Comments

nimby (not verified)

Sat, 2012-08-11 08:22

There are many "errors in law" all over Melbourne. The sham "community consultation" processes regarding developments are continually ignored in preference to developers. It's an attack on local communities trying to protect the integrity of their suburbs, their lifestyles and their well-being. Balance is being lost, and Melbourne is being overwhelmed by high rise developments and family-hostile apartments of brick and concrete. Until local communities and Councils implement their own population policies, and enforce them, State governments will continue to cave in to the powers that demand growth, and "big Australia" will be a reality. The mass disability of "population blindness" is being captured and manipulated - until the public wake up to the root cause of increasing costs of living, less open spaces, shadows over our footpaths and backyards, increased congestion on our roads and footpaths, and increasing crime and social fallout from overpopulation.

Geoffrey Taylor

Thu, 2012-08-09 23:28

From Press TV, Thu 9 Aug 2012

France has sent troops to the Syrian border with Jordan amid reports of escalating foreign support for the insurgents fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

France said its soldiers have been deployed to 'help refugees' in the border area.

On Monday, the spokeswoman for the so-called Syrian National Council (SNC), Bassma Kodmani, singled out Saudi Arabia and Qatar among the countries providing arms for the insurgents.

Reports also indicate that the notorious US security firm Blackwater is reportedly training al-Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s border areas to fight in Syria.

From Press TV, Thu 9 Aug 2012

Syrian army rounds up insurgents in northeastern city of al-Hasa

Tens of insurgents have been killed in the Hanano neighborhood in Aleppo as the Syrian army clears more areas in the restive northwestern city of the foreign-backed armed men.

The army forces on Thursday pushed out insurgents in Aleppo’s districts of Asileh and Bab al-Nasir.

The anti-government forces also lost scores of men in the Bustan al-Basha district, and had to withdraw from the Salahuddin neighborhood.

Pamela. (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-09 17:57

When will we ever evolve as a species? Notice how these blood-lusting knuckle-draggers only come out at night to perpetrate their disgusting acts. Politicians only pander to these rednecks for votes (and probably 'donations' as well). Until we get people of integrity and fortitude in positions of authority these horrors will continue. I'm ashamed to be Australian.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-09 17:29

The thing to do is to take your protests against these culls to outside DSE. Just a few people, even only one, with a sign saying, "Get rid of DSE; it is just a front for developers and is culling our wildlife" PLUS a picture of the Minister's face, will help. And protest outside any functions the Minister is attending and outside his office. Role Occupant The Hon. Ryan Smith, MP Phone 03 9637 8890 Fax Number 03 9637 8880 Email Address [email protected] Website www.parliament.vic.gov.au... Portfolio Minister for Environment and Climate Change Minister for Youth Affairs Other Roles Member for Warrandyte Minister for Youth Affairs Address Level 17 8 Nicholson Street East Melbourne Victoria, 3002 Parliamentary Party Liberal Party Electorate Warrandyte

nimby

Thu, 2012-08-09 17:21

That our State government, under the umbrella of wildlife "management", continue to recklessly distribute permits to kill thousands of native animals. That permits were given out to kill black swans, kookaburras and more than 1500 wombats and 32,000 kangaroos and wallabies last year, exposes their inherent corruption and Colonial attitudes. Never before in the history of our planet have non-human species been under so many threats to their long-term survival. Australia has the infamous reputation as the biggest exterminator of mammals in the modern world. Continued urban sprawl will eventually eliminate Victoria's once common growling grass frogs and southern brown bandicoots. Population growth is placing undue conflicts and demands on our ecosystems, our environment, natural resources and wildlife. With heavy competition for limited farming land, Australia - one of the mega-diverse nations in the world - is undergoing rapid species depletions. Economic growth, and demand for resources, overwhelms any concern for the well-being of animals and habitats. Our indigenous fore bearers, the original custodians of this land, managed to live sustainable for over 40,000 years, largely in harmony with the seasons and only used what they needed. Since European settlement, the greed has brought devastation to native animals, that they are seen as the "enemy" and still "vermin" to be eradicated. It's evolutionary to lose species, and natural to have population controls, but humans have wreaked havoc on numbers, and our extinction rate is one of the highest on the planet. The DSE, instead of representing the interests of "sustainability" and the "environment", has been infiltrated by the interests of farmers and land-holders, and corrupted by a government that came to power devoid of environmental policies. As Greens leader Greg Barber says, this all happens under the cloak of secrecy. The DSE have their own code of practices devoid of transparency and respect for native animals. Slaughter is the no-brainer, gun-driven way of eliminating any wildlife management issues. Efforts to protect native animals are stonewalled by bureaucrats, but obtaining a permit to "control" (ie kill) wildlife are handed out without the landowners even getting a visit from DSE officers, or advice on alternative methods of managing any wildlife impacts. Ignorance an intolerance prevails, with colonial and red-neck attitudes deeply embedded in government departments and agencies. We were never meant to be a bit nation, but a small country on a vast landscape. The DSE need to be closed and replaced by genuine ecologists, zoologists, environmental managers and indigenous experts.

Vivienne O (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-09 16:34

You may add what I wrote to Mr Wilson this morning: Dear Mr Wilson, I heard a rumour that the kangaroos at Plenty Gorge are to be culled Monday and Wednesday nights. Another case of DSE and Parks Victoria not have any concern or policies about our wildlife. Wildlife carers Professor Steve Garlick and his wife Dr Rosemary have successfully relocated hundreds of kangaroos. There must be plenty of grass at this time of the year. Already there are damning reports of DSE killing wildlife. http://www.standard.net.au/story/70847/dse-burns-killing-wildlife-says-rescuer/ Controlled burns across Victoria’s public bushland to reduce wildfire risks are threatening native habitats, according to Koroit-based wildlife rescuer Tracey Wilson, in April this year. Ms Wilson said there had been recent cases of animals, including wallabies and koalas having to be euthanised because of severe burning. Culling is killing, not some act of humanity http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/culling-is-killing-not-some-act-of-humanity/story-e6frfhqf-1226443384194 During 2011 the DSE issued permits to kill many thousands of wild native animals within Victoria -- including 32,000 kangaroos and wallabies. Other animals killed included wombats, possums, bats, seals and birds such as emus, kookaburras, parrots, galahs, swans, gulls, ravens, magpies and cape barren geese. It appears this information had to be pried out of the secretive DSE, which previously refused Freedom of Information requests in relation to the killing of Victoria's wildlife. You are probably aware of widespread community anger, protests and current community court case to save the last habitat of the endangered Leadbeater's Possum, Victoria's faunal emblem. These animals occur only in the Central Highlands and were already in serious decline when the 2009 Black Saturday fires wiped out more than 44% of their forest habitat. The total remaining population is likely to be less than 1000, even as low as 500! The government appears to want to scrap vital habitat corridors planned for the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot in Melbourne's rapidly expanding south-east region. Growling grass frogs, once common, are disappearing. Plans for these corridors were developed under national environmental laws. But it seems the Baillieu Government won't let a threatened species stand in the way of new houses. Urban sprawl is locking wildlife out of Victoria, and there are no wildlife corridors to allow them to traverse the State into national parks. Fragmentation of habitats, and the many threats to their ongoing existence, is limiting their chances to survive in the long term. The DSE need to be more accountable, not just trigger happy and using "culling" as a quick and easy solution to any wildlife issues. Victoria has NO FAUNA Management FRAMEWORK, only for native vegetation. They are taken for granted and easily eliminated as of no consequence. Killing kangaroos in a state park does not make sense. Please reassure the public that this won't happen

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2012-08-09 11:17

Richard Heinberg will be visiting Australia and lecturing in most or all Australian state capitals in September. In Melbourne he will be appearing on September 22nd, 2012, at the Wheeler Centre. Richard writes about oil depletion and survival and is the author of ten books, including The Party’s Over, Peak Everything, and the soon-to-be-released The End of Growth.

Jenny Warfe and Vivienne Ortega will be organising the event in Victoria on behalf of Sustainable Population Australia (Victorian Branch).
$5 entry.

Information: www.population.org.au/heinberg2012 Inquiries: Jenny Warfe warfej[AT]bigpond.com

Bandicoot

Thu, 2012-08-09 10:54

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard was playing pure politics when she used a speech to the Energy Policy Institute of Australia on Tuesday to blame state governments for soaring power prices. Queensland has had a 80 per cent hike in household electricity prices in the past five years. Mr Newman will seize every opportunity he can to blame his predecessors for financial and policy mismanagement. Queenslanders are also paying the price for meeting growing demand, both from an increasing population and, in the southeast in particular, a rapid take-up of airconditioners, which places big strains on the system on the hottest days of the year. High rise living means being captive to powered appliances such as air conditioning, clothes drying and heating even in the more southern states. Privatising the Government's electricity businesses to put them in the hands of efficiency-focused private companies. This would provide consumers with "greater choice" and "more competition" but also free the government from the public beating it receives each year when the Queensland Competition Authority announces the electricity price increase for the next 12 months. It also free governments from trade unions and industrial relations. editorial - shedding light on power prices Prior to Kennett’s election, the government-owned State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) was responsible for the supply of electricity in Victoria. Despite being accused of being unproductive, an Electricity Supply Association study of 1000 utilities around the world found that SECV was in the top ten for efficiency of resource use and that it was also highly efficient in terms of technical efficiency of distribution. The SECV in fact delivered affordable electricity to consumers whilst making a healthy profit. Project Victoria nonetheless called for the privatisation, deregulation and corporatisation of the State’s electricity demonstrates its ideologically driven nature. Neo-liberal think tanks and neo-liberal restructuring: Damien Cahill and Sharon Beder Victoria's State Electricity Commission (SEC) generated and sold power to Victorian consumers from 1926 to 1998. In every single year it reduced the real price of power to customers. This meant that for ordinary households buying electricity took a smaller part of their earnings in each successive year. the SEC also trained thousands of apprentices in electricity and other workplace skills. Eventually, many of these highly skilled tradesmen found their way into the wider workforce. In a similar manner, the SEC also trained engineers and other skilled workers, not all of whom chose to remain in the commission's employ. Either way, the community got the benefit of skills-training provided by the SEC. ECONOMIC AFFAIRS: Privatisation has failed to deliver cheaper electricity In 2000-1 the price of electricity in the National Electricity Market increased by 60%. When retail deregulation was introduced in Victoria, price caps continued with ‘safety net’ prices being set by the government to avoid the political implications of these large price increases. Privatisation of electricity in Victoria had failed to deliver any increased generating capacity and generator breakdowns were threatening blackouts. About $2.5 billion over 15 years could be saved if electricity distribution reliability was slightly reduced, according to the Australian Energy Market Commission's (AEMC) review of rule changes for the state government. More than $11 billion is poured into power infrastructure to stop "blackouts" occurring in peak periods, totalling about four days every year. Reducing reliability is an assault on productivity, on our lifestyles, and on our energy bills. Now, we could be forced to compromise electricity reliability to contain the costs of power. Blackouts costing Australia 11 b The real costs of supplying energy are in distribution rather than generation. The "poles and wires" must be replaced, maintained, and also expanded to cope with population growth. Thus, reliability will be compromised to pay for economic growth. While Julia Gillard blames the States for the surging costs of power even before the introduction of the carbon tax, it is Federal policies that drive our population growth. Planning Minister Matthew Guy recently announced the creation of 6 new suburbs. All these new consumers, over 60,000 per year, will need either upgraded, or new, "poles and wires". The costs and impacts of a growth-based economy are passed onto the people of Victoria, whose hip pockets will be raided to pay for basic utilities. The constraints to growth are becoming clearer, and economic growth is becoming more uneconomic.

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2012-08-08 22:13

Or, if that seems a little technical, just cut and paste the URL into your comment, or even just give the name of the article and say it's on candobetter.net. I am grateful to Malthusista for pasting a quote to Jon Quiggan's website from my recent article reviewing Laura Tingle's Great Expectations. If any one would like to add to discussion there, go to http://johnquiggin.com/2012/08/06/monday-message-board-215/comment-page-1/#comment-178173 Thanks James.

Sheila Newman

Wed, 2012-08-08 21:20

On August 8, 2012, in response to a cross-posting, Katz wrote the following amusing and perceptive response to the above article by Tingle: First posted on jonquiggan.com at http://johnquiggin.com/2012/08/06/monday-message-board-215/comment-page-1/#comment-178189 Katz wrote: "Tingle makes a poor effort at historical synthesis. She is an exponent of the One Damned Thing After Another school of historical narrative. I like your characterisation of Tingle’s interpretation of Australia’s “original sin” here: Tingle often uses the word ‘paternalistic’ to describe Australian government from the earliest days of settlement, but a better word would be authoritarian. By using the word ‘paternalistic’ however, which has a somewhat benevolent undertone, she also manages to characterise Australians as childlike and passive. With Hirst’s help, convicts emerge as wimps who tugged at Daddy Governor’s apron strings, thus copping a few well-deserved slaps. This caricature sets the tone for this digest of Australian government powers and citizens’ rights. I should also observe that this description of conditions in Port Phillip District/Victoria is completely incorrect. Granted that Victoria was only one of several colonies, but nevertheless after the Gold Rush Victoria became the population and financial centre of the continent at the time of the evolution of many of Australia’s economic, political and social institutions. At the very least, Tingle should be aware of not applying the NSW cookie cutter to the history of the entire continent. Some inconvenient facts about PPD/Victoria: 1. It was founded in defiance of government. 2. Few British-convicted felons lived in PPD/Victoria. 3. The Eureka Stockade was in its economic aspects a revolt of entrepreneurs against government power. 4. After Eureka, Whitehall was genuinely alarmed at a repeat of the American Revolution and made significant concessions to democratic sentiment. 5. The Masters and Servants Act was a source of considerable class antagonism. Victorian workers fought successfully against this class-based regime, establishing a powerful trades union organisation. 6. Victoria pioneered the secret ballot to minimise the possibility of employers’ intimidating voters. These attitudes and practices spread to a greater or lesser degree to all other Australian colonies. Tingle ignores them."

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Wed, 2012-08-08 08:05

Laura Tingle says that "constant mass migration" " more than anything else" pushed the Australian economy and the population through waves of rapid change. It's assumed that "change" is inevitable, unstoppable, desirable and something that if we can't and are unwilling to accept and adapt to it, we are personally inadequate, stuck in a rut, and living in the past. Not all change is GOOD, unavoidable, in our interests, and should be adapted to and meekly accepted.

The momentum of our growth-based economy must come to an eventual end. We can't be an "immigration nation" forever. Our cities don't need to descend into mess of entangled roads, plagued by shortages of funds to keep up with demands, less and less personal and civic spaces, and a decline in living standard along with increased costs of living.

Change shouldn't be imposed on us. Societies should largely change for the better, and be evolutionary in nature.
"Constant mass migration" is a political choice, and policy that benefited us in the past, but one that needs to be revised in regards to our present time. Policies shouldn't be locked in permanently, without revision and change - something governments are reluctant to do themselves!

We wonder why asylum seekers come here? We are an "immigration nation"!

We need a circuit-breaker to end the momentum of our growth-based economic Ponzi-like scheme. It's accumulating debris on the way, and people are counting on this debris for pensions, jobs, financial returns and retirement funding. Sometimes short-term pain must be accepted for a better future. A change in direction will hurt some industries, but in the long term Australia will be better placed to face the multiple challenges of the future with a stable population. It's imperative that our present immigration levels become political issues for any upcoming elections.

admin

Tue, 2012-08-07 23:38

Thank you, Agent Provocateur, for your interest and support.

In fact, I have been meaning for some time to re-write the section entitled What You Can Do in the About page.

One way to help is as follows:

If, as well as contributing artcles and comments to candobetter, contributors also posted similar comments to other web-sites with links back to articles and comments on candobetter the profile of candobetter could easily be increased by an order of magnitude as just a start. An example of how to link from a forum discussion site, is how I linked from johnquiggin.com back to an article on candobetter:

<a href="http://candobetter.net/node/2782">ABC markets new privatisation grab of public assets</a>

20 July 2012

Back in 2002 the Australian Government owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) surprisingly placed itself in the forefront of efforts to steamroll the public into acceptance of the Howard Government’s plans to privatise Telstra. In 2012, 10 years later, the same ABC Radio National Breakfast Show, but with a different presenter, is again at the forefront of another propaganda drive to impose yet more privatisation against the will of the overwhelming majority of Australians.

(To see how the above html (Hyper-Text Markup Language) is rendered on your browser, please follow the link I have provided above.)

Agent Provocateur

Tue, 2012-08-07 18:10

.. I have just started a new job and I'm trying to buy a new home.. but if you let me know how to offer support (which I am able/qualified to give) I'd be happy to do so. Best Regards Agent Provocateur

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2012-08-07 15:21

THE first policy a new federal government should dust off when elected next year is ''Big Australia''. The Kevin Rudd initiative aimed at growing Australia's population from 22.3 million to 35 million by 2050..... Within weeks of taking the top job, Julia Gillard scrapped Big Australia realising that few votes would be garnered from the initiative. Wow. That article is just incredibly bad. If an undergraduate journalist student submitted it they would probably be failed. "Big Australia" was never any kind of initiative or government policy. Just a consequence of the federal government's ongoing, haphazard policy of adhoc massive immigration. Which is still underway of course. And will continue under the federal government, Coalition, Labor or even Greens, for decades to come. Seriously, 5 minutes reading Wikipeda would show this journalist that we are on track to be well over 35 million by 2050. Either he's extremely lazy or wrote a deliberately misleading article. Probably the latter, knowing the Fairfax media.

Jonette (not verified)

Tue, 2012-08-07 09:52

Jump on board our Support Koalas campaign by clicking on www.pozible.com/koala We are 5% funded on Day 2 for this children's book about Koliptus Koala, written and illustrated to teach children to respect and love our native animals. We need your help..... Send this onto your friends. Thanks.

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Tue, 2012-08-07 07:50

"Australia, as a developed nation, should be expected to contribute to accommodating more people in a crowded world...." This is an absurd argument! There's no evidence that, apart from starvation, conflict and natural disasters (all consequences of overpopulation), the world's population will stall. Immigration gives a false sense of escape, of security, that people can keep overbreeding and find relief in Australia. This is turn will add to the Earth's overpopulation woes. It will just add to the population growth rates of the overpopulated countries, and wreak havoc on our own environmental/social infrastructure. Australia has no obligation to be a repository for the peoples of the world, who through their own high fertility levels and lack of family planning, have overshot their ecological resources. Apparently our economic model is fixed so that we must have ongoing immigration to support the age pensions and Public Servant superannuation schemes, to maintain our lifestyles. It's a Ponzi scheme, as migrants also will age and require pensions and superannuation, and they in turn will rely on young immigrants to supply it. Each generation will rely on the next, and it means increasing numbers of people to support this misanthropic and Earth-destructive scheme. Overloading the "life-boats", our planetary space-ship, is self-destructive, counterproductive and self-defeating. We will all go down the road to disaster together- non-human species and all!

admin

Mon, 2012-08-06 23:40

If our population doesn't grow, the economy stalls
July 16, 2012, Matthew Kidman

THE first policy a new federal government should dust off when elected next year is ''Big Australia''. The Kevin Rudd initiative aimed at growing Australia's population from 22.3 million to 35 million by 2050.

Within weeks of taking the top job, Julia Gillard scrapped Big Australia realising that few votes would be garnered from the initiative. A combination of xenophobic and anti-growth feeling swelled and that was enough to bin the whole exercise.

The reality is though that without population expansion Australian economic growth will stall, placing pressure on company valuations and the performance of the sharemarket. Live examples of this already exist in Japan, Italy and Greece. Australia needs a demographic policy that involves targeted population growth.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the economy grew at an annual pace of 3.2 per cent in the 1990s of which 1.5 per cent was contributed by population growth. In the first decade of the new century, the local economy ratcheted up its growth to just under 4 per cent per year of which population growth can be credited with 1.8 per cent.
Advertisement

As is well documented, the Australian population, like many other Western nations, is getting older.

In the latest census released last month, it stated that the median age of Australia was 37 years old, up five years in two decades. This is not in itself a concern given that the working population, defined as those people aged between 15 and 65 years, actually increased as a percentage of all people during the same period. The working population is the productive component of society.

This, though, is about to change. It is estimated that by 2015 the median age of Australians will jump to 39 years and the working age will start to shrink from about 67 per cent of the population to 66 per cent. While it does not sound significant, it effectively means demographics will go from being supportive of economic growth to a handbrake.

The Reserve Bank of Australia released a report in 2010 analysing the impact of demographic change on economic growth in a number of countries. It concluded that from 2011 to 2020 demographic changes relating to population growth and the size of the working-age population would reduce economic growth by a full 1 per cent per year in Japan. In the prior decade it had contributed a positive 1.1 per cent.

That is enormous burden to carry for a country that is struggling to grow because of the Japanese penchant for saving instead of spending.

The US is in a better position, but will suffer from a similar fate. In the period from 1996 to 2005 demographic change boosted economic growth by 1.3 per cent each year. But this is forecast to drop to just 0.5 per cent from 2011 to 2020.

A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 2011 said the ageing population was already having a significant impact on the sharemarket, with the price-to-earnings multiple investors are willing to pay for equities already falling as the median age increases.

The second-largest economy in the world and Australia's biggest trading partner, China, will see the impact of demographics move from 1.4 per cent a year to just 0.2 per cent in this decade.

Many pundits will argue that growth is not compulsory but the economic contractions taking place in Europe should remind everyone how painful and socially disruptive it can be.

Australia's population has grown approximately 1.4 per cent a year over the past 20 years. If this rate continued to 2050, then Australia's population would hit 38 million, some 3 million more than what Rudd's Big Australia would contain. So fears of the population growing out of control are ill-founded. If a targeted population growth policy was implemented, it would require a careful selection process that kept the nation's median age down and, more importantly, retained a similar-sized working population.

The case for an orchestrated increase in the population gains currency when one considers the decline in the other two major contributors to economic growth - terms of trade and labour productivity.

The terms of trade have been a major driver of economic expansion in recent years, but it may have peaked recently with the crest of the mining boom. Meanwhile, labour productivity has been declining in relative terms for a decade with no signs of reversing.

There are strong arguments against population growth, mostly concerning social change, environmental pressures and a lack of infrastructure. Policy must accommodate all of these concerns but none should be insurmountable if a detailed plan is constructed. In fact, if Australia managed to come to terms with its poor infrastructure, dearth of water and lack of geographical planning, the country would be significantly improved from a lifestyle and productivity perspective.

Finally, the world is forecast to grow from today's 7 billion people to about 9 billion by 2060. After this it is expected to stall and then eventually shrink. With less than 23 million people, Australia, as a developed nation, should be expected to contribute to accommodating more people in a crowded world.

Former fund manager Matthew Kidman is a director of WAM Capital.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/if-our-population-doesnt-grow-the-economy-stalls-20120715-22445.html#ixzz22m029471

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Mon, 2012-08-06 11:17

America’s experience with a low level of immigration provides a useful test of how that affects the nation’s economic performance. Between 1925 and 1965 immigrant admissions averaged less than 180,000 persons per year. During that period, the share of women in the workforce nearly doubled and minorities gained access to new job opportunities. Over those decades, the economy not only grew significantly, it grew more rapidly than it has since mass immigration was again unleashed by legislation enacted in 1965. From 1925-1966 GDP per capita increased by 168.4 percent. That is an average annual increase of 4.0 percent. The economy can grow in a healthy fashion with a low level of immigration. How do we know this? The US's economic history demonstrates this fact. http://www.fairus.org/issue/low-immigration-and-high-economic-growth Because there are other economic forces at play in shaping the national product, that is not a clear-cut prospect. Nevertheless, this period provides evidence that it is wrong to suggest that the United State's economy will suffer if immigration and guest worker programs are not increased as business interests are currently asserting and it suggests. On the contrary, that the economy would continue to be healthy if immigration were significantly reduced. In most cases, rapid, immigration-fueled population growth results in increased unemployment and decreases in per capita income. Growth in a finite worlds leads to significant declines in quality of life, such as environmental degradation, urban sprawl, increased congestion, stress on public infrastructure, and strains on vital social institutions. The problem of illegal immigration to the United States remains unsolved. There are some 11 million illegal immigrants, mostly Mexicans, in the United States. GDP growth has become a gauge of what is good and bad, for success and failure. Moreover, steadily impoverishing Americans, particularly the American poor and disadvantaged by immigration-driven population growth, will likely turn Americans inward and compel the otherwise generous American to reduce economic and other foreign aid. A growing population is expensive, mandating continual increases in technological efficiency and retrofitting costs only to maintain current levels and ecological footprint. Maintaining the illusion of perpetual economic and population growth, something with no natural constraints, means manipulating the voting public. National borders must be softened, and eventually eliminated to create a "one world" humanitarian scenario. Patriotism must be quashed in deference to the displaced "asylum seekers", and immigration must be continued to protect the lofty ideals of multiculturalism. National identity and culture, history, patriotic fervour, protection of one's nation, the concept of sovereignty, environmental conservation are all "racist" and are barriers to mass immigration and realignment of the immigration nations to be global identities.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2012-08-05 11:19

Over 2.5 million people in war-torn Somalia remain in crisis despite huge global aid efforts and the situation may worsen, the UN has warned. Some 323,000 children are acutely malnourished, about a fifth of all children under five. Even in a good year in West Africa, nearly 300,000 children die from malnutrition-related causes. In Australia, if a single child dies from malnutrition it makes headlines and provokes public outrage. Most vulnerable refugees are smaller refugee communities, for whom finding paid work is hardest. Somali, Sudanese and other African refugees in particular face hardship, often relying on family and friends resettled to the West for survival. The world's poorest and most helpless asylum-seekers are being increasingly displaced by those who, while also desperate, at least have the financial means to self-select and pay people-smugglers for a passage to Australia. In the world’s top five source countries for refugees (Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burma), conditions are characterised by protracted conflicts, ongoing insecurity and widespread violations of human rights. There are often limited prospects for significant improvement in these conditions in the near future, seriously limiting opportunities for refugees to return home in safety. Terrorists may use local merchants such as tour and transport operators to identify foreign visitors for potential kidnap operations. Hostages may be taken by their captors into a neighbouring country. Humanitarian workers and tourists in Kenya have been kidnapped by militants and held in Somalia. Go Back to where you came from: Six prominent Australians with strong opinions on boat people surrender their passports and agree to travel as refugees. The scenes for Peter Reith, Angry Anderson, Allan Asher, Catherine Deveny, Mike Smith, and Imogen Bailey are described as “intense, shocking, and one of the most challenging experiences of their lives.” Once again guided by author and refugee expert, Dr. David Corlett, the six participants set out on their journey with varied and blunt opinions: It assumes that Australia has unlimited natural and social capital and resources, and jobs, housing, finances and infrastructure and thus the idealized destination for the world's displaced - those who have the funds to pay for boats and the people smugglers. It's alternative to addressing overpopulation, the root cause of conflicts, famine and "shortages" that make life a struggle, and deaths inevitable.

Jay Douglas (not verified)

Sat, 2012-08-04 19:50

If I recall the story correctly the family of the young Sudanese girl, Ayen Chol who was killed by a dangerous dog last year couldn't contact her "refugee" father to give him the bad news because he was away on business in Sudan.

The U.K government warns against all travel to Somalia and Somaliland:

"We advise against all travel to Somalia, including Somaliland. In the southern and central regions, there is ongoing serious violence, dangerous levels of criminal activity and general internal insecurity. We advise any British citizens in Somalia to leave."

www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/sub-saharan-africa/somalia/

Travel advice for Sudan, Australian citizens are advised "Do Not Travel"

www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Sudan

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-08-03 08:04

Back in 1980, Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon made their famous bet: Specifically, the bet was over the future price of five metals, but at stake was much more -- a view of the planet's ultimate limits, a vision of humanity's destiny. Simon allowed Erlich to pick the five metals. If the 1990 prices were higher, Erlich would win. Erlich selected chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), tin (Sn) and tungsten (W). Simon won, but recent goings on with commodity prices have some people asking whether Simon's timing was just lucky and perhaps Ehrlich views will ultimately triumph. During the 1990s things changed, however, with Simon the decadal winners in four start years and Ehrlich winning six – 60% of the time. And if we extend the bet into the current decade, taking Simon at his word that he was happy to bet on any period from a year on up (we don’t have enough data to do a full 21st century decade), then Ehrlich won every start-year bet in the 2000s. He looks like he’ll be a perfect Simon/Ehrlich ten-for-ten. Jeremy Grantham of GMO, a fund-management group, points out that Mr Ehrlich would have won the original bet were it recalculated today (he is still alive; Mr Simon died in 1998). An equally weighted portfolio of the five commodities is now higher in real terms than the average of their prices back in 1980. Too many people — and especially too many politicians and business executives — are under the delusion that a disastrous end to the modern human enterprise can be avoided by technological fixes that will allow the population and the economy to grow forever. Australian researcher Graham Turner has examined its assumptions of the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth in great detail during the past several years, and apparently his latest research falls in line with the report's predictions, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The study, initially completed at MIT, relied on several computer models of economic trends and estimated that if things didn't change much, and humans continued to consume natural resources apace, the world would run out at some point. It is possible to fix, if governments enact stricter policies and technologies can be improved to reduce our environmental footprint, "economic growth" (a euphemism for population growth) doesn't have to be the measure of their success, marching toward inevitable implosion. But just how to do that is another thing entirely.

admin

Fri, 2012-08-03 00:55

Amateur video shows rebels preparing to kill alleged Assad loyalists

Human rights activists have condemned the public shooting in Syria of four apparent Assad loyalists by rebels in the battleground city of Aleppo.

Video posted online shows the men, who included the alleged head of a feared local militia, being put up against a wall and shot with Kalashnikov rifles.

Human Rights Watch has told the BBC the act was potentially a war crime.

...

CSI (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-02 18:09

Limits to Growth modeled a whole range of scenarios. Their main run scenarios, with precipitous decline between about 2030 and 2070, seems to be on track. Of course these are scenarios, not predictions, but still very scary. We aren't out of the woods yet.

CSI (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-02 17:32

Failing to understand the concept of replacement rate. Fertility rate, average number of children per women, is a very inexact figure. But in any case replacement rate doesn't really apply until some time after fertility rate goes down. Population momentum can keep a population growing for years even with less than 2 child per women and zero immigration. Algeria is an interesting example. Latter half of the twentieth century they had explosive growth. Very recently the fertility rate has dropped rapidly. According to Wikipedia it now stands at 1.74 children/woman, which is currently lower than Australia (a remarkable achievement and shows Muslim countries can reduce their fertility). Net migration is almost zero. So with such low fertility and essentially no immigration you would think the population of Algeria would be dropping. Actually the estimated growth rate is 2.2%, which is higher than Australia. Because the population is so young as an after effect of their earlier explosive rate. And similarly the populations of Australia and Canada are younger than most other developed nations. Nowhere as young as Algeria's, but enough so that an average of 2 children/women would see the population of both countries increase for a couple of decades even with no immigration (and the immigration rates of both countries are currently very very high). Humans are such long lived animals its very easy to increase the population, very hard to reduce it. Overpopulation is the main problem worldwide, not low fertility. Even Japan where the population has only very recently stopped growing despite decades of very low fertility (population momentum again) is probably seriously overpopulated and needs to reduce their population, regardless of what you might read in the growth-obsessed media.

Anonymouse (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-02 01:24

I too read the book back then, and for decades thought it was the last word on the environmental disaster that lurked in our future. I no longer buy any of it. The Club of Rome's dire predictions of imminent resource depletion proved wrong. In 1990, Ehrlich famously lost his decade-old bet with economist Julian Simon regarding the future prices of industrial commodities (most were supposed to have been depleted by then), and prices continued to fall for another 10 years after that. I now believe that if we can lick the environmental consequences of burning "fossil" fuels, we can sustain and even raise current living standards around the world, into the indefinite future. More people means more of everything, as history shows. Malthus was simply wrong.

Long time observer (not verified)

Wed, 2012-08-01 16:03

The lag time between identifying a problem and getting mainstream recognition and possible action is amazingly long. I read Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" when I was about 20 and I am now over 60. I have been aware of the threat to the world's wild life from pressure of human numbers all my adult life if not even before this. Nothing is getting any better but in fact the situation is worsening for both humans and other animals with e.g. pressure on urban wildlife in Australia's cities, orangutan habitat progressively destroyed just to Australia's north and the big cats of of the world as endangered as ever if not more so. Today I heard a food expert on the radio talking about the near future of food and the need to make cultures of cells - to form a meat product to feed the teeming masses. And that's probably just the first world! He also talked of declining fish stocks leading to very high prices and that farmed products would soon be the only affordable fish . With respect to world fisheries ,he said that "peak fish" was in 2004! There is no leadership with respect to our very survival and the survival of the massive variety of other life forms on the planet. It seems that it is generally considered more important now to own an IPad or a massive television screen and see a virtual version of the bounty of life that used to surround us than to experience it directly. This distracts us from the deterioration in our real environment.

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Wed, 2012-08-01 12:45

Any obesity is painful, and destructive to internal organs and brings stress to everyday infrastructure. Great poem by brolga brolga! Our once Marvellous Melbourne is under attack by a fetish for growth. It's misanthropic and destructive to the environment, and an attack on our living standards. Town planners keep on trying to convince the public that smaller is better planning, and better for housing. It's a fantasy - people usually like to have space, and it is something to be aimed for and an indication of living standards. Planners and trying to equate "small" with "good design" in an impossible effort to preserve our living standards against the surge of population growth. Human population growth is destructive and assumes that growth in our economy and society can be perpetual and infinite. The greed of the human race has no bounds. As systems grow and become more complex, they are vulnerable to collapse and downfall. Why wait until natural limits implode on us, and our urban sprawl becomes no better than the crime and dirt-ridden shanty towns of many developing countries?

Katie (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-31 18:05

Red Symons is neither Jewish, nor is he serious...although, perhaps his utter callousness regarding animals e.g if they are injured especially on our traffic laden roads is a way of lulling his listeners into not caring. His child like demeanor on his morning radio spot has been an absolute winner since he took over from the comparatively intense Lynne Haultain a few years ago. If you don't want to start the morning off with a jolt , Red Symons is your man. He engenders a feeling that everything is amusing and everything's all right. If you listen to Red Symons you may be able more easily to skim the surface and sail through the next hour or so of your day. This morning sedative is only available to Melbourne radio listeners.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-30 21:20

AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY PRESS RELEASE

National Wattle Day 1st September 2012

Nominations for the Native Australian Award

"THE ORDER OF THE WATTLE BLOSSOM"

are invited from Australian Citizens

GENERAL CRITERIA.

Persons nominated should have displayed a commitment to Australia's cultural heritage, our national values, our native soil, or any other suitable aspect that has contributed to the advancement of our European derived civilisation.

Nominations may be either Native Australians, members of the Australoid Race, or any assimilable immigrant who has particularly exhibited having taken up the Australian Spirit.

Please forward particulars, including the following information to the address below before 25th August.

Name and address of nomination; suggested award citation.

Include your own name and address.

In keeping with past tradition, only five awards will be made.

AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY
P.O. Box 223 Croydon 3136
www.australiafirst.net      ausfirst [ AT ] hotmail.com

Voting for other than AUSTRALIA FIRST is now just a waste of time

admin

Sun, 2012-07-29 11:03

Whilst we have serious concerns about Israel's role in fomenting terrorism against Syria and promoting threats against Iran, its nuclear weapons program and its brutal oppression of its native Palestinian population, we do not support antipathy towards any particular ethnic group. The Australia, US and British governments have similar policies. It is not clear how the military industrial complex arrives at such unity, but one assumes an interest in supporting a hegemony to dominate access to energy resources. That said, we can only agree that diversity of political opinion going beyond narrow government policy on any public media commentating on international affairs, is sadly lacking in Australia. We did notice that the SBS evening news on Friday gave better coverage of Syria than the ABC or the Murdoch/Fairfax press have been giving. This was a welcome variation in SBS's otherwise narrow and dishonest reporting on this area previously.

admin

Sun, 2012-07-29 10:24

Hi Anonymous. I agree. I considered changing the title initially but felt that since I republished the whole thing from NASA I would leave it as was. I heard about it from another source which made a far more dire interpretation from NASA's data. I will consider changing the title to reflect that NASA used that expression. Thanks. Sheila N

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-27 15:36

774's line up this week, 5.30am-6pm; Red Symons, Jon Faine, Libbi Gorr, Rafael Epstein. It's all very cultish and clubby. The bias is just as obvious in the "Conversation Hour". It should be called "Voice for our mates hour". What chance have you got with a view that is anything other than sycophantically pro-Israel and pro-Zionist with such gate keepers? What would happen if any other ethnic minority had such a stranglehold on the public broadcaster? It is a very strange situation. Is there only one talented ethnicity in Australia? The national broadcaster has been captured by a specific agenda.

Pro Possum (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-27 14:05

I have come to know the brush tail possums in a neighboring suburban park through trying to prevent the local council installing exclusion bands on all the palm trees. We were unsuccessful in the attempt and the council's actions have deprived the possums of habitat in the palm tree tops where they had lived for about a century with no apparent damage to the palms nor to other trees in the park. I find the possums to be timid nervous creatures who are very alert to possible danger and always on the lookout. They will approach people with whom they are familiar. Some of them will permit a human to stroke them and one even jumped on my shoulder. In all the time I have visited the park I have never been been scratched or nipped by a possum except by accident. They have have extremely sharp strong claws which help them climb and cling to branches and sharp teeth as well. I don't think they would gratuitously pick a fight but their teeth and claws make excellent defense weapons. It is safe to touch them if they are occupied (eating) and you just stroke them on the back. I have even given them a massage. To me they are very endearing animals but their nocturnal habit is a bit limiting as far as their role as pets is concerned. It is better to accept them as fellow inhabitants or Australia to leave space for them and to consider them in avoiding clashes with our dogs. We will sometimes meet them at those times when our diurnal and nocturnal worlds intersect.

Bandicoot

Fri, 2012-07-27 12:38

Media Release Toolangi Grannies Stop Logging On Mount St Leonard What do you do when you watch magnificent native forest habitat on your beloved mountain being bulldozed, loaded on to convoys of huge log trucks and carted off to the woodchippers to be turned into paper! You get angry and determined – that’s what! Toolangi grandmothers, fed up with being kept awake at all hours by the sound of chainsaws, dozers and log trucks, have chained themselves to the bulldozers in a logging coupe on the slopes of Mount St Leonard. They hope their desperate action will convince Premier Baillieu to put a stop to the madness of destroying the much-visited iconic mountain in the Yarra Valley. Still more coupes are to be carved out of the mountain slopes and the resulting coupe burns and wind tunnels will turn a once beautiful landscape into a eyesore and a firetrap. “This is not the future I wish to leave for my grandchildren”, said local resident Lynn Dean. It provided an excellent photo and TV opportunity of grannies locked on to bulldozers in an active logging coupe (Leo’s Foot) on Mount St Leonard. Police, DSE and VicForests staff are expected to try to stop the protest. Local residents, including business owners, tourism operators and CFA volunteers will be there supporting the brave grandmothers and available for comment. VicForests, a timber and logging agency of our State Government, is failing to see the forests for the $$$ profits they see in the trees! Forests are more than a few mere trees! They have a myriad of purposes, significances and attributes treasured by local and national communities. They are symbols of the richness of Nature, and sacred places of peace, tranquility and reflection/rehabilitation for the soul. They are a home for a rich biodiversity, and have profound intrinsic spiritual and natural value. Our State government doesn't "get it"! These grans deserve our utmost praise and support for their courage against a powerful adversary - our own State logging department!

nimby

Fri, 2012-07-27 11:34

Japan asked Germany to arrest Paul Watson, the founder of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, days before he skipped bail and apparently fled the country. Japan sought Watson Arrest in Germany Sea Shepherd group had been aware of Japan's attempts to extradite Mr Watson. They were aware of some sort of connection between the requests made by Japan and Costa Rica. The US-based group says it encountered an illegal shark-finning operation run by a Costa Rican ship, the Varadero, and told the crew to stop and head to port to be prosecuted. The crew has accused Sea Shepherd of trying to kill them by ramming their ship. With ambiguous "anti-whaling" messages from our Australian government, and a defacto acceptance of their bogus "scientific" whale slaughter, Japan's pro-whaling groups have become megalomaniacs in their determination to pay-back Paul Watson for "eco-terrorist" activities. Sea Shepherd has the audacity to question their invasion of the whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean. Even illegal shark-finners have become so confident in their rights to treat the oceans and species as a resource for their own ends, they can use Japan to take their side! Any lea-way to criminals gives them more power and confidence against conservationists and ocean activists.

Helen (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-27 09:50

"I am not the norm. I am not a grandmother". How nice for you. Before you preen any more, let me tell you that older women are as capable of rational thought and reading as you are. Activism, too. At this very moment, some 60+ grans are locking onto machinery at Toolangi in the freezing cold. Are you? I agree with the fact that the world is overpopulated, but like most articles on this, this fails on several levels. 1. Failure to acknowledge the sinister links -eugenics for instance - of historical population movements in the West and how they have attempted to shift the responsibility to people of colour and "developing countries" to reduce population. Because of this, I think anything we Westerners write on the subject should acknowledge this and overtly make it our responsibility as the people with the largest footprint. 2. Making women (next to, of course, people of colour) the culprits. "Murderer"? Oh please. And besides the stupidity of this hyperbole, unless there is a virgin birth here, there was a man involved. Why not point the finger at the father? 3. Failing to understand the concept of replacement rate. Oliver is not going to increase the population until there are three or more of him. Few of us weathy first-worlders have more than two children, but our consumption and huge environmental footprints more than make up for it. The problem is not as crude and simple as you make it out to be.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2012-07-26 21:41

Dear PPL VIC members and friends Here is a reminder re our snap rally tomorrow rally to call for trains not tolled roads to fix Melbourne's transport woes. Here are details again: Time: 1020 am for a 10:30 am start. Date: Friday 27 July 2012 Reason: Continue the protest over the East West Link and to advocate for Doncaster Rail Link. This is for a photo shoot for the Melbourne Leader. It should only take half an hour - we will have a few speakers with messages about further action planned. Bring: Green Triangles with NO TUNNELS or Trains Not Tolls signs or Public Transport Not Road Tunnels (I will have a supply placards) Wear Red if possible! Location: Under the Lemon Scented Gums at the roundabout at north end of Swanston Street at the intersection with Cemetery Drive and Keppel St.. Melways Map Reference 2 B F4 .NOTE NEWS JUST RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL TRUST THAT THE CITY OF MELBOURNE IS TO PUT UP PROTECTIVE FENCING AROUND THE TREES so we might be on the edge of the roundabout! (This is only because we alerted the National Trust, the City of Melbourne and LMA over the threat to the trees.) Transport: Contrary to previous advice, carparking is a bit limited in the day time at the north end of Cardigan and Keppel Streets close to the new development Lume but there is some further back in Cardigan Street. Tram up Swanston Street to the University and walk a block north past the colleges. TAKE CARE CROSSING ROAD TO ROUNDABOUT AS THERE ARE NO PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS. Support Needed: We hope that opposition to the East West Link exhibited before the election can be sustained. Hope to see you there tomorrow. Regards Julianne Julianne Bell Secretary Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. Mobile 0408022408

James Sinnamon

Thu, 2012-07-26 18:01

The following is to be posted to jonquiggin.com. It is to be posted in response to a comment from Professor Quiggin:

Some further info on the Turkish Labour Party. They are followers of the late Enver Hoxha, it seems.

This was in response to my posting excerpts from this article to his web-site.

My response

Thanks for your comment and for your interest in the Syrian conflict, Professor Quiggin. It is unfortunate that this prosecution has not, instead, been undertaken by, for example, the Turkish Democratic Left Party, a party with more resources and electoral support. It is also of concern that the Turkish Labour Party is a follower of Enver Hoxha. Nevertheless, given the history of Turkey with its coups, its intervention in Cyprus and its conflict with its Kurdish minority and given the heroic resistance by Albanians to Britains's attempt in 1949 to impose a dictatorship as it had alraedy done in Greece, it seems not altogether implausible that humane and progressive Turks, particularly Turks oppose to NATO's war crimes against Syria, could be drawn into such a party.

I think anyone who supports the rule of law and opposes murder, particularly of officials of a sovereign government which appears to enjoy the strong support of the majority of the people of that country as the Syrian Government appears to, should commend the Turkish Labor Party for having launched legal action. Assuming that Turkey has laws on its books against the waging of a war of aggression against another country as every civilised democracy should, then I see no reason why the case should not succeed. I hope that this case proceeds and that it is reported in our newsmedia. However, given our newsmedia's so-far deceitful, selective and biased reporting of the Syrian conflict so far, there is no reason to exepect that it will.

I trust that you are not arguing that because this court case is not being undertaken by a larger organisation with more electoral support than the Turkish Labor Party that therefore they must be wrong to oppose the Turkish Government breaking its own laws?

It would logically follow from that that, because in 2009, no political party contesting the Queensland state elections opposed privatisation and the one independent candidate, who opposed privatisation in that election, did not get a high vote -- 163 votes or 0.65%, which was slightly more than the 0.58% that the Turkish Labour Party received across the whole country 10 years earlier -- that it would have been wrong to oppose privatisation.

The outcome of the Queensland state elections held on 24 March this year would suggest otherwise.

As a consequence of public revulsion at 'Labor' Premier Anna Bligh's announcement of the privatisation fire sale only after the 2009 elections had ended, Labor's representation in the Queensland Parliament was reduced from 51 of the 89 seats to only 7. Anna Bligh held onto her own seat of South Brisbane, but with her two-party preferred majority reduced from 65% to 55%. In the subsequent by-election, contested for Labor by Anna Bligh's friend Jackie Trad, that majority was reduced further to 52.85%, that is, it has now become a marginal seat.

So, I fail to see how the small vote for the Turkish Labor Party in the 1999 elections 13 years ago or some unorthodox opinions held by the Turkish Labor Party has any bearing on the Turkish Labor Party's claim that it has evidence that President Abdullah Gül incited terrorism and war against Syria and that this violates Turkish law.

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Thu, 2012-07-26 12:46

Dick Smith says the banking model relies on more and more people each year borrowing money to purchase assets, expand their businesses or to buy goods. Credit growth (the growth in the size of the borrowings provided by a bank) is fundamental to banks’ profits. Therefore, a bank relies heavily on an expanding population to drive future profit growth through lending, in turn providing a suitable return on investment for shareholders. So growth is good for investments, but growth also puts strain on our finite resources. The boss of the RBA, Glenn Stevens, says that house prices in Australia are not unreasonably high, and we are still the "lucky country". Mortgages are at a healthy levels, filling the banks with profits. Last year Glenn Stevens' salary blew out to over $1 million, the highest ever paid public servant. Of course banks want and lobby for population growth! It's "good" for the economy and for business and mortgages are an excellent way of extracting money out of the pay-packets of average Australian workers. Glenn Stevens has his head in the clouds and is paid much more than our Prime Minister!

Tigerquoll

Wed, 2012-07-25 20:50

Just keep the possums away from New Zealanders. ..fur gloves, socks, beanies, hats, scarves. knitwear, accessories, Backward, just like Laosian bear treatment. Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan Snowy River Region Victoria Australia

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2012-07-25 18:13

Oh shove it.

[Ed. Not sure what this comment writer wanted to shove. Could be they had difficulty making a comment or that they don't like possums or that they don't disapprove of rearing an injured possum and are responding to Kimble's comment. Published in the spirit of non-censorship and mystery.]

Frustrated 744 ... (not verified)

Wed, 2012-07-25 16:02

I noticed that Jon Faine had as a guest a woman who had once managed the ABC. She was talking about the political pressure on management over content, which she conveyed was heavy. If Jon Faine wanted listeners to hear the other side, maybe it wouldn't be worth his career. It is as if we are at war with Syria already and no-one is allowed to raise any questions about our attitude because there are troops there. It is like an information lockdown in wartime. But we are not at war with Syria and we have no troops there. howevver there are troops there - mercenaries - as is reported far and wide on the internet. Does Faine have time to know what the other side is anyway? He seems to spend most of his time talking to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne and a few others about what a great thing more roads and houses is. Someone has to pose the questions you are posing, anyway. Now we have a record that we did not have before the non-existent weapons of mass destruction started this whole sequence of invasions off. Since we hardly ever hear a peep from the Syrian community in Victoria on this, it sounds like they might disagree with the government position (as promoted by the ABC) and just not dare say how upset they all are about a bunch of westerners supplying mercenaries and weapons to destabilising forces there.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2012-07-25 14:42

A prominent author believes that the way Western media depicts the massacres in Syria reveals the fact that they are “done under the auspices of NATO”.

http://presstv.com/detail/2012/07/14/250930/nato-encouraging-unrest-in-syria/">

The plan is to do to Syria what happened last year to Libya: to bring about regime change favourable to western economic and strategic interests. But we only need to see what has happened to Libya since the NATO war to know how disastrous this would be for the Syrian people. See Human rights now worse in Libya than it was under Gaddafi.

Tariq Ali, author, activist and expert on the Middle East, says we are witnessing in Syria a new form of re-colonisation by the West, like we have already seen in Iraq and in Libya. The only way forward, in the interests of all Syrians, says Ali, is negotiation and discussion. But it is now obvious that the West is not going to let that happen because they are backing the opposition groups who are against any negotiation.

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/tariq-ali-what-is-really-happening-in-syria
Britain risks being sucked into military action in Syria to prevent bloodshed spreading, a former Army commander has warned. Colonel Richard Kemp, who led UK forces in Afghanistan, said the escalating civil war made it increasingly likely that the West would be forced to step in.

Since its creation in 1947, the CIA has mounted approximately 3,000 major operations and 10,000 minor operations of this nature, every one of them illegal and many of them "bloody and gory beyond comprehension". According to former CIA agent John Stockwell (who was involved in several such operations), by 1988, over six million people had been killed as a result.

Arab governments that refuse to submit to Western and Israeli dominance are continually harassed and destabilized to the point that they are forced, in order to survive, to develop a security infrastructure that is, to one extent or another, totalitarian.

Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley, author and historian from Washington says:

"I think it is clear that NATO and the armed opposition, the death squads in effect, are the ones that benefit from these actions and I would caution everybody to realize that most of the reports that we get from Syria are totally unreliable and this has to do with the corruption of Western media and also with the school of journalism that is based on ‘activists say.’ "

admin

Wed, 2012-07-25 13:16

Published last month on PressTV on 22 June

Armed groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have killed 25 more civilians in the northern province of Aleppo.

According to Syria’s official news agency, SANA, the massacre took place in Daret Azzeh area in Aleppo countryside on Friday and the victims had been kidnapped by armed gangs earlier in the day.

Some reports suggest that the victims are all government supporters. Many civilians are still being held by the terrorists and their fate remains unknown.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has announced that 1.5 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in Syria and that the growing violence was seriously hampering aid deliveries.

Damascus has also said that armed groups are hampering rescue efforts in the crisis-hit city of Homs by opening fire at the International Red Crescent and the Syrian Red Cross delegation trying to evacuate the wounded, the elders, children and women from the city.

Syrian authorities say terrorist groups are holding nearly 5,000 civilians hostage in Homs, who are in need of immediate help.

Syria has been experiencing a deadly unrest since mid-March 2011, the violence has claimed the lives of many people, including large numbers of security forces.

While the West and the Syrian opposition say the government is responsible for the killings, Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

admin

Wed, 2012-07-25 13:09

Published on PressTV on 25 July 2012.

Syrian security forces and armed gangs are currently fighting in the cities of Aleppo and Homs, while calm has returned to most parts of the capital, Damascus, Press TV reports.

Foreign-backed armed rebels have attacked security checkpoints in Aleppo, while there have been reports of sporadic clashes between Syrian troops and armed groups in Homs.

The security forces are battling rebels in the al-Bab and Sha'ar districts of Aleppo, where many members of the armed opposition have reportedly surrendered.

Syrian security forces engaged the rebels all across the country on Tuesday, with Naher Aisheh, a suburb of Damascus, being the latest area fully cleared of foreign-backed armed gangs. Most neighborhoods are now calm in the capital.

Meanwhile, security forces have foiled repeated attempts by armed groups to infiltrate into Syrian territory from neighboring countries.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The Syrian government says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

Damascus also says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.

See also: Syrian forces destroy armed gangs hideout in Homs, seize weapons of 16 July 2012, Syrian forces, gunmen clash in Aleppo of 22 July 2012, Syrian troops clear Khan Sheikhun in Idlib of armed groups of  July 2012, Syrian forces kill terrorists in Douma suburb of the capital Damascus of 29 June 2012, Calm restored in Damascus, fighting continues in Homs, Aleppo of 24 July 2012.

Bandicoot

Wed, 2012-07-25 10:47

Getup - help Devils

Mining Industry out of control

Scientists tell us that the new roads and traffic created by strip mining the ancient Tarkine rainforest will increase the spread of the Devil Facial Tumour Disease - a deadly virus-like cancer that is already driving the Tasmanian devil population towards extinction.

What the devils need is Emergency Heritage Listing for the region they inhabit. This kind of listing would ensure the greatest amount of independent scientific scrutiny possible is given to the proposed mines in the Tarkine.

That's why we all need to take this opportunity to urge our local MPs to call on Tony Burke to take immediate action to protect the last healthy Tasmanian devils:

Getup - help devils

As leading wildlife expert and former chief scientist in the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program Professor Hamish McCallum has said:

"There is sufficient evidence to suggest that it may threaten the survival of populations of Tasmanian devils in the area."

Locals have been campaigning vigorously against Venture Minerals proposals to build three open cut and strip mines in the Tarkine, but now they need your support.

Our elected members right across the country have a responsibility to stand up for the things we care about. In non-election times the only way we can make sure they know what we want them to act on is to let them know directly, by telling them.

Can you send your MP a quick message asking them to lobby Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke to urgently enact the Emergency Heritage Listing for the Tarkine?

Thanks for all you do,
the GetUp team.

PS - Two of the Venture Mines will only operate for just two years! The mining industry is out of control, so let's do what we can to save the Tarkine for the Tassie devil and for future generations of Australians to enjoy. Find out more and contact your MP here: www.getup.org.au/devils

1Mines may endanger one of last healthy devil populations. The Australian. July 23, 2012.

John Marlowe

Tue, 2012-07-24 20:34

The above strategies would be a reversal of Gillard's betrayal of the Australian Nation.

More simply I suggest a financial governance protocol for Australia's Annual Foreign Aid Budget.

Like any nation, Australia has a limited budget and a fair and reasonable quota for its foreign immigration to respect social carrying capacity.

Once asylum seeker limit is reached, it is a case of adopting New Zealand's internationally accepted policy, and so subsequent illegals are to be returned to the country of illegal/unauthorised departure - Indonesia mainly. The full economic cost of receival, processing and return flights is to be fairly deducted from Australia's total Foreign Aid Budget, including the exorbitant cost of Australia's' US crusades in Afghanistan.

So, for our nation's fair and sound international governance that respects its citizens' finances and carrying capacity, means that the asylum seeker problem may be resolved fairly, expeditiously and supported by targeted media become an effective deterrent to people smugglers, would-be asylum seekers and negligent Indonesian coast watch.

Not only shall the the excess illegals be lawfully returned to their country of departure (complicit Indonesia mainly), but the associated costs are deducted from Australia's annual Foreign Aid Budget, including patsying to the US strategic war in Afghanistan.

The LibLabs can stage crocodile tears in our Nation's Parliament, but their joint uselessness in border control demands a National Citizen Initiated Referendum to overrule Party Politics incompetence.

Labor's bottomless overdraft is unconstitutional Treasury theft that demands a double dissolution of parliament.
No government has an electoral mandate to bankrupt the Natiomal Treasury.
Gillard has always been a Labor puppet. Her spend thrift addiction has set new lows beyond electoral pock barrelling, beyond chronic cheque writing Ruddism.
Exceeding Treasury Overdraft is a seditious crime and so ought to be life imprisonment for the Prime Minister.

John Marlowe

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-24 14:13

The research firm BIS Shrapnel says that the end of the "boom" is not as bad as predicted, but >dwelling investment is about to take off in most of the country. It means the "boom" or growth period has subsided from its peak.

"Mining investment will soon stop growing," says senior economist Tim Hampton.

"It should remain high but it will stop growing. In its place we see an upswing in residential property investment from later this year.

Read more: Housing investment will 'replace' the mining boom in SMH of 24 July 2012 by Peter Martin

If a housing "boom" is to happen, it will be on the back of "big Australia" and the skills shortages being addressed by imports rather than investments in our main resource - the Australian people. There is a shortage of houses in the resource states that must be caught up with.

The end of the mining boom is not close yet. “We’ve got a long way to go,” Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA chief executive Reg Howard-Smith.

“There are expansions currently under construction and significant new oil and gas projects and mineral projects which haven’t started producing, so the full economic benefits are yet to be felt,” he said.

As Ken Henry says, "Abundant as they are, Australia’s natural resources will not last forever".

nimby

Tue, 2012-07-24 10:17

The end is in sight for Australia's mining and investment boom, according to Deloitte Access Economics' June 2012 quarter Business Outlook, but HSBC says there is a lot more still to come.

"The government has built a budget that is wholly captive to the mining boom and the taxes to be collected from mining taxes," Joe Hockey told reporters in Sydney on Monday. "Now it's apparent the budget is unravelling because it was built on smoke and mirrors."

All booms inevitably end.

The Labor Government indicated that there would be a further increase in the permanent-entry immigration program from 163,000 in 2010–11, 185,000 in 2011–12 and up to 190,000 in 2012–13. The government is making immigration decisions assuming that the minerals boom will require a huge increase in skilled workers who must be drawn in part from migration.

The official immigration program doesn't count the nearly 14,000 migrants who arrive in the humanitarian program, or a number of smaller categories. It doesn't include the 25,000 or so Kiwis who cross the Tasman each year, or the international students for whom visa requirements have again been loosened or the sub-section 457 temporary work visas which have been recently embraced and promoted by both sides of politics. The 457 program is uncapped and untargeted.

Dr Bob Birrell, says our skilled migration intake was more than enough to service the mining boom. “But the bulk of current migration has little to do with providing scarce skills to the resource industries,” he says. “Rather, it is delivering two major streams. One is a predominantly professional flow to the big cities where the immigrants are being employed in people--servicing industries such as health and welfare. The other, is a mass of people on temporary visas such as students and working holiday makers work on a casual basis".

Our government also assume that the rest of the Australian economy will surge, generating a nation-wide shortage of skilled workers. Most of the migrants in the record-high intake will end up in Sydney and Melbourne. Now, according to Deloitte Access Economics, Australia's budget surplus has evaporated and its mining investment boom has only two years to run.

This year's forecast $1.5 billion budget surplus is no longer there, and Treasurer Wayne Swan will have to decide whether to cut back spending again in order to create a surplus.

Feast of famine, apparently Australia will need more highly skilled workers regardless of economic conditions, and more tertiary education funding is essential to ensure the supply of qualifications, according to Skills Australia Amendment (Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency) Act 2012. They report that demand for high-level qualifications would grow more than twice as quickly as supply whether Australia faced boom or bust. It's a denial of our unemployment rate, and the heavy costs of tertiary education. Universities and TAFES are underfunded, and operating under a business model. It's assumed that the Economy, based on infinite numbers, is the basis of our future, our growth, rather than finite natural resources and environmental capacity to provide for living standards - and the inevitable pollution/waste from a growing economy/population. Immigration is driving rapid population growth and causing cost of living and congestion problems – pressures on food, water, land and energy supplies, housing affordability and species extinctions.

What will happen after the mining boom ends, many Australians ask. The hundreds of millions of people being taken out of rural poverty to the urban lifestyle must eat food that they buy rather than grow. However, swathes of agricultural land is being sold to foreigners grabbing land.

Once the boom is over, it could leave the economy vulnerable to crippling tourism, manufacturing, and education services, said BIS Shrapnel in its Long Term Forecast 2011-26. Australia, unlike many resource-rich countries, does not have a “sovereign wealth fund” to save the wealth of its resources boom. Norway has an enormous fund which has strict rules meaning it can’t be spent in a hurry. Even northern neighbours East Timor and Papua New Guinea have some form of sovereign wealth fund. The minerals boom is sucking skilled labour and investment out of other sectors. The high Australian dollar is killing manufacturing export industries and tourism.

Service industries are surviving, but other industries such as manufacturing, tourism and agriculture are going backwards.

BIS Shrapnel chief economist Frank Gelber says rather than channelling the financial benefits from the mining boom into a prosperity fund, they should be invested in infrastructure. As MP Kelvin Thomson says, numerous studies show that new arrivals come with a big infrastructure requirement – they bring their families with them, and all require houses, roads, schools, hospitals etc., and many require English-language and other forms of assistance.

Australia's two-speed economy could slow to Victoria's snail-pace, and struggle to provide infrastructure and jobs to keep abreast with our politically-determined population growth - based on dubious "skills shortages"!

See also: The end of the mining boom? Access Economics' warning may be premature of Monday, 23 July 2012 by Cara Waters. Comment: In any case, the 'boom', based upon the extraction of humankind's finite bounty of non-renewable fossil fuels and metals could not possibly last for more than one or two hundred years at most, a miniscule period of time in comparison to the 30,000 years for which intelligent human communities have inhabited Earth. If Vivienne's more pessimistic economic prediction is borne out, then, at least, future generations stand some hope of getting a share of the mineral bounty that our greedy corporate elites want to dig up now. If we succeed in taking back the control of this country from the greedy foreign and domestic elites, we may find a way to have a more fulfilling future whilst also preserving some of our bounty for future generations. - Ed

admin

Mon, 2012-07-23 01:38

A Nun from Damascus: "We have no trust in these so-called 'revolutionaries'

See also: Christians threatened by Free Syrian Army of 17 July 2012

from Global Research, July 21, 2012
Agenzia Fides

(Agenzia Fides) - Refugees continue to knock on the door of the Shrine of Tabbaleh, dedicated to the Conversion of St. Paul in Damascus. The Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who run the Church, have welcomed eight families permanently and provide maintenance to 45 other families, Christians and Muslims. They are refugees from Damascus, the civilian victims of the clashes between the regular army forces and revolutionary groups that in recent days have put the city to fire.

"We walk in hope and try to comfort all in these tragic hours," says to Fides Fr. Romualdo Fernandez OFM, Rector of the Sanctuary, telling a crowd of people who come every day to pray in the Church, and spontaneous circles of Christians and Muslims are formed to pray together for peace and ask for God and the Virgin Mary’s protection.

Suo Yola, one of the Franciscan women religious who every day help the families of refugees, told Fides: "We are doing our best to help the displaced families. People cry and hope for better times. The cost of living is very high, there are no medicines, the impact of the embargo that we suffer is all on the civilian population and on the poorest. We hope and pray that this suffering will end soon. We have no trust in these so-called 'revolutionaries'. Who are the revolutionaries who harm the people? They have corrupted all, Christians and Muslims, many families who have lost everything. "

"In these armed actions and in this suffering - the nun continues - religion has nothing to do with it. With Muslims we have always lived side by side and we will continue to do so. The Syrian government has hitherto been secular, has guaranteed security and stability to Syria . Today we have only chaos, insecurity, and suffering. And what will happen tomorrow? But we know, as Christians, that God protects us and our hope is alive. And as Christians, we know for certain: we will never abandon Syria."

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2012-07-22 21:21

The FOREIGN REFUGEE / ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT assault on THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE continues unabated as Liberal/Labor politicians play a sham pantomime on this invasion. Essentially, it simply complements their plague-level immigration programme, now so despised by fairdinkum Australians

AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY as the champion of Identity, Independence and Freedom for our Australian People, calls for the following plan to be implemented to end this virtual RECOLONISATION of our land.

i] Withdrawal of our Defence Forces from New World Order imperialist wars and their return to Australia to fulfil their primary role of securing the Australia Nation.

ii] Repudiation of the UN Convention on Refugees as un-Constitutional and not in the interests of, and without the agreement of, the Australian People. A National Plebiscite to confirm this policy.

iii] Forward deployment of the ADF in the international waters and routes used to undermine our sovereignty.

iv] Interception of boats by trained ADF and their refuelling and reprovisioning, allowing sufficient supplies for their return to port of origin, or last port of call.

v] Identifying each FOREIGN REFUGEE through body scans and issuing a declaration to each that further attempt to transfer to Australian Soil will ensure permanent prohibition from entering Australia for any purpose.

vi] Rendering of emergency/temporary medical assistance to any illegal if needed.

vii] Levying an impost of 20% per head of currency carried to add towards costs [Customs Personnel continually report the FOREIGN REFUGEE wallets are full with convertible currency]

viii] Escorting the invasion boats to commence their return away Australia.

ix] Should any invasion boat refuse ADF direction it is to be placed under tow for removal to the vicinity of place of origin / last port of call. A levy of 20% per head of currency carried will be applied.

x] Illegals resisting the implementation of ADF strategy will be restrained whilst the procedures are undertaken. A levy of 15% of currency carried will be applied.

xi] LAW OF THE SEA norms to be abrogated as an emergency response whilst this assault on Australian Sovereignty continues.

xii) ] For foreigners who fly into Australia, the entry visa system will be changed to require a pre-paid return airfare before issue AS REQUIRED BY OTHER COUNTRIES, and automatic non-negotiable immediate expulsion to occur on any attempt to claim ‘refugee status’ by over staying in Australia. A levy of 20% of currency carried will be applied, and denial of any further entry to Australia for any purpose will become applicable.

xiii] Cancellation of all sham entry visa / residency status granted to fake refugees under the Lib/lLab administrations, and directed repatriation back to country of origin to be enforced.

xiv] Foreign Aid to be curtailed/suspended pending the resolution of this emergency.

xv] Subversives and fifth columnists in Australia who aid and abet this unarmed invasion of Australia, and the undermining of our European-derived civilisation, will be subject to curtailment of civil and political rights, denial of social services, and nationalisation / sale of property to aid the costs of defending the Australian People.

The AFP’s policy on illegals is required to release funds currently wasted on foreigners, funds sorely needed for programs to alleviate the suffering of Aussies - the homeless, disabled, unemployed, etc, etc, who are the real responsibility of the Australian Government.

Australia First Party. P. O. Box 223, Croydon, 3136 National Contact 02 8587 0014
www.australiafirst.net ausfirst [ AT ] hotmail.com

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2012-07-22 18:11

A camp of anti-logging protesters in a state forest near Healesville say they were terrorised by "thugs" who attacked them in the early hours of this morning.

MyEnvironment spokeswoman Sarah Rees said up to 10 men ambushed the two-men camp at Toolangi State Forest, at Mt St Leonard, at 2.30am.

The attackers shone car headlights into the faces of the protesters, John Flynn and Andy Lincoln, and menaced them with star pickets and a large car jack.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/starpicket-attack-on-antilogging-campers-20120721-22gma.html

A Facebook page, set up by supporters of the timber industry, was "stimulating violence".

There's always money to be made from environmental destruction, and so-called "sustainable" industries. In many countries conservationists are assassinated and murdered for stopping profits and "progress".

The latest case in the Philippines was of 60 year-old conservationist and community leader Frederick ‘Fred’ Trangia of Barangay Mainit, Nabunturan, Compostela Valley Province, who was shot down last May 6 by two unidentified gunmen.

Prominent environmental activist Chut Wutty has been killed in Koh Kong province in south-west Cambodia, working to prevent the destruction of the forests he fought for 15 years to conserve.

Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo were ambushed in Para state, near the city of Maraba. The environmentalist had repeatedly warned of death threats against him by loggers and cattle ranchers. They were killed in the Amazon region. The killers even cut off the ears of the da Silvas, a common practice of assassins in Brazil to prove to their employers that they had committed the deed.

In many parts of the world, standing up for one's forest, land, or environment has become incredibly dangerous. A new briefing by Global Witness finds that 711 activists, journalists, and community members were murdered defending or investigating land and forest rights issues between 2002 and 2011.

Are these deaths a consequence of a new global rush for the last remaining timber and mining resources, and a new ruthlessness on the part of oil, timber and mining companies? Probably, and if the behavior of humans was being exhibited by another expanding species, not nearly as destructive as humans, they would be declared a dangerous vermin pest that should be "managed" and eradicated!

Menkit (not verified)

Sun, 2012-07-22 02:19

I am so encouraged by this incredibly brave woman to be breaking away from her culture and her country and speaking up for what is right. She is definitely a light in a very dark time showing a better way for them all to be. I pray she will be given asylum (and Julian Assange too!). And I also pray that more Muslim women have the courage to speak out for their rights as Islam is an horrifically repressive regime for women and children.

Editor's comment: Thank you, Menkit, for expressing your support of Princess Sara. Regarding Julian Assange, I recommend you read what the Syrian Girl (who features in the candobetter article Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May) has to say about him. Whilst he appears to be a beacon of truth amidst a global storm of deceit, the information supposedly leaked by him, in fact, helps the New World Order propagandists. I suggest you also look at Webster Tarpley's broadcast embeded on Veterans Today.

admin

Sat, 2012-07-21 21:18

Please Save The Kimberley and Humpback Whales

The Kimberley is one of the rarest environments on Earth and one of the last true wildernesses. Rich in history, culture and tradition, vibrant community and aesthetically beautiful. This precious and unique natural wonderland should be 'forever wild'. To learn more about the Kimberely and see a snap shot of this beautiful area please watch this ABC Catalyst video of 18 August 2011, West Coast Whales.

This petition was set up on or before 10 June. I don't recall how I became aware of it, but I should have posted this note before now. My apologies. - Ed

Fed up with ove... (not verified)

Sat, 2012-07-21 20:33

I have been concerned for some time about over-population. The world's population has increased from four billion to seven billion in FORTY years. If we continue at that cracking pace, food and water will be as rare as rocking horse teeth. From its present groaning under the weight of numbers, we can surely see that this planet was not meant to be burdened by an ever increasing number of resource consuming humans! For goodness sake Concerned Catholic, what is your cut-off figure? 20 billion? 40 billion? At what figure would you recommend the brakes be applied? Or would you say humans should never stop multiplying? You would just keep producing people until they start killing each other over a grain of rice?

With all this carbon tax racket going on, don't you see that with population stabilisation followed by sensible population reduction, humans would not be consuming our resources at a rate that suggests our environment can no longer meet all our needs? Wasn't this planet designed to carry only sufficient numbers of humans that can live in a reasonable amount of comfort - without constantly worrying as to how they are going to pay their next energy bill?

Whether or not you accept the global warming science (and despite the forceful pro-global warming lobby many still exercise their democratic right to question it) it is common sense that if there are less humans there will be less pollution. Less cars, less energy/fuel consumption, less demand on food and water resources.

Just stop sending overseas aid in $$$$$$$$'s to corrupt regimes and multiplying bottomless pits of want. Send shiploads of condoms complete with instructions and make population reduction a condition for reduced foreign aid.

Australia should cut the kids' bonuses (political translation - plasma t.v.'s and poker machine entertainment) and cut taxpayer funded support for the irresponsibles who overload our environment with more than two children.
Thank you.

nimby

Sat, 2012-07-21 09:23

Because of the generous public support and donations for MyEnvironment a bank cheque for $30,000 was hand-delivered yesterday to the Senior Master at the Supreme Court, ensuring that the appeal in My Environment -v- VicForests will go ahead.

Listen to John Wiliamson's wonderful anthem, Rip Rip Woodchip, accompanied by images of their ongoing campaign to protect Leadbeater's Possum and the forests around Toolangi.

nimby (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-20 18:32

Ashley Fenn believes the three main issues facing Melbourne residents are: -Traffic congestion and related pollution. -Cost of living. For most Australian households, the cost of living is an increasing concern. -The Economy. With the current coalition of the ALP and the Greens, our country is wasting millions of dollars every day, increasing debt for future generations. At the same time, he sees Market forces causing Melbourne’s population continue to grow, regardless of political interference. He has failed to join the dots between cause and effect, and illness and symptoms. He says that "ln light of this, it is essential that all residents – current and future – have access to suitable amenities, thereby ensuring Melbourne continues to be a great place to live". As a Family First, by definition, they should put the welfare of families ahead of greed and economies of growth that put pressure onto families. All his primary concerns are related to economic/population growth symptoms. Our population growth is not simply a victim of market forces, without political input. A Christianity-based political party about social justice, fairness and should focus on equality and eqalitarianism. The God of Mammon, or materialism, is all empowering, and our city planning has been hijacked by developers and those with vested interests in property and growth. It's contrary to any concern for families, and future generations. Population growth is stealing the well-being and futures of our kids. Family First should be put last, along with the Libs and Labs. http://www.melbournetimesweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/melbourne...

Vatican is us (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-20 16:36


Thank you for your inquiry, which was passed on to me by Another Concerned Catholic.

It is anticipated that few competing species will survive humans through to the middle of the 21st century as we cover the earth with concrete. The only reason that humans will survive will be through their ability to step down beyond the atomic level.

If any battles need be engaged against the Praying Mantis, (although its name would suggest a peaceful and religious disposition) humans will probably deploy tiny 634 gram Chinese manufactured miniature helicopters of which the Vatican recently bought up millions at only $29.99 each.

As the attached illustration suggests, these little machines are well up to the challenge. Because they are radio operated, human operators will be able to remain out of sight and in safety at some distance away.

A filmed demonstration is available here, but without the giant praying mantis, which must be purchased separately. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/__18283__2_4Ghz_Micro_Coax_Helicopter_4_Channel_RTF_Mode_2_.html

Vatican promotional staff

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2012-07-20 14:58

"Bring Out Your Dead" fur protest, Lygon St Carlton 11 am Saturday July 28 Come out dressed for a funeral and help us tell the truth about fur. Meeting 10.30 for 11 am start outside Husk (324 Lygon St Carlton –google map link below*). Husk is one of the outlets in a nation-wide franchise where fur garments are sold all year round without country of origin labels (possibly because they do not want to admit selling products made of Chinese rabbit fur); their fur stock is designed by Australian designers Bedelia, who disingenuously reassure the public on their website that they only use “humanely” sourced fur fabric in their designs. We have asked them to explain to us how the capture and deaths of raccoon, mink and arctic fox, among other animals whose fur is used, is humane but they failed to reply-nothing to say no doubt! Feel free to make comment on Bedelia’s facebook page-www.facebook.com/pages/Bedelia-Australia/159746577443366 *Directions for Husk Lygon St here- Rheya Linden, Campaign Director Animal Active!

Concerned Catholic (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-20 14:39

Dear Similarly Concerned Catholic, I am most grateful to you for the reference to the the publication "Smartsized growth.." It accords well with my own view as you will realise. Since a soul does not have any physical dimensions, it seems to me that the art of bonsai through genetic engineering applied in this manner to humans solves the potential problem of the accommodation of souls. And it is quite sustainable as you so elegantly point out. My only problem with the down sizing of humans is the future scale of humans to bandicoots for instance or to sugar gliders. I can foresee that at a certain stage in "smartsized growth" that humans could ride bandicoots as they would have ridden horses and after a further downsizing, fly on the backs of sugar gliders but at some critical size ratio, humans could run into problems with other species. For instance when the human is 1/8 the size of a praying mantis might an encounter not pose a threat ? - to the minuscule human I mean - (complete with soul.)

quark

Fri, 2012-07-20 13:50

But isn't it wonderful to receive calls from telecommunications providers offering deals with rates of phone calls in terms of getting e.g $100 worth of free calls a month when the sales people don't even tell you what the call rate is! How much spare time would one really need to work out what is in fact a good deal? No- I'd rather see a good deal for all whether one can work it out or not. Great that you are back on the job, James!

Similarly conce... (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-20 13:18

Dear Concerned Catholic, Thank heavens for some commonsense religion in the population debate. I share your views and have long been concerned about the impact on lost souls if the populationists succeed in their mission to have bandicoots and brushtail possums take back the earth, along with anarchists and other athiestic septics. Can I recommend to you an upcoming Vatican/Property Developer Counsel publication which I recently received in an advanced draft form? It is called, "Smartsized human growth: how to accomodate All Souls." In it, renowned Vatican scientist, Professor Dominico Desparado, talks about the future when we will all harnass genetic engineering and rescue the world housing bubble economy and cure the planet of world hunger. With a team of real-estate agents working day and night in his laboratory, the Professor has succeeded in resetting the human height algorithm to spontaneously reduce every generation by 50 per cent. This means that within a generation all humans born will be on average half the size they are now. Within two generations they will be the size of medium sized dogs and able to live in kennel-sized homes in gardens subdivided tenfold. Within four generations it is anticipated that the entire human race will have shrunk to the size of mice and that there will be a property market boom in dolls' houses, dolls' tea-sets, dolls' furniture and model railways. Within 10 generations it is anticipated that humans will be well on the way to inhabiting an atom per capita and that from there a great historic diaspora will begin where our race will explore the infinity of quantum-space, emerging at some point as an utterly negative quantity. After that we will ultimately emerge through black holes all over the galaxy as giants to take over planets and expand throughout the universe, endlessly, to the great glory of God. This was all, of course, predicted in the bible in the parts that discussed the meek inheriting the earth and the rise of property developers as a chosen master-race.

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Fri, 2012-07-20 09:55

Please save the Kimberley - petition Tell WA Premier Barnett that you don't want unwanted industrial development on the Dampier Peninsula wilderness More oil wells approved for 'heritage listed' Ningaloo! FRACKING has begun in the pristine Kimberley. Massive industrialisation by BP,Shell, Chevron, BHP Billiton, Woodside, Conoco Phillips and many others - coal, gas, oil, copper, bauxite, alumina and uranium - the Kimberley will be destroyed. All being done now behind closed doors. Politicians not listening. Destructive oil, gas and mining companies lining up to destroy one of the rarest environments on Earth today and every living marine and land creature will fight to survive. The peninsula supports a vast abundance of wildlife and vegetation, some of which is totally unique to the region and much of which is also threatened. The coastal waters and beaches are home to Dugong, a variety of marine turtle species - many of which are threatened - and perhaps the world's most significant calving waters for Humpback Whales. The people of the Kimberley need us now. The whole Kimberley coast should become a national park. Economic growth is a powerful and destructive force set to wreak havoc on the whale nursery and a pristine coast. Make sure these oil and gas companies don't destroy the Kimberley coast - and don't support Government threats to confiscate land that is under Native Title claim. The truth is there are viable alternatives to a Kimberley coast industrial site. The companies can use floating LNG technology or pipe the gas to existing infrastructure to the south (in the Pilbara). They just need some persuading.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2012-07-19 23:49

On July 17, Kelvin Thomson wrote: The idea of selling and tolling existing roads is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard, and could only come from people completely out of touch with the lives of ordinary Australians and Victorians. Ordinary Victorians are feeling serious cost of living pressures. How does being required to pay each time we drive on roads we can presently travel on for free make us better off? It makes us worse off. Selling off existing roads to private companies and putting tolls on them will make those private companies wealthy, but it will be at the expense of ordinary motorists. The reason Melbourne and other capital cities have traffic congestion is because our population growth is too fast, and we should tackle that by cutting migration back to the levels we used to have in the 1980s and 1990s. Improved public transport is a superior answer to traffic congestion than building more freeways, but seriously, what is the point of building a freeway and then discouraging people from using it by sticking a toll on it? It is a stupid idea and governments at both State and Federal level should reject it. Posted by Kelvin Thomson MP on his blogspot

admin

Thu, 2012-07-19 20:43

Christians threatened by Free Syrian Army seek Government Protection of 17 July 2012 by Stoyan Zaimov
Republished from Global Research

by Stoyan Zaimov

See also "Cruise Missile Socialists": When Justifying Imperialist Intervention goes Wrong of 17 July by Mazda Majidi also on Global Research, Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May, Nun from Damascus has no trust in so-called 'revolutionaries' of 21 July 2012 on candobetter.

As the conflict in Syria continues without a resolution, and government and rebel forces are locked in fierce battles across several cities, Christians in the besieged city of Homs were evacuated with the help of a priest on Wednesday.

For months, Christians have been trapped in the crossfire with scarce access to basic necessities such as food, water and medical help, but yesterday Maximos al-Jamal, a Greek Orthodox priest, revealed that he was part of evacuation efforts that saved 63 people.

"Gunmen have told the besieged people that if you go out of these areas, we will die," al-Jamal shared with The Associated Press.

Christians in the warring Middle East nation make up around 10 per cent of the largely Muslim population, but with little government support and the difficulty foreign aid workers have had gaining access to besieged areas, they have had to rely only on themselves and their church.

"I stayed inside Hamidiyeh to protect the churches from looting. I saved 14 icons from the St George church which has been destroyed," shared one Homs resident, Jihad Akhras, who was among the rescued. After negotiations, a deal was made between rebels and troops that allowed 24 civilians to escape on Tuesday, followed by a further 39 on Wednesday.

Homs, the third largest city in Syria, has been hit particularly hard by government bombings and crossfire between Islamic rebels and government forces. The AP reported that Christians have been leaning more toward President Bashar Assad's regime despite the current dire situation, if only due to fears of further persecution they might face if more radical Islamic extremists take control of Syria.

Back in February, a Christian priest in Homs shared of how dire the situation was getting in the city.

"The armed Islamist Opposition in Syria has murdered more than 200 Christians in the city of Homs, including entire families with young children. These Islamic gangs kidnapped Christians and demanded high ransoms. In two cases, after the ransoms were paid, the men's bodies were found," Barnabas Aid, a charity organisation helping persecuted Christians around the world quoted him as saying.

"Christians are being forced to flee the city to the safety of government controlled areas. Muslim rebel fighters and their families are taking over their homes. We need your prayers and we need them urgently," he added.

Global Research Articles by Stoyan Zaimov

Bandicoot

Thu, 2012-07-19 10:41

News that former prime minister, and now traitor, Bob Hawke is helping broker the sale of a huge tract of West Australian land to China should set alarm bells ringing in Canberra. Those who are happy to flog off Australian farms label those who are bothered "economic cretins" who do not understand the value of foreign investment - or, worse, "racist xenophobes". Protect Australian soil - The Weekly Times How can food production be raised by 77% by 2050? Global and Australia's population is set to rise, but that doesn't mean Nature can be cajoled to meet human demands. There are limits to growth in any natural or even any human-made system. Can potosynthesis be increased in speed, can plant growth become more rapid, can soils be more fertile on declining global resources, can animals be made to "grow" their meat faster even still? How much more milk can cows produce to keep up with exponential human demands? Land is the new international currency due to global overpopulation and declining fertile soils, and water. Australians know their own land better than foreigners. They will be interested mainly in their own country's food security. Australia is a sophisticated and modern nation, with a strong and innovative pioneering farming history. Australia has lead the way in agricultural inventions. However, our Australian government is failing to make farming an attractive and rewarding lifestyle choice. China, a county with 9% of the world's farmland, has attracted a string of negative headlines over claims that it is aiming to tackle its problem of feeding its 1.3bn people, 20% of the world's population, by importing food from a swathe of farms purchased abroad. It has prompted countries such as Argentina and Brazil to place limits on foreign ownership of land. It's very hard for foreigners in China to gain permanent residency, even after living there for many years. It's impossible for foreigners to buy Chinese agricultural land. This an attack on our sovereignty by our own government, and Bob Hawke. Another argument used to silence debate is that foreign ownership does not threaten our food security because we export a lot more than we produce. It's an attack on our sovereign land, our natural heritage. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation’s position on land grabs legitimises the industrial monocultures responsible for the expulsion of farmers and indigenous communities from their lands say Latin American and Caribbean social movements and organisations. China is a consumer of virtually all the transgenic soy produced by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. There is an attempt to buy land in countries of great natural wealth and produce the food needed to supply its domestic market”. In 2010 Argentine courts halted a contract of Patagonian province of Rio Negro with Chinese company Heilongjiang for the sale of 254.000 hectares to be used for just such a mega-project. The scale of Chinese food-producing operation would allow them to import everything they need, more cheaply, direct from China. Nil for Australia! Their own food security will be their priority, not Australia's. The "Asian Century" should be about trading with Asian nations, not caving in and selling off our sovereign land to them - against the will of caring Australians. Comments on this page have been closed. Please add further comments here.- Ed, 19 July

Concerned Catholic (not verified)

Thu, 2012-07-19 00:14

Subject was: Accommodation of souls.

I have been concerned for some time about people denouncing human population growth and talking about ways to stop it. It is clear to me that there has to be an ever increasing number of people in the world to accommodate all the souls that have become disembodied when someone "passes on". In that context does it not make complete sense that there should now be 7 billion people in the world when 200 odd years ago there were only 1 billion? You will say that re-incarnation is not a tenet of the Catholic Church but I have studied many religions and in that sense have a truly catholic appreciation of the movement of souls.

nimby

Wed, 2012-07-18 15:08

Scientists are still studying the 'massive whale nursery' that surrounds Woodside's contentious gas hub project in Western Australia's Kimberley, former Greens leader Bob Brown says. The activists will meet Aboriginal activists in Broome before sailing on Sea Shepherd's ship Steve Irwin to the proposed development site at James Price Point early next month. The activist ship will leave Melbourne this week for the Kimberley coast to draw attention to potential impacts on humpback whales by the giant project. Sky News 'Most Australians don't know that this massive whale nursery is off our northwest coast, and it is threatened,' Dr Brown told AAP on Tuesday. Woodside and its partners will pipe gas ashore from the Browse Basin for processing and export at James Price Point, if one of Australia's largest energy projects gains final investment approval. Dr Brown said that, as an adviser to the group, he hopes to raise awareness of the devastating consequences if federal approval is granted to huge gas projects where humpback whales are known to thrive. "Constructing the gas factories and port would mean noise pollution, destruction of habitat and also boat strikes to whales" said the Sea Shepherd group. While ostensibly the Australian government supports whales and condemns Japan "scientific" whale slaughter, this Woodside hub commercial venture would put an end to whales enjoying calmer, warmer waters to give birth to and bring up their infants in safety. It's an attack on whales and adds to our government's anti-whaling hypocrisy. Denying species' habitats is just as lethal as weapons of destruction.

NIMBY (not verified)

Wed, 2012-07-18 09:08

Environment groups have labelled Planet Ark "Judas" over "throwing a lifeline to the most appalling logging practices" in Australia.

If so, they would not be the only "green" Pharisees! Usually they celebrate trees and recommend recycling Christmas cards to save them, but now they have agreed to sit on the review committee for the Australian Forestry Standard, which certifies the controversial operations of Forestry Tasmania and VicForests. They've made a pact with the Devil!

Environment East Gippsland coordinator Jill Redwood said PA "seemed to have turned Judas".

"Planet Ark has thrown a lifeline to the most appalling logging practices like we see in Indonesia and Malaysia," Ms Redwood said.

When you can't beat them, join them, and instead of being part of the solution, you can get financial rewards by being part of the problem. Planet Ark have sold out on environmentalism and lost their vision.

Planet Ark has agreed to sit on the review committee for the Australian Forestry Standard, which certifies the controversial operations of Forestry Tasmania and VicForests. The standard requires an environment group to sit on the committee but other environment groups refused.

See Weekly Times:
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/07/18/511361_business-news.html

Bandicoot

Wed, 2012-07-18 08:42

Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. The Law of Mother Earth recognises the rights of all living things, giving the natural world equal status to human beings. Once fully approved, the legislation will provide the Earth with rights to: life and regeneration; biodiversity and freedom from genetic modification; pure water; clean air; naturally balanced systems; restoration from the effects of human activity; and freedom from contamination. Bolivia to give legal rights to the Earth At its heart is an understanding that the Earth is sacred, which arises from the indigenous Andean worldview of ‘Pachamama’ (meaning Mother Earth) as a living being. In 2008, Ecuador took the bold step of adding Rights for Nature to their new constitution. The Rights for Nature Articles provide a system of environmental protection based on rights. Historically, like in the US and most world countries, Ecuadorian law treated ecosystems and natural communities as articles of property which gives land owners the right to destroy even fragile ecosystems. Most governments enact environmental regulation to limit harm to ecosystems and impose fines for damage. Damages would be measured not by people’s loss of use of the ecosystem, but by the damage inflicted on the ecosystem itself. Rights of Mother Earth For "backward" developing countries by world economic standards, they are far ahead of us!

Geoffrey Taylor

Wed, 2012-07-18 00:47

The above post reads, in part, like promotional literature from an imported labor hire agency.

2012 Legal wrote:

If there is someone who should complain about it, its their home countries, ...

In fact, I know I wrote on a forum, either on candobetter or elsewhere, that the intentional importation of skilled workers, including nurses and trained doctors, away from Third World countries into industrialised nations such as Australia, is a scam against the people of those countries and also against workers in the industrialised countries themselves who are denied training and career advancement as a consequence. An illustration of this is how there are more Ethiopian doctors in the US than in Ethiopia itself.

admin

Wed, 2012-07-18 00:15

I received the following e-mail from Melissa of the recently concluded 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns, Australia:

Good afternoon,

Just a note to say thank you so much for contributing to the widespread and informative coverage of coral reef research both in the lead up to, and throughout, the past week.

Thank you, more specifically, for absorbing and sharing stories that will contribute to inspiring and informing the creation of policies to help better protect and preserve the health of the world’s remaining coral reefs for our, and the future, generation(s).

In the words of this year’s Darwin Medalist, Prof Jeremy Jackson: "The future of coral reefs isn't a marine version of tree-hugging, but a central problem for humanity."

And we thank you for communicating that message.

With best regards,
Melissa.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-17 23:55

A couple of articles that are germane to the themes discussed here: Boat people dreaming http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/australian-identity/australian-... The boats won't stop - so what should we do? http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4136190.html Very few people picked up on the point the author makes about the huge numbers arriving via the migration program compared to the humanitarian intake. Everyone seems obsessed with a sad little flotilla of "boats" while an A380's worth of permanent residents arrives daily and appears to land in a mental blind spot. If we have around 50,000 - 70,000 immigration places available each year, assuming that number would see us stabilise our population, I'd prefer give those places to those in need. I'm less magnanimous toward the global plague of upwardly mobile, aspirational, middle class locusts who descend on greenfields to devour all before them. I suspect they are driven by a futile quest to satisfy with worldly goods a spiritual void that cannot be fulfilled materially. Perhaps I should pity them too and show mercy? What's the point of rejecting one form of prejudice and replacing it with another? I'm probably similar to you John in some respects but our biases are in different realms. I'm sure my hierarchy or "worthiness" could be criticised as "classist". I'll wear that. Class War seems to have a more coherent and logical philosophical basis than Race War. In the end, aren't we trying to save the Earth from mindless consumption. And isn't mindless consumption a function of Western class and economic structures? I saw a report on an interesting statistic fished from the last census. 17,500 Australians earn in excess of $650,000 pa (forget "the 1%" meme of the 'occupy movement', we're talking about "the less than 0.01%"). While I have no evidence my intuition tells me these elites are the architects and beneficiaries of Big Australia while the rest of us get a smaller share of the pie and see nature and our built environs suffer under the weight of numbers. During the Russian Revolution the workers only left the factories to protest when, after years of brutal deprivations, their rations were cut from a loaf of bread to half a loaf of bread. How difficult will it be to snap people out of their Bread and Circuses complacency and challenge Big Australia's massive propaganda machine?

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2012-07-17 22:14

John Marlowe,

No, not American. And not civic; Civil. My reference to a civil code is a reference to Roman Law as revamped by Napoleon in the early 19th Century. Almost all of Europe, even the countries he did not rule, eventually took it up because it works so well. The Germanic and Nordic countries were slower to do so because they had never been under the Roman Empire so did not have that basic identification with Roman law. Britain and, I think, Portugal (which came under British influence, unfortunately) also did not take it up and these countries have similar problems of poor democracy and huge inequalities and poverty. Basically there are two major kinds of legal systems in the European world including among ex-European colonies: Roman and British and they have completely different origins and effects.

Where do Australian values fit in here? Well, once you have identified them, you need to create laws to enshrine and defend them. Examples of important laws are your rights to inherit from your parents vs your parents' rights to leave their assets to whomever. Another important right might be equality of sexes. Another one might be the right to cheap housing. Another one might be the right to an income. Another one might be the right to get out of a commercial agreement that is manifestly unfair. Think of some others. What would you like?

Basically a civil code is a code of rights for citizens that can be enforced at law. The European Civil Codes are comprehensive and constantly reviewed. They are products of the French Revolution (which lasted several generations and post-dated Napoleon's reign).

I know a lot about the antique and modern origins of this code and the differences between Roman and British law. These different law systems have huge impacts on whether or not property gets divided up and becomes concentrated in private or public hands. The British system is the bad one that causes overpopulation. The Roman system is much better. Of course most English speakers don't have any idea of the differences and assume what they have been told that the English legal system is the best is true.

"The Civil Code

Napoleon in later life considered the Civil Code to be the most significant of his achievements. The Code represented a comprehensive reformation and codification of the French civil laws. Under the ancien regime more than 400 codes of laws were in place in various parts of France, with common law predominating in the north and Roman law in the south. The Revolution overturned many of these laws. In addition, the revolutionary governments had enacted more than 14,000 pieces of legislation. Five attempts were made to codify the new laws of France during the periods of the National Convention and the Directory. Through the efforts of Napoleon the drafting the new Civil Code in an expert commission, in which Jean-Etienne-Marie Portalis took a leading role, took place in the second half of 1801. Napoleon attended in person 36 of the commission's 87 meetings. Although the draft was completed at the end of 1801, the Code was not published until 21 March 1804. The Civil Code represents a typically Napoleonic mix of liberalism and conservatism, although most of the basic revolutionary gains - equality before the law, freedom of religion and the abolition of feudalism - were consolidated within its laws. Property rights, including the rights of the purchasers of the biens nationaux were made absolute. The Code also reinforced patriarchal power by making the husband the ruler of the household. The Napoleonic Code was to be promulgated, with modifications, throughout the Empire. The Civil Code was followed by a Code of Civil Procedure in 1806, a Commercial Code in 1807, a Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure in 1808 and a Penal Code in 1810. A Rural Code was debated, but never promulgated. The Code Napoleon, renamed the Civil Code, was retained in its majority after the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815. The Civil Code has served as the model for the codes of law of more than twenty nations throughout the world."

Go to the link to see the subjects covered under the code. These codes are continuously revised but continue to be based on the first French publication of 1804.

Legal (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-17 21:15

Apparently you have no clue about revenues Australian govt. gets from legal skilled immigrants. Just visa related fees for one person exceed 10.000$ , this money is paid directly to govt. Legal immigrants bring lump sums of cache on arrival which is spent on housing, furniture, basically everything needed , because all of them literally starting from scratch, injecting tens of thousands of $$ into Australian economy. Aust. govt and companies haven't invested any funds into education, training and health of these people, but they use it's fruits. If there is someone who should complain about it, its their home countries, who made all this spending, Aust just gets ready product, plus money!! (see above) Skilled migrants don't take aussie jobs, there is thorough checking for job types and numbers before admitting immigrant. Finally not all skilled immigrants stay in Australia, increasingly many of them leave Australia for better opportunities in US and Europe, that's why annual intake numbers stay high. And while in Australia they create added value, for your info they don't work in shops or banks, but in technology companies, universities, etc, helping to create more job by transferring their competence. We are law abiding hard workers , who was invited to this country, doesn't get anything for free and contributes a lot to this country, and don't deserve this kind of remarks.

John Marlowe

Tue, 2012-07-17 17:14

Thank you Sheila,

The topic is important enough to breakaway from this biodiversity issue, though respectfully critical as it is; but to explore and debate the root causes of the adverse impacts of human overpopulation on Australian ecology.

Australia is not unique, but is part of the same global human migration and overbreeding problem.

Immigration just facilitates the movement of people, it does not solve the people overpopulation problem. It just moves the problem from one place to another - due to push factors such as civil war and due to pull factors such as Australia's global image of wealth and fortune - which Wayne Swan constantly trumpets, especially overseas it seems.

But your term 'Civil Rights' sounds American, and I am not familar with it and to how it may play out in the Australian context. Australians should not follow Americanism, but Australianism. So define it and explain it please - it deserves an article and I will be keen to contribute.

But, I propose starting at a much deeper socio-psychological level - at 'values', then from there 'attitudes' and then 'behaviours'. What is Australian? What are Australian 'values', 'attitudes' and 'behaviours'. (Hopefully, not what we saw on Channel 10's 'The Shire' last night).

Then within that context, what rights do locals have. Who are 'locals'? What rights do foreigners have? When do 'foreigners' become 'locals' and do they automatically have a right equal to locals or do that have to comply with some social mores? Go to an Arab the nation and discover if you have to comply with the local mores. Australia should not be so politically correct and seek the apex of moral high ground. The whole thing must work in the rough and tumble of Australian society, else it is all focus group utopianism that will only fuel ethnic tensions, xenopohobia and then outright racist violence. Let's not go there!

There is nothing wrong with such a debate. It is mature.
But please let leave the prejudice aside. At no time have I vilified any race. I don't care if people are green with pink spots. What I care most about is when the incumbent people are usurped by foreigners. I suggest a good historical tale is one of the infamous Highland Clearances of Scotland of the 18th Century. Read background. When you read it, compare it to Australia in 1788 and then now. It is a real wake up to passive compacent descendents of colonists.

Now I could have Uzbekistan ancestry but I don't, but it doesn't matter. The issue is one of universal principle. If you can conceive a principle of justice workable ands respectful to both locals and foreigners, then it has to be universally applicable.

I just happen to have Scottish ancestry, but I regard myself as Australian, not a hair mongrel! I have been to Scotland but I yearn setting fooit back in Australia, my home. Anyone who commits when they are honoured with Australian citizenship should feel an Australian passion - that may take time and they can be tuti-fruity for all I care. But if they are here to usurp, then they are not welcome in Australia.

This is a vital debate for all nations, but unfortunately missing from the mainstream media, scared and too immature to touch it.
Thank you for persisting. I feel I was misinterpreted before.

John Marlowe

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-17 12:45

I think we can be anti-immigration and anti big population growth without being anti-migrant. They are invited here by our governments and end up in far-flung urban sprawl or living in expensive apartments, with a promise of jobs, skills shortages, education and a better life. They are being deceived too. Sourcing immigrants from developing nations means there are less expectations of living standards, non-union workers, easily exploitable employees and compliant to the status quo. It's not their fault that they are being sold a "lemon"! Costs of housing are the highest in the world, and cost of "luxuries" such as water, and power, and increasingly beyond normal pay packets. It's a Ponzi-economic scheme that exploits economic unit - people! We can't assume that migrants want continued population growth! There are some that have come here to live in a "lucky country" but find the same pressures on them that they left their original homelands for.

The Greens without a comprehensive and vague population policy are missing the target and thus failing to gain voter confidence. Green is not necessarily "green". They think that by recycling, re-using resources, renewable energy and planting roof gardens is the solution to the negative environmental impacts of population growth.

The loss of already endangered Growling grass frogs and bandicoots that were once common will be inevitable by continued urban sprawl. The "revision" of protection laws is just weakening them down so they are expected to live in smaller, fragmented and compromised habitats while humans can expand their economic power and numbers. It's nasty, deliberate and avoidable annihilation based on predatory greed and rapacious appetite for growth and profits - with little concern for the outcome.

Warren Hern, the Boulder abortion doctor, believes humans "have become a pathological process — a malignancy — in the planetary ecosystem" and that "if you like what the 20th century brought us in terms of war, famine, pestilence, and ecological destruction, you will love the rest of this one. It will be worse."

Hern deplores the fact that global population reached 7 billion last October and opines, "At this rate, we will reach about 13 billion by 2050 and 25 billion by the end of this century..". He suggest humans — this "malignancy," — will outstrip resources and food supplies when our species' expansion in the past two centuries and especially the past 30 years, even though it has coincided with economic growth and increased health. At what cost to the planet's co-inhabitants?

The deliberate extermination of native animals is a malignancy too!

Read more: Carroll: Warren Hern and the "malignancy" of mankind - The Denver Post at http://www.denverpost.com/carroll/ci_20192469/hern-and-malignancy-mankind#ixzz20qN957IP

John Marlowe

Tue, 2012-07-17 10:54

Quark, So here is the cause and effect logic: 1. Some 200,000 net immigrants arrive in Australia each year - Juliar gifts them permanent visas 2. More people breed more and demand more resources - housing for instance and so Vic and NSW governments 'release' more land for sprawl to house the hoards 3. Most of the immigrants settle in urban capital cities (where the work is, their relations and their familiar languages are). The cities are already congested, so they grow outwards 4. Incresing urban populations not only go highrise but also 'sprawl' (I'm touching on the article now) 5. More demand for natural resources such as land (leads to deforestation displaced for more housing), more demaind for timber (from forest plantations and native forests) , energy (mining coal, coal seem gas), water (Desal plants), sewerage, pollution, CO2 emissions, environmental impacts, etc, etc. 6. More demand for food, so farmers clear more land (natural environment) for crops and pasture 7. Urban sprawl includes Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula - where the Growling Grass Frog and the Southern Brown Bandicoots once occurred commonly 8. The growth of humans "expands the urban boundary" 9. Wetlands are treated as wastelands ready for reclaiming for housing sprawl (move on Growling Grass Frog) - Article: "an anthropocentric colonial concept assumes that "vacant" land is a wasted resource unless there is concrete, lawns, landfill, infrastructure and housing on it." 10. "The framework to protect our native species, even endangered ones, can easily be "revised" and made impotent against the lucrative economic momentum of the property development industry." 11. Governments see the panacea for economic growth - immigration demand-led and so the snowballing perpetuates 12. Australia boasting the label 'a nation of immigrants' simultaneously boasts the highest rate of mammalian extinctions on the planet. 13. Don't issue immigration visas, and they won't come, and this will be a key step in stemming the extinction of Australia's biodiversity Q.E.D. Some proud reason to be a nation of immigrants. The Aborigines at least are not at risk of extinction. But Growling Grass Frogs have a good reason to be pissed off and 'speciesist' - worse than racist. Australia's biodiversity saving solution is not the Liberal's 'Stopping the Boats', nor Labor's Malaysia Solution, nor The Greens Open Door Solution, it is Australia First's 'End Immigration Solution'. John Marlowe

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2012-07-17 10:51

John Marlowe,

I am writing this in haste as a comment, although I would rather write a thoughtful article. I agree that Australians have a right to be recognised as a nation of people with a vital interest in and love for their land (whatever their origins). We are being deprived of our rights to self government in this land by the insertion of whole new communities that have been taught by immigration agents and statements from heads of government not to respect those already here. They are taught that the incumbents 'don't want to work', are racist and that this is a big empty country. (This is pretty much what colonial British were taught about the peoples of India and Africa. The ideology of working for a master is deeply entrenched in the culture of power here.) These false truths then justify the taking over of more and more aspects of our economy. We have no code of civil rights to protect us from these manipulations.

But who is to blame? A colonial government aligned with corporate interests that is using immigration to prevent Australians from organising their own lives and economy. They behave as the British colonials did towards the peoples of India. By inserting their own people, they prevented self-government there and by rewriting land-tenure and inheritance laws they dispossessed long stable communities into beggary and overpopulation. The same thing is happening here.

Whilst I can understand your rage about what is happening to our land and our rights, it seems to me counterproductive to personalise it against the immigrants or refugees, although it is okay to be furious about the numbers. We need to send out a concerted message that the government and the press and the migration agents etc are misrepresenting the rest of us and this country.

Note, I am not saying that high immigration is not a big part of the problem. I am not saying that it is not vital to get control over the flow of asylum seekers. We take a big risk with our own insecure rights here however if we don't ensure respectful treatment and a reasonable variety of humane solutions for temporary stays, settlement, resettlement or repatriation, etc.

I am saying that the enemy is the growth lobby and the growth lobby has got us and the incoming migrants (refugees and business) into a big mess that we have to get out of together somehow. We need new Australians to be our allies. We need to educate them to what is really happening.

Rather than rail against the different beliefs and values of certain immigrant streams, why not spend our energies on demanding, writing and creating a code of civil rights which we then can defend. At the moment we have almost no legal rights in this country. When we talk about Australian values we might as well be carving butter, because they have no legal status. Let us identify them and build a code of civil rights for Australians.

With regard to mosques: The treatment should be the same as for churches. One place to start would be that religion should be separate from state. Therefore no state leader should endorse any particular religion. Religious monuments and meeting places should be funded by members of that religion.

quark

Tue, 2012-07-17 09:47

It's interesting to see where the original comment under this article has taken the succeeding comments. Hardly any of them again refer to biodiversity loss. A perfect example of a distraction from what really threatens our living environment? Melbourne has to accommodate about 60,000 extra people each year. This increase in population is what underlies the destruction of farm land , bush land, and suburban environments. So while trees are cut down and gardens demolished to increase density in our suburbs and the available land decreases through population pressure, the City of Melbourne embarks on an urban forest strategy which includes rooftop gardens. I'm sure the possums won't mind taking the elevator up and down to whichever lofty gardens the choose to call home.

John Marlowe

Tue, 2012-07-17 09:12

To all those self-righteous 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th generation Australians, did any of their ancestors ask the first Australians for permission to colonise and imperialise? Many of their descendants justify that their poor colonial ancestors had no choice, were poor, were convicts, were transported here. Well my own familiy 'arrived' here in the 1830s, and I am 7th generation. Does that mean I have claim to bump off all 6th generations and subsequent arrivals? No but possession is a right and for the reconciliation process needs to start with those here first. But as more 'arrive' and displace the incumbents, such a task becomes more complex and less feasible. To the first Australians were not all since 1788 clearly invading usurpers? Not even a Maori Treaty like in NZ; but just possies of slaughter, genocide and disease, followed up with displacement, mission stations and alcoholism. We can't change history, but we should learn from it or are destined to repeat it. The current immigration illegal or otherwise is a discretionary choice of current government, like Gillard's discretionary $1 billion to Afghanistan last week and just like $50,000 to upgrade a muslim mosque on Christmas Island to accommodate the needs of the arriving 'clients'. Gillard bends over backwards to care for foreign refugees, while ignoring Australia's internal refugees - our growing underclass. 'Racist' - now there is a convenient slur for anyone to put down local dissent. A racist is anyone that is prejudiced against a particular race. Given Gillard's prejudice toward foreign refugees and ignoring of Australia's internal refugees, there is one clear example. If you want to experience real racism, go to any of the countries where the asylum seekers are fleeing. Most flee civil war and where there is civil war, racism has manifested into ethnic cleansing. But the racist slur is pompously brandished by foreigners who seek to not just arrive and respectfully assimilate, but those who seek to ursurp - bringing and imposing their cultural baggage upon the incumbent population. The do gooders celebrate 'diversity' without reconciling irreconcilable differences in culture. So christian church bells are banned from schools so as not to displease the new muslims. The newcomers brandish it religious discrimination. I have no time for racists or anyone who seeks to impose their foreign ways on local peoples - Australia or anywhere else. Anyone who thinks of themsevles as a mongrel, they have lost self-respect and a sense of national place. It is an anti-Australian propaganda embellished by those who idealistically wish for a no borders One World, who are naive to the consequences. Those following the Greens One Worldist messiah Sarah Flood-Gate Young are dangerously undoing Australian values. Not only is Rudd's Big Australia being perpetuated under Green Foreign Labor dogma, but the imported extreme cultures (Sharia, Buddhist, Muslim, non English speaking, unskilled, patriarchal sexist traditions) - all anathema to our prevailing majority social values generally accepted as being 'Australian'. Instead, foreign unAustralian values are being encouraged by the likes of Green Foreign Labor to flourish and even snub Australian dominant 'christian', 'democratic', 'western' culture. Australia's population growth is dominated by the immigrants arriving and intra-breeding. Once their numbers gain critical mass, Traditional Australians, just like the displaced Aborigines, will steadily become the marginalised minority beholden to the new majority. I find illegals offensive and the Gillard Labor Government's welcoming accommodation of them to be a breach of social contract and social betrayal. Worse are the 99% arriving by plane and ursurping their place taking over local housing, jobs, childcare and school places. Why is it that Australian capital cities are under extreme congestion stress? What is the real cause of the problem? John Marlowe

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-16 23:03

The only other way of maintaining a young population would be to ensure couples have very large families and die young! This would avoid the financial burden of an "ageing population" so dreaded by economists, politicians and growth-ists. No population can be kept young, unless they die early. Just as any individual must age one year every year, whole populations must age. It's illogical and devoid of common-sense to condemn "ageing populations", and a lack of respect for older generations to consider them a disadvantage and a heavy burden to societies. Birth rates started declining in the late 1960s, and have been falling ever since. For the last 20 years or so the birth rate has fallen below the replacement rate — meaning that without migration Australia’s population would eventually begin to fall. We must stop seeing our ageing population as a burden. We need to think about the opportunities it can offer both socially and economically. We must remove the barriers to employment, offer learning and training opportunities throughout lifespans, encourage intergenerational conversations and cross-age mutual partnerships, and honour the skills and services that older people provide - usually voluntarily. Increased migration cannot prevent our population from ageing. This is because migrants who come to Australia will age along with the rest of the population. It would end up a big Ponzi-like growth scheme because every year the increases to immigration would need to become progressively larger and larger to take account of the ageing of the migrants themselves! Birth rates have been falling in all the advanced industrial countries, and many are currently lower than Australia’s. Low birth rates largely reflect increased choices available to women, including access to birth control, access to education and employment, and higher living standards. Justify high immigration as needed to dilute our ageing population is another population myth.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-16 20:26

I found your posts offensive John and I'm hardly a "foreign usurper". I'm 5th generation Australian. My father was born early last century so we go back a fair way in this land. I might not be indigenous (as far as I know) but I'm hardly a Johnny-Come-Lately. I also struggle to relate to your concept of "Australian rights, larrikin myrth and rebellious spirit". English, Irish and Scots in Australia's early days were like chalk and cheese. Most of my bloodline is connected to English Imperialism stealing my ancestral land, destroying the culture and generally committing genocide. My ancestors were refugees, they weren't privileged English elites, capitalists or royalty. They're the people who subverted the dominant English paradigm. The qualities you mythologise and praise arose from people who were forced into emigration. They were boat people. Big Australia is the love child of English imperialism. Can you see the parallels? The racial differentiation has pretty much gone these days (with a few pathetic exceptions) but the exploitative mission of the people movers is the same. My kids attend a public school. I barely managed to escape the demented world of Catholicism unscathed (arguable) and I wanted my kids to have a non-sectarian education. It's bad enough seeing facilities over-crowded and run down without happy clappers trying to indoctrinate them. I look at the kids at this school and it is as racially diverse as you'd find. To think people would use these kids to make a political point makes me livid. Every one of them has right to a decent life and their parents are to be commended for trying to offer their kids a better life. The idea that they are undermining some kind of racial or cultural purity in Australia is laughable. We're a nation of mongrels and we have been ever since we stole this land from Aborigines. Superficially I might pass your test of racial purity but I see myself as Celtic not Aryan, and your rose tinted historical view of English Imperialism is as repulsive to me as is Nazism. This is about neo-liberal imperialism and ideology, not race. I'll fight Big Australia but I've got no time for racists.

John Marlowe

Mon, 2012-07-16 19:03

And so my 'Ode to Australian Ethnicity' comment has been withdrawn from publication by CanDoBetter uber-righteous police. The Ode was quoted untampered from Australia's most celebrated poet, Henry Lawson. No person was directly vilified, no specific ethnic group was vilified. How different is it to Christian Church Bells are being withdrawn from Christian societies and schools? It is so as not to upset the new non-Christian minorities usurping their foreign cultural roots. In the old days, no one would give a flipping toss. Australian schools now ban church bells because those who associate church bells with Christianity who are not Christian scream 'racism'. John Marlowe

John Marlowe

Mon, 2012-07-16 18:55

"RE: Comment removed - Contributors and editors, please take note. Editor: We have commented out the comment previously here, entitled, "I wish ethnics were endangered," because it conveyed a double entendre identifying debris at sea with asylum seekers. The main problems were that it also implied that asylum seekers are people of undesirable ethnic origin and that it showed a lack of compassion for people lost at sea and a prejudicial attitude implying that all asylum-seekers have bogus claims." WHATEVER! John Marlowe

Sheila Newman

Mon, 2012-07-16 17:53

A person or a party may call themselves "Green" or an "Environmentalist" but they may mean something entirely different from those terms than you or I do. Or they may just be trading under those terms, for more or less fraudulent purposes. Children should learn in school and we should all be aware that just because you say you are Green does not mean that you are. Similarly, what has happened to the Labor Party? Since when did the property developers infiltrate them? Are there any real 'Labor' people left? And, if the Liberal Party was once formed to represent small business people, they don't appear to give a stuff about them any more. Like Libs and Labor, it is all property development and big business. Same goes, it seems, for most Greens. The citizen is getting a raw deal out of this. But then we don't have any citizens' rights worth speaking about. We need a code of Citizens' Rights!

Sheila Newman

Mon, 2012-07-16 16:23

Thank you for your comment in this important discussion. I have a slightly different interpretation of the law here: One of the three essential components of unlawful conduct under the Racial Discrimination Act is that: "1) The act must be done in public". I think it then applies to published comments on a blog. Comments are public. With due respect for what you put forward here, might I add that there are also ways of criticising 'cultural baggage' that are safer than others. Personally I would say that Australia is in great need of a code of civil rights because, at the moment, the 'traditions' and 'values' many claim as Australian have no legal defense as rights. The claim that Australia is an open and democratic society is a belief. It does not stand up at law. We have no legal rights to free speech or free association. We have precious few rights. We need rights. If we had rights under a civil code, it would be much harder for them to be endangered by any 'cultural baggage' - that of Australian-born or that of immigrants.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-16 11:13

Thanks for your reply, Sheila. I too have grave reservations about any form of censorship but in the context of this issue it is weighed against innocent people being victimised on the basis of nothing other than their ethnicity.

I want to see our population stabilised but don't advocate "sending people home" or victimising them for coming here. I don't want to see people being abused and assaulted in the street because their ethnicity profiles them as being responsible for Big Australia. The fact is that you won't even notice many of the people who are adding to our population growth because they're not "yellow" or "brown". I want to see that mythical "egalitarian" Aussie spirit extended to everyone wanting a better life regardless of their race or socio-economic status. We're all here now so let's work on undermining the political and economic forces that steamroll and exploit the many for the benefit of the few.

How about people look at the real issues? Like this piece of mindless and errant propaganda in the corporate media that gives Big Australia a free kick... If our population doesn't grow, the economy stalls of 16 July by Matthew Kidman in the Age... (?) ... would rather focus their dissatisfaction on the most powerless elements of the growth agenda.

Editorial comment: Some of the above may have been lost when I tried to turm the included URL into a clickable link. My apologies. If I have removed any content, could you please please post another comment with what was removed? - Ed

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-16 10:04

The Racial Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to insult, humiliate, offend or intimidate another person or group in public on the basis of their race. I don't think that anyone who has comments published on cdb is guilty of racism under these laws. If we become hyper sensitive or too politically correct, then we lose our freedom of speech. Our population growth is largely from Asia, and while we all agree that "big Australia" needs to be re-thought on environmental, economic, social, ecological and food-security grounds, the fact that most of our immigration is from Asia should not thwart our objectives. It's not about racism - or the belief that there are superior and inferior ethnic groups. The meaning of the word "racism" has undergone a radical change to mean anyone who criticises immigration or ethnic demographic changes. Changes are not always "better" or desirable. Nobody is vilifying a particular race, nation, ethnic group, or religion. However, there are some immigrants who don't come from democratic and open societies, who come with cultural baggage that's largely incompatible with the Australian way of life - something that is part of our heritage and needs to be preserved. Anyone welcomed to Australia should be free to keep their culture, traditions and languages alive within their homes and communities, and add to the vibrancy of our cities, but they should first and foremost appreciate Australian history, environment, natural heritage and "fit in" to our lifestyles and values.

Sheila Newman

Mon, 2012-07-16 09:25

This is a response to "Racism helps the Big Australia agenda". Thank you for your comment. It is very welcome. The editors share your concern about a some recent comments. Our policy is that we don't publish anything that is illegal and racism or incitement to hatred is illegal. (See Racial Vilification Law in Australia below this comment). By the same token, the owner of the site, James Sinnamon, is against censorship of anything not illegal. He feels that all points of view need to be known and published and that others should be able to argue against them also without fear of censorship. Candobetter is a politics and environment site and its quarrel against Big Australia is the impact of numbers on democracy, land-tenure, environment, and scarce resources. We only have a few editors and sometimes things get missed. We will review comments today and tomorrow. Please let us know of any specific comments or articles that you object to. We will also talk with our regular contributors about this matter. The reason that some comments that are not explicitly racist but nonetheless show that the authors are concerned about social changes rather than environmental changes induced by big population goals are published at candobetter is because of our policy of total non-censorship. Maybe we need to more clearly state that our opposition to racism somewhere here and exercise stricter requirements for arguments in this. The mainstream press is filled with allegations that Australians are racists and we don't believe that most of them are. What comes out sometimes in these pages, with, for instance, Australia First comments, is that some Australians are seriously upset about changes to ethnic composition in Australia. That is arguably a symptom of the impact of big numbers and a reality that may be better served by looking at why it arises in this form, where resentments against government and corporate induced high numbers are personalised against specific groups. Your comment, however, that racism serves the cause of Big Australia is absolutely right. "Racial Vilification Law in Australia 1. Racial Hatred Defined Since the introduction of provisions dealing with racial hatred in 1995, [3] the Racial Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to insult, humiliate, offend or intimidate another person or group in public on the basis of their race. Specifically, the Act states: It is unlawful for a person to do an act, otherwise than in private, if: (a) the act is reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group of people, and (b) the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person or some or all of the people in the group. [4] A variety of acts can constitute racial hatred, including speaking, singing and making gestures in public, as well as drawings, images, and written publications such as newspapers, leaflets and websites. There are three essential components of this unlawful conduct: 1) The act must be done in public; 2) It must be reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate the people against whom it is directed; and 3) It must be done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the group against whom it is directed. These elements are considered individually below. It should be noted that some public acts are exempt from the provisions. The exemptions are outlined later in this section."

nimby

Mon, 2012-07-16 08:58

Greens candidate Cathy Oke, 37, environmental education consultant, Melbourne City councillor since 2008. She says : "I think we can maintain population growth within the city of Melbourne as long as we’re investing in schools, childcare, sustainable buildings and the like". Population blindness must be in epidemic proportions. She sees "planning" and "infrastructure" the solution to conserving living standards. She says ..."that we’re not investing in community infrastructure, nor investing in proper transport links to grow the cities of the future". Question time for Melbourne contenders As an environmental educator, surely she knows that anthropogenic climate change can't be addressed while we are growing our economy through population growth? People living in high rise apartments emit higher greenhouse gases per capita than those in detached family houses with trees and gardens, and are captive to inside utilities and power. The Greens together with the Lab/Lib are all pushing rapid population growth, which is killing Melbourne in every way. It's seems there's a fear of "stagnation" unless there's big growth. Melbourne's population could outstrip Sydney's and reach 6.57 million by 2041, according to one ABS estimate based on higher national fertility and immigration rates. It's inconsistent with their open-border asylum-seekers rights. With decades to wait on public housing, asylum seekers would just bolster the queue even further. Population growth is outstripping funds for infrastructure, and that's why there's "shortages". "In North Melbourne, council and the community have worked over many years planning for population growth and density growth and they want to see that plan enacted," she said. Really? Population density does not prevent the threatening process of urban sprawl. Families eventually expect to live in a family-friendly house, with garden and space for children. How can the threats to already endangered species by willingly justified on economic grounds? It's easier to go-with-the-flow than ruffle the feathers of the powerful growth-lobby. They support protection of people in preference to protection of the environment and refuse to admit that you can't do both. You have to chose between a growing population and the environment as they're mutually exclusive.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2012-07-15 22:54

Racism plays directly into the hands of those driving the Big Australia agenda. It's easy to marginalise opposition if it can be presented as fringe dwelling racists and weirdos.

I've seen activist campaigns ruined because agent provocateurs have pushed activists toward, or presented, extreme positions that alienate the general public. The media zeros in on the ugliest and most extreme examples in any social movement. They don't have to infer untenable political positions if extremists do it for them.

I'm opposed to Big Australia for a wide variety of reasons but none of them are based on racist views. Most people I know who oppose Big Australia feel the same way. Some of the racist comments are just pathetic. If you want to cater to that agenda you will quickly shrivel on the vine and the low lifes will crawl back under their rocks waiting, like ticks, for a new host to parasitise. You need to decide whether you want to be relevant or not. At the moment it looks like you're trying to become the environmental wing of the White Pride movement. That's a one way ticket to political irrelevance and oblivion.

I come here to catch up on environmental campaigns and to follow the fight against Big Australia not to read the rantings of closet racists. I think you'll lose far more people than you can gain if you take this path. But I might be wrong, resistance to Big Australia might only ever be the preserve of a minority of committed, fringe dwelling racists.

Katie (not verified)

Sun, 2012-07-15 10:00

I was certainly not trying to minimise , negate or deny the stuff that many of the early immigrants to Australia were made of. I am one of their descendants and quite proud to be so. Like nearly 2 million other Australians I claim Irish ancestry. That is part of my ethnicity but I am foremost an Australian having been born in Australia and through direct experience formed a strong attachment to its land, its birds and animals when I was very young. I feel as Australian as the dingo - but cannot perhaps claim to be as Australian as the blue tongued lizard. The real culprits in eroding Australia's sovereignty, its national identity (except multiculturalism) are those who give voice to propaganda that would make Australians believe that they have no culture and therefore no rights to call their country their own and those who care only about thrashing the country to death with overpopulation through mass immigration for their own short term gains. These are the real parasites. The first victims of this are our fauna and flora but we can't be far behind.

John Marlowe

Sun, 2012-07-15 09:22

(Henry Lawson - selected extracts from 'Eureka', 'How the land was Won', 'My Land and I') John Marlowe Ed. The above quote has been edited out pending review of its impact and a representation that may highlight its purpose and situate it in historical context. Please do not repost it before this is acheived.

Australia First (not verified)

Sat, 2012-07-14 20:38

Subject was: For those unable to see the wood from the trees. Originaly published:10:19 +1000, 14 July 2012

White Australia must not be regarded as a mere political shibboleth. It was Australia's Magna Carta. Without that policy, this country would have been lost long ere this. It would have been engulfed in an Asian tidal wave. There would have been no need for the Japanese to invade this country. We would have been swallowed up by the rolling advance of a horde of colored people, anxious to escape the privations of their own countries and prepared to impose their own standards on this country.

It is necessary only to examine the racial composition of present-day Fiji, where the Hindus have elbowed the natives out of the picture, to visualise what could have happened in this country had the White Australia policy not been fought for doggedly at the end of the l9th Century. We were then fighting for our national survival. Had we weakened, the flood gates would have opened and the natural increase of population according to Asian standards would have done the rest. It would then have been too late. This country would have become a pushover for the Asiatics.

The first Federal Platform for the Labor Party, adopted at an Interstate Conference held in Sydney on January 24, 1900, was a model of brevity. It was the platform on which the party fought its first Federal election in the following year. There were only three planks. They were (1) Electoral Reform, providing for one adult one vote. (2) Total Exclusion of colored and other undesirable races, and (3) Old Age Pensions.

The Conference also agreed that the Constitution should contain machinery for the Initiative and Referendum to alter the constitution, and that instead of double dissolutions there should be a National Referendum to settle deadlocks between the two Houses.

But it was the question of White Australia that knit the first Federal Labor Party together. In 1908 when the party decided to draft a much more elaborate platform, the first plank agreed upon was "Maintenance of White Australia." It headed the list.

The White Australia Policy did not have its origin in any idea of racial superiority, or color prejudice. From the start it was a simple bread-and-butter issue. Australian workers were trying to defend their own living standards. They were trying to save their jobs

So the Australian Labor Party was actually brought together with White Australia as its primary objective. Later the word-spinners put it much more elegantly as "The cultivation of an Australian sentiment, based on the maintenance of racial purity."

That was not, however, the real reason for the development of the White Australia policy. It did not have its origin in any idea of racial superiority, or color prejudice. From the start it was a simple bread-and-butter issue. Australian workers were trying to defend their own living standards. They were trying to save their jobs. They knew that unrestricted immigration of colored races would mean the introduction of a kind of industrial Gresham's Law - the bad wages would put the fair wage out of circulation. The white Australian worker would soon be reduced to coolie levels. Having got rid of convict labor, they did not want to be reduced to the rice bowl. Yet that was the threat that was actually hovering over the people of this country.

Anybody who is against the White Australia Policy is against the Australian Nation.

From I Remember, 1956. by Jack Lang -The People's Champion

Editorial comment: A strident international critic of Australia's supposed racism was Japan, a country whose international record since then includes vast imperial wars of conquest, mass slave labor, forced prostitution and mass genocidal slaughter, most notably Chinese. Within Japan, Chinese, Koreans, Ryukyuans, Buraumin, indigenous Ainu and other races have faced systematic discrimination and prejudice for centuries. In comparison, the allegedly unjust treatment of foreigners of non-European origin is trivial in comparison. The only aspect of Australian history that could be considered in any way comparable to Japan's record is the dispossession of Australian Aboriginals by European settlers. Nonetheless, in the early 21st century, imposed mass immigration threatens to dispossess all native Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous alike.

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