entirely undesirable, and the only reason I can think that anyone would buy there would be out of desperation to enter the market, then sell up and move some where better ASAP.
But creating such horrible spaces is such a sad waste of space and people's time spend living in these pseudo communities. In the Melbourne of the 1800's and early 1900's we had grand parks, all the house blocks had space for shade trees (new houses are in trouble if the power goes out - no air conditioning, no shade) as well as great public transport, local libraries, theatres, cinemas, good local shops etc. But here we are - 70 years later and our so-called progress since then has seen nothing but a deterioration in living standards and conditions. There seems be two reasons for this. One is the greed of developers, who want to spend as little as possible whilst cramming as many houses in as they can. The other is that we actually are poorer today than we were 70 years ago. Many of our jobs have been sent off-shore and the banks are fleecing every spare cent out of us - what is not taken by privatised utility companies which overcharge people by up to 18% as a matter of course (so much for privatisation being in the public interest - what a lie, and undemocratic - who on earth wanted these services privatised? Special interest lobby groups seeking to profit - and now they are.).
We are being exploited and used to enrich a few. The great con is the idea that anyone can get rich through these schemes (house buying etc). One day soon these so-called house profits will evaporate (how many Australians can continue to afford these prices?), and there will be nothing but debt and soul-destroying urban developments.
Tony Abbott wants to strip back protection for Tasmania's forest
Conservationists have spent decades fighting to protect Tasmania’s old growth forests and the agreement between the industry and green groups is truly remarkable. But if Abbott gets his way it could set things back decades and reignite a bitter feud. His recklessness is putting 170,000 hectares of forest at risk -- including many old growth areas protected for the first time under the historic agreement.
Tony Abbott wants to strip Tasmania’s forests of their World Heritage listing -- even though everyone from environmentalists to logging companies want the forests protected! The lure of profits for logging and mining companies is too big to resist. Even the Forestry Industry Association is asking the government not to interfere. But Abbott’s determined to undo this historic agreement to save the forests, unless we can show him the public won’t accept it.
Sign the urgent petition to Tony Abbott telling him to save Tasmania’s precious forests now.
Sign now and protect our World Heritage forests in Tasmania
bernard salt
I've only two questions, how old is bernard salt and why does he dislike baby boomers so much. There is no official baby boomer era, but it is generally known as being from 1946 to 1964, not 1961 as he is saying. Makes me wonder how old he is. I don't think I needed to ask the second question as the answer is of course money, some of which will come from the books he writes.
Attack on Green Wedges continues- for more urban sprawl!
(From wildlife carer, Craig Thomson)
The poor old Green Wedge is under attack again - last week it was Kingston Council, this week Frankston Council.
On Monday night the Council resolved to write to the Minister for Planning requesting authorisation to prepare and exhibit an Amendment to the Planning Scheme covering the rezoning of 42 ha of green wedge land in Stotts Lane, Frankston South for residential subdivision.
The vote was 5:4 and was only passed on the vote of the Mayor, Cr Darrel Taylor , who is reputed to be seeking preselection as the Liberal candidate for Frankston in the forthcoming State election. Being seen publicly to vote for the carving up of the Green Wedge is not a good look for him.
There are many good reasons why the application should have been rejected including:
1) The proposal flies in the face of the long standing bi-partisan support for protecting Melbourne's Green Wedges and the State Government's Plan Melbourne's initiative to establish a permanent metropolitan urban boundary.
2) There is no strategic justification for the proposal. There is no need for additional residential land because, as pointed out in Council's Housing Strategy, Frankston's projected population can be accommodated within existing urban areas. (How 'projected' is doubling Melbourne's population by 2060?)
3) The proposal is opposed by the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, Federal MPs Bruce Billson and Greg Hunt and State MPs David Morris, Geoff Shaw and Johan Scheffer.
4) The proposal would result in the urban sprawl extending down onto the Mornington Peninsula and eliminate the break that separates the township of Baxter from the urban area of Frankston. (no doubt the original justification for the Peninsula Link freeway).
5) Approval would result in the loss of pleasant, picturesque rural properties that contain stands of mature, native trees which provide valuable habitat and some vegetation that is classed as being of very high conservation significance.
6) Applications to rezone the land have already been knocked back by twice. The first by the Minister for Planning in 2004 then in 2011 by Frankston Council which refused a request for the land to be treated as an Anomaly to the Urban Growth Boundary.
7) Approval would create uncertainty and encourage more such opportunistic applications.
The best way to stop the proposal is to convince the Minister for Planning to refuse Council's request to prepare the required Amendment to the Planning Scheme. To encourage the Minister to knock the application on the head you should contact him:
The Hon Matthew Guy MLC
Minister for Planning
Level 20
1 Spring Street
Melbourne 3000
Email: [email protected]
Twilight zoo/East-West Link protests scheduled - please join us
Protectors of Public Lands Victoria are organising protests at the Zoo about the East West Link to coincide with the Zoo twilight concerts.
Next protests will be on Friday 31 January and Saturday 1 February 4:30 pm to 6 pm. Volunteers are welcome.
If you can attend to put up signs, hand out flyers, please contact Julianne Bell on jbell5[AT]bigpond.com or phone/text Mobile: 0408022408 and Anne Phefley Secretary of the Royal Park Protection Group Inc on arp4[AT]bigpond.com or phone/text on 0412279156.
Come to the main entrance at 4:30 pm for a "briefing" so we can swing into action.
The Twilight concerts will be held every Friday and Saturday nights until 8 March 2014.
You don't have to hand out flyers but can help in other ways with signs)
"Colour revolution" riots in Ukraine
One of a number of recent oversights on the part of candobetter is the civil strife in the Ukraine. (Another is the failure to report on the civil strife in Thailand, of which Tony Cartalucci (aka "Land Destroyer") has written much. The fact that the likes of US Senator John McCain as well as neo-Nazis, have protested against the elected Ukrainian government must indicate the nature of this protest movement. For up-to-date information, see Ukraine unrest timeline LIVE UPDATES on RT.
Establishment historians, msm desperate to bury JFK's memory
The following is some of the content of an e-mail exchange with someone who is helping Syria to defend itself against United-States-sponsored terrorist aggression. This will form the basis of a more complete article later. - Ed
Tim,
As I meant to write earlier, if time doesn't allow you to consider my arguments, then, by all means please just tell me and just focus on your essential work in solidarity with the Syrian people.
However, IF YOU CAN FIND THE TIME to consider my arguments more thoughtfully, I believe it will strengthen the case for Syria even more. JFK is an example of what is possible when a highly motivated and capable person gets to high office. I think this also applies to Bashar al-Assad and a number of the leaders of countries allied with Syria.
Sadly, many supposed progressives and socialists have, whether or not they realise it, taken on board the Trotskyist[1] paradigm whereby, anyone who achieves high office, particularly head of state, and IS NOT A DISCIPLINED MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY PARTY[2] must be corrupt and a servant of the international capitalist class. I can see how this has been erroneously applied since at least the least the 1930s to a number of highly motivated and capable political leaders: President FDR, Henry Wallace, who was FDR's vice-President, and who should have succeeded FDR instead of Harry Truman, the now-forgotten British left Labor MP Konni Zilliacus (1894-1967
On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 Tim wrote:
yes i am sure that prosecution was false
So why do you think the Warren Commission, in its 10 months of deliberations (29 Nov 1963 - 24 Sep 1964) failed to investigate the murder properly?
The only conceivable reason, other than gross and unprecedented incompetence, is a cover-up.
(whether Oswald was involved is another story)
He wasn't. He was a patsy as he tried to warn us.
and that the JFK assassination had to do with his perceived 'betrayal' of the Cuban mafia
That is the hypothesis of my largely unread tome "Legacy of Secrecy" (2008) by Lamar Waldron (http://www.ctka.net/reviews/waldron_updated.html – now https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/waldron-lamar-with-thom-hartmann-legacy-of-secrecy - Ed, 4/7/2017)
If it truly was the Mafia alone, without the help of the military-industrial complex, then why could the Warren Commission not have produced a less shambolic report without obvious holes and misreporting of testimony that would have shown that conclusively?
re the failed invasion in 1961 and the deal done with the USSR in 1962
there is now a lot of evidence on this
As I have said, the situation JFK faced was complex. Whilst he did not make mistakes, he was clearly one of history's (If not the) most capable leader(s). Most of today's political 'leaders' don't even measure up to JFK's ankles.
There can be no excuse in the light of JFK's example for the miserable performance we have received from nearly all of the world's political leaders since then. That is why the MSM and establishment historians are desperate to bury JFK's memory.
best regards,
FOOTNOTE[S]
[1] Leon Trotsky, who commanded the Bolshevik insurrection in 1917 (whilst Lenin, was forced to hide because there was a warrant for his arrest), made profound and monumental contributions to world history, although it seems to me that his intellect started to unravel late in his life not long before he was murdered in August 1940. An example was that he mistakenly applied the paradigm of the First World War to the Second World War. Unlike the case of the First World War, humanity truly had a stake in supporting one side against the other. For all the faults of many who led the Allied nations, had the Allies lost and the Nazis and Japanese colonialist triumphed, humanity would have descended into new era of savagery and barbarism. Although records of this are hard to find, during the Second World War, Trotskyists in the Allied countries, including Australia, opposed their own capitalist government's war effort, whilst claiming to still defend the Soviet Union led by the dictator Stalin.
[2] This is somewhat a parody.
Mother dolphin commits "suicide" when calf taken
A mother dolphin committed suicide after her rare albino calf was captured by Japanese fishermen, animal activists have claimed.
Sea Shepherd members livestreamed the ritual of rounding up of hundreds of dolphins, which sees dozens of dolphins captured for live sale to aquariums and other customers, while others are killed for food.
They report that "Our volunteer Cove Guardians documented and witnessed the grieving mother repeatedly spy-hopping, looking for her calf, before lowering herself into the water, never to resurface."
The captured dolphins for the "hunt" includes a rare albino calf worth millions.
Dolphins are known to commit suicide. Cathy was a bottlenose dolphin, one of five activist Richard O'Barry trained for the 60?s television hit Flipper. Her death in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium changed his world and set him on a course of activism. "I knew she was tired of suffering," O'Barry says. According to O'Barry, Cathy chose to stop breathing, something dolphins are physiologically capable of, and he believes it was an intentional act brought on by her captivity.
In several cases, the creatures repeatedly slammed their head against sides of a pool - or simply stopped coming up for air.
The fishermen say the hunt is part of their tradition and call foreign critics who eat other kinds of meat hypocritical. Humanity seems to be damned by inability to empathise with animals - and their greed for resources overrides any concern for their welfare.
Facebook disabled Hands off Syria page for 12 hours
Facebook disabled the admin account of Hands Off Syria page again for 12 hours yesterday. That was only 24 hours after the previous disablement/suspension which was documented here :
Facebook Community Standards
Facebook gives people around the world the power to publish their own stories, see the world through the eyes of many other people, and connect and share wherever they go. The conversation that happens on Facebook – and the opinions expressed here – mirror the diversity of the people using Facebook. ...
... linked to from http://handsoffsyria.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/facebook-community-standards.html
This time their page violated (!) "Community Standards" with the post linked to above. This post was published sometime in March 2013. For some unknown reasons, it was unearthed from the archive - 10 months later. And it was decided that it was VIOLATING COMMUNITY STANDARDS.. Yeap.. That's right!.. And we deserved another 12 hours suspension penalty...
It's not the first time this has happened. The Truth is being hushed, and is inconvenient for those in power - backing social media.
Community Standard should be to uphold free press, not suppressed.
Editorial comment: There have been attempts by much of the social media sites to obstruct open discussion in recent months. This appears to be in conjunction with the United States' NSA efforts to comprehensively store all content posted to, be emailed over, the Internet. In hindsight, I can see that this is an almost inevitable consequence of allowing private corporations control social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. These corporations are ultimately answerable only to the small minority of shareholders who have the majority of shares. As you have seen they are not in the least accountable to the vastly larger number of people who freely contribute to their "social media" pages.
One possible solution would be for someone to start a new social media site in which seach takeholder can own only own one share and get only one vote on all matters of governance. It could be run in a fashion similar to Direct Democracy under which the nation of Switzerland is governed. Each stakeholder would pay maybe $100 or $200 (AU$ or US$) for one share. Thereafter an annual subscription of $30 to $50 would be paid to meet ongoing expenses. Stakeholders from outside Australia or the United States would pay amounts which comprise an equivalent proportion of their income. The expenses would include the payment of a salary of an amount agreed to by the stakeholders, to one or more site administrator.
One interim solution would be for those who contribute to candobetter and other forum sites to link from other sites to candobetter and back. If this were to be done, in preference to just relying on search engines, which can be so easiy manipulated, we could quickly raise the profile of candobetter by at least one order of magnitude if even only a fraction of our supporters were to do this. As an example, a link to this story would be:
<a href="http://candobetter.net/?q=node/3643">(linked text)</a>
... and a link from elsewhere to this comment could be posted in the following text:
To properly understand the Genva 2 Syrian Peace Conference, read the<a href="http://candobetter.net/?q=node/3643#comment-116394">opening address</a> by Syria's Foreign Minister, Walid Al Moallem.
The above should be rendered on your [Mozilla Firefox(?), KDE Konqueror(?), KDE Rekonq(?)] browser as follows:
To properly understand the Genva 2 Syrian Peace Conference, read the opening address by Syria's Foreign Minister, Walid Al Moallem.
(More, later) One interim solution would be for those who contribute to candobetter and other forum sites to link from other sites to candobetter and back. If this were to be done, in preference to just relying on search engines, which can be so easiy manipulated, we could quickly raise the profile of candobetter by at least one order of magnitude if even only a fraction of our supporters were to do this.
Nationalist insurrection in Libya
From Voltaire Net, 20 Jan 2014
Libyan nationalist forces regained control of several cities, especially in the sourthern part of the country.
Multiple anti-NATO demonstrations have been reported in the last three days.
The green flag is floating again Ajdabiya, Marsa el-Brega, the port of Ra’s Lanuf, Sabah, Suluq and even Tobruk.
The General National Congress, imposed by NATO—but partly made up of former Gaddafists, some of whom have remained secretly loyal—declared a state of emergency in the entire country.
There has never been a "revolution" in Libya, but a covert NATO operation to instigate the secession of Benghazi, using Al-Qaeda to overthrow the central government. Ultimately, NATO bombed Tripoli and murdered Muammar al-Gaddafi. The foreign "humanitarian" intervention resulted in the death of 160 000 people and forced the two-thirds of the population into exile.
Social sciences are harder than Bill Gates realises
This is typical of a problem where physicists, zoologists, and now software developers all imagine that because they know something about their own field, they must know what causes overpopulation. It must be simple - right? because it involves social science or something. Only idiots do social science, so any intelligent bloke in some other field should be able to sum the situation up.
Wrong.
A halfwit with their eye on the ball could probably tell Billy Gates that he's reiterating the same tale that's been around now since the 1950s. The tale goes, "In 10 years poverty and overpopulation will all be fixed by development."
Read my book Mr Gates - the development fix for overpopulation and poverty is actually the cause of overpopulation and poverty.
It really isn't as simply as you think.
Japan's whaling ship gets halal certification
Japan's whaling mothership has been awarded a halal certificate to prove the whales it takes from the Antarctic Ocean are slaughtered in accordance with Muslim law, a company spokesman said Wednesday. The inspectors advised workers on the factory ship to change the disinfectant liquid used for cleaning hands to avoid any possible contamination from the alcohol solution, the owner of Nisshin Maru said. It's this cosmetic window-dressing that will give a tick of approval to killing protected whales, and one that ignores the greater evil of killing the whales - to the hand-wash used!
Whale meat be made halal to increase the choice of meat available to Japan's Islamic community. Muslims are barred by their religion from eating pork. It's a desperate attempt to encourage more of the public to eat the by-product of this bogus "research" - even though the Japan Muslim Association told AFP there were only around 100,000 Muslims in Japan -- less than 0.08 percent of the population.
Not only is Japan operating a war against whales in the Southern Ocean where whaling is illegal, they are slaughtering bottlenose dolphins in a "hunt" that they claim is a centuries old tradition.
No countries poor by 2035: Bill Gates
According to Gates in another decade no country will be as poor as any of the 35 countries that the World Bank classifies as low-income today even after adjusting for inflation.
In his idealist and cornupocia concept, Gates said, "Every nation in South America, Asia, and Central America (with the possible exception of Haiti), and most in coastal Africa will have joined the ranks of today's middle-income nations. More than 70% of countries will have higher per captia income than China, and most will be wealthier than India.
Billions of people will have been lifted out of extreme poverty through economic development. Many countries that were poor in the past now have thriving economies. He's extrapolated some countries' trends to the globe, and is forgetting the costs of economic growth of emerging nations.
Pollution, food insecurity, land grabs, soil and water depletions, ecological destruction, finite natural resources, climate change and over population. There are only a few of the "challenges" that will stifle the utopia of almost full planetary wealth.
No poor countries by 2035: Bill Gates, 23 Jan 2014 from The Times of India
Saving lives leads to overpopulation, and foreign aid is a big waste, he says. Planned Parenthood, for instance has received $34 million from the Gates Foundation out of a total of $10.5 billion worldwide. The Bill Gates foundation has provided in excess of $10.5 billion earmarked for Planned parenthood programs other than the provision of abortion.
Encroaching desert stokes religious tensions in Nigeria
“The root cause of the violence is resources,” Nnamdi Obasi, West Africa analyst at International Crisis Group.
Overpopulation, on a landscape of diminishing resources and desertification, is driving conflict and deaths.
Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have three of the world's top 20 fastest growing population rates, and fertility rates in Africa continue to be among the highest in the world. Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Mali, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia populations are predicted to grow by 500% by 2100.
Sadly, their real problem is very clear - massive overpopulation is causing conflicts between religions factions, and their refusal to keep their numbers at a sustainable level. Until they comprehend the massive implications of lack of family planning, and their inhibitions, they will face Nature's heartlessness and limits, and the violence that comes from humanity's ecological overshoot.
Encroaching desert stokes religious tensions in Nigeria
It's easy to see the symptoms, but overpopulation is the root cause!
Freedom and/or democracy
Well let us (the people) at least have a say. At the minute all these decisions are being made for us. Like many others. Either we are democracy or we are not. If we are then the minority will have to live with the decisions, good, bad or otherwise, of the majority. If we are not, which is what it seems to me, then lets stop calling it a democracy and call it what it is. Perhaps, given the same forces are at work here as in the USA in this globalised age (and our leaders are obsequious to the yanks), perhaps inverted totalitarianism is the right description.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Kelvin Thomson: solution to tran-Tasman immigration problem
Give Kiwis easier dole but limit migration, says federal MP Kelvin Thomson
from the Herald Sunof 21 Jan 2014
Labor MP Kelvin Thomson said there would have to be an annual limit on Kiwi migration, otherwise Australia would face a huge influx of jobless people.
More than 600,000 Kiwis, or about 10 per cent of the NZ population, live permanently here. Some 300,000 barred from accessing welfare.
Mr Thomson said that Kiwis should be given permanent residence and welfare entitlements, but only if the trans-Tasman migration agreement was changed to cap annual numbers at between 30,000 to 40,000 people. He said that his solution was fair because NZ citizens would have more security here and Australia would regain control of its migration program.
Monash University population expert Dr Bob Birrell agreed.
You cannot have a free citizenry AND Multiculturalism
This atricle makes a common, grave mistake. It supposes that a multicultural, culturally and racially diverse country can be free. Sadly, this is not a possibility. There are no countries which have taken on diverse, mass immigration which have not also had to curtail civil rights. "Hate Speech" laws are the most obvious example. Diversity has been responsible for more losses of freedom than even terrorism. Even with terrorism, a lot of the infringements of freedom are again related to diversity, with laws being necessary due to the real possibility of home grown terrorism from those with a 'diverse' background. Would so much surveillance be necessary against us during this "war on terror" if Australia was the homogenous nation it was, say in the 50s?
In order to keep a diverse society cohesive, it is absolutely necessary for the government to have the constitutional right to control freedom of speech and freedom of association. The first amendment is under threat now in the US. Why? Because of "hate speech". The 1st amendment survived Bush, corporatism, but is unlikely to survive multiculturalism. all such societies have become tyrannies. There are no free, multicultural nations. Speech which threatens the faux cohesiveness must be banned for the national good. Allegiance to the old national identity mist be eschewed for the national good. governments cannot allow unfettered civil rights, as these right will be used by people to recreate naturally occurring divisions. expression of competition must be suppressed.
Yugoslavia was only slightly multicultural, yet fell apart when they lost Tito who held it together by force. Singapore is multi ethnic, and as a result, authoritarian. European nations are jailing political dissidents, creating laws to jail people not just for what they've said, but even what they read. All these are again, related to the multicultural question. If you think about the laws banning speech in Australia, you'll quickly see that all these laws were created as a result of necessity from multiculturalism.
So we have a choice, embrace multiculturalism OR be free. We can't have both, and freedom is FAR more important to me.
Oz Day
Australia First Party
January 26th
Australia Day
"I do not doubt but this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made. We have come here today to take possession of this fifth great continental division of the earth on behalf of the British people and have founded here a state which we hope will not only occupy and rule this great country but will also become the beneficial patron of all the nations of the Southern Hemisphere. How grand is the prospect which lies before this youthful nation”.
Captain Arthur Phillip, Sydney Cove 26/1/1788
Captain Phillip's commission and appointment as Governor of the territory called New South Wales was under the authority of Lord Sydney, given at the Court of St James on the 12th of October 1786.
This foundation as proclaimed by Governor Phillip was the “formal” beginning of European Settlement of this great old continent. Formal in the sense of a permanent commitment to the creation of a new European derived civilisation of progress and culture, even if of humble beginnings.
In ascribing “formal” to this settlement, acknowledgement to earlier Indo-European occupations, evidenced from “pre-history” sites, co-existing alongside the series of migrations of the varying hunter/gatherer peoples down the centuries, is noted.
This permanent occupation, although of Colonial Status, provided our settling peoples with ongoing exposure to our continents unique environment, a primary cause for fixing of outlook and values, and in turn the development of an Australian “Nativist” identity and culture.
From here over the ensuing decades, came the idea of upholding a National Day to advance cultural Australianism, and in particular to provide an expression of our nationality. January 26th was upheld in the separate settlements to varying degrees, and under a variety of celebrations as European Settlement Day, Pioneers Day, and Anniversary Day.
Foremost in the cause for an official national day was the influential Australian Natives Association [ANA], working in conjunction with the Australian Patriotic Society of Sydney. The ANA was formed in 1871 as the Victorian Natives Association, a mutual help society with a secondary aim "to promote the moral, social and intellectual improvement of its members." The association numbered productive citizens, figures of prominence, parliamentarians, and the judiciary.
The ANA became a leading light in the colonial society infusing many of its Australianist views and principles into the population. In the face of the ad hoc manner of celebrations for 26th January, the ANA in seeking to inspire national community spirit, passed a resolution at its 1886 Melbourne conference:- "That a National Holiday be fixed and that 26 January be suggested as the most desirable date, that being the anniversary of the foundation of Australia."
The promotion of the National Day as resolved faced some difficulty from the colonial administrators who initially offered limited interest to expressions of a genuine Australian consciousness, however the Sydney "Bulletin" Magazine, the growth of industrial unionism and the blooming of our Australian native culture, assisted an Australian fervour, and with inspiring a recognition from the citizen at large.
In the latter part of the 19th century, the native born comprised over 75% of the population, and with increasing interest the administrations in 1887 agreed to a national day holiday on 26th January under a celebration to be known as Foundation Day. With the energetic efforts of the ANA, and patriotic people, the celebration universally became Australia Day.
For fairdinkums, January 26th holds true as our National Day – a commemoration of European settlement, and the civilisation our people have built, and defended in war, together with valuing our Native Soil to which we all remain indebted, and enables our lifestyle.
Australia Day 1943: Ian Mudie - Jindyworobak
If ever it were time for the dead to ride
then surely that time is now:
From the Leeuwin's cliffs to the roar of Sydney-side
From Wyndham to the Howe
call up your ghosts, Australia, call up your many dead,
your Kelly and your Lalor and the shirted men they led;
call up your brave, your Stuart, your Wentworth, your Bennelong,
your men who dared Hashemy, with its bitter slavish wrong.
Call up your quietened singers from the silence of the grave,
who sang your latent spirit to the complaining wave.
Call up your myths and your legends, your men of song and tale,
men from the Snowy, the Centre, and lakes where the bunyips wail,
your seekers, your finders, your fighters, your men who with Clancy ride,
Lawson's men from the western creeks, and a thousand more beside.
Call up your ghosts, Australia, and set them riding far
to rouse a sleeping nation to its seven-pointed star.
Call up your dead, Australians, and bid them ride with you
to set your rivers brimming with Eureka's flood anew.
Call up your hosts, Australia, to strive with you amain,
to fight, to sing, to honour, your Flag of Stars again.
Then when the day is over, whether to shout or to weep,
keep ever your dead alive in you, oh, never let them sleep,
for the nation that forgets its dead, that lets its heroes lie
dust-deep in its mind forever is surely ripe to die.
And only those go on, in glory their story to make,
who ever keep their dead alive, and their heroes awake.
Now is the time for the nation's urgent dead to ride,
so set them riding here and now -
from the Leeuwin's cliff's to the roar of Sydney-side,
from Wyndham to the Howe.
Australia First calls on real Australians to celebrate the day in its original intent, important in this new era where toads abound who spin the graveyard future of an “Asian Century”; who despise or have no involvement with our heritage and parrot for our traditional Australia Day to be dumped to placate multicultist misfits; who prostitute our day through the issue of citizenship to the swarms of alien Third World immigrants, who will never be Australian and are undermining our Aussie community; being dumped here by money changers to prop up their collapsing exponential growth driven economic system
Against these toads, the rallying call is Australia First, and support for our Australian identity, heritage and traditions.
Celebrate Australia Day
Fly our National Flag; engage with family and friends to sink a beer, etc; play some Slim Dusty songs, read a verse of Henry Lawson or the Banjo; sit under a gum tree, and rub your fingers in our Native Soil; reflect on the Australia we once had, and want back; celebrate our heritage with genuine patriotism and sentiment, and with a spirit of gratitude to our pioneering peoples and earlier generations who have provided our legacy of Australia.
And join with Australia Firsters in our fight for a regime change - to eject from the State Power the prevailing globalising traitor class and restore the destiny of our Commonwealth.
If you don’t fight - you lose!
Australia First Party
P.O. Box 223 Croydon 3136. P.O. Box 593 Rockdale 2216.
P O Box 893 Rockhampton 4700. P O Box 129 Collie 6225. P O Box 101 Holden Hill 5088.
www.australiafirstparty.net
National Contact 02 8587 0014
email: ausfirst [ AT ] hotmail.com
Identity Freedom Independence pl2. 3/12/2013
Australia First Party - Reclaiming Australia for Australians
Infrastructure needed first
Bob Birrell, from the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, said there had been "good results" in Victoria when migrants moved to regional areas.
He said there was significant movement of Muslim people to Shepparton while some riverland areas had experienced growth in Chinese and south-east Asian populations.
Mr Birrell said the willingness to do field labour meant there was a niche for them in regional areas but the majority were still located in metropolitan areas. Mr Birrell said it was especially hard for refugees to work in regional areas because many did not speak English, had few skills and had distinct cultural backgrounds.
Crime in Shepparton, about 3 hours from Melbourne, is up more than 11 per cent, mainly due to a rise in family violence, theft and home burglaries. RACV’s analysis of Victoria’s 2013 crime statistics has revealed Greater Shepparton communities are some of the state’s riskiest regional areas for home break-ins.
High levels of relative socio-economic disadvantage exist, along with high rates of unemployment. Over 70% of individuals in focus areas did not complete year 12 at school which contributes to a highly significant measure of understanding food security. 24% of households have an income of less than $500pw and may experience difficulty buying enough nutritious food.
Ghettos of disadvantage and crime could easily form without investment in social and public support programs, and efforts to create integrated communities (despite government sanctioned "multicultural" agenda!).
Mr Birrell said establishing social and cultural programs would be fundamental to ensuring a smooth transition but noted there were already visas to attract skilled migrants to regional Australia.
Infrastructure needed before refugees go rural- Bob Birrell
Free Trade should not mean open borders