Comments

Coal Portal (not verified)

Fri, 2011-09-16 04:58

The use of renewables for generating power is to be congratulated. The latest coal market news is that emerging countries are predicting to use large amounts of thermal coal for power generation and metallurgical coal for steel production. Cherry of www.coalportal.com

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2011-09-15 21:38

It seems to me that in Australia at least that we were at some sort of pinnacle of societal equality in the 1950s and 60s when Barry Humphries started rubbishing us with his insular characters, Sandy Stone, and Edna Everidge. Our problem in Australia to him, it seemed was that we didn’t have enough problems! Barry doesn’t rubbish contemporary Australia very much now- perhaps because we are on the downward slide? I think Barry is a bookmark- of our reasonably equal, comfortable but not extravagant, minimal conflict suburbia of the past.

quark

Thu, 2011-09-15 19:37

It is not surprising to see Australia named as one of the countries with poorer wealth distribution as equality seems to be steadily diminishing in Australia. The Australian humorist Barry Humphries satirized the complacency of Melbourne’s suburbs at a time when differences between the classes were more likely to be a matter of aesthetic taste and suburb status than substantial contrasts in degree of comfort or well being. In the 1960s it was very commonplace but not particularly chic to own a contemporary triple fronted cream brick veneer villa on a 1/4 acre block. Now those blocks in ordinary suburbs are disappearing under more intensive development whilst in many of the wealthy suburbs owners create the opposite effect by buying the house next door and demolishing it for greater amenity such as a swimming pool or tennis court! Humphries’ sketches of the 60s derived their humour from ordinary people's lack of angst,utter complacency and the luxury of being able to focus on the minutiae of life within one’s own street. With intense pressure for never ending development, Melbourne’s suburbs are no longer relaxed.Residents now spend their leisure at meetings and protests about their diminishing quality of life. The life that amused Barry Humphries and the people of Melbourne as they saw themselves reflected in Barry’s work has disappeared. The “official message” that the poor of the developed world should put the needs of the poor of the undeveloped world ahead of theirs rather than exert their own rights locally corresponds with the constant attacks on anyone trying to preserve their own local environment in the face of development. Attempts to do this are derided as Not In MY Back Yard (NIMBY). In fact recently a developer lobby group in Melbourne called on the State government to include Anti -NIMBY provision in new planning laws to restrict councils' and residents' rights to block developments. The official message that I receive loud and clear about this is that caring about things close by that directly affect you is not altruistic or perceived as for the greater good, but turning your attention away from anything tangible and local to something with more general benefits as solar panels (while your sun is blocked out by a multi- storey development next door) or saving water (while the number of water consumers are increased by government engineered population growth) are above reproach .

quark

Thu, 2011-09-15 15:19

I think the only way a normally intelligent , reasonably sensitive human can come to terms with or disregard the damage from converting life and diversity into relative monotony and death, beautiful though this creation may be, is to see nature as vast, almost infinite beyond the creation of the dead zone. To distort in our minds the scale of what we do in comparison with what is available to us to convert is a way of avoiding cognitive dissonance or discomfort from our actions. By the way this is a beautifully written article and in some way reminds me of the writing of Jean Paul Sartre. Sartre however lived at a time when he could be more self indulgent than can a writer on current issues.

eco engine (not verified)

Thu, 2011-09-15 12:58

Wow - what great news and such as discovery under our noses in Victoria? What we are trying to stem the tide of disappearing native species, such a find is rare and worthy news. We don't have to travel outside our solar system to find intelligent life forms when we have them in our bays. At least some larger species surviving is evidence that our oceans are still viable and sufficiently healthy to allow these top predators to survive. Being in the oceans maybe makes them safer from human onslaught then terrestrial native animals, unless we over-fish.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2011-09-14 19:38

"turning anything that has trees and wildlife on it into a concrete block needs to be halted". The Greens want to declare koalas an endangered species. Areas include Queensland's "koala coast", which ironically encompass the bayside portions of the Redland, Brisbane and Logan local government areas. If the koala were listed as a nationally threatened species (under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act), it would be an offence to injure the creature. It also means that any development that is going to have a significant impact on koalas needs to get federal approval. "Development" is a synonym for environmental attack, degradation and desertification of ecosystems into sterile concrete and degradation. These "developments" are a symptom of decline and disease, not constructive additions to the nation's land surface. Humans should be declared as being in plague proportions. The human population growth curve is currently following an exponential curve or a "J-shape". Common sense tells us that such growth cannot continue - otherwise within a few hundred years every square foot of the Earth's surface would be taken up by a human. We are seeing mono cultures of livestock, and wildlife are under attack from eradication by aggressive and successful homo sapiens. ("wise man"?)

nimby (not verified)

Wed, 2011-09-14 08:45

Japan could mothball nuclear energy by 2012. http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/er_report.pdf This plan assumes a population of 101.7 million by 2050. Also is assumes a lower electricity demand but the same GDP and population development – as a crucial prerequisite for achieving a significant share of renewable energy sources in the overall energy supply system, compensating for the phasing out of nuclear energy and reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. The "Advanced Energy [R]evolution Report for Japan" outlines a plan for the country still reeling from the impact of March’s disastrous tsunami that caused a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, to institute national energy efficiency standards and dramatically ramp up production of wind and solar energy resources. http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article...

nimby

Mon, 2011-09-12 09:12

Dear Mr Burke, Minister for the Environment, The Victorian government plans to drop 1080 poison bait from an aircraft into forests which could result in the extinction of the already critically endangered Spot-tailed quoll. The purpose of this antiquated and vandalistic method is to poison wild dogs. Endangered Spot-tailed quolls in northeast Victoria and east Gippsland are meat eaters, as well as some species of possums, reptiles, bandicoots and birds. They would be all at a serious risk of being poisoned. Further more, most of this bait would be wasted because of the dogs not being able to find them and this is where non-target animals will rather find and eat them. This is a destructive and draconian way of "managing" wild dogs! It's a threat to the animals that are protected, legally. There is a well researched and efficient method for the poisoning of wild dogs and foxes. It is a target specific bait station system which is successfully used throughout Victoria. There are some other non-lethal ways of protecting livestock - such as alpacas, Maremmas and electric fences. Farmer turns to Maremma for ancient stock protection It will be of great benefit to not only the quolls by removing the competition by dogs and foxes of their natural prey species, but also for the survival of Kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, possums, echidnas etc. We can't have our native species exterminated and threatened with further extinction threats because of a few demanding, whinging and lazy farmers! Victorian Environment Minister Peter Walsh has promised farmers he will do as they want. Why are they allowed to have such a powerful lobbying influence, over reason and the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act? With the destruction of some of the last remaining Leadbeater's Possum habitat at Toolangi being logged - suspended for the moment - the threats of grazing in Alpine National parks and further un-welcomed tourist "developments" in Victorian national parks, the lack of environmental regard, and callousness towards native species in Victoria, is disturbing. Please, use your Federal powers to impose some law and order on our elected State Baillieu government. Extinction is forever, and our wildlife are struggling against multiple challenges, mostly human-induced. They don't need to be poisoned as well! It's the same ignorance the killed off the last Tasmanian Tiger - and attitudes have changed little. Thank you Vivienne Ortega

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 2011-09-11 08:47

The 100th boat to arrive under Ms Gillard's prime ministership showed Labor had lost its way on the asylum seeker issue. The 72 passengers were transferred to Christmas Island, where they will undergo initial checks. Immigration officials have confirmed 14 unaccompanied children and 54 single men were on board the latest asylum seeker boat to arrive on Christmas Island. The cost of sending people to Nauru would be $980 million over four years with more money needed for infrastructure. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has released financial estimates that revealed it would cost just under $1 billion to process asylum seekers on Nauru over the next four years. This is taxpayers' money at a time of increasing homelessness in Australia. Legislation would be drawn up to allow the government to send asylum seekers to any destination named by the Minister for Immigration, including Malaysia. Nauru and Manus Island together cost $289 million over six months. The Opposition Leader again called for Ms Gillard to continue offshore processing and to use the facilities on Nauru. The Greens are against all off-shore processing. According to Homelessness Australia, 105,000 Australians are homeless on any given night. Latest figures show 14,370 homeless or at-risk people were waiting for public housing across the north west metro region of Melbourne in June. Figures released show that in Geelong the public housing waiting list is 2194, while the State's waiting list grew by 2.2 per cent in the three months to June to 38,244. Violence against homeless people is not unusual and most of the time goes unreported to authorities. The reason we have so many homeless people now is because even average working person can't afford to rent place by themselves. The Government has failed greatly to provide more public housing. While our government spends massive amounts of public money and effort to avoid the diplomatic fall-out of rejecting the UN Refugee Convention, more people in Australia are becoming "refugees" in their own country.

Steven Earl Salmony (not verified)

Sun, 2011-09-11 05:43

The family of humanity appears not to have much more time, perhaps a couple of decades if we are lucky, in which to make necessary changes in our conspicuous overconsumption/hoarding lifestyles, the endless expansion of overproduction by big-business enterprises, and its unbridled overpopulation activities. Humankind may not be able to protect life as we know it or preserve the integrity of Earth, even during the years many of us are alive. If we project the fully anticipated increase of unrestrained per-capita consumption/hoarding, rampant economic globalization and unrestricted propagation of 75 to 80 million newborns per annum for the foreseeable future, will someone please explain how the 'trajectory' of our civilization can be sustained much longer on a planet with the size, composition and ecology of Earth? According to my admittedly simple estimations, if humankind keeps doing just as it is doing now, without beginning to do whatsoever is necessary to modify the business-as-usual course of our gigantic global economy, for example, then the Earth could not sustain life as we know it much longer. It appears that all the chatter in the mass media regarding an already accepted event, a "demographic transition" in the coming four decades, during which time humankind will pursue a path to the future marked by underdeveloped countries not following the path of the overdeveloped countries but instead “leap-frogging” traditional economic growth activities and automatically squeezing through a ‘bottleneck’ to population stabilization around 2050, is nothing more than wishful and magical thinking. Where is the science to support these ideas? Although it has not been sensibly and openly discussed, extant scientific evidence appears to directly contradict demographic transition theory in such a way that I am led to believe that this theory is a product of preternatural thinking and inadequate research. Please note that the demographic transition theory could be supported by unscientific evidence that is widely known to be ideologically based, politically convenient, economically expedient, socially agreeable, religiously tolerable and culturally prescribed. Unfortunately, in the face of all the elective mutism and willful denial of what the human population is doing on our watch, many too many top rank scientists have adopted a code of silence, apparently at the behest of super-rich and powerful greedmongers who rule the world in our time. Scientists have got to find adequate ways of communicating to humanity about what people somehow need to hear, see and understand: the reckless dissipation of Earth’s limited resources, the relentless degradation of Earth’s frangible environment, and the approaching destruction of the Earth as a fit place for human habitation by the human species are primarily the result of the colossal current scale and fully expected growth of human consumption, production and propagation activities worldwide. When taken together, these global overgrowth activities of the human species appear to be occurring synergistically, proceeding at breakneck speed, and moving fast toward the precipitation of a catastrophic ecological wreckage of some unimaginable sort unless, of course, the world’s huge, ever expanding, artificially designed, manmade global political economy continues to rush headlong toward the monolithic ‘Wall’ called UNSUSTAINABILITY, at which point the runaway economy crashes before Earth’s ecology is collapsed. If this representation of the human-driven global predicament is somehow on the right track, then it seems that responsible and humane efforts made by a conscious human community to slow the world-engulfing overgrowth activities of the human population would be a step in the direction of sustainability. Either we will choose to take a "road less traveled by" toward sustainability while there is still time or else become one of many species to be victimized by of our soon to become, somehow patently unsustainable presence on Earth, I suppose.

Steven Earl Salmony (not verified)

Sun, 2011-09-11 05:38

If the family of humanity keeps doing the unsustainable things we are doing now, we could end up ruining the world as a place fit for human habitation. Why would leaders and followers in a single generation choose not to speak out loudly, clearly and often in a time when a paradise is being turned into an inferno? Can malignant narcissism, pathological arrogance, extreme foolishness and outrageous avarice of a tiny dishonest and immoral minority of the human family be at least partially responsible for such an intolerable situation? How else can such a thing as a colossal human-driven extinction event occur so fast, before our eyes, with ‘the brightest and best’, “the smartest guys in the room” leading the way? Are self-proclaimed masters of the universe in possession of critical decision-making authority at the top of the global political economy leading a not-so-great generation down a primrose path, come what may? Are power and greed mongers shouting everywhere “greed is good” and acting on what they have proclaimed to be their ‘inalienable rights’ to perpetrate some unimaginable sort of global ecological wreckage without a word being spoken for 40 years. Perhaps we are witnessing not only the sixth extinction event, the first such event to be precipitated by a species, but also the sight of something unthinkable: silence killing the world. It is never too late to stand up and be counted or to do the right thing, I suppose.

nimby

Fri, 2011-09-09 16:33

The response from “Heritage” Victoria ironically mentioned nothing about the heritage or historic values of Banyule Homestead. The only concession was that the owners, in return for the privilege of being able to profit from this site that should be in public hands, is that he contribute $400,000 to renovations. This is nothing compared to the amount devalued from the integrity of the property, and that this amount is just a token to the real cost of upgrades. Economic values were the only criteria mentioned, and the number of people and the Council against the proposals were ignored. This should mean that Heritage Victoria’s green light is invalid due to inadequate and shallow decision-making at its worst!

Mary (not verified)

Fri, 2011-09-09 11:04

This book should be distributed to mainstream book shops and educational booksellers that go to schools. It would be better than an isolated website purchase. More people in the education sector and book sellers need to be made aware of this informative book.

Bandicoot

Fri, 2011-09-09 08:19

Heritage Vic. decision dated 31/8/11, just handed down their decision about the developments at Banyule Homestead. This is a very disappointing decision although not completely unexpected, given the legislation's emphasis on economic factors and preference to developer profits over public concern and heritage values. Funds from the subdivision are to assist in paying for renovation/repairs to the heritage property, but it is simply token amounts that won't be sufficient to complete the job. There are 10 conditions attached to the Permit which apply largely to the schedule of works to be carried out within four years, a bank guarantee of $400,000 to be lodged as part of the permit process. Considering the potential sale price of the proposed units which will have attractive and sought-after views across Banyule Flats to the Ranges, they are likely to be sold in excess of $1 m each. That it compromises the public walking trail and the view over the wetlands hasn't been taken into account. The decision will set an unfortunate precedent for similar developments elsewhere in Banyule and is of real concern for the future protection of our heritage generally. It obviously has little value, even for "Heritage" Victoria - ironically. They are simply administrators with no real understanding of our history. It should be noted however, that the owners will still need to apply for a planning permit under the Planning & Environment Act, which would still have to be approved by Council. Lobbying of Councilors should commence to ensure that give a firm "NO". The pressure should be kept up, and the proposal not allowed to simply go through without continuing the fight. The matter may eventually end up at VCAT, which was always a possibility. However, with VCAT's strong preference for developers over public concerns, this could be a challenge too. With little industry in Victoria except construction and housing, we continue to build over native bushland, grasslands, heritage properties, and the integrity of Melbourne and Victoria is under threat, and our history is being eroded by ignorance and greed.

Francis (not verified)

Fri, 2011-09-09 08:05

Heritage Victoria have just handed down a decision on the previously reported application for subdivision of the heritage listed Banyule House (c 1845), and for the construction of contemporary town houses in its grounds. It's a sad day for the Heidelberg area, and sets a poor precedent for further inappropriate developments that overlay our history. The Council are yet to approve, but they will come under very heavy pressure from the State government to comply. The "development" frenzy in Victoria is indicative of lack of innovation and ideas from our political leaders. They, under the smoke-screen of Victoria's chronic housing shortage, continue to allow all sorts of building permits and inappropriate developments - contrary to public opinion and submissions. Democratic principles continue to be rough-shod and over-ridden so that developers are assured of success. The housing shortage won't be fixed while we have a Ponzi-economy based on ongoing and perpetual population growth. It just shifts the home-owning potential downwards, while the well-heeled are rewarded. The heritage value of the property will be tarnished forever. Any plans to re-open it for the public, who should have access to it, will be compromised. Joseph Hawdon's home, and his pioneer status, will be lost in history and to future generations in our fragmented society. Heritage matters little to this Baillieu State government. Incredible that "Heritage" Victoria should make the decision to allow this development on a heritage and significant historical property! It's a sad irony.

nimby

Thu, 2011-09-08 10:29

ABS - Measures of Australia's progress. ABS Measures of Australia's progress "The projections are not predictions or forecasts, but are simply illustrations of the growth and change in population which would occur if certain assumptions about future levels of fertility, mortality, internal migration and overseas migration were to prevail over the projection period. The assumptions incorporate recent trends which indicate increasing levels of fertility and net overseas migration for Australia". According to their graph, we are "projected" to have 42.5 million by 2056, and about 63 million people by 2010. With the devastation of Australia's environment, the further threats of climate change, and our extinction rate, surely our "carrying capacity" has already been reached, or overshot? While we have multiple converging threats to our ongoing safely and growth, and multiple challenges in these decades, the problems - and finding solutions - will be magnified and thwarted by a growing number of people. These are more than "projected" population growth numbers, but targets set by our governments in consultation with businesses and lobby groups. Our population growth is driven by immigration levels -decided politically - and the resultant fertility levels. It's all justified economically, in isolation of the other more pertinent questions of morality, of natural resources, of living standards, of national welfare, the nation we pass onto our descendants, of social and economic and environmental conditions in a land already stressed by human demands and irrevocable changed already.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2011-09-07 16:52

With gas reserves under as much as 46% of the country, even inner-city suburbs are under threat from coal seam gas. Coal seam gas (CSG) mining involves using large machines to bore holes deep into the earth and then inject an assortment of chemicals to crack underground rock and release the trapped methane gas. The impact of CSG mining is too hazardous to health and the environment to be allowed. It should be banned. The mining process includes fracking - a process where industrial chemicals and sand are pumped at high pressure deep into the earth to fracture the rock. Water supplies are often contaminated. Independent MP Tony Windsor will introduce a bill to Parliament to pause the expansion of coal seam gas mining until scientists have time to assess the impacts on health, land and our ancient water aquifers. There is deep and genuine public disquiet over the effect of these developments on the water tables and basins. This is an industry that is making huge investments on the back of poor community management. In today’s world, that is very dangerous. Our government has become a voice, the protagonist, for mining companies and are strangled by their heavy demands and strong lobbying power. Australia will be left devoid of life unless we get some leadership. Australia is not a nation any more, but an economy with a workforce to increase, and a resource to be justified by profits and the GDP. Our nationhood is very fragile.

Bandicoot

Wed, 2011-09-07 15:13

This is the anniversary of the last day in the life of the last Tasmanian Tiger that died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo. Australia's landscapes and species have been severely impacted by over 200 years of habitat loss and fragmentation. Little has changed since the Colonial days, despite modern understandings of ecology and environmental awareness. The devastation continues, with logging in prime threatened species' habitats, land clearing, human population growth, and livestock competition. The World Wildlife Fund says Australia's list of threatened species is growing by the year. Michael Roache, the threatened species program manager with the WWF, says the day should be used to reflect on how vital many of these animals are to our ecosystems. Humans as competitors are just too successful, and animals larger then mice have never before had so much dominance on our planet. Spot-tailed quoll in a battle for survival The spot-tailed quoll, a unique Australian animal, is facing the same sad fate as the Tasmania tiger. Like the thylacine, the endangered spot-tailed quoll is a meat-eating marsupial. Plans to drop bait from planes over vast tracts of land in Victoria to wipe out wild dogs threaten the little creature's existence. The power of a few livestock farmers is such that their interests over-ride all other concerns, and their demands for instant action rather than regulation, control of dog ownership and breeding, and targeting the actual problem animals rather than including endangered species. Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said baiting would be carried out. However, Victoria's Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act and the Federal government should be able to over-ride this hasty and ill-thought-out decision. There are electric fences, alpacas, and other non-lethal options to avoid wild dog attacks without killing the endangered quolls. With little regard for the value of native species, Australia is going through the process of being generalized as an international repository of resources to be plundered, raped and pillaged instead of having it's uniqueness ensured and guaranteed. Contact Victorian Ag minister Peter Walsh: [email protected]

Tigerquoll

Tue, 2011-09-06 15:16

Sarah Hanson-Young is a naive open border extremist. She emphatically wants no limit on refugees or asylum seekers. Ex Amnesty International, she would have Australia become the recipient for the world's Third World, while in denial over Australia's 'carrying capacity' and having some warped notion of 'sustainable' immigration. They should rename Ashmore Reef as Hanson-Young Reef. Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan Snowy River Region Victoria 3885 Australia

Beatrice (not verified)

Tue, 2011-09-06 15:15

That the big debate and big issue relates to asylum seekers in current day Australia is a suitable smokescreen for the mass immigration we have to Australian shores. What Vivienne mentions is true, regarding Australia and other (yes, there are actually other) countries that are signatories to the UN's Refugee Convention or its equivalent somewhere. The other countries that must/do take in a quota of refugees may not attend to asylum seekers in the same way as we do - Mexico take in numbers, for one, so, why does Australia seem to hold the target shore in sight? Also, we shouldn't be pressured into accepting more refugees. Why? There are other countries to go to, as well as the studies that have been done into refugees that talk of the social issue of integration, unemployment, welfare dependency or lack thereof... Our job, as a developed nation, can be to assist other nations when there are problems, y'know, realising and holding strong to a stance that says that the solution isn't to have people here!!

nimby (not verified)

Tue, 2011-09-06 10:09

According to the Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, we should abandon off-shore processing and only process those who arrive here. It is more popular and cheaper. This won't work. It will make more people "jump the queue" and risk lives to come here. It won't be cheaper either as more will come. The "welcome mat" has just got bigger, and they need housing and social welfare for a long time. Already it takes years for the vulnerable in Australia to get public housing. The waiting lists will be even longer. We need to slash our economic immigration numbers that is prohibiting more refugees being accommodated, and withdraw from the UN's dominance and make our own policies. We should only process off-shore entrants only and stop the people smugglers and the opportunists. The UN Refugee Convention is a relic after WW2 when many people were displaced from Europe. Now, the problems are on-going and escalating. Those arriving by plane should be assessed off-shore too. Our shores are part of our sovereignty, something the Greens seem to overlook.

Frustrated (not verified)

Sun, 2011-09-04 10:50

Notably absent from this website is a ‘terms of use’ policy.
The editorial comment above (3-9-2011) makes a good start. Candobetter will not publish material which is considered;
1. illegal content
2. personally abusive
3. defamatory (recognising truth as legitimate defence)
4. spam

... and may not publish:

5. needless verbosity
6. irrelevance

Items 1 - 6 do not address the editorial tampering and suppression of my submissions past.

I still visit Candobetter with some interest but since the episodes of indiscriminate censorship have been reluctant to contribute very often, not willing to waste my time and effort on submissions and much less on post publication arguments ( most probably futile) on editorial decision.

IMO, a published terms of use policy may serve well as a checklist to both contributors & editors alike to better define what is or is not suitable for publication here. Publication of policy could only lead to increased consistency, which I consider can only raise the standard and appeal of the site.

For the record I have no connection at all with the "immigrant arse-licker" slur cited as example. It clearly breaches item 2 above and probably a number of others, I agree with the decision not to publish.

Editorial comment: I am glad to know that you agree with our policy stated in the editorial comment in response to the previous comment. Still, neither Sheila nor I have any recollection of anything else occurring recently that could conceivably be labelled censorship. Please tell us specifically what you tried to post and when you claim it was censored. - Ed.

nimby (not verified)

Sun, 2011-09-04 10:13

The high court found Immigration Minister Chris Bowen could not declare Malaysia to be a country where people could be sent to be processed as refugees. They ruled that no country could receive asylum seekers from Australia unless it was legally bound by international law or its own domestic law to provide access for asylum seekers to protection pending processing of their applications for refugee status. This is because Malaysia is not a signatory of the United Nations refugee convention. Surely the simple solution is to work out with Malaysia directly to solve the problem. The UN are not our neighbours to dictate our foreign and domestic affairs. The ability of Australia to guarantee the human rights of the 800 asylum seekers sent to Malaysia was in doubt. Australia went into war with NATO, and war cannot guarantee any human rights. There are many countries between Afghanistan and Iraq and Australia. The limiting factors in being accepted in other countries is poverty and overpopulation. Papua-New Guinea it is a party to the refugee convention although it does have significant reservations. Nauru is set to sign the convention. Australia will take all the 4000 processed refugees to come from Malaysia, but might reduce the overall humanitarian intake to fit them in. Nothing has been said, or mentioned, about reducing the source of the majority of our immigration numbers - economic immigration! They are assumed to be part of Australia's ongoing and inevitable Colonial "story" - perpetual population growth that is supposed to keep our economy ticking - and our living standards declining. Compared to other countries, refugees are not the same problem. At the end of 2010 Germany counted 594,300 refugees within its borders. The United States took 71,400 refugees that year, the Canadians 12,100. We accepted just 8500. However, Australia has a massive economic immigration program. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/gillard-solution-turns-to-dissolu... The more people we share Australia with, the less there is for all - including our indigenous species struggling to survive the onslaught of "developments"!

Matthew Ridgeway (not verified)

Sun, 2011-09-04 06:51

Subject was: I just want.... Please make Subject more descriptive in future. - Ed I just want dog barking to be controlled, that is, stopped at the time of offence. I just want killings by dogs to stop, that is, laws for licenses for dog ownership and accountability, compulsory insurances and criminal charges and gaol terms for killer dog owners. (A killer dog is a domesticated dog that has killed a person or animal and that dog is owned by a person.) I would also like the option of living in a community that is totally pet free, that is no guppies, cats, frogs, birds, lizards dogs, not a single animal that is owned or cared for by a person, as these animals are fixed at an address and can be a problem in the community. Wild, native animals as far as I am concerned are free to roam. It is the pet variety of animal that in my experience that creates most antisocial issues in the community. And why all pets you may ask? Well, let one in, and then the flood gates open for all pets of any kind. I know, the only guarantee to the kind of peace in a community that I would like to live in would need to have a total ban on animals of any kind being kept by people in such a community. I know that there are others in the community that feel as I do and ask their support for a small amount of area for a completely pet free residential area. Pet lovers can have all the pets they want, as long as I have a choice to be able to live in a community where pets are not allowed. This is not about pet hate, it is about the love of peace, and I know people love their pets, but I do not want to be forced to "love" their pets too. I would be happier without those pets around me, in peaceful segregation. Thank you.

Geoffrey Taylor

Sat, 2011-09-03 23:10

Thanks, Vivienne for this timely article.

The outcome of the current political climate which the High Court ruling against The Federal Labor Government's "refugee swap" deal with Malaysia could well be the ousting of the current Labor Federal Government in an early election and the coming to power of a Tony Abbott Government. In some ways it seems like a repeat of events which led to the defeat of the odious Keating 'Labor' Government in 1996 and the election of the even more odious Government of John Howard.

Whilst we rightly have good reason to object to Gillard's Government (and not because of her Government's attempt to find a workable solution to the people smuggling problem), judging by the record of the previous Howard Government in which Abbott was a Minister, an Abbott Government would be far nastier.

John Howard got this country into two immoral wars: Afghanistan and Iraq. These have massively added to the number of refugees in the world and those seeking refugee status in Australia. In large part, Howard owes much of his political survival from 2001 until 2007 to "Refugee Rights" activism. Almost certainly Howard would have been booted out in 2001 for, amongst other things, his attempt to break the Maritime Workers Union in 1998 with mercenary strikebreakers, but the confusion caused by the "Tampa crisis" in addition to the 9/11 false flag terrorist attack saved Howard's political hide.

One of the consequences of Howard's re-election was Australia's participation in 2003 in the illegal invasion of Iraq which had catastrophic consequences on the citizens of Iraq, causing many hundreds of thousands of dead -- over one million according to on estimate.

The massive protest movement of 2003 in Australia against the threatened invasion of Iraq was allowed to fold after the invasion commenced by essentially the same people who lead "refugee rights" groups. Largely as a consequence, Howard was re-elected in 2004 with an absolute Senate majority, even after the WMD pretext for the invasion of Iraq had been shown to be a lie. Australia's participation in the "Coalition of the Willing" against Iraq continued unhindered at least until after Howard was ousted in 2007.

Domestically, Howard introduced his reviled "Work Choices" legislation which even further deprived Australian workers of their collective bargaining rights than they previously had been. Whilst being seen to be tough on boat people he ramped up immigration to record levels further adding to the shortage of domestic housing and causing housing prices to rocket. He also privatise Telstra against the wishes of 66% of the electorate and against commitments given by most elected politicians, Labor and Coalition (e.g. Barnaby Joyce), to their electors.

In 2011 as Foreign Minister Rudd and Julia Gillard were doing their best to support NATO's criminal invasion of Libya, the Australian public's attention was taken away from their immoral conduct by more headlines about people smuggling and the controversy over the "Malaysian solution" discussed above and in this article whilst the refugee rights groups and the far left parties which largely run them were almost completely silent about Libya.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2011-09-03 15:11

Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'. It is also called Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Grandiose plans etc could also indicate manic depression. Though it is considered healthy to care about your own well-being and have a healthy self-esteem, when someone loves himself to the exclusion of all else and others become objectified to be used only to serve the self, this is no longer considered healthy or normal. NPD is characterized by extremely low self-esteem, which is compensated for by delusions of grandeur and megalomania, a narcissistic neuroses. With our paradigm of free market capitalism, we must have an ever increasing, youthful workforce to replace and support the generation expecting to leave it with decades of life left to enjoy. This is exactly the problem that is being swept under the rug unfortunately. Immigration is seen as the "fix" for an ageing population. If we could avoid the issues of finite resources and limited space along with global climate change, increase disease due to larger population densities we could have higher populations and longer lives. Call it a collective delusion of grandeur if you will. It all keeps coming back to the adage of Einstein that you cannot fix anything with the same thinking that caused the problem in the first place. The collective narcissism of the human race means people want big populations, big power, massive growth and wealth, long lives and expect Nature and finite ecosystems and natural resources to adapt and increase according to demand. It's human megalomania and collective delusion of grandeur and power - but flawed and fatalistic.

Frustrated (not verified)

Sat, 2011-09-03 12:33

Subject was: Media Bias.

James I have read your comments above (September 2nd, 2011) claiming Ben Fordham’s bias in giving persons of particular viewpoint the short shift. I make no judgement on that as I did not listen to the program and thusly am not qualified to do so.

Candobetter.net is often critical of mainstream media bias, being but one of the many reasons I initially took interest in your site.

Though after years of making contributions to this site I have noted a marked inconsistency in editorial standard after butting heads with your co editor Sheila Newman a number of occasions. I now remain convinced Candobetter.net is in reality no better at upholding free speech and fairness of expression than those they often accuse, despite oft claims to the contrary. It is my opinion that Editor Newman has on numerous occasions cited reasons for censorship of my comments I have submitted in good faith to this site, though in perusal of this site it is clearly evident that the same standards are not adhered to by her when it comes to publishing comments of others which are strongly aligned with her own personal viewpoint. Consequently I no longer afford any credibility to Candobetter.net to upholding the aforementioned standards this site purportedly represents. Perhaps your own glass house could do with some maintenance before you continue throwing stones toward others.

Your criticism of Ben Fordham whether perception, or factually based invokes no sympathy from me but I remain in a position of empathy. It is certainly discouraging when you take the time and effort to put forth an opinion you value but are denied opportunity due to opportunist advantage taken by others in control of the forum.

Surely we can all do better.

Editorial comment: The only recent incident that Sheila recalls that could possibly be construed as censorship is when she objected to someone standing for election to public office being labeled, in a submitted article, an "immigrant arse-licker" and asked for that wording to be changed before the article was published. The intending contributor refused and so it was not published.

Only on rare occasions have our editors ever prevented any comment or article from being published.

We would not publish material that has illegal content or material or which is personally abusive.

To protect ourselves, we cannot publish material for which candobeter could be sued under Australia's defamation laws. As well as lowering the tone of candobetter, the description "immigrant arse-licker" could well be in breach of Australia's defamation laws. More than likely candobetter would lose a defamation suit for the use of that term even under Australia's newer laws, which allow truth as a defence.

Other than that, one example and possibly one or two others (as well as spam that we have to constantly remove) candobetter prides itself on never having refused to publish any comment. The reason that we never have felt the need to refuse publication (unlike a good many other supposedly alternative web sites) is that we are completely confident that all of the claims made on candobetter can be shown to be true by evidence and logic and so we have nothing to fear from fair and open debate on these pages. That so few of those of whom candobetter is critical ever even attempt to argue their case on these pages is further confirmation to us of the strength of the evidence and logic behind the claims made here.

This is not to say that we would always allow anyone to publish anything he/she wishes to on this site. Good reasons to refuse publication on this site would include needless verbosity and irrelevance.

However, as Sheila has put to me, if we were to ever refuse publication on those grounds, we would still allow the intending contributor to link with a URL from any relevant page on this site of his/her choosing back to his/her own article together with some descriptive text. (This conforms to a proposed Truthseeker's Code of Conduct as described here.)

For example, if the person who wrote that article were to have published that article, referred to above, elsewhere on the web, he could have posted a comment on this site with a link to that article. (Of course we would also reserve the right to post our own comments next to the link.)

Paris N (not verified)

Sat, 2011-09-03 00:15

After the USA and France, Germany has the most millionaires. Four of them have said they want to pay more tax to help Germany through the debt crisis. (Source: French News 1 September 2011)

admin

Fri, 2011-09-02 17:57

Update 4.15 PM: I managed to talk on Ben Fordham's program, but was given a hearing barely fairer than that given by ABC Local Melbourne Radio's John Faine to Kevin Bracken of the Maritime Union of Australia on 23 Oct 2010.

I have just sent the following e-mail to Ben Fordam (ben [AT] 2gb.com.au):

Dear Ben Fordham,

Of course, I apologise for getting your name wrong and calling you Glen, but I would have thought that that mistake would be understandable on the part of someone who lived inter-state in Melbourne.

I don't see how that honest mistake on my part could have justified my being cut off just as I was about to tell your listeners where to find my public submission made to the National Human Rights Commission in 2009 [here][1] so that they could read it for themselves and form their own judgement. I don't see how the listeners to that program would thank you for having withheld that information from them.

Contrary to your claim that you "treated both sides in the debate equally", you did not.

Those who wanted to put sound arguments based on evidence against the Official 9/11 Conspiracy Theory were talked over and cut off as I was. Those who supported the Official 9/11 Conspiracy Theory were given a sympathetic hearing. Official Conspiracy Theory arguments which have been demolished time and time again in the past were repeated over and over by you almost as if you think that such arguments had not even been considered before by those who don't accept the Bush Government's explanation of 9/11.

If it had been a fair debate there is no way that you or your Official Conspiracy Theory guest would have been left standing in your viewers' eyes at the end, but of course a debate in which one side is able to talk over, shout down and cut off those with whom they disagree as you did, cannot be considered fair.

Yours sincerely,

James Sinnamon
Melbourne

Any response from Ben Fordham will be posted here.

Further update 5.34 PM: I phoned 02 8514 9500 a second time, basically to ask if Ben Fordham would be replying to my e-mail. The woman who answered me told me that he would try.

I also put to her, in the course of the phone call, some of the substance of my complaint. She gave me the familiar lame excuse that it is hard for Ben to handle with all of his callers when he had ten waiting in the queue.

Before I could respond, I was cut off and left listening to Ben Fordham's program.

In spite of the claimed lengthy queue, it seems that Ben Fordham found himself better able to 'handle' the calls of some, that is those who agreed with his Official 9/.11 Conspiracy Theory views.

Footnotes

1. Please also see article on candobetter My submission to the Human Rights Consultation on National Security of 7 Sep 2009

FourFooted Messiah (not verified)

Fri, 2011-09-02 11:00

That's the current state of affairs in the Arctic. If we don't develop it, we can easily lose it to whomever does. That's been the rule of territoriality since humans still had tails - those who claim territory, defend it adequately, and _make the most of that territory_ are considered the rightful owners of that territory. The story of the Canadian Native is, in fact, instructive for those of us who _built Canada into a nation_. Canadians NEVER had territorial wars with Natives. What did we do, then? We simply swamped them, demographically. The Natives didn't see what was coming until they were literally surrounded by whites. White guilt is suicidal foolishness, and not a valid reason to commit cultural and national suicide by allowing the same to happen to us. And hey, if Natives don't like Whitey, sure, void the treaties you signed and send us back to the UK and France. But I hope you don't mind if we raze the buildings to the ground, and take all our technology with us. After all, it would be wrong to pollute your glorious Pre-Columbian stone age society that you seem anxious to enjoy like your distant ancestors did, with our evil guns and alcohol and central heating and stuff like that.

Mary (not verified)

Fri, 2011-09-02 10:40

This generation is one that is spoiled by gadgets, conveniences, greed and the desperate desire to grow and expand. We are like bacteria confined and manipulated to foolishly grow in a petri dish while the laboratory workers watch them enjoying the moments of growth, but knowing their impending doom when they reach the edges of the dish - and die. The victims merrily keep consuming, relishing in it through their ignorance. The growth frenzy, and scale of environmental and species destruction due to one expanding species as opposed to natural disaster has never happened before on our planet. Except for rodents, there has never been a large species like humans that have had global dominance. It's scary, and our closed Earth's system is being devastated, depleted and overwhelmed. September 7th is endangered species Day - the day the last Tasmanian Tiger died in Hobart, 1936. The extinction and number of endangered species in Australia continues to growth as humans proliferate. We humans are ignorantly and fatalistically driving ourselves into the same predicament as the bacteria - enjoying the moments of growth and superficially reassurances that the planet will expand, but it won't and can't. While we are distracted by such things are recycling, avoiding plastic bags, and pretending to be "green", the monsters of overpopulation, pollution and ecological overshoot will eventually be evident.

end random dog ... (not verified)

Thu, 2011-09-01 09:02

Dogs are considered a commodity for raising profits in Australia. People buy dogs for their appearance and style. The dangerous breeds are for image, a "macho" personality and appearance. They are not suitable for suburban backyards, and for public places. The breeding of dogs is not regulated. Businesses can set up puppy factories, quite legally, while shelters are full and "death row" continues to quietly remove the excess dogs and cats from the market. How we treat companion animals is shameful, but these dangerous breeds need committed owners. Puppies for sale in pet shops means that the new owners have little idea of the breed, their needs, their adult size, and the training needed. Some breeds need high quality ownership and obedience training, and there is no mandatory requirement as such. The whole dog breeding industry needs an overhaul, but those with vested interests have powerful lobby groups. They include breeders, pet food manufacturers, animal "managers", pet shops and some vets.

From Tigerquoll (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-31 23:11

I'm a taxpayer, and the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) is funded from our taxes. Yet, despite ABC promotions about its new iView service, the bloody online service has been inoperable for over a week! Consistently one gets the message: " The server at www.abc.net.au is taking too long to respond." I am about to lodge my tax return, and I want a massive refund, the bastards! I've even tried going to the source of most decent ABC programmes, the BBC, but the BBC p[rohibits access outside teh UK, the bastards! Are we expected to put up with commercial crap with all those torturous insulting Harvey Normous ads? Where's my local member? Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan

Alienated National (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-31 22:36

Nimby writes: "We are a sovereign nation, and we are free to make our own policies, and decide who and how many people come here." Are we really a sovereign nation? I thought we were a colony.

Tigerquoll

Wed, 2011-08-31 20:42

Tony, thanks for your input. Pragmatically in your case, would you remain in a country that is systemically depressed, economically, socially and culturally, like Iraq or Haiti, just because one's memory of it is positive? Evaluate your personal options. One only has a 40 year adult lifespan of choice. Know when to jump ship. Isn't the premise of globalism, mobility and to shun geographic loyalty? Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan Snowy River Region Victoria 3885 Australia

nimby (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-31 15:20

In a major upset for the Government, the full bench of the high court has this afternoon found the plan to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia be legally flawed. "Asylum seekers who entered Australia at Christmas Island can be taken for processing of their asylum claims,” a statement said. The "welcome mat" has now got larger, thanks to the High Court.

The flow of asylum seekers is very small compared to the massive number of economic immigrants coming to live in Australia each year. However, they are able to grab all the media attention on "immigration" issues, while the elephant in the room - students, "temporary" workers, skilled immigrants, and family reunions - are not only ignored but any discussion is deliberately shunned.

There can be no appeals to the High Court on this decision, however the Government may seek to amend the legislation in the parliament in order to get its plan through.

The ruling is a massive blow for the Gillard government, which had hoped the Malaysian refugee swap would be the deterrent it needed to halt the flow of asylum-seeker boats to Australia.

Australia will still be bound under the deal to accept 4000 extra refugees from Malaysia, while being unable to send 800 asylum-seekers there for processing
.
How many Federal governments continue to muddle around with various "solution" to control asylum seekers, and now this last deal has been over-ridden by the High Court?

Our government, and Julia Gillard, needs to show some leadership. Why are we enslaved to the UN and their outdated 1951 refugee convention? All the detention centres, armed guards, riots, off-shore processing, claims etc. We are a sovereign nation, and we are free to make our own policies, and decide who and how many people come here. Our massive economic immigration program should be declared illegal and discriminatory. Our government only wants the ready-education and well-off to save money on education, and people to buy into property - not the displaced and poor.

keep Melbourne ... (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-31 13:28

MELBOURNE has been crowned the world's most liveable city, snaring the top spot from former number one Vancouver, in a survey ranking 140 cities around the world. Melbourne's status is a reflection on the rest of the world's cities. We have rising crime, congestion, developments, high-rises, land-clearing and urban expansion choking our access outwards and inwards. If we let these developers and planners have access to more of our suburbs and resources, we will lose the title like Vancouver did. What economists consider the "best" cities is not necessarily how the residents rate it. Economist Intelligence Unit survey editor Jon Copestake said in a media release that Australian cities were so well placed in the survey ranking due to the "low population density and relatively low crime rates''. Really - if these economists have their way, the remnant benefits of living in Melbourne will soon be used to see high population and high crime rates.

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2011-08-31 11:47

This morning, I attempted to 'phone ABC Melbourne Local Radio's Jon Faine to put some views about recycling and Australian politics.

The phone was cut off and I was not able to get back before the 11.00AM news, despite repeated attempts.I kept getting the engaged tone, in spite of Jon Faine and the voices of others on ABC Melbourne Local Radio (774) repeatedly urging their listeners to dial 1300 222 774. ("thirteen hundred, triple two, seven, seven four"). Just possibly this was bad luck on my part, however I am placing my experience on the record here to see whether or not others have had similar experiences.

I was motivated to call by talk of the use of renewable solar and wind energy (which I considered to be addressing only a tiny fraction of the environmental problems now faced by humankind.) That motivation was added to by Jon Faine's announcement that Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, now visiting Melbourne was to appear on Jon Faine's show. She was said to have said that she considered Brisbane the Capital city of Queensland, and not Melbourne, to be the world's most livable city.

I had stood in the 2009 elections as an Independent candidate in order to oppose privatisation and let Queensland electors, whom I knew to be opposed to privatistion, where all candidates, particularly candidates from the major parties, stood on privatisation. I even wrote an Open Letter to Premier Anna Bligh and the State Treasurer Andrew Fraser in order to get a straight answer from them as to whether or not they intended to privatise any more of Queensland's public assets.

Andrew Fraser was the Labor candidate for the seat of Mount Coot-tha, against whom I was standing as an Independent candidate, Both failed to answer my question, but soon after being re-elected announced plans to privatise hundreds of millions of dollars worth of publicly owned assets to the outrage of Queensland residents. Polls showed at times over 80% of Queenslanders and always well over 70% were opposed to privation.

I wanted to raise these and other issues when I phoned 1300 222 774.

A lady called 'Katrina' answered. I got off to a good start when I told Katrina that I thought that Brisbane was the world's most unlivable city until I move to Melbourne. Now I thin that Melbourne is the world's most unlivable city. This seemed to have gotten a small laugh from Katrina. Had I left it at that I think I might have got on the program, but I went on to add that I was disappointed with the reporting of politics where the press presume that voters will only ever consider voting for one or other of the major parties and never for independent candidates. After that the phone went dead and I could not get on.

I intend to try again in coming days but it would be interesting to see if others who also wish to express viewpoints considered by most of the mainstream media as fringe have better luck than I had.

Geoffrey Taylor

Tue, 2011-08-30 00:50

Editorial comment: The allegations that Libyan Loyalists have committed atrocities against unarmed opponents had been addressed in Cynthia McKinney's excellent speech in print republished here with the YouTube broadcast embedded: "In times of war, both sides commit [atrocities] but whatever government forces did pale compared to NATO's savagery and its hired assassins."

The same newsmedia which has been filled with barefaced lies about Libya since at least March this year is now reporting a gruesome discovery of charred bodies of those it claims were murdered by Libyan Loyalists. In the reports I have viewed so, the numbers claimed to have been murdered are 50 and 150. (One other radio news report made the grim and spectacular claim that as many as 50,000 opponents of Government of Muammar Gaddiffi had gone missing, but I have yet to see further news about that claim.)

Although the scale of that crime seems considerably smaller that the totality of crime so far committed against Libya (and vastly smaller than crimes already committed against Iraq, Libya and citizens of the US), it is hard to conceive of circumstances where the killing of so many unarmed opponents of Colonel Gaddaffi on the one occasion would be justified. Just possibly, Loyalist Libyans faced with their country about to by over-run and ruled by NATO and its flunkys, after having endured from them, over six months of unprovoked aerial and naval bombardment and terrorism, in desperation killed known supporters of the TNC/NATO whilst they were unarmed.

Whatever the truth behind these claims it should be brought into the open. Let's hope that the writers at Global Research will soon bring more light onto this issue.

Accusations that Gaddaffi was close to previous US Government engaged in criminal wars against Afghanistan, Iraq

One other story which seems to contradict the recent highly favourable impression I have gained of Muammar Gaddafi is the Global Research story WikiLeaks cables expose Washington’s close ties to Gaddafi. Another is claims of Muammar Gaddaffii's apparent fondness for the US Secretary of State under the criminal former US President George W Bush, Condoleezza Rice who notoriously lied about the 9/11 false flag terrorist attack.


Further editorial comment: The story alleging Gaddaffi's infatuation with liar and former US Head of State Condoleezza Rice attracted comments, nearly all of which were, at best, ill-informed, but one, near the end, which is of value, follows:

Since 9/11 the US and NATO have set very dangerous precedents. By encouraging criminal warfare in which private residences are bombed and individuals hunted down and the destruction of civilian infrastructure of weaker enemies.This is against all international law on warfare, the Red Cross code and many international standards. Should we then if this same "warfare" is turned against the US now feel moral outrage? What the US and NATO does is the same as the public necklacing of alleged perpetrators. Those who do the necklacing bypass civilised moral standards, and institutions of law. That is why Gaddafi now enjoys my moral esteem and the western powers have difinitively portrayed themselves as criminals, looters, murderers and twisters of the truth, purveyors of violence. This kind of propaganda is calculated to deflect our moral scrutiny of what NATO and the US have done in Libya: a public lynching of a country.

Desalination madness (not verified)

Mon, 2011-08-29 17:15

Documents from the Victorian Environment Protection Authority published in August 2008 show that the boron level in water from the proposed Wonthaggi desalination plant would be at least two times the level specified in the contract between the state government and the international consortium AquaSure. It could kill the deadly contract. According to the contract, desalinated water with boron levels greater than 0.5 milligrams per litre will attract penalties, and that with boron levels in excess of 1 milligram per litre the plant will have to cease operations Read more: Desalination plant's quality hard to swallow of 28 August by Kenneth Davidson at http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/politics/desalination-plants-quality-h.... AquaSure must meet its contract to build a plant with the capacity to produce 200 gigalitres of water with only 0.5 milligrams per litre of boron. If it can't, the state government should be legally entitled to break the contract and avoid the $24 billion contractual obligation. The availability of water, a prime basic human need, should be set the tipping point for our population growth limits. Artificially supplying water means great expense, denying other areas of water, and risks communities. The desal plant was based on greed, and a way of supplying a water solution to swelling population numbers. It's the elephant in the room - Brumby's drive to increase our economy through population growth is the root cause of this mess. The result of this mess is Brumby - and we have the costs of water set to rise, increase in greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, polluted water and unknown effects on the marine ecosystems. It's about being "sustainable" - a word often thrown about but never taken seriously. Boron is a cumulative toxin. The desalination plant may not be able to meet these objectives. Our unrealistic population growth rate is outstripping natural resources. Droughts could happen again, and other disasters too. With our rampant population growth, the public were encouraged to be "sustainable" by using less water and installing tanks, but with a population growth rate of 2% per year, our growth will jeopardize a basic - water that we shouldn't need to pay luxury prices for. It's all about appeasing the real estate investors, and consumers. It's time governments had "sustainable" policies too. Vote: Stable Population Party!

Geoffrey Taylor

Mon, 2011-08-29 02:01

Editorial comment: The comment below largely repeats what is already included in the article, but, thanks, all the same Geoffrey. I can understand how you would have been so moved to draw the attention of others to Glen Ford's words, that you may have forgotten to fully read the article you were commenting on before you republished Glen Ford's words. - Ed

An astoundingly well-written and touching piece is a transcript of a talk by a black American radio journalist Glen Ford, The Libyan Soldier: The True Heroes of NATO’s War. It is published on Global Research.

Glen Ford rightly praises the heroism of ordinary Libyan soldiers, who stood their ground for seven months against the horrendous firepower of NATO's deadly sky-born weapons with the Spanish Republican Loyalist soldiers who fought against General Franco's Fascist uprising in 1936 and almost succeeded in extinguishing it. They fought on the ground, constantly spied upon by aircraft and satellites and blasted and shot at by bombers, drones and helicopters they could not hope to shoot down.

The so-called rebels won not a single battle, except as walk-ons to a Euro-American military production. They are little more than extras for imperial theater, a mob that travelled to battle under the protective umbrella of American full spectrum dominance of the air. They advanced along roads already littered with the charcoal-blackened bodies of far better men, who died challenging Empire.

Sheila Newman

Mon, 2011-08-29 00:39

Hi Greg, I feel that I should acknowledge on behalf of Admin the borrowing of your elegant term for the media, "the public messaging system" here. Thanks for your comment.
Tony Boys's picture

Tony Boys

Sun, 2011-08-28 18:55

Right! We're angry and we want to take back the power from those who seemingly do not know what it's for and who are abusing it! I'm in Japan. It's the same story. Tomorrow (Aug 29th) we will have a new PM here and it is likely to be Banri Kaieda. Despite a newspaper poll showing 85% of the population in favour of a nuclear phase-out, Mr Kaieda is one of the most pro-nuke politicians in the Japan Democratic Party. I'm now in Sendai City, north Japan, since about noon today. There are anti-nuke activists (about 5 of them) handing out leaflets and paper fans in the busiest part of the shopping mall. Try talking to them. They're angry about politicians looking the other way and about the new taxes that will be imposed soon, about TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), and about what will happen to Japan and the yen when the US dollar goes into meltdown. Lots of Sunday afternoon shoppers who do not look angry at all. I hope it will all stay that way, but by the end of the year or the early part of next year there may be many more angry people in Japan too. There's political/social unrest and economic catastrophe just around the corner. Since the politicians are not going to change and there is no effective opposition I don't see anyway out of it. Do we have no wisdom? Are we just apes living in an overcrowded ape park?? How much more misery do we need before people, all of them - or at least a critical mass of them, wake up?

End Jumps racing (not verified)

Sun, 2011-08-28 17:34

Six-year-old jumps racehorse Fergus McIver became the fourth horse to die in a jumps race this season in Victoria when he crashed at the last obstacle in the Houlahan Hurdle at Sandown. Activists were there at Sandown at the time, protesting.

Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) announced in November 2009 it would stop jumps racing because of a rising incidence of falls and fatalities, despite changes made to improve the safety of the sport. However, the "safety" of the "sport" are misnomers! Horses are simply tools, or throw-away items in an industry that cares not for animals but uses them for gambling profits.
Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said there would be a review of jumps racing after two years. How many more fine-tuned racehorses must graphically die in the meantime before we see some leadership from the Racing Minister, Denis Napthine (denis.napthine [AT] parliament.vic.gov.au, ph 03 9095 4170)?

Geoffrey Taylor

Sun, 2011-08-28 08:17

This BrassCheck TV broadcast shows a crowd of Indians waving Indian flags presented by BBC World News as crowds of Libyans celebrating the recent 'liberation' of Tripoli. If this was an isolated incident it would be just possible to put it down to a stupid mistake behind the scenes, however as the BBC's coverage since the start of the conflict over seven months a go has been a tissue of lies, designed to demonise the Libyan Government and conceal the unpalatable truth about the TNC 'rebels', it was far more likely to be the result of a rush by the BBC to present footage of Libyans celebrating the conquest of Tripoli by the TNC where none existed. Another piece of film footage (which I can't find now) showing crowds celebrating the 'liberation' of Tripoli has been shown to be clearly a place other than Green Square in Tripoli and therefore must have been staged.

Real footage of crowds showing at least hundreds of thousands of Libyans and at one demonstration over a million Libyans, demonstrating in support of Muammar Gaddafi has been systemeticaly kept from the eyes of viewers of the BBC and the other mainstream newsmedia. One of many examples of films of huge pro-Gaddafi rallies suppressed by the mainstream (and most of the 'left') newsmedia is the YouTube Broadcast HUGE PRO GADDAFI RALLY in Tripoli - Raw Footage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWzNhk3zv4U .

quark

Sat, 2011-08-27 17:38

Kelvin Thomson's "witches hats" imagery illustrates just what happens when governments see their realm through the prism of pleasing self interested lobbyists especially those representing Big Business. As soon as changes are indicated to accommodate more people there is an inconvenience and disadvantage to the public especially if changes are on a large scale. People like change if they see an advantage to themselves but not if the change involves a loss for them. Australians have been told via the main media for a couple of decades that they have to give up the 1/4 acre block. Somehow, whoever is telling them this seems to have got the SPIN right because the public seem to have accepted this loss. People are, however not enjoying increasingly crowded public transport perhaps because they have not been primed for this. Nobody enjoys traffic congestion nor do they enjoy parking restrictions and parking fines- all consequences of increases in population and population density. If they were aware of it they would not be pleased about the steady decline of important aspects of the environment and the loss of agricultural land as it goes under more and more housing. The Victorian Labor government most likely lost the election at the end of last year as a consequence of population growth. The issues which caused friction and discontent were the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant , the North South Pipeline- taking water from the north of the state to the bloated and thirsty city of Melbourne, then there was the clearways issue - where the state government in its efforts to set free traffic gridlock from the constantly increasing number of cars proposed that certain thoroughfares should have extended periods where no parking was allowed on the side of the road in the direction of commuting traffic. This caused huge concern to those with (mainly small) businesses along these road routes. It seemed that the present population was sacrificing in so many ways for an ever growing population which Victoria really did not have to have at all! Unfortunately, the change of government in November 2010 gave the state no relief from the impositions of this process. The present government may avoid one "witches hat" but they will hit another. My guess is that the same number of "witches hats" will fall over no matter which party is in power unless population growth slows. This is of course no consolation to the voters as all they see- saw between powers for whom the best interests of the majority are not a priority

Greg (not verified)

Sat, 2011-08-27 05:06

The fundamental concern within the behavior of our privatised, autocratic mass media is its power to dominantly influence the social conversation and, concomitantly, its conscious intent to use this power to misinform and misdirect the social conversation toward belief and action that benefits undemocratic, narrowly beneficial agendas. This is not a free press. It is a private propaganda machine masquerading as a free press. Two primary aspects within it can and should be addressed. 'News' reporting must be subjected to sound standards regarding the reliable inclusion of all reasonably available fact, and balance of fact, pertinent to the matter being reported. Any entity has the right to publish opinion, satire and rhetoric constructed upon a select range of facts, but these forms should not be presented as or within 'News' reporting. When they are, readers should have effective recourse to compensation for the product fraud being broadly committed upon them. We do not tolerate being supplied with rat poison when purchasing peanuts. Why tolerate twisted logic based upon consciously edited half-truths when we purchase news reporting. The impact of this flawed product is not limited to just the discomfort of its consumption. It also distorts and disables the conversations we must then engage with and suffer throughout the day. Clear, measurable and un-contentious standards exist for objective journalism. Why not demand that commercial news reporting maintain such standards? Publishers can go for broke within opinion and magazine sections, however news reporting has a public interest obligation that transcends the proprietor's sole rights. Without primary access to a sound body of the basic available facts of a matter, how can there be any meaningful social conversation and thence any democratically useful public opinion? The other factor is distribution and location of media ownership. Ideally communities of interest should own their own newspapers. A lot of obstacles impede this, not least the yawning complacency and apathy of a consumer mentality that has been steadily geared toward immediate convenience over the pursuit of genuine satisfaction. Getting people to subscribe to their own long term interests is not easy. However that doesn't make the goal any less of an imperative. Some further thought on this matter on Geoff Davies' web site at: http://www.geoffdavies.com/Commentaries/Media.html

End logging at ... (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-26 18:30

All logging has been halted at Sylvia Creek until 19th September. See Sylvia Creek Court Injunction The portaloo was transported out of Gun Barrel at 10:30am and the gates were thrown open at 3:00pm. People still need to visit in case logging takes place without surveys. The vigil hasn't ended yet!

Cheshire Cat (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-26 18:14

I agree that Euro zone decision makers have become transfixed in 'Eurothink' but I disagree with your analysis.

1) Europe's current debt crisis has NOT been blatantly caused by financially reckless governments. One could argue that these governments have been financial recklessly borrowing for decades prior to joining. It takes two to trade. To create the present situation we need to add a single currency PLUS reckless lenders to feed the reckless borrower, and Euro institutions that allow and mismanaged these trades. The Euro is badly designed and its flaws are exploited (but by who?)

2) The so-called rescue packages don't seem to be saving any particular country but are designed to save and protect banks - 'too big to fail' . I can't see any one in Greece or Germany benefiting from these packages - so who wins? Moral hazard can be applied to the lender as well as the borrower.

3) Modern Money is formed by debt -creation. Sovereign debt (what our children have to pay / what our children will received) becomes a serious problem when (1) there is no limit on debt creation (a lack of an effective central bank) and (2) the distribution of that debt changes (in the Euro zone fuelled by the need to finance trading imbalances).

4) Government have the democratic right to commit their people to external debts if they are transparent and accountable. Here we could use the idea of odious debts (http://journal.probeinternational.org/odious-debts/). Again it takes two to make a corrupt deal - briber and the bribe-taking.

5) The present set of global austerity measures are suitable candidates for 'groupthink'. Deflation benefits creditors rather than borrowers; likewise inflation benefits debtors rather than creditors. So I would argue that the current round of austerity measures are not interest of German or Greek voters. 'Groupthink' is to think inflation is the main danger during a deflation period.

I agree with some of your conclusions but arrive there from a different direction - see my blog - http://redesigning-the-foot.blogspot.com .

Pepe (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-26 14:06

Subject was:

Chávez - war about oil

Chávez accused Western powers of riding roughshod over international laws by supporting the rebels in their revolt against Gaddafi.

He likened it to a "caveman era.”

Venezuela's leader spoke after rebels overran Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli in what appeared to be the end of his 42-year rule.

“We only recognize one government, the one led by Muammar Gaddafi,” Chávez said to applause as he presided over a cabinet meeting broadcast live on state TV.

The 57-year-old former soldier once again accused Western powers of fueling the conflict to steal Libya's oil.

He accused the United States of arranging the war. “They provided the arms, the mercenaries. They better not attempt to apply the Libyan formula to Venezuela or we'll have to show them our power.”

Both Chávez and Gaddafi are military men who forged a friendship during half a dozen encounters in the past decade. They have enjoyed a long-standing alliance based on left-wing economic ideas, antagonistic relations with the United States, and their countries' membership in OPEC.

Some media reports have suggested Gaddafi could seek asylum in Venezuela but Chávez has made no reference to that.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has had Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as his ally and fan, who regretted the attacks of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States on Libya. He even volunteered to join a diplomatic effort in order to find a peaceful solution for, in his words, a "civil war" in Libya.

As it stands now, Colonel Gaddafi faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced the attack against his country's embassy in Libya, calling it a " regrettable" incident. Chavez urged the armed groups to obey international law, and demanded respect for his country's ambassador and embassy staff in Libya.

Asked about such efforts to hunt for Gaddafi, Chavez said they reflect a "madness let loose." "What the Yankee empire and the European powers ... want is Libya's oil," Chavez said.

"They've destroyed a country and they continue destroying it," Chavez said. "How many Libyan children have died?"

nimby (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-26 13:23

Population from 2000 to 2005 grew by 38.052 million in Latin America. There are almost three times as many Africans alive today (767 million) as there were in 1960. Asia, by far the most populous region, has more than doubled in size (to over 3.6 billion), as has Latin America and the Caribbean. This staggering population growth is likely to have serious political, economic, social, strategic, and other implications. Too rapid population growth now is viewed widely as aggravating the problems of development and putting severe strains on services and facilities. Strong opposition from the church and the military has caused a lack of family planning in Latin America. Food production in most of Latin America has not kept pace with population growth. Economic dilemmas facing Latin America include widespread poverty, the world's highest per capita debt, unemployment and massive underemployment. It is clear that in Latin America most of the generation of university-trained young people are Marxists. A close relationship exists between unchecked population growth, spiraling socioeconomic problems, and the potential for political breakdown, destabilization, and internal unrest in Latin America. High population density and growth rates can also accentuate the risk of conflict by heightening competition for physical and social resources. Young, unemployed populations can be politically volatile and prone to violence, placing less trust in traditional patterns of authority. We have witnesses this in the Middle East and in the UK riots. Social disorder is contagious. The more we see it happening elsewhere the more it becomes imaginable where one lives. The rise in the population from the current 7 billion to 11 billion by the middle of the 21st century, and the limited energy, water, and food resources will be a major source of global socio-political instability. Nothing in a closed planetary system can sustain perpetual growth. Tensions will inevitably rise when there is unemployment and scarcity of space and high prices for goods and services. Vote for Stable Population Party so that Australia leads the way into the 21st century, and can continue to export much needed food to the Middle East - rather than consuming it all here because of a 'big Australia' and a sell-off of land to foreign countries.

francis (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-26 11:28

Kelvin Thomson stands out for his integrity, and clear statements and needle-sharp mind. He hasn't descended into the typical mainstream propaganda of the "growth is good" and pursuing population growth under the "economic growth" banner. Few would deny people the ability to buy affordable housing, and even the need for economic growth. There is no stability with our level of ongoing population growth, something that is assumed as inevitable and something that we must address. We have planning ministers giving favours to developers, due to the corruption of political donations. The same is for big businesses and the livestock industries. They have a monopoly on governments due to their economic and political power. We have a form of political patronage that supports the growth agenda. The Brumby government's excessive population push made him force onto the people of Victoria the irrational and knee-jerk plans for the desalination plant, the growth of the urban boundary, and the stress on housing that displaced many people from home ownership. There is little difference with the Baillieu government. The carbon tax has tested the Gillard government's accountability and popularity. While the carbon tax policy has credits, while there are so many inconsistencies, mainly to do with population growth, it will be hard to get the public support while costs of living are already climbing, and the carbon tax will add to the cost of power, and manufactured goods. Kelvin Thomson is an example of what leadership should be about - representing his constituents rather than pander to the interests of big businesses and global market forces. He actually is logical and likeable for his sincerity.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2011-08-25 22:20

We welcome these forest posts. Please use candobetter to build a history of these cases and our battles to save our trees. The volunteer writers and reporters and editors cannot do everything so, yes, please take initiative here.Thanks.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2011-08-25 21:37

Logging will be temporarily halted in a Victorian forest said to house endangered possums under a court order. MyEnvironment applied to the Victorian Supreme Court for an urgent injunction to stop VicForests logging trees in the Sylvia Creek Forest near Toolangi. In addition to the two remaining tree-sitters from yesterday, another was put in place overnight to protect the area that was being logged yesterday. Nevertheless the large group of community members who were standing by could hear chainsaws in the coupe this morning, though no falling trees. A barrister for the group, Kristen Walker, told the court the area provided a habitat for the endangered Leadbeater's Possum. http://interceder.net/topic/VicForests

BeattyK (not verified)

Thu, 2011-08-25 12:46

Vivienne: so you sent an actual letter to the Minister, Hon. Burke? Thanks for putting a copy of it on here, too. Can you believe that there exists an agency called VicForestry, one that's exactly the logging branch of the Victorian State Government?? So our state government (is meant to) manage our Parks in the form of Parks Victoria - as well as illegally log the leadbeater's habitat and trees in a non-N.P forest? I hope you might hear something from Hon. Burke. So he should respond. Seriously!!

Geoffrey Taylor

Thu, 2011-08-25 11:26

An article of Time magazine Bye-Bye, Gaddafi: How Italy Will Profit from the New Libyan Regime brazenly reveals what the war against Libyan people by the NATO Afrika Korps was really about: an attempt by Libya's former Italian colonisers togother with other Europen colonisers of Africa -- The UK France, and Germany -- to resume its past theft of Libyan wealth that was ended by the end of Italian colonialism and well and truly ended by Gaddafy in 1973

nimby

Thu, 2011-08-25 09:27

Dear Mr Burke

I respect and support your stance against our Victorian government for allowing livestock to use our Alpine National parks. There are further breaches happening by our Liberal-National State government.

They are illegally logging in Sylvia Creek Toolangi in the Central Highlands. This is for woodchipping, mainly for Reflex paper.

Leadbeater's Possums are our State's native symbol. However, their numbers are dropping. Those at Toolangi were fortunate to survive Black Saturday, but they are under threat from VicForests - logging in an area they are supposed to be. There is only a reported 1000 left.

They have failed to make the necessary surveys and there is even reports that the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act is to be watered down to ignore endangered species - for more logging. Protesters have been arrested, and a legal suit is being sent to the Supreme court to stop the logging, but it is continuing.

This is an urgent situation. Logging is also threatening koala numbers in the Strzelecki ranges. Ranges in South Gippsland are being replaced by shining gums in plantation areas after mountain ash harvest.

Please exercise our common-sense and duty as a Federal Minister of the Environment to stop this vandalism. I have emailed Ted Baillieu, but it makes no difference.

The EPBC act should enforce the protection of our endangered animals, and while we have an obligation to cut our carbon emissions, we need more than a carbon tax to do so. These forests are some of the most carbon dense in the world!

All this is happening for a few dollars - myopia at its worse! Please take action as a Federal Environment Minister.

Thank you
Vivienne Ortega
Victoria

Editorial comment: Thank you, Vivienne, for having posted a copy of your letter Tony Burke to candobetter. Please feel more than welcome to also post here any responses from Tony Burke (or please let us know if he fails to repond). - Ed

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2011-08-25 05:01

Thanks for this article, Geoffrey. I hope very much that it will attract some thoughtful comment and somehow contribute to reversing the scary tide of manufactured opinion. Historic negotiator and innovator, Gaddafi started OPEC, the world organisation that led the oil-producing Arab world out of colonial oppression, into independence and the capacity to negotiate fair prices on the world stage. To this day we rely on OPEC for world oil-pricing. As the unreasonable economic demands of the west have increased to service unwise population and economic growth in the face of projected oil decline, the west has renewed its campaign to dominate oil supplies at all costs, by removing Arab self-government by any means. It seems that the aim is to replace effective leaders it with puppet fundamentalists. Now, added to a shameful list which includes propaganda to justify war against Iraq, Afghanistan, and interference in Bahrain, World powers and their corporate newsmedia seem to misrepresent and shamefully prosecute a real hero. Gaddafi was no self-obsessed Islamic fundamentalist. He employed female guards and, as your film also shows, he worked to benefit the poor. A few weeks ago his daughter, a lawyer in Tripoli, came out to defend him articulately and movingly on the French news. Only quite recently his hand was shaken by Tony Blair, by US diplomats, by Sarkosi and by Berlusconi. In hindsight, that was their privilege and and now it is their shame to share in the pretence that this man is a monster. Where is the evidence? I note that the "Rebels" have been reported as likely to favour NATO states and to discriminate against those states which have been less keen to condemn Gaddafi. I also noticed, in the Financial Review (24 August 2011, p.15, "Rebel team positive but doubts linger") that the rebels sound like a grab-bag of disparate figures and it looks to me as if they are being set up by the corporate makers and fakers of world opinion to be 'managed' by foreign forces, like Iraq, Bahrain and so many other once-proudly independent oil producing nations at the beginning of OPEC. (If I have made some errors of fact, please write in and let me know. I have a lot to learn about Libya, but I do know a thing or two about oil economics history.) Sheila Newman, population and energy sociologist, Editor/Author of The Final Energy Crisis, Pluto Press, UK, 2008.

Geoffrey Taylor

Mon, 2011-08-22 22:53

The latest news from Libya reported by the ABC is that the Government of Muammar Ghaddaffi has lost control of 95% of Tripoli. And supporters of the Transitional National Council are now celebrating in Tripoli's "Green Square" which they have renamed "Martyr's Square". It is now hard to envision supporters of the Government of Muammar Ghadaffi being able to now regain the upper hand and win the civil war.

For more than six months the Libyans have endured naval and aerial bombardments, attacks by terrorists armed and supplied by NATO, theft of their country's resources and finances, diplomatic isolation and the cessation of overseas trade. A massive and sudden escalation last night of that war by NATO finally broke the Libyan people.

Why a number of those opposing the NATO war against Libya, including Global Research writers Thierry Meyssan, Joost van der Heuvel, and in Tripoli, political analyst Mahdi Nazemroaya and reporter Lizzie Phelan had interpreted events of only yesterday as a rout of the Libyan rebels from which would follow their elimination and the survival of the government of Muammar Ghaddafi is not clear. Possibly some answers my be found in the following Global Research articles: BREAKING NEWS. VIDEO. "Massive Atrocious Criminal Bombings" by NATO of 22 August by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya NATO SLAUGHTER IN TRIPOLI: "Operation Mermaid Dawn" Signals Assault by Rebels' Al Qaeda Death Squads of 22 August by Thierry Meyssan, VIDEO: NATO Attacks in Tripoli Threaten Lives of Journalists of 21 August by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, NATO Attacks in Tripoli Threaten Lives of Journalists of 21 August.

Evidence of participation by Western 'advisers'

From NATO-Backed Forces Move into Tripoli of 22 August in Global Research:

“The overwhelming game-changer in the war has been international support for the rebels,” the Independent wrote Saturday. The newspaper described the scene in Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, a key center of the “rebels,” where their reporter encountered “a group of Western men in unmarked combat clothing, watchful, carrying guns. They were shy to speak to me and would not say who they were. According to rebel fighters, the current success in the field has been due to the planning carried out by these ‘advisers.’”

A second report in the Independent, published Sunday, declared: “The regime forces, after being pulverised for months by NATO, do not appear to have the capabilities to break through the rebels and re-establish a lifeline to the outside world. The rebels are still pretty inept, but they are receiving training and considerable assistance from Western former forces contractors, who are now planning and accompanying their missions.”

Workers' Liberty, a 'socialist' supporter of the war against Libya

Workers' Liberty, which supported the six month NATO war against Libya, had seemingly lost its voice in regard to Libya for quite a few months. For many hours after the reported overthrow of Gaddafi, Workers' Liberty maintained its deafening silence. Finally, some time before 11.30PM +10 they posted the story with the ludicrous title Victory to the working class of Libya!. This story makes no mention of the massive escalation of the NATO aerial bombardment last night nor of the landing of thousands of 'rebel' fighters on the beaches of Tripoli by NATO warships. If it were not for the fact that this is a web-site that poses as a socialist organisation opposed to war and US and UK imperialism, the deceit of this web-site could be judged no worse than that of the Murdoch newsmedia so indignantly denounced by Workers' Liberty.

In fact, Workers' Liberty is even more sinister and more deceitful than the Murdoch Press. Almost certainly the influnece that this organisation and other phony socialist organisations were able to wield in British politics prevented an anti-war movement that would have stopped the UK from bombing Libya from emerging.

nimby (not verified)

Mon, 2011-08-22 09:54

Prominent business and union leaders have endorsed a new strategy on asylum seekers that would have mandatory detention phased out within two years and Australia's intake of refugees significantly increased over five years.

Read more: Plea for asylum policy rethink in the Age of 22 August 2011 bu Michael Gordon.

Predictably, Heather Ridout and Janet Holmes a Court, along with ACTU chief are among more than 30 well-known Australians to back the strategy. More people will ensure the "big Australia" policy heads towards reality.

After the refugee swap with Malaysia, there are doubts about whether Kuala Lumpur is capable of honouring its commitment under the deal to uphold the human rights of the asylum seekers returned.

A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner argued that until Australia can overcome its "collective paranoia" about boat arrivals, it will be difficult to achieve sensible decision-making.

He says that Australia is the only nation with mandatory detention, yet "we see far fewer asylum arrivals than other countries and host far fewer of the world's refugees". Maybe that's because we are the driest continent, and the country with the most un affordable housing, climate change threats, irregular water supplies, and rising poverty. It our environment that supports our survival and our "carrying capacity", not economics or government policy.

The obvious way to solve the asylum seeker issue is to dis entangle ourselves as a nation from the UN's 1951 refugee convention. We shouldn't be directed by the UN. We should uphold our sovereignty and make our own decisions on how we deal with refugees. Our immigration program is completely discriminatory and biased towards economic immigrants - mainly students and the well-off to buy into our property market.

People are scared of asylum seekers as they fear their numbers will push us closer a "big Australia". However, this is not the case. We are heading there anyway, not because of refugees but because of our government's policy. Humanitarian intake is only about 14,000 per year, yet overall it is 185,000. The media focus is cleverly on a "solution" for the asylum seekers, but it's pathetically easy to live in Australia if you are young and willing to pay hefty education fees. Only the well-off can get here without political or media attention.

Geoffrey Taylor

Mon, 2011-08-22 08:54

Only last night a report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) news was confidently predicting the end of the embattled Government of Muamar Ghadaffii. within about a day. Almost immediately afterwards, I was to learn from Global Research, that in fact, the 'rebels' had been routed near Tripoli. The recent set-backs of the NATO-propped Libyan 'Transitional National Council' had been deliberately concealed from the public by political leaders and their media fearing the consequences of their intended victims' survival of over six months of aerial and naval bombardment, a sustained ground war by terrorists funded and supplied by NATO countries and the illegal seizure of funds and assets belong to the Libyan people - prosecutions the International Criminal Court in Belgium of the individual leaders who have conducted that criminal campaign - Sarkozy, Cemeron, US President of State Hillary Clinton and US President Barack Obama, the head of NATO Anders Rasmussen. Today, the Reuters story Analysis: Libya rebels seek to avoid Tripoli battle claimed that "gauging the loyalty of Tripoli's population is far from easy." It was only "far from easy" for those in the past kept ignorant, by the likes of Reuters, of news of daily demonstration of at least hundreds of thousands, showing the Libyan peoples' overwhelming support for their Government standing up to the US and NATO . These massive demonstrations were acknowledged in the following sentence, which still attempted to downplay that support: "Gaddafi loyalists have put on many marches and demonstrations of loyalty in recent months," It is not only the mainstream western newsmedia who have attempted to deceive the public about Libya over recent months, but also some of the supposed far-left 'socialist' newsmedia. At best, they have said very little or even maintained total silence. However one publication, the UK Workers' Liberty actually came out in support of the bombing of Libya. Note: Rupert Murdoch's Australian, which has shamelessly peddled NATO's lies, at least since NATO imposed a suppose "no-fly zone" over Libya on 18 March, has nevertheless, included in its story More than six months of conflict in Libya of 22 August, a useful chronology of the conflict.

nimby (not verified)

Sun, 2011-08-21 09:09

A leading Japanese recruiter of teachers from Australia is placing recruits closer to leaky nuclear reactors than recommended by Canberra's radiation safety agency. It maintains no teacher will be placed in an area the Japanese Government deems "unsafe". A magnitude 6.8 quake jolted Japan off Fukushima, tsunami advisory 19 Aug 2011. A 50 cm tsunami advisory was issued for the coast of Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. No damage or injuries have been reported, and the tsunami advisory was lifted after no waves were sighted. The quake was strongly felt in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, causing the Shinkansen bullet train in the region to suspend service and expressways to be closed. Rice, still a significant staple, has not been planted in many areas. Others face stringent tests and potentially harmful shipping bans after radioactive cesium was found in rice straw. Relations between the United States and Japan, already strained over the delayed relocation of an American military base on Okinawa, received no help this week when a retired U.S. envoy publicly criticized Tokyo's initial response in March to the nation's nuclear crisis. U.S. officials worried about the lack of leadership shown by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to partial reactor meltdowns at the coastal plant. Japan has approved the full resumption of the commercial operations of an atomic reactor for the first time since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The Japanese economy is chronically stagnant and has been further threatened by the energy shortages. An overwhelming number of Japanese, for years ambivalent about nuclear power, are now calling for the country’s remaining reactors to be shut down. Citizens, anti-nuclear groups, and government officials gathered recently in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to push for renewable energy sources and nuclear non-proliferation.

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2011-08-21 01:49

I just posted this comment to GetUp suggestion for the ABC to return to its Charter and it was not posted as far as as I was able to tell. So the need for me to post it here and not let it go to waste.- JS

If you want to see what abysmal service the ABC provides see how they failed to even to act upon my request that they find out what all the candidates' intentions were in regard to privatisation prior to the 2009 Queensland elections please look hereat 6 . Had they done so, either the Labor Government would have been made to promise not to sell off any assets or they would have been voted out, but YOUR ABC did neither and they gave me, the one candidate campaigning against privatisation in the 2009 elections almost no air-time.

After Bligh got back into power, she announced her plans to sell off huge amounts of publicly owned assets, again the wishes of more than 80% of Qld electors according to some opinion polls.

This is not only a good reason to sack Bligh and every labor member from Parliament and from ever again holding any job paid for with taxpayers' funds it is also a good reason for Direct Democracy.

Could you consider supporting my proposal for Direct Democracy at tinyurl.com/3nmwwjq ? I think if Direct Democracy were law, we would stand a much greater chance of having great suggestions such as this adopted as law.

Please also see http://candobetter.net/DirectDemocracy.

Bandicoot

Sat, 2011-08-20 13:46

Some contend that recognition of Aboriginal customary law as part of Australian legislation entitles other cultures to similar privileges. However, Aboriginal communities and their laws predated British colonisation and mass immigration, and they have a primary right in some cases to enforce their own justice. Islam is an introduced culture, and the default result of immigration, not something organically belonging to Australia or our heritage. As the host country we are entitled to demand adherence to our legal system without a parallel conflicting one. Sharia laws are especially used to over-ride divorce laws, and discriminate against women who are denied the same rights. The introduction of hybrid laws or sharia arbitration for family or criminal matters could transgress our laws and mean mean constant revision and stress on our existing system. Their laws are based on theocracy, not democracy. Laws from 7th-century Arabia may not be applicable in the 21st.

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2011-08-20 13:01

The original post got the name wrong - it should have been "Maryam Namazie" but the information about who started 3RPP 98.7FM is right, according to the leader of The Peninsula Women’s Information and Support Service Inc, 3 Lyons Street, Rye, Elida Radig: "Maybe somebody, now, will ask the two important questions: The name of the woman who started 3RPP? and which program in England was started by Maryam? Two great Feminists working in the world of patriarchy!! You have give us the opportunity to enhance the information on both women! In sisterhood Elida Radig"

Tigerquoll

Sat, 2011-08-20 10:41

Islamic Sharia Law is incompatible with British Common Law. The fundamental principles are mutually exclusive. Therefore to try to introduced Islamic law in a non-Islamic society such as Britain can only be to either make Britain Islamic or have two sets of opposing laws in the one nation. The former solution constitutes political overthrow. The latter constitutes apartheid.

But as Britain's open door immigration policy has encouraged, hundreds of thousands of Muslims now have established a beachhead in key urban centres across England. Take the London suburb of Waltham Forest for example, just east of Tottenham.

Waltham Forest... fundamentalist group tries to enforce Sharia law in east London community'

by Oliver Harvey, Chief Feature Writer for The Sun Newspaper 28th July 2011.

'It's the leafy London suburb that's gearing up to be one of the host local authorities for next year's Olympics. But yesterday bemused residents of Waltham Forest were reacting to news the borough had been declared an Islamic emirate by a fringe group of fundamentalists.

The group Muslims Against Crusades has demanded strict Sharia law in the east London community - banning gambling, smoking and alcohol. Dozens of posters had been put up - quickly removed by the council - insisting: "You are entering a Shariah controlled zone - Islamic rules enforced."

The group's Islamic Emirates Project aims to establish independent Muslim states within Britain and has also earmarked Bradford and Dewsbury in West Yorks, and Luton, Beds.
The Islamic group's website said: "Muslims Against Crusades would like to announce that Waltham Forest is to be the first borough to be targeted for an intense Shariah-led campaign."

Yesterday supporter of the group Abu Izzadeen, 36, insisted he wants to see the stoning of adulterers and women forced to cover up their bodies on the streets of Waltham Forest, which has one of the country's highest Muslim populations. The radical - an electrician called Trevor Brooks before converting to Islam - said last night: "It would be changed to the Islamic Emirate of Waltham Forest. Why not? We need Sharia law here.

"We have a big problem with prostitution here, a huge problem with drugs, we have an infestation of gambling shops on the High Road and the free mixing of males and females.

"Women would have to cover up. It should be forbidden that they are not. Thieves should have their hands cut off."

As for stoning of adulterers in Waltham Forest the preacher added: "One day we hope it will happen."

The preacher, who was convicted in 2008 for terrorism fund-raising and giving speeches urging Muslims to fight US troops in Iraq, said he will speak at a rally by the group after a march through the borough on Saturday.

In Leyton, locals refused to react to the provocation. Muslims Redzz Shakeel and Sal Warner said the group's comments were ill-timed after the Norway massacre by a far-Right fanatic.

Insurance worker Sal, 29, insisted: "This is just trying to separate different communities but it's not going to work.

"We don't want stonings in this country. That's crazy. This is Britain and everyone should live by Britain's laws."

Musician Redzz, 24, added: "It's a tiny minority of Muslims who want laws like this. People are entitled to their own views but shouldn't try to tell other people how to live."

Shopping in High Road, Leyton, unemployed Abdul Rehman, 56, a Muslim originally from Pakistan, added: "They should go to a Muslim country if they want to live under those laws. It has no place in Britain."

Community leaders urged residents to ignore the "publicity stunt". Mohammed Ilyas, general secretary at Waltham Forest mosque, said: "We totally condemn these kinds of views and if someone came in here preaching that kind of message we would throw them out."

Unemployed Leyton Orient fan Rob Morgan, 50, said: "We have people from all over the world here and by and large we all get on well. This group is not going to change that."

Mum-of-two Valerie Houghton, 23, insisted: "They can declare Sharia law but I'm going to wear what I want and have a glass of wine when I want one.

"I believe in live and let live but won't be told what to do." 'It's a minority view' ... Redzz Shakeel, Valerie Houghton and Sal Warner say they will not be told how to live by Islamic group

Yesterday Waltham Forest Council said it had removed the posters and was combing through CCTV footage to help police prosecute any offenders.

Council leader Chris Robbins said: "People shouldn't get the wrong idea about our borough because a handful of small-minded idiots decided to deface our streets with ridiculous posters."

Ghaffar Hussain of Quilliam, a counter-extremism and pro-democracy think-tank, said: "Muslims Against Crusades are a lunatic fringe of troublemakers not even taken seriously by genuine extremists, let alone ordinary Muslims who abhor their rhetoric and tactics and find them an embarrassment."

Earlier this month female visitors to the Noor Ul Islam summer fete at Leyton Cricket Ground were ordered to cover their shoulders by Muslim organisers.

Fete volunteer Hasib Hussain told a local paper: "T-shirts were only given to people who were dressed inappropriately, like those wearing mini-skirts or low-cut tops."

Muslims Against Crusades was set up last year and its members were behind a poppy-burning protest on Armistice Day.

Britain's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants has been encouraging Sharia Law practice since 2003

CIMA First UK Institute to offer Islamic Finance Qualification

"ONE of the UK’s leading accountancy bodies will this week try to cash in on the growing popularity of Islamic banking with the launch of an Islamic finance qualification. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) will become the first accountancy body in the UK to train its members in Islamic financial law, which prohibits the receipt and payment of interest. Investments in industries such as alcohol and gambling are also banned.

According to the Financial Services Authority, the Islamic finance industry is now worth up to £250bn globally. Over the past five years several mainstream UK banks, including HSBC, have started to offer products such as Islamic mortgages and current accounts to Britain’s Muslim communities."

No rich tapestry in public service

(ABC Radio National, 'National Interest' programme aired on 18th August 2011).

Meanwhile there are those in Australia hell bent on maximising the 'rich tapestry' of migrant multiculturalism by advocating employment favouritism of migrants in Australia' public service. Case in point is Professor of Diversity Management, Santina Bertone, of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne's east.

"The post-war migration program has transformed Australian society and many of our cities are today extremely culturally and linguistically diverse. But it appears that transformation hasn't made it through to state and local governments in Australia. A new study into the cultural make-up of our public servants has shown that migrants from non-English-speaking countries are under-represented in the workforce of State and local governments in Australia.

The problem is particularly noticeable in councils -- even in those suburbs with very large non-English-speaking communities. So, why the imbalance? Why have these two levels of government not been able to create a more representative workforce? And does it matter? Do we need our public service to mirror Australia's population? According to new research, the problem is more with the culture of employment than outright discrimination. But how can we change this? And why are federal departments so much better at harnessing Australia's cultural diversity?"

...Meanwhile Australia's unemployed in July 2011 numbered 611,000. The number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 38,000 to 2.49 million in the three months to June 2011.

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 2011-08-20 09:55

Introducing "diversity" in our legal system is a recipe for division and society's fragmentation. People coming to Australia must understand our culture, our legal system, our democratic Judeo-Christian heritage and system of government. Superimposing Sharia Law over our long-serving traditions and legal system is an affront to Australia. Sharia has been operating in parallel to the British legal system, since 1982. All Western influences, from alcohol, music, television and movies, are banned under strict Islamic rules. What is considered the norm of liberalism can't be accommodated in a Western culture as it's contradictory and divisive. "Multiculturalism" has been beneficial economically and socially to Australia in the past as we had immigrants from countries willing to smoothly accept Australian values. However, mass immigration and the "diversity" we have now is not the same. Sharia law is not democratic, and is not appropriate to impose on women and children in today's Australian society. "Multiculturalism" now is being used to fulfil our government's "big Australia" policy. Instead, "multiculturalism" should be assimilation. We don't need a "big Australia" to prove our tolerance. It seems that like Britain, we must pay the price of having 70 years of "white Australia" and for the earlier "sins" of Colonialism.

Women's Rights (not verified)

Sat, 2011-08-20 08:44

Maryam Namazie talks on Sharia Law, Tuesday, 23 August, 6.30pm at the Wheeler Center, 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne at 6.30pm, cost $10. Run by Pen, 0402049487.

Sharia Law and Human Rights – August 23, Wheeler Centre

One Law for All, UK – Presenter Maryam Namazie
Date: Tuesday, August 23 , 6.30pm
Venue: The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

Cost: $10
RSVP by email

Maryam is a human rights and refugee advocate, broadcaster and spokesperson for One Law for All (UK).
One Law for All opposes sharia law in Britain. Maryam will explain why and reflect on sharia law and the implications for human rights, especially women and children’s rights. This is a timely presentation and discussion in Australia.

About the event

Bio of Maryam Namazie

lois daley (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-19 11:02

As a person who protested at the land grab by the C.o.P.P. of a heritage listed park (Garden City Reserve) in 2005 for a n.home hostel units day centre etc I congratulate your group in the successfull campaign to save your open spaces for all and not for greed and political greed. Regards Lois Daley 19 Crichton ave Port Melb.3207. 9646 2304. 19.8.2011

Tigerquoll

Fri, 2011-08-19 09:53

What power do democratic elections forgo? When we cast our vote for governments under our so-called representative democracy, we are mislead into believing that our interests in how our nation is governed are to be delegated to the political aspirants based upon their electoral promises. What we get though is three or four years of self-serving aristocracy who pursue their own agendas, who treat their electoral mandate as if bestowed a Napoleonic carte blanche - they take us to a war we don't want, sell our public assets they have no right to sell, pursue policies we didn't vote upon, waste public moneys by the billions, and renege on their electoral promises. So-called 'people power' in Australia is only a casual affair once every three or four years - when we go to the ballot. Yet that power is hijacked by electioneering propaganda paid for by millions in political donations, in return for policy favours to the donors. The process is as corrupt as India's democracy. After their term is up we can't get rid of them fast enough and we go and believe the other mob's electoral promises, memory cast to the wind. Such continues Australia's system of government since Federation. Clearly Henry Parkes' vision is not working. Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan Snowy River Region Victoria 3885 Australia

James Sinnamon

Fri, 2011-08-19 04:52

The following has been adapted from a comment I posted to the GetUp suggestion: Stop the privatisation of Publicly owned asserts... any such actions should be put to a referendum., referred to in my previous comment: Telstra would not have been privatised if we had had Citizens Initiated public referenda. When the Howard Government privatised Tesltra that, by my recollection, it was opposed by 66% of the Australian public. (You may find of interest, the site which I maintained and which has now been archived by the Australian National Library at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/45522/20081105-0004/www.citizensagainstsellingtelstra.com/index.html - I intend to resurrect it as www.citizensagainstsellingtelstra.net - because someone else grabbed the domain citizensagainstsellingtelstra.com .) Even though the Liberal and National Parties were formally for privatisation in 2004, all of them, including Pime Minister John Howard, were very quiet about it in the 2004 elections. In fact, more Coalition candidates spoke against the privatistion of Telstra than for it in that election campaign. (See my article "Coalition victory - a mandate to privatise?" of 31 October 2004 at http://pandora.nla.gov.au) That didn't stop them from voting for the privatisation of Telstra in 2006. If Senator Barnaby Joyce had kept his 2004 election promise to oppose privatistion, it would have been stopped. (See "An open letter to Senator Barnaby Joyce" of 12 Sep 2005 at http://pandora.nla.gov.au

James Sinnamon

Fri, 2011-08-19 03:22

I am not the only person and not the first to to have proposed a campaign for Direct Democracy to GetUp. Others include:

Bandicoot

Thu, 2011-08-18 17:20

Australia is the driest continent on earth and as we push towards an ever increasing population we must be mindful of the fact the less than 9 per cent of our continent's surface is arable land. This limited area for producing food for the nation is under threat from coal seam gas mining. The Age August 17th It seems that the human race is genetically designed to build their (our) own funeral pyre! With a blow-out of human numbers, diminishing soils, loss of fertilizers, climate change, and the energy crisis, we are converging to catastrophes. Coal seam mining destroying what could be needed in the future - arable land for agriculture - is self-fulfilling our final destiny - overpopulation and hunger. Commercial patronage of governments at all levels ended. There is too much collusion with businesses and corporations, and they are running and ruining our country. The nation of our fore-fathers is being destroyed by greed. We need an economy to provide our clothing, food, and income. But the Economy and it 's growth should not be to our detriment. The raison d'etre for our government should be to make policies and plans for the benefit of Australia and Australians. However, they have been hijacked by the elite, such as mining companies, globalised businesses, the livestock industries and property developers. Those with money and power have the ability to sway government decisions. Now they are all about sacrificing our land, our resources, our living standards and our welfare for "big" profits, population and "small" and finite future. Selling off prime agricultural land for coal profits is vandalism and it's a case of too many human "rights" and not enough human "responsibilities". Maybe due to our "success" as a species, we are evolutionarily designed to self-exterminate ourselves? Modern humans have been on the planet for 200,000 years. It's seems inevitable we won't see the next 200,000 years, and maybe not the next century. Even if the public are concerned and conservative, governments are driven by such idiotic and fatalistic greed and short-term-ism.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2011-08-18 12:27

Dear Tigerquoll,
Thanks for this article, but please look at the other main article on this problem, The US Dollar as a weapon: debt and devaluation," which was posted on August 7th, 2011 by admin. It gives a context for how wierd it is to have the US force the rest of the world to maintain its profligacy (overspending) whilst every other country is expected to submit to austerity and give up its public assets and people to give up self-government control over their affairs.

"The decline in the value of the US dollar is engineered by the US government in order to make US products more affordable and to relaunch their manufacturing economy. The world is trapped by the US into subsidising its debt on account of the very large market it represents and the control over the money markets of US corporate investors. Other economies with higher value currency will experience a falling off in sales because the goods they produce will be less affordable on the world market. Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schuman wrote about this 'trap' late last century. Read what they wrote then and consider how well it explains our current situation." More here: The US Dollar as a weapon: debt and devaluation."

End live export... (not verified)

Thu, 2011-08-18 12:06

Malaysia is especially sensitive to the disease hendra virus threat because of outbreaks of a similar bat-borne virus to Hendra, Nipah virus, which infects pigs and through them people. Fortunately, it means that they will not continue with the live export trade of animals from Australia. (The Australian newspaper reports).

The virus has spread from bats to horses and a dog so far.

This has been kept quiet so far. It has not been announced by either the Australian or Malaysian governments.

More than 80 per cent of Australia's live goat market is transported to Malaysia, which is worth $15m annually.

With the live export focus on sheep to the Middle East, it was assumed that the shorter voyages made by cattle to Indonesia, and close ties due to this country being on our door-step, meant a well-organised trade. However, the atrocities were kept secret from the media and public.

Two separate bids to end live animal exports failed to win the support of a single Government or Opposition MP. The rant of "jobs and income" has a much higher priority in our business-run democracy than the welfare of exported animals, or morality.

Now there is horrendous films showing evidence of torture of Australian cattle in Turkey. Lyn White of Animals Australia said the footage showed conscious cattle strung up by one hind leg before their throats were cut.

Although the cruelty shown in Indonesian abattoirs was condemned by the Halal Authority in Australia as being un-Islamic, there is little control and no laws in many countries on how animals are be be slaughtered - butchered to death!

Negotiations are now underway to resume trade.

James Sinnamon

Thu, 2011-08-18 01:24

The following comment was posted to GetUp:

This could backfire.

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter"

Winston Churchill

I think if people were more aware of all sides of Churchill, he would not be considered such a morally credible authority on democracy.

Whilst Churchill is rightly credited for refusing to surrender to Hitler in 1940, when so many of the British ruling elites wanted to give in to Hitler, his record in those years also includes many considerably darker episodes. One was his betrayal of the Greek people in 1944 by the imposition upon them of a brutal dictatorship made up of Greeks who had collaborated with the German and Italian occupiers. I wrote of this on the ABC Radio National web-site on 17 July 2011:

I think Rear Vision owes to the Greek people and to its Australian audience to tell the truth about Greek history.

The account of the Greek Civil War is untrue. The Greek Communist Party led the resistance to the German occupation and had overwhelming support of the Greek people. In 1944, the British tricked the Communist partisans into disarming whilst they secretly re-armed those who had collaborated with the Germans against fellow citizens. They were able to do this because of the betrayal of the Greek Communist Party and the unquestioning support for Stalin by the Greek Communist Party. The Greek Communist Party abused its support from the Greek people to convince then to lay down their weapons. The result was a massacre of the most patriotic Greeks by former German collaborators whilst the British looked on. At this time, the heroic partisan leader Aris Velouchiotis was murdered by collaborators. He died in the knowledge that the Greek Communist Party leaders that he supported had denounced him as a traitor for refusing to lay down his arms.

One of the placards at the mass Greek protests against the British read: "The Germans are back".

Patriotic Greeks could have so easily beaten the British and the former German collaborators in the war of 1944 and the subsequent civil war from 1946-1949 if they were not so appallingly misled by the Greek Communist Party.

For a truthful account of the Greek Civil War please read "The Kapetanios" written about 1970 by Frenchman Dominique Eudes.

It was, in part, due to his crimes committed against the Greek people that Churchill was deservedly beaten in the elections of July 1945.

I would be interested to know of how many examples Churchill would have been able to cite of his being smarter than the average British voter.

If Britain was anything like Australia has been in recent decades, I doubt if Churchill would have been able to cite anywhere near as many examples of stupidity by British voters as they would have been able to cite examples of his government's stupidity, if not criminality.

Save Leadbeater... (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-17 18:36

Protesters honed in on Sylvia Creek, near Toolangi, today along with the media. The devastation was immediately visible, but not the loggers. There was a brave tree-sitter high up, and the machinery was locked down by ropes attached to the tree. There were no arrests. Our State government is responsible for the protection of endangered species, yet they are their main threat. Leadbeater's Possums managed to survive Black Saturday and now are under threat from logging. They are nocturnal creatures that live in tree hollows. The DSE failed to see them, so conveniently the logging can continue. It's a case of the fox in charge of the hens! With vested interests in woodchips for Japan, the government contradictorily is destroying the habitat of the creatures it has responsibility to manage. There was a protest outside VicForests' office at Healesville, but they decided to lock the door. If there was nothing to hide from, they wouldn't have to hide.

Chocolate is th... (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-17 09:19

On Tuesday 16 August 2011 Brimbank Council withdrew their proposal to sell 12 of the 14 proposed "open spaces" .This is a victory for the people of Brimbank who fought hard and responded with 700 submissions. In this case people power got 12/14, an indication that these open spaces are viable and valuable, to be retained in the community. Virginia Tachos, Chair of "Our Parks Not For Sale" has thanked everyone who supported the campaign. Supporters are invited to celebrate the community's victory by attending a BBQ this Sunday 21st of August from 12 noon at 7a Patterson Avenue Keilor. (Mel 14F6). Contact Virginia, Mobile 0411 333 575 The campaign is not altogether over yet because members intend to push to have the reclassification to residential returned to that of reserve or open space. Further the will be campaigning for the land to be returned rightfully to the ownership of the community. As long as the land remains a "council asset" the same problem is likely to come back to haunt the community. The group is firm about making sure these areas are retained for the benefit and enjoyment of everyone now and in the future no matter how long or what it takes. Sources of Info: Julianne Bell, Protectors of Public Land Vic; Virginia Tachos and Graeme Elkington of Our Parks Not For Sale.

local (not verified)

Tue, 2011-08-16 19:02

Mornington Peninsula Council is out of touch and their 6.8 per cent rate hike is excessive, say ratepayer groups. Hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on planning issues. It's all about the amendment C87 to stop subdivision, to appease an elitist Mt. Eliza group representing less than 3% of the local rate payers. Councils lose money when developers vie for opportunities, and those with money and privileges want to preserve their large blocks. This council has has lost sight on Protecting the peninsula. What is needed is money spent on Mount Martha and Mornington's failing Infrastructure to cope with the massive increase in families over the past 5 years. With the Peninsula LInk and the proposed growth in the area, compounded by the threats to our "green wedges", rates are likely to keep increasing to pay for infrastructure needed for growth. Population growth costs are being passed onto residents, and blowing out economies of scale. Businesses and those who are part of the pro-growth lobby continue to spout about more "prosperity" from a bigger population, but they simply pass the costs onto the public while they reap the benefits. It's no more than a Ponzi investment scheme.

nimby (not verified)

Tue, 2011-08-16 11:37

We are always preached to about being "sustainable" and about reducing water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, recycling, and the avoidance of over-using our cars. However, governments are guilty of being the biggest guzzlers of power, of being addicted to the growth paradigm, and of being the biggest eco-criminals in our society! The public are supposed to take action, but not governments. The Desal plant was an enormous mistake, and the public will be forced to pay for it. There is nothing "sustainable" or environmentally friendly about this project. It was a complete management disaster. The Bracks/Brumby government, even during the drought while they had the Target 140 litres a day campaign, continued to boost Victoria's population and outstripped any efforts made by the public to save water! Brumby gets to retire in comfort, yet the public will be burdened for years for this folly of un-sustainable madness.

Agent Provocateur

Mon, 2011-08-15 21:07

What We Want! Direct Democracy instead of representative democracy I couldn't register a login at Getup but I posted this link to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/ajburchell Excerpt: Under the laws of Direct Democracy, if the required number of signatures are obtained, then the proposal must be put to the Swiss people at the periodic multiple national referenda that are held in Switzerland. If the proposal is voted for by a double majority, then it becomes law. Direct Democracy differs from the way representative democracy is practised in most countries formally labeled 'democratic'. I believe that few of those countries, notably Australia, can be described as truly democratic in the sense of "government of the people by the people and for the people". If those countries adopted Direct Democracy, then they could become truly democratic. On many occasions, in at least the last four decades Australia, has experienced Parliaments which have inexcusably ignored the clear wishes of the Australian people.

quark

Mon, 2011-08-15 15:36

The subject of rights of miners vs those of farmers have been very much in the main media in the past few days in Australia after Tony Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition is reported to have favoured farmers over miners in one of his utterances . ABC radio this morning was on this subject with several people directly affected by claims to drill for gas on their properties calling to speak on the program. The tenor of the discussion maintained by the presenter expressed very much a market based philosophy where the essence of the issue was the relative productiveness of the land in question under a mining or a farming regime assuming that the minerals /fuels beneath the surface belong to all. (I wonder about those who will not be able to benefit as they will be born after the exhaustion of these mines.) Ecological services, aesthetics, biodiversity were largely absent from the discussion. The presenter also remarked that the miners would be in quite a hurry to extract what they could and sell it as the fossil fuels in question, brown coal and gas would be redundant as soon as the technology to exploit other energy sources such as solar , geothermal and wind were up and running. The carbon tax should sort that one out ...shouldn't it?

Richo (not verified)

Mon, 2011-08-15 03:04

Direct Democracy not Parliamentary Rule Anti-parliamentary politics and the case against voting which features some material by Joe Toscano, is cause to doubt Joe Toscano's judgement when it was written back in 2001. Two articles which could only have harmed democracy and ordinary Australians given what we know of Australian history prior to them being written and since are An anarchist anti-election campaign - 1998 and Election 2001 - For Direct Democracy not Parliamentary Rule. John Howard won the 1996 elections giving many who voted for him the impression that he was not going to do anything too radical to Australia. After Howard won, he 'discovered' a huge 'black hole' in the Federal Budget, conveniently for him, concealed from the electors by Paul Keating during the election campaign. This gave Howard the excuse he needed to do what a number of commentators believed that he intended to do all along, that is to viciously cut back government programs and spending. I remember my own financial circumstances and career prospects having been seriously harmed by Howard's actions. The highly suspicious Port Arthur Massacre also occurred in 1996 soon after Howard was first elected. This gave Howard the excuse needed for him to change Australia's gun laws so that only police, the army and the rich had the right to own firearms. Of course, those prepared to break the law continued to break the law by owning illegal firearms so guns were not removed from the hands of criminals. Only ordinary, honest Australians had the right to bear firearms taken away from them. This undemocratic act, in fact, turned John Howard, whilst he was at the same time viciously attacking the poor economically, into the darling of Australia's "bleeding heart" anti-gun middle classes, who for months would not hear from me, one harsh word said against Howard. During his first term Howard, who had dishonestly claimed after his election defeat in 1993, to have completely abandoned any plans to introduce a GST, set up a sham Parliamentary inquiry into "tax reform". The purpose of the 'inquiry' was so obviously not to conduct an inquiry into tax reform, but, rather, to deliver a pre-set 'recommendation' for the GST that Liberal MP Paul Zammit resigned from the committee in disgust. In 1998, on script, the 'inquiry' delivered its 'recommendation' that the GST, that Howard promised in 1993 that he would never again try to introduce, be introduced. Howard closed Parliament early, and then called an early election before Parliament could be recalled. As a result the 'inquiry' report was not properly scrutinised by Parliament. As a result, Howard was able to make many claims about the 'inquiry' report during the election which were subsequently shown in Parliament to be false. Even so, he only just scraped back into power, in fact, losing the popular two-party preferred vote 48.5% to 52.5%, but that was all he needed to be able to inflict three more years of harm to ordinary Australians and democracy, just to begin with. This included his attempt 1998 to break the Maritime Union of Australia using mercenary strikebreakers. I do not know what impact Joe Toscano's anti-election campaign had on the outcome of the 1998 elections, but it most likely would have dissuaded some people who would normally have voted against Howard from voting. If it had any sizable impact, it could well have made the difference that would have allowed Howard to scrape back in. Joe Toscano's "anti-election campaign" may well have made it possible for Howard to launch his vicious attacks on Australians in his next three years of office. Of course, this is not to say that if Labor had won in 1998 it would have been any better than other 'Labor' governments in previous decades, but at least it could not have behaved anywhere nearly as nastily as the re-elected Howard Government behaved. Re-electing a government that has just beaten you with a steel bar is surely just asking to be beaten again. In subsequent years, the Howard Government was to launch the war against Afghanistan based on the pretext of September 11, participate in the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq and, in 2005, attempt to take away collective bargaining rights that Australian workers had with his "Work Choices" act. If Joe Toscano's thinking back in 1998 and 2001 exemplifies Anarchist thinking in Australia, then it seems to be seriously flawed.

nimby (not verified)

Sun, 2011-08-14 13:49

It's interesting the the State government and Planning Minister Matthew Guy justify all the "developments" and land grabs as due to a critical housing and land "shortages", and no-one can object. Few would be brave enough to challenge that housing is a basic human need that can't be denied. However, while they on one hand try to address the housing shortages by grabbing "vacant" land and over-riding community concerns, on the other hand successive State governments have done all they can to actually cause and profit from the housing shortages. The cause of the "shortages" and the source of the problem is exactly the same - immigration-driven population growth!

With contradictory efforts - the solution and the source - being in government hand, the public are divided into "nimbys" and those profiting from land speculation and developments.

Obesity goes hand in hand with limited lung capacity and circulatory system illnesses. "Planning" should be about ensuring Melbourne's livability and the long term welfare of residents. However, it has become the long-arm of those with vested interests in mortgages, lending, the construction industries, and upholding fat-cat positions in State government departments - the status quo.

James Sinnamon

Sat, 2011-08-13 12:32

Tony,

Thanks for your own perspective. Not having read the articles, I will have to reserve my judgement on them for now, but for reasons, I will give below, I will remain very wary of anything found on the pages of CounterPunch.

People need to understand that CounterPunch has played a shameful role in covering up the evidence which disproves the Bush administration's account of the 9/11 False Flag terrorist attack, which was used as a pretext for the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, its "Global War on Terror" and attacks on the political and civil rights of US citizens including the passage of the Patriot Act[1] on 26 October 2001 only 45 days after September 11. Consequently CounterPunch has been named by Canadian Malthusian and truth activist Barrie Zwicker, who narrated The End of Suburbia, as a fake left wing publication.

Examples of CounterPunch's cover-up of 9/11 include: Interviewing Chomsky, when on 18 September 2001, only 7 days after 9/11, the phony American dissident endorsed the Bush Administration's account of 9/11, Noam Chomskly's 9/11, Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement, Forgetting September 11, The 9/11 Conspiracy Nuts of 9 Sep 06 by Alexander Cockburn The 9/11 Conspiracists and the Decline of the Anmerican (sic) Left of 28 Nov 2006 also by Alexander Cockburn.

This is not to say that nothing published CounterPunch has any worth. Indeed, much of it is worth reading, as, indeed, much of what is written in even the Murdoch Press is good journalism.

Still, I would be most wary of any claims of anything contained in any article written in CounterPunch. In the case of very contentious and vexed political questions, such as the riots in Britain, it would be very easy for their coverage by CounterPunch and other phony left publications to be turned to serve the powerful vested interests they claim to oppose.

Footnotes

1. [back] USA Patriot act, as it is officilly entitled, is an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act"

Tony Boys's picture

Tony Boys

Sat, 2011-08-13 11:30

Two good reports are given in Counterpunch (http://www.counterpunch.org): The London Riots in Historical Perspective Burning Britain - The Economics Conditions Driving Riot Fever The bullet that was shot and lodged in a police radio (do they have those now??) was a Metropolitan Police issued bullet. Duggan was apparently shot as he and his friend were being held to the ground by several policemen. This is usually termed 'arbitrary execution' - and if it was, it is of the utmost seriousness. Will we ever know the 'truth'? Hope so, but fat chance. Personal note. I lived in Brixton with my family for about three years in the early 70s. I quite enjoyed it as I happen to like the mixed racial environment and the reggae-disco pubs (not many white people came to these, though. I went with one or two black or double friends. Can't really see why others didn't go. I always had a good friendly time...) However, even at that time young black people (esp. men) complained of being selectively harassed by police officers from Brixton Police Station. As a 'hippy' with long hair and 'strange' clothes, I would have thought that I would be just as likely to come in for a little police attention (all manner of 'drugs' being pretty easily available at the time), but was totally ignored by the police force. Fine by me. Obviously, very little has changed in the intervening 40 years! In fact it's probably worse. Despite a certain amount of radiation contamination where I live now in Japan, I still feel 'safer' here.

Geoffrey Taylor

Sat, 2011-08-13 00:40

According to CNN, Libya, is currently 'revelling' at the news of the riots in the United Kingdom:

... turning the tables, after enduring sustained criticism from the West, it was authoritarian regimes such as Iran and Libya that delighted in mocking Britain over riots that have engulfed its major cities.

Libya, which has endured sustained criticism for alleged violations of the human rights of opponents since March is, evidently now able to be just as critical of the United Kingdom for its handling of the riots.

So, according to CNN, The tables have truly turned.

Except, ...

Has Libya only endured 'sustained criticism'?

What about the six month aerial bombing campaign in which hospitals, water pipelines as well as military installations have been attacked? What about the arming of the Transitional National Council 'rebels' by the US, NATO, Qatar, Saudi Arabia etc.? What about the seizure of financial assets and oil tankers end expulsion of its diplomats from a number of countries?

If the tables had truly turned then logically, the UK would have to be under sustained aerial bombardment from the Libyan Air Force and the rioters in the United Kingdom would be firing at the police with Libyan-supplied AK47s and rocket launchers.

Geoffrey Taylor

Fri, 2011-08-12 23:33

Tigerquoll wrote:

Hence the riot targets have been corporates, the perceived 'haves' (business owners, McDonald's, commercial retailers displaying spoils of wealth).

In fact, I would suggest that the actual targets are not the corporates, but smaller businesses and poorer people.

Contrary to an angle put by some "left" commentators, these riots seem far more likely to help the wealthy by further breaking down what little cohesion now still remains in those parts of Britain in which the riots have occurred. It may well create a climate in which it may be easier for the UK government to take away the democratic rights of those who are now speaking out for truth, democracy and social justice, in particular, against the UK Government's current war against Libya.

Whilst the Global Research article London burns; Tripoli calm of 9 August makes some good points about the hypocrisy of those defending the arming of 'rebels' in Libya whilst condemning the actions of the UK's own 'rebels', the title of that article seems to imply that the eruption of the riots, by tying up the hands of the war-making UK Government, may lessen the plight of the Libyans, when in the longer term, the further harm done to community cohesion in the UK is more likely to actually make it easier for the UK Government to ignore the democratic wishes of UK residents including those opposed to its war against Libya.

A more helpful and incisive analysis of the riots is another article, Britain's Riots: Thuggery, Looting, Lawlessness... By the Ruling Class of 11 August by Finian Cunningham also on Global Research.

Finian Cunningham writes:

The looting, thievery and lawlessness that (UK Prime Minister) Cameron so condemns is but the reflection at the street level of British society of what is taking place on a much greater scale at the upper echelons of government and the economy.

What the thieving rioters are now doing in some cities of the UK (and, for that matter, in the 'rebel' controlled areas of Libya) is no different to what the wealthy elite of the UK has been doing to the UK as a whole for decades, Also, it differs little to what the wealthy elites of Australia and the US and the Australia have been doing to their respective countries for decades:

Despite the appearance of pinstripe suits and well-groomed accents, we can, if we are honest, see decades of looting and thievery of economic and financial resources by corporate elites aided and abetted by Labour and Conservative governments. The taxpayer bailout of corrupt banks initiated by Labour PM Gordon Brown and now overseen by Cameron, paid for in large part by austerity in public spending cuts, is but the latest manifestation of official robbing of the majority to swell the already outrageous wealth of the ruling elite class.

Cameron and his gang of plumy-accented thugs are gunning for $150 billion in public spending cuts to pay for the criminal enterprise known as British banking. This is racketeering that a street gang in London's east end can only marvel at... and indeed, in a very real way, only emulate.

Combined with that looting by the elite we see the total lawlessness and criminality of British governments who have worked hand in glove with other criminal governments to launch wars of aggression (Nuremburg standard war crimes) in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya, resulting in the deaths of over one million civilians. Where is individual responsibility for that mass murder and destruction Mr Cameron?

Francis (not verified)

Fri, 2011-08-12 11:01

The police shot Mark Duggan, a black man from Tottenham on 4th August. The family want justice and want to know what happened. He, or another passenger in his car, shot at the police. The police then shot Mark Duggan dead. The official reaction was the police weren't available for comment. The police hushed it all up. This is causing racial tension between locals and the police. A man was killed and the family found out from the media apparently and no senior officer would talk to them so they turned to violence. Young people in London are angry that provisions and services have been taken away, which has left them feeling abandoned, disillusioned and without futures. It is the unmasking of poverty and racist trend in a so called 'first world' country!

quark

Thu, 2011-08-11 15:14

It seems to me that British PM Cameron's comments- re discipline in homes and schools and welfare that does not encourage idleness -were not perceptive or helpful. The "authorities" need to ask the question "why?" Normal healthy people under tolerable circumstances do not suddenly become wild, destructive and violent This is a situation that would benefit from some sort of inquiry. It seems obvious that an underclass will strike out given the right ignition point. The social media facilitate organization. Racial and ethnic differences will make it more likely that tribes of young people will organize along these lines as well. What are the factors which have set this off? All the people involved can't be criminal, insane or both. This is important for other countries to know and understand as well, especially in cities which are growing towards the population size of London.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2011-08-11 12:54

Tigerquoll,
I looked at the anarchy website but could not see what you were referring to. Quick glance revealed what I expected - that they are 'against hooliganism'. Anarchists are generally non-violent. Australian anarchist spokesperson, Joe Toscano, is a very able politician who speaks eloquently against violent agitators, warning that they are usually agent provocateurs from government and police. Please be more specific if there is material there which is scary. If there are anarchists advocating violence, I would suggest that they are not real anarchists and that sites are false sites. Governments have falsely stigmatised the term 'anarchism' as violent.

All anarchism is really is relocalism - self government at a local level. Democracy. Direct representation. That kind of thing.
It was demonised during the 19th century because anarchists tried to stop the steamrolling of local populations' rights by industrial nationalism.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 2011-08-11 10:28

Great Britain and other parts of the world are experiencing unrest at a time of global economic uncertainty and stock market volatility. Added to this, Labour encouraged mass immigration to build up their demographic - and voting base! In late June, half the public schools in Britain where closed by a massive protest over public pensions cuts, including three major teachers' unions, customs and immigration officers, and air traffic controllers. Some 750,000 people took part in the protest. Mass immigration — without any debate — has stretched schools and other social structures to breaking point and saturated the jobs market with foreign workers. There are only so many people you can afford to educate and afford to build schools for. And if people live in cities in densely populated areas where moral values aren't homogenious and socially cohesive, it means lack of integration. The discussion of immigration is always banned. It's too "racist"! Multiculturalism and liberal immigration policies have failed the citizens of the UK. High density living, combined with "diversity", destruction of social support networks, and poverty, and are lethal combination.

Paris G (not verified)

Wed, 2011-08-10 14:30

The violence in Britain needs to stop. It is the job of the police to suppress and 'hold' these suburbs, with the help of the army, if necessary, and for heads of community organisations to call for calm - those who still have finance, whilst recognising that such appeals have limits. Hundreds of poor whites, culturally impoverished, are in the streets with the 'immigrants'... Then, the guilty parties who started the looting and who are responsible for people being injured need to be taken and judged as fast as possible and severely in order to make an impact on people; its the role of the Justice sstem, without weakness, and in particular if members of the police have made errors they need to be judged with the same severity, possibly with even more severity (they represent the state) as the rioters. It would be intolerable to apply different measures for the different sides. The rioters should be identified and put in prison since the country where everything is videoed should be able to do that (we can actually see the limits of this video surveillance now; (the rioters couldn't care less about the cameras, which they pulled down with enthusiasm...) After people will have to ask political questions: the population of poor people to the North of London and those of other big English towns are actually desperate - without jobs and therefore without money - with social assistance drastically reduced. David Cameron's neoliberal government has put in place policies with deletorious powers; associations that usually help the most vulnerable, educational, social and sporting association, have lost their finance. Social assistance services are pulling out of the suburbs more and more, the police itself has lost the means it once had to patrol, to secure suburbs and to make contact with inhabitants, for instance via foot patrols... Studious children from the lower classes no longer have the means to enrol in universities and schools which are now extremely expensive, with no social perspective except to 'reduce the costs for you' and 'we are quadrupling the cost of university education, which is the only thing that guarantees a decent job" Blair was in power for a long time, with the SAME communities and immigrant populations, without having similar urban revolts. He also absorbed crises, but he NEVER forgot to keep communications open with the lower classes. It is striking that these 'riots' bring to mind the worst hours of the Thatcher government. The combined effect of the financial crisis which has hit the UK hard and of blind, catastrophic neoliberal policies that only benefit the extremely rich who aren't affected by the fall-out is what has fueled these revolts which may still get worse. The English, even poor ones, are traditionally calm and trust the police and the public authorities, the community, with its representatives, have always been the cement of social calm The death in these troubled circumstances of a delinquent was therefore only a catalyst of profound social injustice inflicted on the most vulnerable populations of the UK. Jobs are rare, sometimes non-existant, and the cost of living is out of control, social assistance is 'triaged' and leaves tens of thousands of people who have no work or lodging in absolute poverty.

Bandicoot

Wed, 2011-08-10 11:36

England used to be a great and powerful force when they controlled an Empire. However, the sting on the tail of colonialism came back to haunt them with mass reverse immigration to the UK! There is no excuse for rioting, looting or violence, but London has exploded in discontent. The trigger points are due to a city of 12 million people who are suffering from unemployment, loss of social and monetary support, and a fragmented society that can easily explode. Years of mass immigration means sub-cultures and excessive "diversity". This needs to be avoided on Australia. A nation is not like a large corporation that can be massaged and manipulated for economic growth and economic benefits, and forget about the welfare of the citizens. They are not employees, or economic units to be exploited and collected for growth. We need to start a media campaign to encourage patriotism, and love for Australia. Too many sub-cultures creates division and cross-purposes. A nation divided cannot stand. The decline is from overpopulation. sub cultures, and over-reliance on welfare. We don't need a "white Australia" but too many minority groups means we don't have a collective conscious towards like-mindedness and unity. Some multiculturalism is stimulating and broadening, but too much means disunity and social isolation, and higher costs on lifestyles. Multiculturalism is a nice concept used to justify mass immigration, but there are limits to human nature. Lofty ideals don't alway work in reality. The benefits of perpetual growth end up as negative returns and social fallout. Could it happen here? Yes! With governments more interested in economic growth than providing for and servicing the public is about putting vested interests above the welfare of the masses. It's a decline in living standards, rising costs, loss of financial safety-nets, alienation and social dis-chord.

Tigerquoll

Wed, 2011-08-10 09:37

Yeah Katie, I got sus on the invasive questions.
Spare rooms reflect development capacity. Read the following article:
'Australia, it’s time to ditch the backyard',
by Tory Maguire

I felt like fabricating a profile of a psychopath to see how long before the Feds would rock up at the front door.
And where were the flybuys so the marketers could target my profile?
How long before direct marketing arrives using answers to questions Q39 through Q43?

Census data from 2006 can be purchased from the ABS
[Current ABS Link>as at today]

I can hear the Ruddites...'there's spare capacity in them thar 'burbs'.

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2011-08-09 22:02

I agree with your Katie. I haven't filled mine out yet, and you make me realise it is because I don't want to give the government information any more because I know they just pass it on to their corporate friends to make money. Alternatively the corporate sector - like the Murdoch Press or KPMG - are the main ones able to afford to access the information in useful form. You might consider reposting on the democracy museum website where they talk about how lucky we are that we don't have national identity cards - here: http://ourfreedom.com.au/?p=274 It certainly is an option to try to exploit in self-defence for Australians to give away as little information as they possibly can. Of course people in receipt of pensions are forced to give up nearly all privacy. When you think of the money the property development sector and the banks (same thing) cost the rest of us, it would be better if (as James Sinnamon often says) they were put on pensions to keep their activities from endangering our society.

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