Comments

admin

Tue, 2012-06-26 01:58

The popularity of the Victorain State Liberal Government of Premier Ted Baillieu has plummeted to close to that of the previous 'Labor' mis-rulers of Victoria.

Today's Age Newspaper reports: "The Coalition has only a narrow lead over Labor in the opinion polls and Ted Baillieu's personal approval rating has collapsed."

Then it asks: "What has gone wrong?"

What went wrong is:

Having endured years of misrule at the hands of the Brumby and Bracks Labor Governments, Victorians threw Labor out at the 2010 state elections and put in power the current tyranny of Premier Ted Baillieu.

The pattern is common in Australian politics. Past misreporting by newspapers like the Age implies that mis-rule by Labor somehow gives the succeeding Liberal/National Governments license to be as tyrannical as they please.

The same happened at the Federal level in 1996 after John Howard succeeded the reviled Paul Keating as Prime Minister. It occurred in 1988 in New South Wales when Liberal Nick Greiner succeeded Labor's Barrie Unsworth as Premier and is now also occurring in New South Wales and Queensland where equally reviled state Labor Governments have been replaced by Shock Doctrine Liberal/National coalition governments.

Logically we should be looking for an alternative to both the Labor and Liberal/National Parties, but that is the last conclusion that Age reporters Josh Gordon and Reid Sexton would want Victorians to draw.

admin

Mon, 2012-06-25 08:25

From PressTV, 24 June 2012

A Bahraini doctor, who was recently sentenced to one year in prison over charges of participation in anti-regime protests, has ended a four-day hunger strike.

Saeed al-Samaheeji ended the hunger strike in the capital, Manama, on Sunday.

The Bahraini doctor said he had stopped eating to “reject and object to” the verdicts of the Bahraini court of appeals.

On June 14, the court of appeals issued prison sentences against nine doctors, including Samaheeji, over charges of involvement in demonstrations against the Al Khalifa regime.

The court also acquitted nine other medical personnel.

The 18 Bahraini medical personnel are among the 20 accused doctors and nurses from the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, which was stormed by regime forces in March 2011.

Bahraini judicial sources said two other personnel from the group remain at large and they did not appeal.

The 18 medical personnel have been out on bail since September 2011.

Samaheeji said the accused medical personnel “made huge efforts to save the wounded during last year’s events.”

He made the comments at a center belonging to the main opposition group, al-Wefaq, in Manama on Sunday.

Meanwhile, al-Wefaq said an anti-regime protester injured during a demonstration in a village near Manama on June 22 remained “in critical condition” in hospital.

The Bahraini opposition group stated that Ali Mohammed al-Muwali suffered a “broken skull which was caused by a direct hit by a bullet” when he was “surrounding Sheikh Ali Salman,” the al-Wefaq leader.

Salman also sustained rubber bullet injuries “in his shoulder and back” during the June 22 demonstration in the village of Bilad al-Qadeem, about four kilometers (2.5 miles) west of the capital.

Anti-government protests continue in Bahrain despite the regime’s violent crackdown.

Bahraini demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the killing of protesters during the uprising that began in February 2011.

admin

Mon, 2012-06-25 08:17

From PressTV, 24 June 2012 Yemeni protesters have held a demonstration in the southern city of Taizz to demand the removal of members of the regime of deposed dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. The demonstrators took to the streets of Taizz on Sunday, calling for the dismissal of those figures from the former regime that still hold a number of major military and political posts. Yemenis have several times held similar demonstrations across the nation over the past weeks. They have also been calling for the trial of Saleh and his aides for ordering the killing of protesters during the revolution that began in January 2011. In addition, Yemeni protesters demand the restructuring of the army. Yemen's former dictator Saleh formally stepped down and handed over power to his deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi on February 27. The power transfer occurred under a Saudi-backed deal brokered by the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council in April 2011 and signed by Saleh in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on November 23, 2011. The new Yemeni president, who is a UK-trained field marshal, was sworn in on February 25 following a single-candidate presidential election on February 21, which was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia. See also: Washington’s Hypocrisy over Russian Arms in Syria of 24 June 2012 by Bill Van Auken.

admin

Sun, 2012-06-24 21:10

From PressTV, 24 June

An alternative news weblog, the NSNBC, cited a German journalist as saying that the German nationals are the employees of a "security firm."

The weblog report further said that the Germans were detained while attempting to smuggle arms and ammunition from a cargo vessel in the international waters off the coast of Syria.

The source added that the Germans are reportedly jailed along with over 300 other foreigners, among them Portuguese paratroopers.

No German authority has commented on the matter, yet.

Since the start of the turmoil in Syria, the smuggling of arms into the country has been on the rise.

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

Damascus blames ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups’ for the unrest, asserting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

The West and the Syrian opposition, however, accuse the government of killing protesters.

See also: Calls for deployment of German navy against Syria of 9 June:

On June 1 the Süddeutsche Zeitung published an op-ed titled “Towards a realistic German security policy”, calling for the participation of the German navy in a military intervention in Syria.

The author, Thomas Spreckmann, associate professor of political science and sociology at Bonn University and a regular contributor to the newspapers Die Zeit and Tagesspiegel, has long called for the navy to play a central role in military interventions. ...

Geoffrey Taylor

Sun, 2012-06-24 19:33

By Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News June 21, 2012

OTTAWA - Quebec's controversial anti-protest law came under fire at the United Nations for the second time in less than a week Thursday, with a UN special rapporteur describing it as "particularly harsh."

Presenting his annual report to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, Maina Kiai said violations of the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association "cut across the entire world," and there isn't a single region where problems do not occur.

'"There are some places, some countries, where the laws are particularly harsh in terms of restricting the freedom of association," Kiai added.

"I'll just mention just a few: in Algeria; Belarus; Canada, in particular in terms of the province of Quebec; Ethiopia; Jordan; Malaysia; Russian Federation; and Switzerland, in the Canton of Geneva, especially."

...

Bill 78 requires organizers of gatherings of more than 50 people to provide eight hours' notice of the itinerary and length of the event.

The special rapporteur's comments came shortly after Belarus criticized him for not being more critical of Canada over police actions used to disperse students demonstrating against tuition hikes in Montreal in recent months.

Belarusian diplomat Andrei Taranda presented a list of dates on which police made mass arrests and noted incidents where tear gas and clubs were used against the demonstrators.

"Have you tried to delve into the reasons behind these frequent protest movements?" asked Taranda.

Canada imposed sanctions against Belarus in 2006 after elections marred by widespread fraud and harassment returned President Alexander Lukashenko to power and prompted a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. The two countries have had a chilly relationship ever since.

...

Quebec Premier Jean Charest bristles after UN expresses chagrin over terms of Bill 78 of 19 June. - Ed

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2012-06-24 14:02

The Sydney Forum supports free and objective speech unfettered by ruling class determinants. In the closing epoch for fair dinkum Australians and for the ecological balance of this wide brown land, symptoms of Pavlov's dog syndrome should be discarded by all, to aid personal freedom and integrity.

Geoffrey Taylor

Sat, 2012-06-23 21:23

Whilst I agree with the petition, my advice is to not sign and steer clear of Avaaz. Any organisation, which supports war against Syria by the same forces, which illegally waged war against Iraq in 1991 and 2003 and Libya last year, is criminal and should be shunned as the Syrian Girl asks in her broadcast. The death toll from those two wars is well over 1 million and may well exceed 2 million. Compared to that, even the crimes which Avaaz has invented or deceitfully attributed to the Assad Government, pale in to insignificance compared to that death toll. The following are excerpts from an e-mail I received from Avaaz on 18 February:

With each passing day, Bashar al-Assad’s campaign to crush the Syrian freedom movement reaches new levels of horror -- bombing crowded neighborhoods filled with innocent civilians, cutting off electricity and phones so families can’t call for help, and blocking medical aid from getting to the critically wounded. But, finally a flicker of hope is emerging that could stop the terror.

In the wake of the UN Security Council failure last week, Syria's neighbours in the the Arab League are taking the lead. They have called other key powers to an emergency meeting next week in Tunisia, and Avaaz will be sitting at the table with the Syrian democracy movement to deliver a clear mandate for strong action.

Let's seize this opportunity to end the bloodbath ...

... as the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization "end[ed] the bloodbath" in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?

... and avoid another watered down compromise that renews Assad's license to murder his people. Only by escalating the level of global public outrage through a million-person petition can we force the negotiators to take the urgent action necessary to end this humanitarian catastrophe. Click below to sign the petition -- it will be delivered directly to the delegates in the meeting:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/arab_league_save_syria_1/?vl

The student organizers and mothers who month after month have led peaceful marches for freedom are now facing down the full military might of Assad’s army. They are calling for the world’s help to ensure that the Syrian Spring does not die a gruesome death on the streets of Homs, Hama and Idlib.

...

Compare the deceit in the letter above with articles about Syria in Global Research. - Ed

Comments on this page have been closed. Please add further comments here.- Ed, 26 June

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2012-06-23 16:55

While the Australian equivalent Get Up refuses to touch population issues, Avaaz is running a petition for the extension of birth-control. You can vote for their petition at http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Free_family_planning_for_all/?launch Just like GetUp, Avaaz has its own problems regarding really representing its 'membership' but I guess we take what can. There is a saying, "If it's free on the net, you're the commodity." Avaaz and GetUp are data-mining organisations that get from the people who fill out their names and their opinions, location etc., a lot of information that is highly salable to political parties and commercial operations. Just in case you didn't realise. Candobetter's readers may notice that we don't actually ask them any questions. We are not data-mining. Sheila Newman, population sociologist

nimby

Sat, 2012-06-23 16:52

Premier Ted Baillieu and Treasurer Kim Wells late yesterday issued a press release announcing that some departments are set to lose almost 15 per cent of their staff in roads, education, police and health. Fury over State job cuts - The Age Due to unaffordable housing, the Victorian government lost revenue from stamp duty and land taxes. This is despite strong population growth. The Department of Human Services will be the heaviest hit, and will lose 500 staff. The Department of Justice will lose 480 staff, and DSE 400 public servants. The government initially announced 3600 cuts in December last year, adding a further 600 in the May budget in a desperate scramble to deliver on a pledge to keep the budget in "surplus". This will compromise justice, human service and the environment. 4200 jobs are going because the government can't afford the costs of administration. Why did "Planning" minister Matthew Guy recklessly declare 6 new suburbs if they can't afford the infrastructure and all the services needed? This is poor household management and compromising the welfare of Victorians at a time of economic and jobs stresses, as will as the carbon tax that will add to the already outrageous costs of living. The "growth is good" paradigm is cracking at the seams. The "steady state" economic model is the only sustainable one for the future - both economicallly and ecologically.

nimby (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-23 10:06

These "news" reporters just shoot from the mouth without having any substance or any opinions worthy of reporting. Australia used to be rich, but increasingly welfare workers and charities are under stress from all the demands being placed on them.

Houses are unaffordable, rents are rising, homelessness is increasing and our costs of living are soaring. The cost of utilities is largely due to having to pay for the expensive but expanding infrastructure, adding to the fixed costs.Victoria's infrastructure buildling has come to a standstill, yet Matthew Guy had the audacity to announce 6 new suburbs. It's like an overburdened mother with already too many children giving birth to sextuplets! There's not enough money to educate all these "babies" as TAFE funding has been drastically cut in Victoria!

We can't, and we have no obligation to look after "everyone". Australia is a sovereign nation with it's own population, environment, oceans and biodiversity to maintain. Jon Faine and these other reporters are simply parroting pro-growth messages without substance and are being totally irresponsible and reckless.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-23 09:03

Of course Shell will pay the $350000 per imported worker. And before they arrive will build Hospitals Schools and public infrastructure, make Housing available and insure OHS on their multilingual (Gas sites) projects.

the original item on ABC

Oil company chief reflects on costs and outlook of 21 June at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-21/oil-company-chief-reflects-on-costs-and-outlook/4085276?section=business .

Take a quick google search about Shell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejym4mKelhM

Editorial comment: Near the end of the above video, the address http://protectthehuman.com/shell is displayed. When that link is clicked it is re-directed to http://protectthehuman.amnesty.org.uk/shell . Regardless of the merit or otherwise of that particular campaign, Amnesty International, which has been funded by George Soros has shown itself to be a sham human rights organisation. See Youtube Broadcast of 21 June by the Syrian Girl, Amnesty International Helping to Kill Syrians.

And there it is, Australia to be the next Nigeria of the south pacific. Of course prosperity is always coming soon in the next century, growth will help - hospitals that you can even get into will be built, housing, respectful benefits for those in difficulty. Take a look at the vid - see an aspect of our future.

Grass roots (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-22 21:06

On the Jon Faine show today they were rabbiting on about how, "There's plenty here for everyone,' and, 'I don't like that argument, that we should look after our own first.' 'We're a rich country, we can look after everyone.'

Very entitled people on the Jon Faine show. They think that everyone has a house to speculate on, not to live in. They assume that wealth is equally spread and that only a very negligible (emphasis on negligible) minority does not have what they need. They are completely out of touch because they are a minority with well-paid jobs and a sense of importance that can very easily evaporate, they will find, as they get older, or something goes wrong. Yet these kinds of people hog the airwaves putting out an official message that 'All is well' and propping up the shambles that is high immigration, privatisation, unaffordable education and housing. And wildlife and natural spaces are simply not on their radar.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-22 14:57

Geneis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Sheila wrote: "This idea of God and dominion is logically antithetical to ecological science". Actually it was never meant to be about science, just like the rest of the Bible. Genesis is about the who and why, not the what where, of Creation. It's about a relationship of humans with the rest of the planet. Confusing science with theology has been the fault of previous generations, with disastrous consequences. Theologian Rev. Andrew Linzey states, "We need a concept of ourselves in the universe not as the master species but as the servant species--as the one given responsibility for the whole and the good of the whole. We must move from the idea that animals were given to us and made for us to the idea that we were made for creation, to serve it and ensure its continuance". "Dominion" doesn’t mean "exploitation", "decapitation" and "domination", but rather a responsibility for stewardship. Einstein reminds us that the intelligence and capacity of human beings is at its best when infused with compassion. Dominion means guardianship or stewardship - being co-workers with God in taking care of and improving the world. (Shabbat 119; Sanhedrin 7) The fact is that human beings are playing God with animals, genetically breeding them to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs, and limbs can often not keep up is heretical. So is the overpopulation of humans, and the extinction of species. There are natural rules that apply for all species, and Nature makes no exception in the laws. Destruction of habitats, overpopulation, vandalism of ecosystems all have catastrophic consequences, for the co-existing species, for ongoing survival, and the welfare of future generations. Human "dominion" has failed miserably!

admin

Fri, 2012-06-22 12:42

Editorial policy is to let our readers know that we do not support arguments that there was no Nazi organised holocaust of jews and other targeted groups. The Sydney Forum seems to have given such arguments air on one occasion, if you look at its previous forums page although we have no evidence that holocaust denial is core policy there. Actually, we thought it was illegal. We certainly support open forums that overcome the wedge politics of politically affiliated groups. But we do support equal rights to all members of our communities. No-one should be afraid to attend any forum in this country, including the Sydney Forum. The more popular forums we have the better. The more political participation from citizens and accountability of politicians, the better.

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2012-06-22 12:08

This idea of God and dominion is logically antithetical to ecological science. If you substitute Mother Nature for God, I find it puts things in perspective. Mother Nature incorporates the laws of thermodynamics, of catabolism and anabolism, and the organisation of DNA into microorganisms, complex organisms, organs and living natural environments. There are lots of rules in this system, but if there is any 'morality' in this system, it is the subjective one that life-forms need to preserve its integrity so that it remains hospitable to them. One of the rules is that no one creature can exist without a lot of the others and each environment is connected to the next. Consider how you are made up of microorganisms, adapted to form your systems, like hair, skin and blood cells and digestion. Some of these organisms can even live independently of us - such as our bowel fauna. If our internal ecology gets upset, those organisms can take us over and kill us, in the same way that we might spray chemicals on a dirty sink to kill bacterial slime. Of course, most organisms that turn on their organ-colleagues die with them. This is part of nature. For instance, as our immune systems (which have evolved from all kinds of cellular and viral organisms to cooperate to defend their larger community - you) get weaker with age, our vulnerability to cancer increases. If we introduce antibiotics into our guts to kill one organism, we can finish up with an overgrowth of another organism and die. Antibiotic-associated enterocolitis can occur following antibiotic treatment, when normally harmless Clostridia difficile are able to grow past their normal populations and overwhelm the gut. In liver disease, you also get overgrowths of gut organisms that excrete ammonia, causing delirium and death. Amazingly this process, which used to kill people quickly, can be stopped by taking lactulose which is a synthetic sugar that changes the chemical environment to be less hospitable to the ammonia producing organisms and encourage the growth of their competitors. There is a virtually seemless progression between humans and other life-forms and the chemicals that make them up; I find it impossible to consider that my species is 'in control' any more than I think that clostridium difficils is 'in control' when it takes over. What has helped humans get out of control? Fire, which permits the forging of all kinds of technology, plus fossil and atomic fuels which give us access to enormous quantities of fire. But fire also destroys. We can see that at a simple level but there is still much to be drawn from the myth of Prometheus. By the way, the recent film by that name, draws some connections, although it finishes up with a Christian pilgrim in search of the answer. Rather than 'God giving us dominion', I would say that Mother Nature suggests that we learn the rules and play by them. Sheila Newman, population sociologist

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-22 10:58

The Sydney Forum is the major speaking event of the Australian patriotic resistance calendar. The Forum supports the cause of Australian freedom and independence, and therefore the forum opposes the totalitarianism of the emergent Globalist Order. In our current times political debate is needed more than ever to advance the discussion between political parties and individuals to address the issues in our modern world. Political discussion today comes from the top down to the people and not from the people to the top as it should be in a real democratic society. More than ever, the political leadership and the media are vetting the news of world and domestic events and telling us what to think. The general aim of the Sydney Forum is to advance freedom of speech and the exchange of ideas between different groups from across the political spectrum, with a focus on issues of current concern. While it is true that many of the speakers are from the so-called right wing/conservative/constitutionalist/nationalist side of politics, we also invite and involve speakers who are from the mainstream and extreme left wing side of politics. For example, the Communist Party of Australia was invited to address the Sydney Forum in 2004, and the Ambassador of Ba'athist Iraq spoke in 2002. He told the meeting that the Sydney Forum was the only event where he was able to be heard to tell his country's side of the story. We are living in a time where open political debate is stifled by the government and the media with name-calling and labelling. If someone is concerned about immigration, they are immediately called "racist" to try to discredit them and stifle any common sense discussion. The multi-cultural industry is in the process of criminalising freedom to discuss these issues with vilification and incitement laws. Because we provide a voice to issues that particular interest groups do not want discussed, the Sydney Forum has been the subject of political interference. When the Forum invited a speaker from the National Democratic Party of Germany in 2002, the Australian Foreign Minister intervened to refuse a visa; in 2005 another speaker from that party had his visa revoked whilst in transit to speak at the forum and a local politician intervened to have the venue cancelled. In 2010, the Australian Government used delay tactics to ensure that our overseas Speaker, Mr Paul Fromm, was not issued a visa in time to speak at the Forum. These tactics have only made the Forum stronger, and the organisers more determined. The highest principle of freedom of speech is that all views should be free to be heard, not just the ones that the "status quo" wants to allow. Everybody and anybody can come to the Sydney Forum either as a speaker or a guest as long as they abide by the rules. The rules of the Sydney Forum demand that we respect diverse opinions and political beliefs, allowing participants to present their points of view in a reasoned and respectful environment. By bringing together people, organisations and views outside of the "mainstream" we seek to generate and intensify political activism and encourage co-operation wherever possible amongst groups and individuals. So don't miss this year's Sydney Forum, one of Australia's leading independent forums on the political issues that concern many Australians, but which are not allowed a voice by the Government and the media. The Sydney Forum Organising Committee www.sydneyforum.net Previous forums page

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-22 10:54

"God gave dominion over every animal to humans"...yes, and it's a heavy responsibility that is being ignored by the human race. Dominion is not about culling, eating, exploiting, vilifying and exterminating - but a heavy and serious responsibility to ensure the wellbeing and survival of non-human creatures considering the potential power of homo sapiens to nurture, or destroy. Human population growth and encroachment onto territories they have no right to "tame" or destroy is causing havoc on the Earth. The rate of species extinctions is shameful, and human-caused. Fraser Island is the only place left in Australia for pure dingoes yet the tourist dollars is considered more important. There's no reason why people should go camping on Fraser Island with children and dingoes have a rightful place in Australia. What about some "common sense" that whether you actually "like" dingoes or not is relevant, but the ridiculously elevated level that has been put on human life above the planet's wildlife and ecosystems is a misrepresentation of "dominion". There are some places that we humans must accept is wildlife habitat, and not necessarily ever safe for humans. That's the way it is!

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-22 10:41

Workers from developing countries won't have the higher accommodation requirements and working conditions that Australians expect. They will leave their families behind - until these "temporary" workers gain PR and import their families under our family reunion immigration scheme. They won't have any trade union affiliations to have the companies hampered by wage demands and conditions. It's a globalization of the work force, and reverse discrimination. Australia is being turned into a Quarry, for international interests. With the high level of successful socially engineered control of opinion and quashing of patriotism, there will be little backlash from the public. If so, we are told we are "xenophobic" or "racist"! It works beautifully! "White guilt" also is able to be manipulated, even though Australians are being disadvantaged by high immigration levels, lack of employment opportunities in "our" mining boom, and high costs of training and education.

Tommie (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-22 03:01

I love it when supposedly educated people put a low price on human life (baby baiting dingos). I am an animal lover but God gave dominion

over every animal to humans. And if an animal is dangerous and hurts children then that is what it is. I have problem making a place for dingos but people need to be warned and children need to be protected. A small child has no reason to be there and people who take their kids there should think: Do I want to go camping or keep my kid? Not that I like dingos, I have no love for them at all but as adults we should all have some common sense . I do hold the highest respect for the people who have lost their children in such a sad and scary way . That is why people should be warned and not allowed to take small children under the age of 12 on the island . Thank u.

Geoffrey Taylor

Fri, 2012-06-22 00:31

Presumably, the Australian Government is elected to look after the welfare of Australian citizens and not foreign corporations.

So, how does importing foreign workers to work more cheaply for a foreign corporation than native Australian workers are prepared to, supposed to be of benefit to the citizens of this country? The arrogance of Peter Voser is both breathtaking and chilling.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2012-06-21 23:00

From the horses mouth...

"One of the world's most powerful business leaders has applauded the Government's move to put a price on carbon, but says his company will need to import foreign workers to make its Australian operations competitive.

Peter Voser, the global CEO of Shell, says Australia's productivity is a "real concern".

'"You've got the high Australian dollar, you've got the scarce work force, and therefore we are concerned about the overall rate at which we are paying for Australian labour and clearly that needs some intervention," he said.'

Shell keen to import foreign workers of 21 June by 7.30's Leigh Sales

So there it is, the government listens to executives from multi-national corporations but not the Australian people.

One of the key drivers for immigration is to force down labor costs so that multi-nationals can exploit our resources as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible.

What do you do with traitors and robbers?

Tigerquoll

Thu, 2012-06-21 21:54

Here is the ABC 730 Documentary - make up your own minds.
These are Ivan Milats of the Torres Strait!
When it comes to animal cruelty, Indigenous Rights are terra nulius.
These people are sadistic barbarians engaing in commercial trade of precious and endangerd wildlife for personal profit.
They are not pursuing traditional ways.
They are criminals.

730: 'Hunting rights hide horror for dugongs, turtles'

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

nimby

Thu, 2012-06-21 12:14

State Fisheries Minister John McVeigh yesterday acted on an LNP election promise to introduce legislation to remove cruelty exemptions for traditional owners and bring Queensland’s animal welfare legislation in line with other states. A report showed Torres Strait locals hacking the legs off a sea turtle, which took seven minutes to die. Mr McVeigh said "Amendments will be made to the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 to protect dugong and turtles from unnecessary and unreasonable pain and suffering." Cairns animal activist Colin Riddell has lobbied the State Government to make it illegal for indigenous Australians to commit acts of cruelty against turtles and dugongs. Native Title shouldn't override our national animal cruelty laws protecting dugongs and turtles, and it shouldn't override the policies protecting endangered species. It's basically reverse racism that people of indigenous background are able to inflict horrendous suffering on native animals that would attract fines and prosecutions for the rest of the population. The suffering is the same whether the perpetrator has black or white skin, and transcends culture. There is good from Native Title laws, but they shouldn't be tainted by allowing gut-wrenching and horrendous cruelty to sweet and gentle marine animals. Indigenous peoples, on the contrary, should be the custodians of these animals and the ecosystems, not the attackers. Eating meat is not mandatory anyway, for any humans. Animal welfare laws and the EPBC Act should extinguish Native Title in this case.

Tigerquoll

Thu, 2012-06-21 09:24

Australia's 2012–13 Migration Program is set at 190,000 p.a.

The International Airport tap is locked on.
The Capital cities are forced to find room and deliver for them.
The local population is forced to embrace the 190,000 and make room and accept the congestion.

The only way housing can go is up in highrise, out in sprawl, more squashed in and surrendering the Australian ideal of owing a 1/4 acre block to renting a shoebox.
Hence the urban Australian exodus to Queensland - now they have the problem.

Australia's permanent immigration program has two components:

The Migration component consists of Skilled Stream migrants, Family Stream migrants and migrants with a Special Eligibility class visa.
The Humanitarian component is for refugees and others in humanitarian need.

The planning level for the 2012–13 Migration Program is set at 190,000 places.
That is it. Australia is a democracy but this flow is devised, decided, set and imposed by Australia's government undemocratically!
The unquestioned justification is economic growth and the spin that Australia has always been a land of immigrants.

Migration Program Statistics

The following table contains migration program outcomes for 2007–08 to 2010–11 and planning levels for 2011–12 and 2012–13.

Category 2007–08 Outcome 2008–09 Outcome 2009–10 Outcome 2010–11 Outcome 2011–12 Planning Levels 9 2012–13 Planning Levels 9
Partner1 39 931 42 098 44 755 41 994 45 400 46 325
Child2 3062 3238 3544 3300 3450 3850
Preferential/Other Family3 2378 2530 2468 750 1250 1285
Parent4 4499 8500 9487 8499 8500 8725
Total Family 49 870 56 366 60 254 54 543 58 600 60 185
Family as per cent of total program 31.4% 32.9% 35.7% 32.3% 31.7% 31.7%
Employer Sponsored5 23 762 38 026 40 987 44 345 46 000 47 250
RSMS (included above) 11 120 16 000 16 000
Skilled Independent 55 891 44 594 37 315 36 167 44 350 45 550
State/Territory Sponsored6 7530 14 055 18 889 16 175 24 000 24 650
Skilled Australian Sponsored7 14 579 10 504 3688 9117 4100 4200
Distinguished Talent 211 201 199 125 200 200
Business Skills8 6565 7397 6789 7796 7200 7400
1 November Onshore 2 0 1 0 0 0
Total Skill 108 540 114 777 107 868 113 725 125 850 129 250
Skill as per cent of total program 68.4% 67.0% 64.0% 67.4% 68.0% 68.0%
Total Special Eligibility 220 175 501 417 550 565
Total Program 158 630 171 318 168 623 168 685 185 000 190 000

Note:

Numbers have been rounded and totals may not be the exact sum of components.
In 2011-12, for the first time a notional allocation of program places in the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme was made within the Employer Sponsored category.

Migration Program numbers do not include New Zealand citizens or holders of Secondary Movement Offshore Entry (Temporary), Secondary Movement Relocation (Temporary) and Temporary Protection Visas and are detailed at the top of the planning range.

1 Includes spouse, fiancé and interdependent. Net outcome as places taken by provisional visa holders who do not subsequently obtain permanent visas are returned to the Migration Program in the year that the temporary visas expire.

2 Includes Child-adoption, Child Dependent and Orphan Minor.

3 Includes Aged Dependent, Carer, Orphan Unmarried and Remaining Relatives.

4 Includes Designated, Contributory and Non-contributory Parents.

5 Includes Employer Nomination Scheme, Labour Agreement, Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

6 Includes State/Territory Nominated Independent Scheme and Skilled Independent Regional.

7 Includes brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, non-dependent children, working age parents, grandchildren and first cousins who have been skill tested.

8 Net outcome as cancelled visas are returned to the Migration Program in that year.

9 Initial Planning Level.

Source: http://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/statistical-info/visa-grants/migrant.htm

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

KeepMelbourneMa... (not verified)

Wed, 2012-06-20 23:45

Back in 2005, the Environment Protection Authority calculated what Victorians demand of nature to sustain la dolce vita. Each Victorian has a global "footprint" bigger than the average Australian. Only the United States, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates tax the planet more.

Earth Overshoot means that we are reducing the ability of the earth's land and water to support humans and other species into the future. If we conquer climate change without depleting other natural assets, we can rebalance our Earth budget.

The EPA was asking Victorians to peel back their profligate ways: eat one meal fewer of red meat each week, catch public transport, set up a teleconference meeting instead of flying to Sydney, buy green power and stop wasting food. However, consumption can be reduced by good "green" and sustainable living, but adding more people simply offsets any "savings". So, with an economy based on raising revenue from real estate and land releases, why bother?
National President of SPA, Dr John Coulter, says the combination of high consumption and too many people for the resources available underlie the problem.

"Our numbers and activities are placing us in overshoot with respect to the environment," says Dr Coulter. "To continue on this trajectory will lead to environmental collapse.”

It's assumed that Victorians have an estimated 30 to 40 year lot supply of land for future housing. These "developments" assume that "vacant" land is a wasted resource unless there is concrete, lawns and housing on it. "Developments" are an environmental threat, to our food and water security, and to semi-urban wildlife - and Victoria's integrity. Victoria is already in ecological overshoot. Native species are losing habitat to increase human "carrying capacity".

It seems that the free market economy will continue its rampage of growth until we hit the wall of Nature's limits, and then what? It will deprive us of locally produced food, and we will see declining productivity due to congestion on the roads, lack of power to travel to work, hunger, homelessness, crime, and poverty increasingly left to non-government charities to fix. Energy and water could end up so expensive that people will end up using lamps, candles, generators and tank water? High rise will be family hostile, and lead to more anti-social behaviour and slums. Cities and nations should be designed for people, not to derive economic benefits from amassing humans for an doomed economic model.

Tigerquoll

Wed, 2012-06-20 17:36

Canberra has always been a bad idea. Isolating ideological politicians with access to community billlions is not a good idea.
Creating an artificial city across native kangaroo woodland is one of the madcap outcomes of the place.
The politics is rotten in Canberra at all levels of its navel gazing over-government.

The DeathCap Mushroom native to Canberra is its deserving emblem.

How hypocritical to have kangaroos on Australia's coat of arms when our nation's undeserving capital slaughters them.

How hypocritical to have a kangaroo as a the icon of Australia's tourism promotion when our government encourages their industrial slaughter for pet food.

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

nimby

Wed, 2012-06-20 10:22

Australia's most precious ocean environments will be protected by the world's largest network of marine reserves created by the Gillard Government. Environment Minister Tony Burke released the Government's final network of marine reserves which - once proclaimed under national environmental law - will increase the number of marine reserves from 27 to 60, expanding the national network to cover more than a third of Commonwealth waters. "For generations Australians have understood the need to preserve precious areas on land as national parks. Our oceans contain unique marine life which needs protection too," he said. "We have an incredible opportunity to turn the tide on protection of the oceans and Australia can lead the world in marine protection. "The maps I have released today are most comprehensive network of marine protected areas in the world and represent the largest addition to the conservation estate in Australia's history. "This new network of marine reserves will help ensure that Australia's diverse marine environment, and the life it supports, remain healthy, productive and resilient for future generations." The new marine reserves take the overall size of the Commonwealth marine reserves network to 3.1 million square kilometres, by far the largest representative network of marine protected areas in the world. Following the huge number of submissions received, protection has been increased for a number of iconic reefs in the Coral Sea Marine Reserve that are important for marine turtles and large ocean predators. Together the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Coral Sea Commonwealth marine reserve will become the largest adjoining marine protected area in the world, covering 1.3 million square kilometres. Maps and more information Tony Burke's Media Release 14th June The government announced last week a network of marine reserves that curb fishing in the Coral Sea, beyond the reef, they face further painful changes or possible closure. Compensation had been originally forecast at just $10 million but it had blown out to $250 million. The reserves range from a special purpose zone - that allows shipping and fishing - through to special purpose with mining excluded, a multiple use zone, a habitat protection zone and at the upper end of protection is the marine national park zone - or sanctuaries - where mining, commercial and recreational fishing would all be banned. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Capt Paul Watson has offered to collaborate with the Australian Government to deliver resources and expertise to protect the almost one million sq?km marine reserve from illegal foreign fishing vessels.

Mary (not verified)

Wed, 2012-06-20 09:06

"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark" (Hamlet). The fish is rotting from the head down—all is not well at the top of the political hierarchy. The same could be applied to Canberra, Australia's head of political and administrative power! The ACT government is blaming activist for breaking the fox-proof fencing protecting the endangered native species, but riflemen in quad bikes were rounding up terrified kangaroos who were running into the fences in terror. It would take Olympic standard skill to kill with head shots, as the Code of Practice demands. The RSPCA and the "Conservation" department of ACT are guilty of this massacre of native wildlife, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, assuming them to be nothing more than vermin. They have been exposed!

KeepMelbourneMa... (not verified)

Tue, 2012-06-19 08:38

There's no Planning as such in Melbourne any more. It's become synonymous for growth, and liberalizing building and construction standards. The fox is in charge of the chickens - those with vested interests in growth and the property market are setting the rules, and standards on height, and the extension of our urban growth boundary. It's all downhill, and Victoria's economy is at a standstill from all the financial demands of growth.

These high rises cast long shadows, are imposing, windy tunnels and are not family friendly. How can children live in them? The residents ultimately will be forced to add to urban sprawl if they decide to have families.

These towers are about warehousing people as consumers, as economic units, to add to our customer base and GDP, not about planning human-centric living standards for Melbourne.

The carbon tax will exacerbate the high costs of power, water is becoming a luxury item, Councils keep increasing rates to keep abreast with their services, rubbish disposal costs a premium, traffic congestion drives the need for more freeways, and jobs are going offshore.

The obvious end result is that Melbourne ends up family-hostile, with more and more homelessness and crime, and closer to a divided community of haves and have-nots - like a third world city.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2012-06-19 02:32

Panel rejects height limits for Southbank skyscrapers of June 18, 2012 by Simon Johanson in The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/business/panel-rejects-height-limits-for-
southbank-skyscrapers-20120617-20i2p.html)

Southbank, Melbourne, is 50% owned by foreigners living in places like Hong Kong, KL, Singapore and Jakarta because that is where the developers run big selling sessions. So the Australians who buy and live in these apartments are very angry because the Melbourne City Council want to bring in good rules about heights and separations but this so called expert Panel will not agree and want the sky to be the limit and as close as you like – well it is called discretionary, which as we know is meaningless.

Where, for instance, the people and the council want 20 metres between buildings, recently the Minister approved a building only 10 metres from its neighbour. Pretty tough on both sides of the divide – high in the sky and all you look out at is into someone else's living room.
Disgusting!

Tigerquoll

Mon, 2012-06-18 19:03

Carnival Cruise Lines, the same company that ran the Titanic, Costa Concordia and Costa Allegra, have just announced its big is beautiful theory. In a Sydney newspaper today, a Carnival Cruises Lines spokeswoman said: "we have a theory: we go big or we go home." It is bringing its 2680-capacity Carnival Spirit to be based in Sydney so it can churn 86 voyages between now and the end of 2014, loading 230,000 passengers. The more one reads about this operator, the more one reads an inherited theory of White Star capitalism on the high seas. Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan Snowy River Region Victoria Australia

Geoffrey Taylor

Mon, 2012-06-18 00:33

Robert Kennedy Junior's fight to save democracy and our
environment.

As a result of reading a recent article on Senator Robert F Kennedy (RFK) and commencing to republish it here, I was made aware of the extraordinary contribution to the fight for democracy and the environment and literature made by his son Robert F Kennedy Junior.

Example of his remarkable contributions can be seen on the YouTube Broadcast embedded below:

Robert Kennedy Jr. "Crimes Against Nature"

Robert Kennedy Jr. Indicts the Bush Administration for selling-off the USA's natural resources, polluting the air & water, & poisoning tens of millions of Americans.

How Corporations Threaten Our Environment and Democracy

Jun 29, 2011: Mountaintop removal doesn't just destroy our environment—it completely subverts the democratic process. In their efforts to mine mountains for coal, large corporations deceive local communities, flagrantly break the law, silence journalists and buy out local governments.

In this conversation with The Nation and On the Earth Productions recorded at Chicago's Orrington Hotel, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. explains how corporations have illegally destroyed more than five hundred mountains and impoverished countless rural communities—and gotten away with it. Kennedy has long been active in the environmental justice movement, and his latest efforts to stop mountaintop removal mining are featured in the new documentary, The Last Mountain.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the media

May 24, 2008:

Convict descendent (not verified)

Sun, 2012-06-17 22:52

I think we should take care to lay responsibility with the leaders, rather than ordinary citizens, in Australia and other colonial countries. Many Australians were not voluntary immigrants, they were convicts and political victims of a British justice system of great savagery. Indentured immigrants also came out because they had little option to survive in Britain. The Welsh, Irish and Scots should not be confused with the English, who dominated their countries. The Irish, particularly, were treated in the same way in Britain as Aborigines were in Australia. The policy makers were not the ordinary people in Australia. Nor are they today. There was a period, at Federation, when Australia was able to create a system that represented workers at law, ensured education and protected small business and workers through protection of local workers and products. The colonial forces, however, never wanted Australia to be self-sufficient, stable and self-governing. Any more than they wanted India to be. India managed to get rid of the English, but Australia is being inundated again with them and other migrants with colonial attitudes of exploitation towards this country. They are being invited in by our "leaders". I don't know where we would deport those people to. I think they should not be allowed to govern so undemocratically and unfairly. Maybe they should be put into prison by the people. When we label each other as white anglo-saxons, we should think about our real origins. We are not all descended from the English.

Jill Quirk (not verified)

Sun, 2012-06-17 22:35

Sustainable Population Australia (Victorian and Tasmanian branch) Annual General Meeting On- Saturday July 7th at 2.00p.m. At -Balwyn Library Meeting Room 336, Whitehorse Road Balwyn There will be an election of office bearers for 2011-12- at the meeting. Financial members are invited to nominate for any of the following positions- president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, or committee member (5 positions) Following formal business our guest speaker, Dr. Geoff Mosley will reflect on his 60 years of involvement with conservation, the lessons learned, and the way ahead. Dr Mosely has been an outspoken advocate for population stabilisation in the Australian Conservation Foundation for years, when others were silent. Venue details: 336 Whitehorse Rd Balwyn VIC 3103, Australia Tram number:109 Melway ref. 46E8 Contact: Jill Quirk- 0409742927 [email protected] or [email protected]

Tigerquoll

Sun, 2012-06-17 11:42

It is well accepted and documented that those who are cruel toward animals, have a high propensity to go on to extend that deviant behaviour toward people.
It is a psychological form of social deviancy. Violent criminals have commonly been found to have had an childhood history of animal cruelty.
Animal Sadists like Nigel Franks need to be on a register just like pedophiles are.

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

Norm (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-16 23:55

The National Capital Authority (NCA) in Canberra is looking for land for diplomatic residences; problem is they are considering land on Red Hill in Canberra, with the area including heritage woodland which has majestic trees and is the home of much wildlife, including kangaroos etc. FYI.

Suzanne Cass (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-16 19:36

Tigerquoll, it seems that more is being done by individuals than by the charities that we pay money to take action here.

So far, I have dozens of requests for information, and FOIs with DAFF (which they are doing their best to ignore, as is Ludwig). But they can't hide forever.

I have one complaint with the Veterinary Surgeons Board of South Australia over the matter of the broken down Al Messilah in Adelaide last year - ALEC (The Australian Live Exporters Council) employed a Victorian veterinarian, Tristan Jubb, to provide 'advice' about the sheep who were unloaded. Jubb is not registered to practice in SA. The Board is doing its best to dismiss the complaint, despite all the evidence. In the course of our enquiries, it emerged that 2,519 sheep simply 'went missing', and in the maze of data, more sheep were UNloaded from the broken down ship than were loaded in the first instance. That's what I mean about the mortality statsitics.

I have two complaints before the Vet Surgeons Board of WA, about AQIS accredited veterinarians approving for transport to the port of Fremantle sheep who were suffering from serious clinical opthalmic diseases (including blindness), and also approving transports to the port in temperatures of 43 degrees plus, including video and photographic evidence of the sheep, left on trucks for hours, gasping for air. The Board will not reply to requests for an outcome to the complaints.

If the complaints were to be found to be substantiated, veterinarians involved in the trade might be forced to reconsider - and the trade cannot operate without them. Veterinarians are people to whom we look to for leadership in the care and welfare of animals, and these ones fail dismally. We should be able to hold them to a higher standard, yet when their own governing Boards fail to act, it goes nowhere.

Other complaints relate to the use of electric proddng devices on sheep. The OIE Code for Terrestrial Animals is clear that these panful shocklng devices should never be used on sheep or goats, yet there is a vast body of evidence at www.liveexportshame.com of them being used violently and gratuitously on the faces and ano-genital regions of the sheep.

Australia leads the world in animal welfare? It can't even get it right while the animals are still in Australia.

Suzanne Cass (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-16 19:17

This week, Compassion in World Farming released new video from Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey which fully demonstrated that the Government's spin is nothing but outright lies. It eclipses even what we saw on Four Corners, and Turkey and Egypt are being targetted by the despicable exporters as 'key new destinations' for Australian cattle. In Indonesia, cattle are shown being unloaded from a ship by being winched by cranes, in threes, by their heads and dumped onto trucks. The savages have learned nothing and never will.

As well, the government knows that animals shipped from the southern ports in our winter, especially Portland, are at a massively higher risk of dying - so well-settled is it that special provision exists in the ASEL about it. But all that is is a 'tick and flick' from the exporters saying "it'll be right', and DAFF goes on to approve the shiploads of animal misery, over and over. The ASEL also provides that shade and shelter be provided at feedlots ('registered premises'), yet at many ports, it is not. What is DAFF doing to enforce compliance with this? Nothing. So the animals are exposed to driving wind and rain, or alternatively blazing heat in Darwin and WA, and nothing is done.

Voyages to Turkey on the old rustbuckets used in this trade have taken up to 41 days - almost 6 weeks - yet the mortality reports just keep the numbers under the radar. It is widely accepted that more animals are loaded than stated to ensure that the statistics are within what DAFF claims are 'acceptable' death rates. We cannot believe a single one of the mortality reports. Worse, investigations from 2009 and 2010 are 'yet to be completed', others state that insufficient records were kept to establish the causes of deaths. So where are the meaningful penalties? DAFF is so hopelessly compromised - so 'in bed' with the exporters - that they get a slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf.

SHAME ON AUSTRALIA!

Tigerquoll

Sat, 2012-06-16 13:46

The refusal by the NT Government to acknowledge impropriety in its persecution of the Chamberlains for 32 years, and its refusal to apologise, is symptomatic of an insular morally corrupt culture in its senior management.

Here are some other reasons for this assessment:

1. Mataranka cruelty - NT Government Complicit
2. The Primary Industries department of the NT Government, through its close association with LiveCorp and Meat and Livestock Australia, was well aware of the halal cruelty of Indonesian abattoirs, yet due to the high value of live cattle exports to the NT economy did nothing about it. It failed in its governance responsibilities as well as in betraying Australian society's moral values.
3. Decades of NT Government neglect of indigenous communities by not providing adequate policing and other services, lead to gross instances of violence and child abuse which drove the Howard Government in 2007 to implement the The Northern Territory National Emergency Response (also referred to as "the intervention").
4. The NT Government oversaw a large part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) which received millions of federal funding to distribute to Indigenous community programs, including health, education and employment. It was an absolute failure, wasted millions and presiding over increasingly horrible conditions in Aboriginal communities and was ultimately disbanded in 2003.
5. The NT Government has a history of neglecting to supply public infrastructure and services to remote Indigenous communties, while instead diverting fiunds to beautify downtown Darwin.
6. The ongoing problem of Darwin's northern suburbs losing power due to the neglect of the power distribution network - maintenance of the substations, etc.
7. NT Government;s administration and delivery of the SIHIP remote indigenous housing programme to build 750 homes, floundered, seeing less than half built due to delays in developing information systems, an absence of key staff, a weakness in governance and delays in completing key planning documents.
8. In all literacy and numeracy tests only 30 to 35% of Northern Territory students met national minimum standards. When those who did not participate are added, half the students in the Northern Territory failed to meet national minimum standards. In the rest of Australia less than 15% of students failed to meet the minimum standards.

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

nimby

Sat, 2012-06-16 10:07

There was absolutely no evidence to even suggest that the Chamberlains killed their baby. The camping ground at the time had other campers, and they witnessed the horror of the parents searching for their baby. They all believed the Chamberlains and witnessed their distress. There were footprints on the space blanket at the time, but the police cleaned it. Why and how would Lindy kill her baby? The "blood" in the car turned out to be paint. The hairs were evidence of a dingo. The whole saga and damage to the Chamberlains was to deflect from the NT poor management of the camping ground, and lack of care of duty. The dingo wouldn't have to "attack" a sleeping baby, but consider it easy "food". Humans aren't an exception to the Laws of Nature! The mismanagement of this case raises serious questions about our judicial system. Without evidence of a body, blood, a weapon, motive, and in the light of dingoes in the area at the time, it was obviously a dingo that took Azaria, and no evidence contrary to it. There could have been some human intervention, but not from the Chamberlains. A park ranger could have found the baby's remains and buried it, to avert further implications as to their lack of responsible management of tourist and wildlife.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-16 10:05

STOP THE WARMONGERS THE IRAQ QUAGMIRE DEEPENS. The ongoing bombings, shootings, rocket attacks, and downing of aircraft by irregular Iraqi forces, fighting against the American led invaders and their puppet administration, are evidence of a classic guerilla war taking hold. Making a country ungovernable is the essence of such warfare, and to ensure victory to its nationalist fighters. This is the lesson from the history of guerrilla war. Under such a strategy, there is, and will be no end to the resistance, until the moral or physical capitulation of the invader, no matter how long it takes. And against the tide of nations such as the Dutch, Spanish, Ukranian, etc, withdrawing their troops from this destructive war, John Howard and his Liberal Party cabinet have committed another 400 Australian servicemen and women - folly at its best, and servitude at its worst! This further commitment exposes the ever present servile psyche in Liberal Party politicians towards foreign interests - solidarity with American warmongers, but inevitably to the cost of ADF personnel, and eventually all Australians. THE LEGACY OF DEATH. The attack on Iraq, a defenceless, impoverished nation as a result of a decade of American imposed sanctions, is estimated to have led to the deaths of over 120,000 civilians. The invasion entailed the unprecedented use of personnel, and infrastructure targeting munitions. Not only cluster bombs, many of which still remain to explode through children at play, but by toxic depleted uranium warheads, a pollutant to effect all exposed, and even the as yet unborn. The ultimate environmental nightmare. The invading forces have laid depleted uranium residue throughout wide areas of the country. Exposure results in radioactive sicknesses, leukaemia and cancers - a pollutant of death. The UN has called for depleted uranium munitions to be banned. The cleaning up of this toxic waste requires the total removal of ALL material it has contacted, something well beyond the capacity, or interest of military forces in a conflict zone. Normal life cannot exist where it has contaminated. And yes, the latest deployment of Australians is in an area heavily polluted, where Dutch forces have already experienced widespread radioactive induced sickness. But none of this is of any concern to the Howard/Downer/Hill clique - they repeat the Fraser/Chipp attitude to agent orange in an earlier American war. LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES? The British media expose in May 2005, of a secret UK Government Memo dated July 2002 [eight months before invasion], in which M16 intelligence officers stated that the Americans, despite proclaiming the need for negotiation, had already decided to go to war against Saddam Hussain and the Iraq Socialist Government, and were issuing “fixed” intelligence to support this policy. Information about biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction and terrorist links to Al-Qaeda were to be used as the basis of this deceit, and the British Government knowingly supported these lies. And how ironic, that Australian Intelligence Officer Andrew Wilkie, expressed similar sentiments about Howard and his cohorts parroting of the same scenario in the lead up to the war. Of course, weapons inspectors, before and after the invasion, found no such capacity, or connections. An investigation is needed to confirm if deliberate deceit of the Australian people has been perpetrated by Liberal Party Politicians, and if confirmed - their fitness for public office. Lying politicians must be called to account! WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL NEEDED. Under accepted norms between sovereign nations, the Howard Government’s participation in the unprovoked attack on Iraq, that has resulted in such horrific carnage and suffering to the Iraqi people, its land and infrastructure, is a prima facie case for charges of war crimes. The UN has clearly stated this war is illegal, and no mandate for war was ever issued by the Australian people. For Australians, the enforced participation of the ADF under Howard is a cause of national shame, and angst, that can only be cleansed from the national consciousness by calling to account before a Royal Commission. In addition, a National Statement of Regret, and extensive material and financial aid to redress the war effects on the Iraqi people, should be considered. Unless Howard and his cohorts are bought to account for their war acts, Australians and the reputation of our civilisation as a peaceful people will be forever tarnished. This is an urgent matter for our national self respect. Behold a people, thro' whose annals runs No damming stain of falsehood, forced or fraud; Whose sceptre is the ploughshare - not the sword - Whose glory lives in harvest-ripening suns! Where, mid the records of old Rome or Greece Glows such a tale? Thou canst not answer, Time. With shield, unsullied by a single crime With wealth of gold, and still more golden fleece, Forth stands Australia, in her birth sublime, The only nation from the womb of peace. Percy Russell 1880 [The Birth of Australia] NO AUSSIE TROOPS FOR INTERNATIONALISTS’ WARS Australia First Party P.O. Box 223, Croydon, 3136. www.australiafirst.net Email: [email protected]

Geoffrey Taylor

Sat, 2012-06-16 02:26

A striking omission from the corporate newsmedia's portrayal of the Syrian conflict is historical context.

If last year's invasion of Libya, in which more than 50,000 were killed, gets barely mentioned in the corporate media's coverage of the Syrian conflict, there is none whatsover of the illegal invasions of Iraq in 2003 and 1990. On both occasions, the public were fed known lies to justify the war. In 1991 it was the lie of babies supposedly taken out of incubators and thrown of the floor of Kuwaiti hospitals by cruel Iraqi invaders and left to die. As a result of that war and sanctions imposed afterwards as many as 1 million Iraqis, including 500,000 children, may have died. For the 2003 war the US made up the lie that Iraq posed a threat to other countries because of a Weapons of Mass Destruction program. This was known to be a lie (see testimony by Valerie Perrine) by the US administration and the UK government to be a lie at the time of the invasion. As a result of this invasion it is estimated that another 1 million may have died. The scale of death rivals that which occurred in Rwanda and in Cambodia.

If the public were reminded of this recent history, it is hardly likely to accept unquestioningly the claims now being made against Syria.

Steven Earl Salmony (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-16 01:14

If we agree to “think globally” about climate destabilization and at least one of its consensually validated principal agencies, it becomes evident that riveting attention on more and more seemingly perpetual GROWTH could be a grave mistake because we are denying how economic and population growth in the communities in which we live cannot continue as it has until now. Each village’s resources are being dissipated, each town’s environment degraded and every city’s fitness as place for our children to inhabit is being threatened. To proclaim something like, ‘the meat of any community plan for the future is, of course, growth’ fails to acknowledge that many villages, towns and cities are already ‘built out’, and also ‘filled in’ with people and pollutants. If the quality of life we enjoy now is to be maintained for the children, then limits on economic and population growth will have to be set. By so doing, we choose to “act locally” and sustainably.

More economic and population growth are soon to become no longer sustainable in many too many places on the surface of Earth because biological constraints and physical limitations are immutably imposed upon ever increasing human consumption, production and population activities of people in many communities where most of us reside. Inasmuch as the Earth is finite with frangible environs, there comes a point at which GROWTH is unsustainable. There is much work to done locally. But that effort cannot reasonably begin without sensibly limiting economic and population growth.

Problems worldwide that are derived from conspicuous overconsumption and rapacious plundering of limited resources, rampant overproduction of unnecessary stuff, and rapid human overpopulation of the Earth can be solved by human thought, judgment and action. After all, the things we have done can be undone. Think of it as ‘the great unwinding of human folly’. Like deconstructing the Tower of Babel. Any species that gives itself the moniker, Homo sapiens sapiens, can do that much, can it not?

“We face a wide-open opportunity to break with the old ways of doing the town’s business…..” That is a true statement. But the necessary “break with the old ways” of continuous economic and population growth is not what is occurring. There is a call for a break with the old ways, but the required changes in behavior are not what is being proposed as we plan for the future. What is being proposed and continues to occur is more of the same, old business-as-usual overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities, the very activities that appear to be growing unsustainably. More business-as-usual could soon become patently unsustainable, both locally and globally. A finite planet with the size, composition and environs of the Earth and a community with the boundaries, limited resources and wondrous climate of villages, towns and cities where we live may not be able to sustain much longer the economic and population growth that is occurring on our watch. Perhaps necessary changes away from UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH and toward sustainable lifestyles and right-sized corporate enterprises are in the offing.

Think globally while there is still time and act locally before it is too late for human action to make any difference in the clear and presently dangerous course of unfolding human-induced ecological events, both in our planetary home and in our villages, towns and cities. If we choose to review the perspective of a ‘marketwatcher’ who can see what is actually before our eyes, perhaps all of us can get a little more reality-oriented to the world we inhabit and a less deceived by an attractive, flawed ideology that is highly touted and widely shared but evidently illusory and patently unsustainable.

See: Myth of Perpetual Growth is killing America

of June 12, 2012 by Paul B. Farrell in Market Watch

This situation is no longer deniable. During my lifetime, many have understood the Global Predicament we are facing now, but only a few ‘voices in the wilderness’ were willing to speak out loudly and clearly about what everyone can see. It is not a pretty sight. The human community has precipitated a planetary emergency that only humankind is capable of undoing. The present ‘Unsustainable Path’ has to be abandoned in favor of a “road less travelled by”. It is late; there is no time left to waste. Perhaps now we will gather our remarkably abundant, distinctly human resources and respond ably to the daunting, human-induced, global challenges before us, the ones that threaten life as we know it and the integrity of Earth as a fit place for human habitation. Many voices, many more voices are needed for making necessary changes.

Greg (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-15 15:26

The Banks are the primary predators in the 'growth economy'. They're just not so materially visible in their action as the barracuda developer's and such that so publicly thrash and tear, shrouding the financiers with their crudity. Everything that is created out of debt, the bankers own. That's why they encourage the escalation of debt-financed asset speculation. However the process can go too far, as it has now. Nothing can maintain an exponential growth rate, not even imaginary credit.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-15 13:52

Australia’s fertility rate had been falling steadily since the baby boom of the immediate post World War Two period. Many developed nations of the world (such as Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Korea) have low or very low fertility rates, in most cases well below the replacement level of 2.1 babies per fertile woman and notably lower than Australia. In 2001, Australia's TFR dipped to its lowest ever level of 1.73 babies per woman, consistent with the downward trend in many other OECD countries. Since then, the TFR climbed to a peak of 1.96 in 2008, before dropping back to 1.90 babies per woman in 2009. The 2010 rate was higher than the rate recorded a decade before (1.71 in 2000), and has increased from 2005, when the TFR was 1.76. In Australia, replacement fertility is estimated to be 2.1 babies per woman. Since 1976, the total fertility rate for Australia has been below this replacement level. Until relatively recently, Australia’s population growth has come predominantly from natural increase. During the majority of the last 20 years, the contribution of NOM (net overseas migration) to population growth was less than half, whereas from 2007 to 2010, it was the major contributor, adding 62%, 65%, 66% and 57% respectively to Australia’s total population growth for each year. It also reflects the recent increases of temporary migrants arriving in Australia.

Bob Couch (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-15 11:03

There is only one way to prevent the further destruction of Melbourne through rezoning proposed by the Victorian Government, and that is through political action. At the end of the day, the politicians only really care about one thing - getting your vote. The root cause of the rezoning proposals is the need to cater for population growth. Remove population growth (which we don't need and most of us don't want), and the motivation to rezone is removed. Unfortunately, both Labour and Liberal favour a bigger population, and the Greens are very weak and ambivalent on the subject. So, if you don't want rezoning, who do you vote for? Please consider joining and voting for the Stop Population Growth Now Party of Australia . See our website (www.stoppopulationgrowthnow.com) for details. We will give you a choice.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-15 10:36

Driving a relentless focus on Syria is not because of any real complex of genuine concerns. The real goal for Western powers and their Middle Eastern allies is regime change in Damascus as a stepping stone to up aggression toward Iran. This, in turn, is an integral part of Washington’s permanent war agenda for hegemony in the world’s oil-rich region. Since the Cold War, the US and its Western allies have been thrashing around for pretexts to justify their imperialist adventures around the world. Such adventures are a necessary part of control over natural resources, mainly oil and gas, in a world run by and for capitalist powers and greed for economic growth. Syria's Oil shipments to Europe are declining! However, Syria produced 213 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and is expected to double its gas production. Syria's natural gas is used in reinjection for oil recovery (more lucrative than natural gas) and for domestic electricity generation. Rants about gasoline and the oil industry may not always be based on facts, but one thing is undeniable: Americans are obsessed with the price of gasoline. This year, gas shot up by 66 cents from January through early April because of a spike in oil prices. More than 9,000 Syrians have died since protests began March 2011, according to the UN. A gas pipeline in eastern Syria was damaged in a bombing causing the leakage of 400,000 cubic meters of gas. The authorities accuse foreign backed terrorist groups its term for rebel forces of attacking infrastructure but the opposition says the regime is involved in the attacks.

Geoffrey Taylor

Fri, 2012-06-15 01:35

Where is Australia not able to produce wealth because of a shortage of
workers (apart from the mining 'industry' which does nothing more than
remove from the ground our finite non-renewable legacy of fossil fuels and
metals which rightly belongs to this and all future generations)?

What little of the Australian economy produces real wealth that can
actually be traded for real imported wealth--agriculture and our minuscule
manufacturing industry--has already more than sufficient human resources within
this country.

Adding to our population at best can only increases the number of
people amongst whom this continent's finite quantity of wealth must be shared
thereby making each of us on average, poorer.

On top of that increasing the population adds to dis-economies of scale caused
principally by abysmally planned urban expansion, most likely done for the
benefit of the motor industry, and tollway builders amongst others, as well as
land developers. As a consequence many people live far from their workplaces,
education, shopping and entertainment and recreation facilities and other
amenities and are forced to drive long distances each day with resultant
gridlock during peak hours.

Mary (not verified)

Thu, 2012-06-14 23:32

The excuse by Matthew Guy is that Melbourne must provide for population growth BEFORE it happens, as it is were inevitable, and un avoidable. Both levels of Governments, but Federal and State, would have us believe there is no choice in the matter, and that we are naturally high breeders, and it's normal. However, from 2009 to 2011, according to the ABS, 57% of Victoria's growth was from immigration! Our "natural" growth, from babies born here, would also represent a similar proportion from immigration. This is not about being anti-immigrant as immigration has served us well in the past when we had jobs, and needed more people to create an economy of scale. However, those times have gone, and we have gone over the "tipping point" of an optimum population size. The rest is downhill. Both the mainstream parties support high population growth rates as it stimulates spending and increases the amount of moneys passing through our systems, adding to our GDP. However, per capita GDP is declining, and so are living standards. Victoria is already in ecological and economic overshoot, and growth of six new suburbs, while TAFE education funding was slashed, jobs going, and public transport at a standstill, is not in the public interest. Already Victoria is in the doldrums, a winter of stagnation, and this forced growth will deprive existing Victorians of more from their hip pockets.

Agent Provocateur

Thu, 2012-06-14 22:43

I apologise in advance for repeating information here - but I do so to compare what appears to be blatant
'riding rough-shod' over public objection (and denial of same) to extending suburbs into green wedge areas:

... Planning Minister, Mathew Guy announced:

“The completion of this review will lead to urban growth boundary modifications to ensure adequate long-term land supply and enable planning for population growth to be completed well ahead of time.

“This is the most thorough and transparent review the state of Victoria has ever undertaken for metropolitan boundary changes.

The entire process has had the oversight ... (Huh? oversight? .. means overlooked) ... of an independent probity auditor...

However...
Julianne Bell, PPLVic: Citizens rights to preserve public land and wildlife habitat from private greed in Melbourne Planning of 14 June 2012 at http://candobetter.net/node/2937

... The superb document ... establishes a history of concerted public demand for protection of the green wedges and a host of reasons for that public opposition to Matthew Guy's six new suburbs.

It represents more than 80 groups of Victorians protesting against Victorian government population growth and development policies for reasons that damn Matthew Guy's extension of the Urban Growth Boundary.

New Growth Areas = Future Urban Sprawl = Major Failure of Strategic Urban Planning ...

I want to know where Mathew Guy's belief that he has community support for his plans, comes from.

Is there really nothing at all that the tax paying public - ordinary decent Australians - can do about these plans to desecrate through over population - and over development - of the currently protected green wedge?

Why are Mathew Guy and his Demolition Derby being allowed to proceed with their plans?

You know, the only REAL way to prevent their plans from working - would be to ensure that nobody bought the land or homes built there - and in advance declared their intention to black list, spurn or otherwise reject the whole project! " To Vote with your dollars - makes Ecological Sense" - could be the campaign slogan!

Mary D (not verified)

Thu, 2012-06-14 13:12

The letters below cited from the Age spell it out. Of course the biggest mistake is to keep immigration at such high levels and the Federal government made it clear they are increasing the numbers. However, figures in Melbourne show that there is too much being built and it can't be sold. The developers are undeterred and push for even more land to develop as time goes by and the government have given in to them. The worst feature is the building on good farm and market garden land - we are going to regret this down the track as food prices go up and you see more imported food in the supermarket. Start reading the labels. Even Andrew Macleod has spoken from the grave and declared we should have 4 and 5 storey living all across Melbourne. Well the fact is, Andrew Macleod, that we don't want to go up and we don't want to go out - solution is to slow migration down to a sustainable number and then we will all be happy, because we are not happy now. Mary Drost Boundary is a rubbery concept June 14, 2012 DOES the state government have a mandate to open up thousands of hectares of green wedge land and farmland (''Government shifts green wedge boundary'', The Age, 13/6) for housing on the metropolitan fringe? Where is the democratic consultation and what are the long-term benefits of its plans? What Planning Minister Matthew Guy considers ''anomalies'' were actually planned by the Hamer government to prevent Melbourne becoming a monolith of housing and concrete. There's no ''logic'' in grabbing thousands of hectares of ''logical inclusion'' from green wedges, but there is pure greed for growth. This extension of the urban boundary will be the fourth time it has been shifted since the Bracks government introduced it in 2002, so there's no real boundary - it's an imaginary rubbery line that expands with market forces and urban obesity. When no one is in charge of properly regulating natural resources, cities grow in ways that are utterly unpredictable and without regard to optimising resources. Nature functions on balance, and perpetual growth is not natural. We could suffer the same fate as any other species whose habitat is destroyed by the blind pursuit of excesses. Vivienne Ortega, Heidelberg Heights Try before you buy PERHAPS there should be a scheme to allow people to try living on Melbourne's furthest fringes for a week or so to see before they buy if they have the mental and physical stamina it takes. Try for a week driving to work on a scarcely moving freeway. Or be at the station by 7am to get a park and a spot to stand up in the train for 40 kilometres to the city. Try booking your child into kinder or school and have a look at the sheer size of such educational facilities. (Note that size does not always equate with quality). Sit for hours in the only hospital's emergency department. It is looking less and less appealing isn't it? Perhaps we should encourage the Planning Minister and Premier to live such a week. It might make them less keen to jam more and more people into the city's under-resourced fringe. Clancy Briggs, Berwick Toxic consequences IF I approached the state government with a planning proposal that would not only increase the cost of food, but also the levels of respiratory disease and other health problems, I would be quite rightly shown the door. But this is what will transpire with the Baillieu government's vision for greater urban sprawl and freeway development, concreting over Melbourne's green wedges and farming belt to increase the costs of fresh produce and the levels of atmospheric toxicity. The market will now capriciously determine all the worst possible scenarios, favouring short-term housing booms over long-term food security, freeways to the exclusion of rail infrastructure. You'd think that with a degree in architecture, Ted Baillieu would possess some environmental sensibility that might embrace state decentralisation and a respect for the primacy of planning, but it seems not. John Ashton, Fitzroy North A new model sorely needed PLANNING Minister Matthew Guy says 37,000 lots of land will be developed over 30 years to house more than 100,000 people. This might boost the housing industry, but once the houses are built, there are no guarantees of employment near or far from the houses. An economy largely dependent on land tax and stamp duty means perpetually being strangled by the challenges of meeting the costs of urban infrastructure, creating jobs in a declining job market, and relying on the cash flows generated by continually stretching the urban boundary. A report by National Australia Bank on Victoria's health says the state faces challenges as the worst performing state, and that's despite churning out more houses and land than we can currently sell. We obviously need a new economic paradigm not dependent on paving over irreplaceable open space just to create more empty houses. Jenny Warfe, Dromana Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/letters/boundary-is-a-rubbery-concept-20120613-20abd.html#ixzz1xj42cWQd

Valerie Yule

Thu, 2012-06-14 12:54

Problems for Melbourne Problems facing Melbourne 1. Population growth taking over our best farmland. Former ‘green rings’ have been reduced to one ‘green ring’ have been reduced to ‘green wedges’ which get smaller and smaller. The force driving this is profit, and government profit is important. As we lose our industries and our farmland, the source of profit becomes land and housing. These must continually increase in value to provide private and government profit. 2. Asset-stripping. This is Victoria’s major problem today. - Victoria’s natural resources being ruthlessly stripped to export as if there was no tomorrow. - Publicly-owned assets privatised - including land, infrastructure, business enterprises. - Private assets stripped by gambling, so savings are not available for profitable investment or consumer spending. - Democratic rights whittled away. - Rights and powers of publicly elected bodies reduced. 3. Human resources. Ways to get rid of hopelessness, lack of energy and interest, apathy, obtuseness, social division etc. These are major reasons for encouraging innovation and an attitude of positive innovation and problem-solving among all citizens, not just the elites. An idea related to both problems: It would be worth getting all students in schools/colleges to do projects on the History of Cities and their contributions to civilisation and fights for freedom. Students could select particular cities - if possible, from their home countries, or even their own home towns. Some could study the History of Melbourne and its contribution to world civilisation. Cities led their countries out of medieval feudal oppression, and later were the origins of democratic governments. Examples of great contributors to civilisation - Athens, Rome, Edinburgh, Florence, London, Vienna, Jerusalem, Paris, Thebes, Istanbul (Constantinople), Syracuse, Beijing, Kyoto, Benares, Timbuktu . . . Small cities and even villages have also achieved great things. Examples of great struggles for democratic and city freedoms - Paris, London, Rotterdam, Warsaw, Geneva, Seoul, The project could be carried out through the Education supplements of Melbourne newspapers, reinforced through weeklies like the Melbourne Times. The winning essays/projects could be edited and published in a little illustrated paperback - Cities, Civilisation and Freedom - for libraries and school libraries and export. Prizes would be copies of the book and places of honour at a TV launching ceremony. Dr Valerie Yule M.A., Ph.D, Dip.Ed., M.B.Ps.S.

Valerie Yule

Thu, 2012-06-14 12:50

Our far-seeing ancestors reserved the land for railway lines for future populations. Now we have sold that land for private housing for the future populations. Dr Valerie Yule, M.A., Ph.D, Dip.Ed., M.B.Ps.S.

CSI (not verified)

Thu, 2012-06-14 12:47

Australia has had low fertility rates since the 1970's, so any population growth is not through natural births over deaths This is a common misconception which is explored in Mark O'Conner's Overloading Australia. Australia's fertility rate isn't really low - its currently at around replacement rate. However even with the average fertility rate at around 2 children per women, there are still about twice the number of births as deaths in Australia. This is due to demographic momentum, a consequence of our relatively young population (thanks to the aftereffects of a very high birthrate in earlier decades plus continuous high immigration). I'm pretty sure this myth of deaths exceeding births is deliberately promoted by the Murdoch mass media, amongst others.

KeepMelbourneMa... (not verified)

Wed, 2012-06-13 23:37

Matthew Guy is more than "managing Melbourne's projected population growth". Our government, in lieu of any real productive economy, is inviting people here from interstate and overseas. Once the land is sold and the houses constructed, people will be drawn here. Just what skills are needed in these 6 new suburbs, considering that it's skilled immigration that is the driver of our population growth? Australia has had low fertility rates since the 1970's, so any population growth is not through natural births over deaths.

It's assumed that by just bringing people here means that the economy will create jobs for them! The jobs now are mainly customer service types, selling services and mainly imported goods - adding to our trade deficit. There's little production left compared to what we had in the past.
As for providing "affordable housing", the 100,000 more people in 30 years will ensure housing prices are kept healthy, with all the competition and market forces. A supply of housing less than the demand is the basis of our State's economy, with revenue from stamp duty and land taxes. It's a self perpetuating and self-consuming economy, one that consumes our natural open spaces, parklands, horticultural food bowls, and wildlife grasslands. The concept of Terra Nullius, that land without infrastructure or housing is non-productive and excess, is alive and well today in Victoria's Parliament House.

Already Victoria is in ecological and economic overshoot, and adding more people will exacerbate our tenuous hold on any "sustainability" we have now.

Tigerquoll

Wed, 2012-06-13 21:08

"Authorities in Yellowstone National Park have linked a grizzly sow they captured last week to two fatal maulings this summer and killed the bear Sunday, the park announced Monday.

The grizzly's two cubs, which were captured Sept. 29, were placed in a wildlife facility in West Yellowstone, Mont.

Park officials said that adult bears do not adapt well to captivity, whereas cubs may.

Genetic testing indicated that the female bear was responsible for the death of hiker Brian Matayoshi of Torrance on July 6 and that the 250-pound sow was present at the scene of a fatal attack on hiker John Wallace in August.

In the July incident park officials determined that the sow had been defending her cubs when she attacked Matayoshi and his wife on the Wapiti lake Trail. In that case, even if authorities had immediately found the bear they would not have killed it, since it had no history of interaction with humans.

And, even though the grizzly was one of nine bears in the area where Wallace's body was found, Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said the sow was euthanized to "eliminate the risk of future interaction with Yellowstone visitors and staff."

[Source: 'Yellowstone grizzly bear involved in attacks euthanized', 20111003, Greenspace, Los Angeles Times, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/10/grizzly-attack-yellowstone-national-park-.html]

This is hardly fair on the Grizzly. Tourist and wild animals do not mix. Wild animals in their native habitat have habitat rights that morally take precedent over human leisure. Humans have a choice where they roam - wildlife no longer does. Ban uncontrolled tourism where dingos have native habitat!

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

Bandicoot

Wed, 2012-06-13 11:23

I wrote before that the accusations against dingoes "slurred the reputation of our native dogs as dangerous, a threatening animal and vicious". The case should have been closed very quickly, with the obvious conclusion that a wild dingo or hybrid took the baby. However, governments didn't want responsibility for any legal action against them for failing in their duty of care to tourists. Dingoes are not "bad" or vicious animals, by nature, but they are wild animals. As such, children need to be supervised around them, and cross-breeding avoided. There should have been warning signs, but where there? The coroner reasonably says that various wildlife and park management authorities around Australia are responsible for balancing the needs of visitors and wildlife. Jennifer Parkhurst says; "this is a fair statement, and we can take note of similarities in the circumstances of both the Clinton Gage case and that of Azaria Chamberlain, suggesting the management of dingoes by parks authorities may have been a factor in both cases". However, Clinton Gage was harassing the hungry animals, and obviously hungry animals saw a new-born baby as simply an easy meal! Lindy Chamberlain saw a dingo leave the tent, and saw dog paw marks on the blanket inside. She gave the evidence to the police, who washed it! The lack of management, and warnings, meant the NT government had to deflect responsibility away from them, the the alternative theories of what happened are far more media-sensational than the basic, simple truth! Dingoes are not dangerous, threatening or vicious, but excessive and cruel Fraser Island dingo management policies are justifying it by evidence from this case. Why let facts spoil a good story?

Hans Brunner (not verified)

Wed, 2012-06-13 10:53

Why did it take so long to finally admit that a dingo took the baby Azaria? This result was obvious to me right from the start. Mrs. Chamberlain would have had to be twice as clever as Houdini to accomplish what she was accused of. I thought that it was over and done with after I identified Dog (Dingo) hairs found on the jump suit and singlet. But no, the 'power to be' did not like to admit that Dingoes can be a danger to children as this could have badly affected tourism. A lot of the scientific evidence given was scandalous and perverted and left the door wide open for a conviction. We can't blame the judges when they were fed with lies. But now I am elated that the truth has finally been accepted. Hans Brunner (Verified - but I can't seem to alter this field - Ed. Candobetter.net ) Ed. I think Hans means "powers that be" not 'power to be'.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2012-06-13 08:23

The kangaroos are "over-abundant"! That's the reason they must be managed, to protect other native species of flora and fauna. Just how is "over-abundant" measured? It can't be as it's a subjective, qualitative word. Just how do they measure their "over grazing" or any threats to other species? Kangaroos are soft-footed native animals, and have co existed and co evolved with other native species for millions of years. It assumes that human "management" is better than Nature's. The kangaroos must be "culled" because when Summer comes, they will starve and it's better to preempt their deaths now than wait for then. The last major kangaroo massacre was because the animals were "starving" (when they weren't) so they had to be shot for their own good. Long grass, short grass, the "cull" is for their own benefit because of their high reproductive rate! I suspect it has no ecological foundation. Without wildlife corridors, and wildlife over passes and under passes so the animals can avoid the busy roads of Canberra's burgeoning human population and urban sprawl, it's easier to use bullets! The RSPCA are compromising their integrity and public image by supporting these massacres.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2012-06-12 12:47

I would like to say publicly that I am very glad for Lindy Chamberlain and hope that she somehow can live well and flourish despite what she has had to go through. I feel that she suffered by a society where the institutions are dominated by people with low intelligence and poor imagination. I don't see the finding as a slur on dingoes. (However I have not read the details). We live in a world where all populations (human and other) are increasingly disorganised and therefore unpredictable to each other. Our relations with other populations are haphazard, often exploitative, frequently cruel. Getting food when your environment is in flux must encourage new adaptations, opportunistic feeding. In a stable ecology animals, including people, follow predictable pathways and know the locals of all species. Our species is very out of whack in Australia. There are so many examples of this - from the attacks on migratory kangaroos in the ACT after running cattle in national parks then blaming roos for loss of native plants etc.; the unaccountable facial cancers in Tasmanian Devils; the rabbit plagues; the hendra virus response to destroying bat habitat... The evolution of the epidemiology of humans over many centuries shows how blind we are to our impact. Virolution, about which I have spoken before, shows how disturbance of habitat and local populations even causes immunological havoc at a cellular level. Hans Brunner, an Australian ecologist, was the expert that validated the dingo hair correctly as 'dog hair' at the Appeal some years ago. He is very committed to helping Australian wildlife, but he expressed to me much sympathy for the Chamberlains and what they went through. As far as I know the Chamberlains were not anti-wildlife. I feel that Mrs Chamberlain went through a nightmare for which she had no responsibility at all. The dingo, or half-breed, also had no responsibility in any 'moral' sense. The way the whole thing has dragged out is a testimony to the deep disorder of our society. Which has since got worse. And will deepen. The decision to attribute Azaria's death to a dingo sounds to me a good one. (But, as I said, I have not seen the details.)

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2012-06-12 12:14

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/council-set-to-vote-on-controversial-rosebud-pool-project-20120611-2064o.html See this Age article of today and think that this could change how planning is done on the whole coast, as this sets a precedent. If you are involved with the coast or the peninsula do contact your local councillor and urge them to vote against it. The residents say there is an excellent place to put it back from the water front. Why should a pool be on the waterfront anyway? It can be anywhere.

Bandicoot

Tue, 2012-06-12 11:39

A DINGO was responsible for the death of Azaria Chamberlain in 1980, a Northern Territory coroner has found. After 32 years, it's now official! The whole long and painful saga for the Chamberlains can be put to rest. It sold a lot of papers, got a lot of tongues wagging, caused a lot of political debate and consumed the time and expense of a lot of legal experts. Lindy Chamberlain spent 3 years in prison, and their marriage broke under the strain. It slurred the reputation of our native dogs as dangerous, a threatening animal and vicious. However, the reality is that the "dingo" could have easily been a wild dog or a dingo hybrid, known to be more aggressive than pure dingoes. Predatory animals, like the laws of Nature, have no special rules, or values or consideration for humans. A small baby would have simply been a meal, an "animal" to prey on. How many indigenous babies and small children would have been consumed by dingoes if this was part of their history? There's no folklore known of to support this type of aggression by pure dingoes.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 2012-06-12 10:44

THE call by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay for an investigation into the legality of the US drone strikes is long overdue (''UN official urges Pakistan to query legality of drones'', The Saturday Age, 9/6). The drone strikes expose the evil, bloodthirsty side of President Barack Obama, who promised an end to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, a just solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict and the building up of a peaceful world.

The Nobel peace prize was awarded to President Obama not for what he had done, but for his promises for peace. He betrayed his supporters in the United States and all around the world who longed for peace after years of bloodshed and misery. He has proven himself to be unworthy of this noble prize.

Bill Mathew, Parkville

Read more: Age Letters page of 12 June 2012.

When US President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, it was in recognition “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”.

Contrary to his campaign promises, Obama has left most of the foundations of Bush's counterterrorism approach intact. While the language of the "war on terror" has been dropped, the mindset of the Bush approach – that America is forever at war, constantly on the offensive to kill "bad guys". President Obama has become personally involved in an elaborate internal process by which his administration decides who will be the next victim of America's drone strikes. The Oval Office normalized extrajudicial killing – as well as the dramatic escalation in drone strikes, which have now killed at least 2,400 people in Pakistan alone, since 2004 – represents a betrayal of President Obama's promise to make counterterrorism policies consistent with the US constitution.

Obama has opted for this quieter, less messy kind of war – the remote-controlled wars of the drone in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and even Libya last year. Obama acquiesced to an ever-expanding war zone by Predator drone, a remotely controlled, unmanned plane that hovers, undetected, two miles or so above the ground and then strikes with like an assassin in a darkened room.

Yet even as most Obama Administration officials are insistent that they can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a drone program, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former head of the CIA, has acknowledged its existence on numerous occasions.

The notion that the United States government should wage ongoing war in multiple countries while keeping it secret from its own citizens is noxious.

Geoffrey Taylor

Tue, 2012-06-12 00:15

The following was posted in response to the article Quebec: Making War on Our Children on the web site entitles A Socialist in Canada. It is still awaiting approval.
Update, 13 Jun 12: Comment is still "awaiting approval".

I am also interested to know the outcome of the elections that were held on Monday in the Quebec ridings of LaFontaine and Argenteuil.

It would have been a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate to the world the illegitimacy of the current Quebec Liberal Party dictatorship which only secured 33% of the votes in 2008 (See also Wikipedia article on 2008 Quebec elections.)

Geoffrey Taylor

Tue, 2012-06-12 00:04

The following was posted in response to the article A night of protest and chaos as Montreal hosts F1 auto race of 9 June on the web site entitled A Socialist in Canada. It is still awaiting approval. Update, 13 Jun 12: Comment is still "awaiting approval".

If there was a fair electoral system in Quebec, it should be possible to translate popular rejection of austerity and the globalisation of Quebec’s tertiary eduction system into a parliamentary majority. Unfortunately, Quebec’s “first-past-the-post” system is not a fair system as you have pointed out.

Part of the struggle by students and their supporters should be:

1. A demand for a fairer electoral system, namely preferential voting[1]; and

2. Rejection of unfair parliamentary majorities resulting from
“first-past-the-post”.

More effective use of the Internet with bi-lingual web-sites and open discussion could help overcome the bias of the news media against students and their supporters.

Footnote(s)

[1] It is known here in Australia as “preferential voting”. In the U.S it is known as or “instant-runoff” voting. By the way, “instant-runoff” would have prevented George Bush’s election in 2000

admin

Mon, 2012-06-11 21:27

This question below was posted to ABC Television's Q and A website to be put to Prime Minister Julia Gillard tonight.

The ruling Liberal party of Quebec, which is attempting to impose University fees against popular protests, only received 33% of the vote in the 2008 provincial elections five years ago. It was only able to hold onto power because of the undemocratic first-past-the-post system.

Assad got a much higher vote in elections that were held in Syria this year in spite of Syrians being threatened with death by insurgents if they voted.

Why won't your government impose sanctions against Quebec?

Gennie-Anne Woodall (not verified)

Mon, 2012-06-11 14:36

We operate a professional goat mustering business that provides a contracted professional service to some NSW National Parks mentioned on the list of National Parks and Reserve areas Barry O'Farrell has decided to open up to Sporting Shooters. This decision is bad at every level. How is this decision going to benefit NPWS? Answer it is not! No matter what spin can be written or said. There is no way volunteer hunters can be policed and there is no way they should be trusted. Each Park and Reserve area covers hundreds of acres and when no one is watching people with guns and pig dogs can do what they like. What will happen if someone gets shot? What is going to happen when we are conducting mustering activities and come across a shooter that does not see us, or we don't see them? Is Barry O'Farrell going to be responsible for closing existing control measures that actually work to focus on keeping the Shooters Party happy? If so he must understand this decision is going to effect jobs - ours, truck drivers, meat processors, park staff, yards men.... We pay a royalty to the OEH from our Goat Sales and this should be used to aid our consulted feral goat management program. We make money for Parks - How are the volunteer shooters going to do this? Answer they won't - they will only cost, cost, cost! and with no real positive results. Leave the Feral Animal Control to the Professionals.

Can Barry O'Farrell or the Shooters Party exclude shooting goats as they are a valuable commodity? - in fact they are the most consumed meat in the world and Australia exports most of what it produces. Our business supplies goats for this export market and the cost of this ill considered decision is going to traumatise and damage an industry that works to provide food for the world and turn a pest animal into a viable commodity. Goats have provided a valuable income for people in the Western Districts keeping some pastoralists afloat during the drought. Feral Goats should not be allowed to be shot by volunteer shooters and should be excluded for this reason. We already have goats controlled in the parks which we operate on and don't need way ward hunters coming along and stirring everything up. All they will do is cause the goats to move to another area and return when they are gone. Not helping the cause at all. Goats are very smart animals and I don't agree that this decision will have any real measured benefits.

Hunters are going to create a lot of extra work both in the field and in the office. Park Staff do not need this extra work. Is there a budget for this to work appropriately? If so I feel this money could be better spent on aiding our existing program - provided experts like us are consulted to help direct funds to be used appropriately. Allowing Recreational Shooters to come onto NP and Reserve areas is going against the reasons why we have them - to protect native species. Can someone out there help us? Can we get this ill considered idea and political back flip stopped? Please help to stop this!

Gennie-Anne Woodall
Director
Simwood Holdings Pty Ltd
Bollon QLD

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2012-06-11 08:38

I heard from a builder that the best fire-proof building material is adobe bricks. However, it's too easy to make and not profit-making enough, so this material is not being promoted as it should. Can anyone confirm this?

quark

Sun, 2012-06-10 17:58

If you are destroying something and do not do it completely, maybe it creates greater cognitive dissonance than does totally annihilating it. On the way to the local park I used to pass 2 of the most beautiful Grevillea Robin Gordon native flowering trees which were always well attended by nectar gathering wattle birds. I always admired them on my way past until one day I found that they had gone. I was devastated! How could anyone do this? The small trees were on either side of someone's front gate on the outside of the fence - but most probably belonging to that property. Eventually an array of purple daisies, of no interest to wattle birds took their place. I used to enjoy walking along a mysterious bushy track on the Melbourne suburban foreshore. On my last walk I noticed that something was alarmingly wrong. It had all been clipped and cleared. What had been a winding tunnel of bushes with intermittent glimpses of the sea was now a wide clear straight path. Once again I was devastated! My access to nature and escape from the grinding, throbbing ballooning city had been further reduced. I contacted the council to let them know of my anguish and was told by the relevant officer that for every complaint like mine , the council received 10 asking for the path to be cleared. It is most likely that the people who asked for the path to be cleared are the same people who want the foreshore vegetation removed and replaced by lawn so that their houses opposite are afforded "uninterrupted" sea views. A great way to advertise a house for sale! Even though I did not know your pond, Tim, I feel sad that is has gone. If it were the only pond to disappear maybe we could live with that , but it is part of a terrible process, unfortunately.

Chris (not verified)

Sun, 2012-06-10 14:20

I don't agree with the "mortar exploding" argument. As a son of a brick layer I know a brick wall can sustain very high temperatures. A brick fire place for instance sustains very high temperatures for hours let alone the 15 to 30 minutes of the initial passing of the fire front. Most destroyed brick houses are caused by the fire burning the internal structure of the house first. In a bush fire this is caused by embers gaining access. I do agree with Peter with building materials, the house only needs to resist the extreme heat for no longer than 30 minutes.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-09 18:24

According to Wikipedia, Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable Fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange." "Xenophobia can manifest itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an ingroup towards an outgroup, including a fear of losing identity, suspicion of its activities, aggression, and desire to eliminate its presence to secure a presumed purity". It's actually a rational fear when it comes to Australia losing control of our territories, our food security, and our sovereignty. Our government has a rubbery, loose and permeable concept of Australia as a nation. With more than one in four of it's about 856 million people undernourished, Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most food insecure region in the world today, this is according to a report launched on 15th of May 2012 by the United Nations Development fund UNDP. "The greatest threat to food security is climate change," the Asian Development Bank said in a 45-page report, ‘Food Security and Poverty in Asia and the Pacific: Key Challenges and Policy Issues’, released late last month. The report’s findings ring especially true in Sri Lanka, where experts are increasingly expressing concerns about the twin crises of food security and global warming. With more than one in four of it's about 856 million people undernourished, Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most food insecure region in the world today, this is according to a report launched on 15th of May 2012 by the United Nations Development fund UNDP. Around 1800, demographer Thomas Robert Malthus warned that food supplies wouldn’t be able to keep pace with growing numbers of people. And he predicted that at a certain threshold—which he set at ONE billion—there would be massive disease outbreaks, famine, and a crash in human numbers. Jonathan Foley, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. “Humans aren’t exempt from Malthus’s observations. We just postponed it again and again and again through innovation.” Foley says the industrial revolution, the green revolution and other new technologies boosted agricultural productivity far beyond what Malthus predicted. “But at the end of the day, Malthus’s ghost is still lurking above us,” he adds. Wilderness Society northern Australia campaigner Gavan McFadzean said northern Australia could not hold the large-scale agriculture that would transform it into a "food bowl" for China. "Australia now feeds 60 million people, so whatever way you cut it that insignificant increase in farmland still leaves a hell of a lot of China's more than 1 billion people with little in their food bowl," he said. Australia has ancient, poor quality and infertile soils. Do the Chinese think they can simply add water? What will they use for fertilizers? However, while we have farmers warning us not to be complacent about Australia's food security, and the real threats to our food bowls, any foreign land grab must be questioned, and feared. There's no point to even massive economic growth and a big GDP if it means we must rely on imported food, and our sovereignty and identity as a nation is weakened. The economy is suppose to provide food, shelter and all the goods and services as our servant, not master over us and justify losing valuable land for overseas buyers, to our detriment. Dr Mary White, scientist, in her address to the Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population (now SPA) on 3/3/95, stated: * Whole civilizations (in the Mediterranean region and the Aztecs for instance) disappeared when their soils became saline. * A great deal of Australia's soil had blown or washed away. * We are running out of the means to grow food. Soil is a finite resource. * It is possible that in 50 years, the Murray Basin, Australia's main breadbasket, will be a salt desert. We are already too numerous for our country to support indefinitely. Only 6% of the Australian continent is arable. Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world. In this sense we are only a small country. There's a suspicious undercurrent for the reasons for these foreign land grabs, and the free-trade with Australia has become actually about consuming Australia!

sickened (not verified)

Sat, 2012-06-09 17:27

"How many criminals start their careers torturing animals? Acts of violence towards animals are symptomatic of a deep mental disturbance. Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals don’t stop there—many of them move on to their fellow humans. There are numerous examples of such evidence from the childhoods of well-known serial killers." That is exactly right. This week a Professor of Criminology at Simon Fraser University (near Vancouver) was asked about the news that a man arrested for murdering a student and mailing his body parts to various Canadian locations was found to have tortured cats in his youth. He responded that a great many convicted sociopaths were found to have tortured animals in their youth. Cruelty to animals is not only despicable, but a harbinger of what may later be the fate of human victims that such sadists will choose. It is interesting that typically such people are said to have behaved like "animals", but the truth is, such conduct seems to be the exclusive trademark of human animals. How many wild creatures inflict pain for the mere pleasure of it? Tim

nimby

Sat, 2012-06-09 09:36

Australia may have the lowest density of population with regard to the size of our land, but it's dangerously deceptive to base food security on this. A large proportion of Australia is desert or bushy scrub, but with infertile ancient soils, very hot and irregular water supplies. We only have a little over 6% arable land, and these areas are desirable real estate locations. If food security hasn't been a priority over the last 200 years, it's because we had a small population and thus cheap food. Global and Australian populations are growth, and we should be wary of foreign investment or "land grabs". "Put the walls up... back to the 1950s that's what you get with Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott," Dr Emerson told the ABC. Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce has raised questions about whether Dr Emerson is favouring a Chinese bid to take over the Ord River irrigation scheme in the West Australian Kimberley region because his former boss Bob Hawke is reportedly representing Chinese firm Shanghai Zhongfu. Foreign powerful nations, all roaming the planet to secure their own food and energy supplies, will prey on corrupt nations or those with loose borders and those with flexible "free trade" open policies like in Australia. Is it "white guilt" that is making some of our politicians feel that we have an obligation to "help" other countries ensure their food security - even to our own detriment? The Nationals Senator, Barnaby Joyce, who has pushed for tougher restrictions on foreign ownership of land - a move seen as breaking ranks with the Liberals - said it was a worry for urban as well as regional Australians. Regional Development Minister Simon Crean said Australia was open to foreign investors and could be a "big contributor to the world's food security". However, we could contribute to world food supplies without actually selling the land! On the contrary, it's hardly a retrograde step to focus on food security, and it is not simply a political issue. It's vital to our future, and owning our land - the driest continent on the planet- is essential. Selling off land to foreign investors is like selling the family farm to cover cash-flow shortages but losing the main capital asset - the land! Rather than the 1950s being a step "back", we were actually prosperous then. After decades of suffering through the Great Depression and World War II, the 1950s were vibrant years for Australians. Employment was high, housing and food were cheap, and people were encouraged to spend their money freely. We had a strong identity as a growing nation. Senator Barnaby Joyce is right. Securing our land for the future, and ensuring it stays in Australian hands so we have control of our food chains, is not "xenophobia" but simple, and plain, common-sense. A better future for Australian agriculture would be to sell produce to a growing world population, not sell off our farms, factories, water and ports to foreign interests.

lkanga (not verified)

Fri, 2012-06-08 16:46

It appears that the disgusting and cruel treatment of Kangaroos is not considered serious by Judges and Magistrates, let alone Politicians. What is wrong with the Justice system, Nigel Franks is a disgrace showing no remorse for his shocking crime and is set free to continue killing and maiming Wildlife with a pitiful penalty.

nimby

Thu, 2012-06-07 11:34

Dear Minister Tony Burke I am concerned that VicForests sent bulldozers in to Mt St Leonard last week, one of the most controversial logging locations of recent years. Local business operator Toby Eccles said. “These forests in Toolangi were untouched by the terrible fire in 2009, and they are now a sanctuary for endangered wildlife. It is abominable that the Baillieu government is now choosing to destroy them.." These forests remain an island in a sea of burned forests and provide a safeguard for Victoria’s wildlife. Fifty per cent of the habitat of Victoria’s faunal emblem, the Leadbeater’s Possum, was burned in the fire and it is now estimated only a few hundred possums remain in the wild. Why is this allowed to go ahead, and logging exempted from any policies to protect endangered species - when it's what is actually threatening them? VicForests’ should pull out of native forests and to move the logging and woodchipping into plantations. Why isn't Premier Baillieu accountable to public pressure and legislation to protect even Victoria's fauna emblem, the Leadbeater's Possum? Just how valuable short-term benefits - jobs and profits from woodchips - have become? The will deprive our environment, local communities, and future generations of the beauty of this area of old growth forests and the native species that we thought were once already extinct. If our Leadbeater's Possums are gone, forever, just how is this logging "sustainable" -as VicForests spin claims? According to a study by the ANU the forests of the central highlands have the world's highest known total biomass carbon density of 1,867 tonnes carbon per ha. Since the Black Saturday fires only 1% of remnant old-growth forest remains in Victoria. Tall eucalypt old growth forest is less fire prone than young regenerating stands. A combination of declining rainfall and extensive areas of regrowth in the central highlands of Victoria means that there is a risk of fundamental landscape change in this region whereby an increased fire frequency will favour faster maturing eucalypts and acacias to the detriment of Eucalyptus regnans and other mesic forest species (Lindenmayer et al., 2011). His research cannot be ignored or dismissed. His recent paper describes how the value of remaining unburned forests after the 2009 fires has increased substantially for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Large areas of unburnt forests need to be retained. Jobs and economic benefits in a free market economy cannot always justify environmental destruction. VicForests (ie State government) is to trying to say - "how dare environmentalists object and take us to court..." So they more aggressively are determined to get rid of the little critters, Leadbeater's Possums, once and for all to teach the public a lesson. No more old-growth forests, no endangered species, no State emblem, so problem solved! Please do something to stop VicForests log Mt St Leonards, and ask Premier Baillieu to respect the local community, and Victorians, our natural treasures of wildlife and iconic old growth forests.

admin

Wed, 2012-06-06 02:13

When I read Arjay's earlier post on Online Opinion, reprinted below, I responded with this post.

Having just read Arjay's insightful comment at the start of the discussion, it seems possible that Rupert may have found his conscience again after all these years.

So, the overlooking of Rupert Murdoch's earlier crimes against democracy in Australia, the US, the UK and elsewhere, and, instead, focusing on relatively trivial and more recent actions by employees of the Murdoch Press by the Leveson Inquiry may have been no accident.

In truth, as Canadian journalist Barrie Zwicker pointed out in "Towers of Deception" of 2007, more harm has been done in recent years to democracy and world peace by phony socialist groups and phony alternative news media than by pro-war corporate newsmedia (wherever the truth about the Murdoch media may lie).

The reason they do more harm is that they are trusted more by knowledgeable people. When lies used to justify war, such as the Official 9/11 conspiracy theory are peddled on their pages, informed and humane people are more likely to believe them.

An example is the ostensibly socialist UK group, Workers' Liberty which supported NATO's illegal war against Libya last year, in which more than 50,000 Libyans died and which is now supporting NATO's attempt to destabilise Syria with terrorist mass killers. See for yourself at http://workerslibety.org/world/syria and http://workersliberty.org/world/libya.

Those interested in knowing the truth about Libya and Syria should compare the lies linked to above with sites like http://globalresearch.ca and http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com

Arjay's Post on Online Opinion

I don't think that the Murdoch phone tapping is all that cut and dry. It was common knowledge that much of press media was involved in phone tapping,so why was Murdoch attacked so?

Fox News was the only mainstream media to host Judge Napolitano and "Freedom Watch". Fox was the only media outlet that put on ads by http://www.ae911truth.org asking for a proper investigation into 911.

Just recently the Napolitano show "Freedom Watch" was ended.I think Murdoch was trying to break from the insanity of this New World Order and he was being made an example of what happens to those who break ranks.

The elites are fighting amongst themselves as their plans for Global dominance are in disarray.

admin

Wed, 2012-06-06 00:30

This was posted to an Online Opinion forum in response to an article of 5 June by John Pilger, The Leveson Inquiry: what a lovely game.

It seems as if Rupert Murdoch's earlier crimes against democracy have been largely overlooked. They include his turning on the Labor Government of Gough Whitlam in 1974. Until then, many, including myself, considered the Murdoch press, particularly The Australian newspaper, to be a source of truth and enlightenment.

Suddenly in 1974 -- and I don't recall whether it was before or after the mid-term federal elections -- the Murdoch Press began carrying headline stories which blew up every minor indiscretion of members of the Labor government -- The Jim Cairns/Juni Morosi affair, Rex Connor's ill-advised attempt to raise money through Khemlani for the laudable goal of buying back Australian mineral wealth, etc.

The end result was the CIA engineered dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975, and his defeat in the subsequent election campaign, largely rigged by Murdoch Press disinformation. Since then, a series of Governments, led by people more beholden to vested foreign interests than to Australia, have been elected and entrenched in office with help of the Murdoch press. These include Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard.

admin

Tue, 2012-06-05 20:54

Also on Info Wars, YouTube.

From Info Wars of 21 May:

Infowars’ Paul Joseph Watson is joined by Syrian Girl, an outspoken activist against NATO’s campaign to use Al-Qaeda terrorists as a means of destabilizing the Assad regime. In this interview, Syrian Girl reveals the true intentions behind NATO’s agenda in Syria as well as discussing other topics such as the charge that she is a pro-Assad mouthpiece, women in the truth movement, the Arab Spring and more.

See also: www.youtube.com/SyrianGirlPartisan linked to from Young Syrian patriot fights corporate media lies against her homeland of 10 May and other articles about Syria.

Bandicoot

Mon, 2012-06-04 13:37

Tuesday, 5th of June is World Environment Day and the Save Mount St Leonard Community Campaign has agreed to take the message into the city by joining The Wilderness Society's Action in Melbourne's CBD. The idea is to have enough people to link hands all the way around a city block - the equivalent of 10 Blocks are logged every day in Victoria. The Save Mount St Leonard contingent have decided towear something green. You may also wish to carry or wear a eucalyptus leaf and bring a banner or poster. We shall all meet at 1:00pm at the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Streets. For those travelling in from Lilydale, trains leave at 11:09 (arriving Flinders Street at 12:06) and 11:39 (arriving 12:37). Weekly Times - protesters blockade Mt St Leonard RESIDENTS and environmentalists blockaded the Baillieu government's logging of Mt St Leonard in the Yarra Valley this morning. VicForests sent bulldozers in to Mt St Leonard last week, one of the most controversial logging locations of recent years. Logging on the side of Mt St Leonard can be viewed from Kinglake and has residents who survived the 2009 fires fuming. “Premier Baillieu will have to personally come out here and remove us from this site,” local business operator Toby Eccles said. “These forests in Toolangi were untouched by the terrible fire in 2009, and they are now a sanctuary for endangered wildlife. It is abominable that the Baillieu government is now choosing to destroy them.” The forests of Toolangi, including Mt St Leonard, were completely surrounded by the 2009 Black Saturday fires, but were spared the blaze. These forests remain an island in a sea of burned forests and provide a safeguard for Victoria’s wildlife. Fifty per cent of the habitat of Victoria’s faunal emblem, the Leadbeater’s Possum, was burned in the fire and it is now estimated only a few hundred possums remain in the wild. Residents are angry that the logging is reopening scars that are only beginning to heal from the 2009 fires. “The logging of Mt St Leonard is not just scarring the landscape, it is psychologically scarring the community,” said Deanne Bail, local resident and tourism operator. Local tourism operators condemn the logging as it is undermining the future of the region. “The future of this community is dependent on these forests being protected, not destroyed by logging,” local touist operator Chris Veenhuizen said. “The logging is making visitors to the areas, including guests of local accommodation, feel uneasy and uncomfortable about exploring the forests and going bushwalking along the National Trail. The logging is ruining the goodwill of our businesses.” Local residents are calling on Premier Baillieu to pull VicForests’ out of native forests and to move the logging and woodchipping into plantations.

nimby

Mon, 2012-06-04 08:58

The recreational shooting of native waterbirds was banned in NSW by Labor Premier Bob Carr in 1995. But there is disturbing news coming from NSW. The Game Council and Shooters Party of NSW are pushing for a return of a new model of duck and quail shooting - even though the Liberal O'Farrell Government had originally opposed any return of a duck shooting season. In order to push legislation through to privatise electricity companies, O'Farrell's government needed the Shooters' Party votes in the Upper House. In exchange the Shooters' Party want a return of duck shooting seasons and to be able to shoot introduced species in National Parks. This poses an enormous problem for tourists and any members of the public wanting to use National Parks. (In late 2010 a school teacher was shot and killed in a Conservation Park in New Zealand, while cleaning her teeth. The shooter claimed he mistook her for a deer. In Victoria some years ago another deer shooter shot a youth who was walking his dog - a similar mistake). Of course once allowed into National Parks shooters will also be shooting native wildlife. Please take five minutes to write a letter to the editor, expressing your strong opposition to hunting in national parks. Key points to consider including in your letter: - I am dismayed that the Premier has broken his promise on hunting in national parks. - I am strongly opposed to hunting in national parks, nature reserves and state conservation areas. - Hunting by recreational shooters in national parks presents very real risks to public safety, and is not a proven method for eradicating feral animals. The Premier must take urgent action to restore his government's credibility on environmental matters. Please follow up your letter with an email or letter to the Premier's office: Premier Barry O'Farrell, GPO Box 5341 , Sydney NSW 2001 Email: [email protected]

Animal Lib ACT (not verified)

Mon, 2012-06-04 08:56

Animal Liberation ACT _______________________________________________________ Please see Animal Liberation ACT’s latest media release regarding a shot kangaroo found after shooting occurred on Friday morning. See photo attached and please share to your networks. Shot Kangaroo found after Cull on Nature Reserve Activists witnessed another night of the kangaroo cull at several Nature Reserves in the early hours of the morning on Friday 1 June 2012. One of the areas where activists reported shooting was Kama Nature Reserve, near Hawker. Shortly after the shooting had ceased on Kama Nature Reserve, the activists came across a kangaroo body left behind in the Reserve. The kangaroo had only recently died from a very fresh shot wound in the head (see photo attached). Given that the Government’s contractors had been shooting in the same Nature Reserve that very night, it is difficult not to conclude that the animal had been shot as part of the Government’s cull and left behind to die a slow and painful death. This directly contradicts statements from the Government that each animal shot is accounted for and taken away. Daniel Iglesias, Territory and Municipal Services Parks and Conservation Director, recently stated that shot kangaroos are immediately removed from the area by the contractors. He also stated that they follow “a very, very scripted process whereby when the animal is shot, it's identified, it's retrieved and it's disposed of and we account for every single one, to the point where at the end of the night, there is not one animal left behind.”[1] Yet according to Animal Liberation ACT spokesperson Carolyn Drew, “Shooting was heard by activists early in the morning on 1 June near where the kangaroo was found. Several ranger trucks were surrounding the area and police were about. This kangaroo is believed to be connected to the cull because he was found at the very nature reserve they were shooting at, which activists later entered. Unless a member of the public entered the nature reserve and shot a kangaroo at the same time the cull was taking place, then this kangaroo is likely to be connected to the so called “humane” government sanctioned cull currently taking place”. Animal Liberation ACT opposes the ongoing government sanctioned culls. Ms Drew emphasised that “kangaroos are shot at night and far from any welfare inspectors. Shots often do not hit their lawful target, which is the animal’s brain, and young kangaroos die slowly of exposure and starvation without their mothers. Also, joeys are taken from their shot mothers’ pouches and then killed by decapitation. The ACT Government has given no compelling reason or evidence as to why the slaughter needs to continue”. _______________________________________________________ Canberra Frontline Action Animal Liberation ACT would like to thank local and interstate activists for helping with the kangaroo kill campaign this year. The combination of activists have put in a 24 hour patrol of every nature park on the ACT’s kill list and is ready to act at the first sight of shooting. Thanks to Australian Society for Kangaroos, Wildlife Rescuers Victoria, WRES, and many other activists from the ACT, NSW and SA. Because of this support we have been able to stop and interrupt the kangaroo kill for several nights. A 24 hour patrol of every nature park on the ACT's kill list and is ready to act at the first sigh of shooting. This team is made up of ASK, Animal Liberation ACT, Wildlife Rescuers Victoria, WRES, and many other very dedicated front line activists from the ACT NSW and South Australia.If you would like to help in some way with this please contact Lara on 0402 599 293 or [email protected] _______________________________________________________ Lodge your Protest Remember to lodge your protest against the ACT Government’s ongoing destruction of kangaroos and joeys. Politicians may not always read letters but they do count them. Please write to Katy Gallagher. ACT Chief Minister- Katy Gallagher Phone :(02) 6205 0840 Email: [email protected]

NIMBY (not verified)

Mon, 2012-06-04 08:41

The "human like" size and qualities of fully grown male Eastern Grey kangaroos maybe part of their downfall. They are seen as a threat to the "managers" of the Nature parks, and to residents who are encroaching onto their habitats.

Population growth has placed on Australian capital cities increasingly unmanageable stress. Investment in physical infrastructure, such as transport, water, gas and electricity networks, has not kept pace with population increases.
Canberra's burgeoning population growth, due to politically-engineered policies, means housing is spreading out to grasslands of native species. Without wildlife corridors, there are road accidents and collisions, and kangaroos are being blamed.

The United Nations estimates the planet's agricultural output will need to increase by 70 per cent by 2050 in order to feed the world's population. With food security stresses, kangaroos are seen as eating grass, on land that could be feeding livestock, providing food for people!

The limited "nature" parks for endangered species means kangaroos must be the scapegoats for the threats to long-term survival, not developers or the human population.

The competition for natural resources is heating up, and thus kangaroos - who live gently and in harmony with their grasslands and bushlands - are easy targets for reprisals. They are too "Australian", while our population continues to be "diverse". They are a afront to modern values of Australia as a globalized economy, a "big Australia" and an overpopulated planet.

Humble, gentle creatures make easy scapegoats, easy targets for human violence and an outlet to justify Government departments environmental "management".

The animals on our Coat of Arms are being massacred, ironically, in our "bush" Capital Canberra. It's a destruction of our national symbol and these photos should be front-page pictures in the international media. With live exports, Australia is not the "clever" country any more but more and more famous for extinctions and cruelty.

admin

Mon, 2012-06-04 00:22

Western Australian Community Independent, Mark M Aldridge has recently posted a page on his web-site, www.markmaldridge.com, Australia -- Not For Sale on that page is a link to a petition opposed to the sellout of Australian rural land. Please sign.

The article begins:

The world’s population set to hit 7 billion later this year?and predicted to hit 10 billion by the end of the century, food production and?top quality agricultural land has never been a more valuable asset for any countries long term future.

From many different countries in particular those with limited ability to feed their population, government-backed companies have begun buying up farmland around the world, with Australia’s vast tracts of top quality primary production land a prime target. Qatar-based “Hassad Foods” has been a major player in the big local farmland buy-up, the company has invested more than $60 million in prime Australian sheep grazing land in the past year, with more properties in the company’s sights.

The Weekly Times reported Hassad were poised to snap up a further 8500 hectares of land in Victoria’s western district in a deal worth $35 million?—?about 20% above market price.

China state-owned conglomerate “Bright Foods” has also been desperately looking to acquire local agribusinesses because of the federal governments ideals making it easy for overseas investors. The Shanghai-controlled company have reported to be interested in Foster’s wine division, while last year they made a failed $1.7 billion tilt for sugar producer CSR. The company has also managed to get the backing of the NSW government to explore local wine, diary and sugar investment opportunities.

In the south-east of Australia, Brazilian beef giant JBS has been busy buying up abattoirs and meatworks, while Singapore-based “Olam International” now control almost 45% of Australian almonds,?thanks to its purchase of “Timbercorp” and its 8096-hectare plant. Ausbuy CEO Lynne Wilkinson made it clear the issue of food security is paramount to the rest of the world and should also be just as important to Australia.

Lynne also went on to say there have been many recent instances, including the sale of over 100,000 hectares of farmland in Western Australia to the Arab States, which show the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the ACCC are not looking after Australia’s long term security interests....

Mark is also a wildlife carer. The facebook Page for his Willow Bank Wildlife sanctuary is here.

admin

Sun, 2012-06-03 23:12

From Russia Today of 2 June

Thousands of Canadians marched in Montreal despite rainy weather. The peaceful protest against tuition hikes kicked off in the province of Quebec after talks between students and the local government failed. ...

­Up to 7,000 students, their parents and supporters were marching by mid-afternoon on Saturday according to CLASSE – the largest and most militant of the student groups behind the protests. Some wore costumes and played music.

admin

Sun, 2012-06-03 19:18

Pro-NATO intervention SNC head in attendance at elite confab

From Global Research:

The presence of Syrian National Transitional Council head Bassma Kodmani at the 2012 Bilderberg conference clearly indicates that power brokers at the elite confab will be discussing the effort to topple President Bashar Al-Assad and install a NATO-friendly administration in the violence-stricken country.

Kodmani is the Head of Foreign Affairs with the SNC, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups based in Istanbul, Turkey. While at the Bilderberg meeting she will be in the company of the likes of former Secretary of State and accused war criminal Henry Kissinger, warhawk Richard Perle, and Thomas E. Donilon, National Security Advisor for the Obama White House.

Having overseen numerous wars during his tenure in the White House, Kissinger is a staunch advocate of so-called “humanitarian” interventions. Before last year’s toppling of Colonel Gaddafi, he advocated a U.S. ground invasion of Libya.

During last year’s Bilderberg conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland, members discussed expanding the war in Libya. Four months later, Gaddafi was killed and the country was under the control of NATO-backed rebels and the National Transitional Council of Libya. ...

Geoffrey Taylor

Sun, 2012-06-03 16:26

Thanks for that.

This further enhances the admiration I have long had for both Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK) and his elder brother. They were both truly selfless, courageous and intelligent individuals. Both had the moral fortitude that drove them to turn on even those that less honourable politicians in their shoes would have felt indebted to, namely the gangsters that had helped get John F Kennedy elected in 1960. There had to have been ballot rigging on Nixon's side as well as JFK's in the 1960 presidential ballot, Otherwise, why didn't Nixon take his complaints further? On JFK's side it was organised on his behalf by his father, whilst he kept arm's length from it. Without that, he would have lost instead of winning narrowly.

Robert Kennedy and his brother could have chosen to feel indebted to those gangsters. Instead Robert, as Attorney General, launched the most effective campaign of prosecutions against criminals in the history of the US. It was as if JFK and RFK particularly felt the necessity to demonstrate that they would not be beholden to the corrupt influence of anybody.

However, I have one small concern about Robert Kennedy. In one sense of which I am aware, he did not provide a good example to the world. He had 11 children, which hardly sets a good example to a world with a population increasing as rapidly as it was in the 1960's. Still, I think given what he, Robert and Edward achieved (and what JFK junior might have achieved had he not been killed in that air crash of 1999), a few more Kennedys in the world today would easily do far more good than any harm caused by their increased ecological footprint.

PostGrowthEra (not verified)

Sun, 2012-06-03 15:41

It's time to end the Ponzi-economic growth scheme. Our planet is under stress from declines, destruction, species losses and overpopulation. In the 19th century, John Stuart Mill wrote ‘Of the Stationary State’ of a post-growth economy. Thomas Malthus was writing on the relationship between exponential population growth and food supply in the 17th and 18th century. The present "food security" issues are all revealing the truth of Malthus' predictions. Post growth thinking was even around as far back as Aristotle’s time.

On 18 March 1968, RFK directly challenged growth and the use of GDP as a barometer of success for nations in his University of Kansas speech.

“Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

A free-market growth economy has no parameters for the natural environment, ecological soundness, the wealth and well-being of individuals, of intrinsic values, of non-human species with no commercial value, or future generations. It's about profits, cash-flows, one global planet or market territory and devalues anything that makes our lives worthwhile.

Post Growth - the end of bigger, the start of better

admin

Sun, 2012-06-03 14:48

Also embedded on SydWalker.info

The above Youtube video, adapted from an Al-Jazeera broadcast, which attempted to blame the Assad goverment for the Houla massacre, reveals the claims made on that broadcast to be lies. As examples:

1. Why are there no bodies of the children's parents lying amongst the dead children?

2. Why, if the homes were shelled by Syrian government artillery and tanks, is there no dust or other debris over the dead children?

Sheila Newman

Sun, 2012-06-03 14:21

That's Campbell Newman you're talking about, of course, not Sheila Newman. I seem to be the only good Newman around in land-use planning in this country. If there are any other Newmans who are counter-growth lobbyists, we should have a reunion and form a solidarity. Sheila Newman, population sociologist home page

admin

Sun, 2012-06-03 13:27

This was from Valerie Yule:

Petition to spellcheckers, press and public – a trial of help to readers and spellers

Sign the Petition if u agree with it! Tell your friends. It's at www.change.org/petitions/spellcheckers-the-press-the-public-trial-cutting-out-useless-letters-from-words

Look up my web pages home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/spelling.htm Spelling and how it could be changed. home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/spellresearch.htm.

We hav been doing this for many words - like oeconomy to economy, and daemon to demon - but spellcheckers ar stopping progress. Why not gardian, garantee, and probabl, for exampl home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/intspel.htm?

And for fun - download as a pdf the Book of Spells & Misspells - home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/spmisspells.htm.

And 2011, Yule, Valerie 'Recent developments which affect spelling. On the possibility of removing the unnecessary difficulties in English spelling, while leaving the basic appearance of English print intact.' English Today, 107, vol 27, No 3. Sept 2011, pp 62-67 journals.cambridge.org/repo_A839oLF6.

Val Yule

Dr Valerie Yule, M.A., Ph.D, Dip.Ed., M.B.Ps.S. Academic positions at Melbourne, Monash and Aberdeen Universities in departments of Psychology and Education; Teacher at all levels, from preschool to adult and migrant literacy and PhD supervision; Clinical child psychologist at the Royal Children’s Hospitals, Melbourne and Aberdeen; Schools psychologist chiefly but not only in disadvantaged schools, Present research on imagination and literacy.

Bandicoot

Sun, 2012-06-03 11:22

The UN warns that if action is not taken to protect the Great Barrier Reef its World Heritage status could be threatened. The UN's environment organisation, UNESCO, released a report yesterday that said further development of the reef could threaten its World Heritage status. THE Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, will not stop development in and around the Great Barrier Reef. Mr Newman said: ''We are not going to see the economic future of Queensland shut down.'' Obviously, the "economic future" of Queensland is not built on principles of sustainability. A growth-based free market economy has no respect for environmental natural treasures, or World Heritage listings. Modern humans have been on the planet for 200,000 years, but present politicians, governments and economists are ensuring that they won't be around for the next 200,000 years, at the rate of economic and population growth of this generation! Halting port and infrastructure development connected to the coal and liquified natural gas industry " is not an option". His contribution to Australia's economy will be at great expense, and the inevitable destruction should be included on his tombstone as his "patriotic" contribution to Australia. He will be party to humans wrecking their own nests. A destructive "free range" economy has no respect for Nature, of the natural jewels inherited by our for fathers and the indigenous peoples of Australia. "We are in the coal business. If you want decent hospitals, schools and police on the beat we all need to understand that." he says. It's past the era of growth, and now time for refinement and improvements. Dead turtles, diseased fish and sediment loads that trigger the cessation of dredging surely are matters of concern from coal mining. Development in Gladstone Harbour is to enable liquefaction of CSG and the transfer of LNG to large vessels, whose access to the LNG plants requires a large dredging program that will continue until 2015, with maintenance dredging thereafter. An economy based on perpetual economic growth means that "red tape", how environmental protection is threatening "developments", will ultimately consume and destroy even iconic world heritage marine treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef. At what cost? Sign the petition for Greenpeace

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