(We) can do better

The Japanese government has recently announced power supply "options," which it says will be used as a basis for a "national debate," the outcome of which will be reflected in the formulation of a new Basic Energy Plan. But what is it about the deceptive methodology of the "options" that always leads to the conclusion that nuclear power is "necessary"...?

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station catastrophe has caused something of a national debate, if such a thing can be said to occur in Japan, on Japan’s energy future. The core of the debate is, naturally, how much, if any, nuclear power will Japan require in the coming decades and how much power can be produced by renewable energy technology or supply requirements reduced by energy conservation and efficiency efforts. Power companies, business circles and the politicians, bureaucrats, academics and so on who constitute the ‘nuclear village’ claim that without nuclear power Japan will face power shortages and try to scare the general public into acceptance of nuclear power with dire warnings of blackouts during the peak summer power consumption period. Nuclear opponents, on the other hand, say that there is no non-nuclear energy/electrical power shortage in Japan and that nuclear power stations are simply not necessary.1

Japan’s new energy policy, the “Innovative Energy and Environmental Strategy” is due to be unveiled sometime during the summer of 2012 and is supposed to reflect discussions on reviews of the Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy and the Basic Energy Plan. The Basic Energy Plan was revised in June 2010, but is now being reviewed ‘from scratch’ since it has a strong bias towards nuclear power.2 The Plan is drawn up by the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, a consultative body of the Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry (MITI), and the review of the Plan has included a number of options for the composition of power supply from different sources (nuclear power, thermal, renewables, etc.). These options have been published in the Japanese press recently, and are as follows.

No figure was given for total energy or electrical power requirement in 2030.

Luckily, we have recently been treated to a rare look into the process of discussions in one of the subcommittees that has been deliberating these options. This appeared in the form of a monthly mail magazine sent out in English by Japan for Sustainability (JFS).3 Under the title “Re-Examining GDP Growth Projections to Plan Japan's Future Energy Policy,” the author Junko Edahiro, representative of JFS and a member of the Fundamental Issues Subcommittee under the Advisory Committee on Natural Resources and Energy,4 describes the discussions in the committee meetings on the various energy ‘options’ and the economic growth scenarios that form their basis. The English article also contains a link to a Japanese PDF (originally a PowerPoint presentation) that was submitted to the subcommittee as an opinion by Ms. Edahiro on March 9, 2012. This PDF contains detailed material supporting Ms. Edahiro’s argument and the discussion below will be based on the English article and the Japanese PDF. Slide numbers mentioned below refer to the slide numbers in the Japanese PDF

Regarding the lack of a figure for the total energy requirement for the 2030 power structure, Ms. Edahiro says, “This discussion gives me the impression that we are being told to think about how to cut a pie into pieces without knowing the size of the entire pie. I've been saying at the meetings that we need an estimate of the quantity of energy required before discussing how to secure the supply.” Quite right, but not unusual. Even the well-known Tetsunari Iida, sitting on the same subcommittee, and his Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP) do the same thing – giving energy source mixes for the power supply for 2020 or 2050, but failing to mention how large the pie is.5 (Strangely, Ms. Edahiro also gives a similar power structure graph for 2020 and 2030 on Slide 41 of her PDF.) Perhaps it is hard to calculate, but all the non-expert people I have talked to have assumed that the total energy/electrical supply in 2050, when ISEP says that it will be possible to supply 100% of electrical power by renewables, will be roughly the same as it is today. The graph on p.1 of ISEP’s paper makes it look like all electrical power in 2050 is supplied by renewables, but has been reduced by 50% through energy savings, and there is no indication of the actual size of the power supply. Less than we are consuming today, I’m sure, but how much less, and what might that mean it terms of lifestyle? I am not suggesting that it will necessarily be a worse lifestyle than we ‘enjoy’ in Japan today – one of the major points of Ms. Edahiro’s article is that it may well be a better, more relaxed, happier, less stressed-out lifestyle – but it will be different from what we have today. Perhaps that is what Tetsunari Iida wants to avoid saying, though I have no idea why he would want to avoid saying it. Perhaps that is what the nuclear village wants to avoid saying, since it might mean that if we are living in this low-energy 2030 or 2050 society we might not need nuclear power.

So we want to know just how much energy/electricity Japan will need for its economy in 2030 or 2050. To estimate the amount of energy that will be required at some point in the future, we need to have some way of calculating what the level of economic activity will be at that time. We can do this by knowing the current GDP, which is given by multiplying productivity by the number of workers in the labour force, and then by estimating the labour force and productivity in the target year. Calculating precise figures is difficult, but pretty good estimates can be made. This will result in an estimate of the amount of energy required for that level of economic activity, leading then to a number of options on how the energy can actually be supplied. At the same time, this will also result in an annual growth rate for the period up to the target year. The current Basic Energy Plan of June 2010 assumes an annual growth rate of approximately 2% for Japan for the period 2010 to 2020, then an approximate 1.2% for the period 2020 to 2030 (which is about the same as called for in the Japanese government’s New Growth Strategy6), with oil prices of approximately $120/bbl for 2020 and $170/bbl for 2030 (which is taken from the IEA’s “World Energy Outlook 2009”) (Slide 10). But note that these annual growth rates do not seem to have been calculated using the method mentioned above. They appear to be more like wishful thinking “called for” in the New Growth Strategy for the purposes of alleviating Japan’s wobbly pension, social security and public debt problems.

In the Fundamental Issues Subcommittee, the committee secretariat firstly proposed two growth scenarios, apparently based on cabinet office calculations:
(1) 1.8 percent this decade and 1.2 percent from 2020 (the “growth strategy” scenario), and
(2) 1.1 percent this decade and 0.8 percent from 2020 (the “prudent” scenario).

Ms. Edahiro, however, pointed out that Japan's labour force is estimated to decrease by 19.2 percent, or 13 million workers, between 2000 and 2030, due to the rapid aging of the nation’s population. (See graph in Slide 14, which shows that Japan’s population peaked at around 2005 and is now in decline).

Ms. Edahiro goes on to propose that projections of energy/electricity demand be based on the growth rate of GDP per capita rather than on total GDP, since Japan’s “economically affluent lifestyle depends on the level of national income per capita, not on the overall size of the economy.” What happens when we make growth predictions based on the reduction of the size of the labour force and per capita GDP?

Japan's annual GDP growth rate from 2000 to 2010 was 0.74 percent, while the annual GDP growth rate per capita was 0.65 percent. Calculating on the basis of these numbers and the reduction in the size of the labour force, the annual growth rate per capita can be estimated at 0.3 percent this decade to 2020, and zero from 2020 to 2030 (Slide 18). Ms. Edahiro estimates that the real GDP in 2030 would be only 3.7% greater than in 2010, i.e. an effective zero-growth scenario, whereas under the scenario envisaged by the current Basic Energy Plan it would be 40% larger. Assuming that there are possibilities for renewable energy expansion and increased energy conservation and efficiency, this clearly shows a huge gap in perception between the bureaucracy, which maintains that nuclear power is necessary for economic reasons, and people like Ms. Edahiro, who are not necessarily “anti-nuke,” but who base their estimations for the necessity of nuclear power on more realistic growth scenarios.

At this stage, the committee secretariat added the following to the growth scenarios:
(3) The case suggested by members, which assumes that Japan will maintain its per capita GDP growth and estimates the real GDP growth rate at 0.3 percent this decade and at zero percent from 2020.

Some committee members complained that this low growth rate in scenario (3) would cause some difficulties with government policies, such as the pension system. Ms. Edahiro rebuts this argument by saying,

“… I believe people who address policies based on easy assumptions that the size of a pie will get larger should reconsider their way of thinking… It is more important that we consider how to sustain those things under the situation of a realistic growth rate.”

I would interpret this as meaning, “What’s the point of having nuclear power if there is no basis in reality for the economic growth that it is intended to support?”

It should also be pointed out that, although not mentioned in Ms. Edahiro’s article, the PDF shows in Slide 20 that the real GDP of Germany has been rising for more than 20 years while the energy supply has gradually fallen. This is compared with Japan, where it looks much more like energy supply and real GDP rise or fall together. Presumably, this is due to Germany’s efforts to promote renewable energy as well as energy conservation and efficiency improvements, which have been stifled in Japan by the power companies and the nuclear village, who do not wish to see any competition for their energy regime. Thus, even if Japan’s real GDP is 40% larger than what it was in 2010, that does not necessarily mean that 40% more energy will be required to fuel it or that the energy must come from thermal (fossil energy) or nuclear sources.

Finally, in the PDF slides, Ms. Edahiro points out that electricity is not even the Japan’s biggest energy problem. Oil is. Oil supplies 52% of Japan’s final energy demand (electrical power is 26%, coal 11%, natural gas 10%, industrial steam 4%, and renewables are negligible – Slide 23). What Japan needs to do is reduce consumption of vehicle fuel through the introduction not only of hybrids and EVs, but also by allowing the use of bioethanol and biodiesel. This is another area where the big energy companies have tried to block off competition to their fuels by delaying tactics or by the use of ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) as a 3% gasoline additive instead of making serious efforts to introduce the use of bioethanol, e.g. by small, private enterprises making use of waste plant materials and so on. No one in Japan seems to have woken up to the fact that there are plenty of countries in the world where large numbers of vehicles are run on 100% biodiesel fuel or bioethanol (Slide 31 - or that in countries like Brazil there are thousands of flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which make it possible for cars to run on any mixture of gasoline and ethanol). It is very interesting to hear the gasps from Japanese audiences when I tell them that all gasoline cars can run on ethanol with certain, relatively easy, changes to the fuel injection system (and tell them about the existence of FFVs, some of which appear to be running on Japanese roads with neither the owners nor the dealers knowing it!) and that Henry Ford actually designed his first mass-produced cars to run on ethanol, not gasoline, and were effectively FFVs!

There are a large number of other issues involved here. The IEA estimates, mentioned above, that oil prices will be approximately $120/bbl in 2020 and $170/bbl in 2030 are a joke. Anyone can make a guess, I suppose, and they might be right, but at the same time, the tendency for oil-exporting countries to consume more and more of their production domestically as their resources deplete also suggests that the amount of oil reaching Japan’s shores might be zero in 2030.7 Who knows? What’s the betting that Japan will not be importing any fossil energy in 2050? If we think like Tetsunari Iida and imagine that 100% of Japan’s energy (not just electricity) will be supplied by renewables in 2050, then perhaps we need to start thinking about what kind of agriculture Japanese people will be doing in 2050, what Japan’s population will be then, and whether Japan will need to import food or how it will do so if it needs to. These are just examples; there are hundreds of energy issues that all countries will have to face in the coming decades. The extent to which we are able to make use of one energy resource or another defines our societies and lifestyles. The Oil and Gas News, an Internet newsletter sent out by the Energy Daily (www.energy-daily.com) proclaims oil and (natural) gas to be the “fuel of civilization.” Quite right. It will not even be possible to operate nuclear reactors for more than a year or so without (relatively cheap) oil supplies.

For the time being, though, how and why the nuclear village bureaucrats, politicians and others abuse figures and ‘options’ to persuade the Japanese people that nuclear power is necessary for the future of Japan’s economy is a story the Japanese people need to know. Along with the Japanese earthquake/tsunami problem and the problem of nuclear waste (symbolized by the continuing horror story at Fukushima Daiichi’s extremely precarious Unit 4 fuel pool), it is quite clear that the Japanese people should not be wasting their time trying to decide how much nuclear power they want. The answer should already be patently obvious: ZERO.

-----

1. Nishio, Baku, Complete Halt of All Nuclear Power Plants in Japan – But for how long can restarts be prevented? Nuke Info Tokyo No.148, May/June 2012 gives more detail. Available for download in PDF format (in English).
2. Ibid.
3. Edahiro, Junko, Re-Examining GDP Growth Projections to Plan Japan's Future Energy Policy
Japan for Sustainability Newsletter #117, 31 May 2012. Archived at http://www.japanfs.org/en/mailmagazine/newsletter/pages/032001.html
The Japanese PDF mentioned in the article.
4. Web pages of the subcommittee (in Japanese).
5. E.g. ISEP, From “Haphazard Blackouts” to a “Strategic Energy Shift”, 23 March 2011, page 1, (in Japanese).
ISEP, Directionality of Post 3/11 Nuclear Power and Energy Policy, page 9, (in Japanese).
6. For English documents on Japan’s New Growth Strategy, or see the other English materials.
7. Brown, Jeffrey J. and Samuel Foucher, A quantitative assessment of future net oil exports by the top five net oil exporters, Energy Bulletin, January 8, 2008,

An ecological, rather than a business profit mindset requires thinking beyond commerce and money-making and focusing on the biological parameters that keep civilisations in existence.

Anyone who has read Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population, Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb, Meadows’ et al. The Limits to Growth, Smith’s Population Crisis and most recently Lowe’s Bigger or Better? will appreciate that humanity is facing a series of converging catastrophes including fossil fuel shortages, water shortages, a food crisis, soil degradation and climate change.

The world’s population is projected by the United Nations to reach at least 9 billion by 2050. By that time the world will require twice as much the food and energy consumed today. At present resources are consumed at a rate of 1.5 times the Earth’s capacity to renew them. By about 2030 this ecological overshoot will exceed replenishment levels by 100 percent. The natural capacity of the Earth is thus being rapidly depleted.

With business-as-usual Australia’s population is likely to reach 36 million or more by 2050. This increase is occurring at a time when the converging catastrophes are beginning. The technological optimists say that Australia should first increase its population via immigration and then worry about the consequences later. This is merely a front for corporate greed: to make short-term profits while leaving the mess for future generations to clean up.

So what now? Australia continues on the path to Big Australia given existing immigration numbers and the population growth rate. Big Business continues to push for big numbers. The media generates anxiety about asylum seekers and the control of borders, when in reality the number of asylum seekers is small compared to legal migrants. Nevertheless, critics of immigration are conveniently dismissed as nativists, not concerned with the ‘global good’ when in fact the strongest advocates of mass immigration to Australia, the Big Business lobby group, are primarily concerned with their profit margins rather than morality. They get away without the strong condemnation they deserve.

An ecological, rather than a business profit mindset requires thinking beyond commerce and money-making and focusing on the biological parameters that keep civilisations in existence. Our business elites, with the notable exception of Dick Smith, seemingly have no concern beyond day-to-day profit making. This would not matter if they did not have such a death-lock on the throats of both our major political parties.

What to do? A reduction in Australia’s immigration rate to 70,000 per annum, in accordance with Kelvin Thomson’s ‘14 Point Plan’, will still enable Australia to increase the intake of refugees and meet our humanitarian obligations.

Following in the footsteps of the greats I referred to at the beginning of this message, my contribution to the cause has been my own book: Sleepwalking to Catastrophe which exposes the pro-immigrationist arguments as the sophistry which they are. This work also serves as my manifesto for an alternative economic system considering the long-term future of our environment. Ultimately, the pen is still mightier than the sword as writing remains the most powerful medium we have to educate others.

As a young person I call on all celebrities to join with me in voicing opposition to the perpetual growth model. It is important that we combine the power of writing with the public exposure of celebrities to communicate with the masses. In doing so, young people just might be able to have a future.

On 9 June Russia Today reported how Alex Thomson, the Chief Channel 4 News correspondent accused Syrian insurgents of having deliberately set him up to be killed by Assad government forces.

The embedded broadcast included the following testimony from Alex Thomson:

We were deliberately led out of that town a way which ... the rebels knew was dangerous. We were led there in a car full of four men, two of whom were armed. They told us to go down a route which looked dangerous to us, but we trusted them and we said that we would go down the road and turn. We turned and found the road was blocked. That was a roadblock that they had to have known was there. There was nobody around and at that point we were forced to ... turn the vehicle around in a free fire zone and one round was duly fired. We were definitely exposed to a dangerous situation and I am in no doubt that they did it deliberately. My point is that dead journalists are bad for Damascus. Now that's going to reflect all the way to Moscow and all the way to Beijing. ... You don't have to be very clever to work out that the death of any journalists at the hands of the Syrian Army are going to be an appalling blow again for president Assad. So the motivation for the rebels to pull as stunt like that seems to be very obvious.

See also: Syrian rebels tried to get reporter killed in anti-Assad propaganda bid of 9 June on RT, VIDEO: US-NATO "Humanitarian Intervention" in Syria: Towards a Regional War? on GRTV- by Michel Chossudovsky of 8 June, New Round of Civilian Massacres: US-UN Maneuvers Against Syria Upon Baseless Activist Hearsay
of 8 June by Tony Cartalucci on Global Research.

The logging crew could have left the pond alone and still allowed clearance for any passing logging vehicles. But that would have required a rudimentary respect for natural beauty. What are these brutes made of?

The Pond in its glory

“O! pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers” Shakespeare (from Julius Caesar).

“We end, I think, at what might be called the standard paradox of the twentieth century: our tools are better than we are, and grow faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides. But, they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it....We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” Aldo Leopold

Barney stands and meditates in the Pond

Rage and grief

My present mood is one of rage and grief. Two miles from where I live was a little jewel of a pond beside a forest trail, that even in the midst of summer, offered a deep, cold bath for dogs like mine---- and I just learned, a little boy as well. It was welcome respite from the heat, and an opportunity for meditation. Even the dogs paused to take in its soothing silence. It was shrouded by trees, fed on one side by a stream coming from the other side of the trail. As the pond narrowed, it formed another stream which wound its way through the forest, broad enough to form an impenetrable marsh made tantalizing by its mysterious course. On sunny days shafts of light would allow glimpses of its beauty as if it was a strip-tease dancer trying to excite my imagination with fleeting revelations.

Days ago, in its mission to cut back the foliage that had encroached upon the two mile trail, a machine of some description massacred the site, laying waste to the pond's shield of trees and bushes, fragments of which were left strewn over it like a carpet. I looked upon it as if it were a loved one I found beaten, violated and left to die in a ditch, tossed aside as if rubbish. Destroyed without respect or ceremony.

Gratuitous destruction

The logging crew could have left the pond alone and still allowed clearance for any passing logging vehicles. But that would have required a rudimentary respect for natural beauty. What are these brutes made of? Have they no sense of the sacred? Did they never pause to marvel at this masterpiece of solitude and life? Wolves, cougars and bears have drank from that pond. Frogs, and many other creatures that I can't imagine had made it their home.

Our social system impotent to protect what we love

That pond died a lonely death. Murdered without witnesses, like a mob hit that will never be punished in a court of law. Its passing will escape wide notice. There were no protestors to bar the road to logging equipment, no petitions handed out to lobby for its protection, no politicians around to make it a cause celebre. After all, it was just one pond, one stream, one marsh. But nevertheless, it was a big part of my world, and of so many others of no political account. Not much in the grand scheme of things, I suppose, but it does serve to remind me that at the root of ecological destruction is a spiritual vacuity that when recruited by the profit motive, is a reckless, ruthless and apparently irresistible force.

Where does one direct anger? Who can be held accountable for this callous mentality that is so pervasive and universal? Corporate directors? Shareholders? Consumers of wood products? Slumbering voters? Parents? Human nature? I feel impotent and heartsick......

What is wrong with our species?

Tim
June 20, 2011

PS. A year has now past, and the wound has not yet healed.
Tim
June 9, 2012.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and the Department of Primary Industries' (DPI) court cases against five duck rescuers falls apart. Rescuers found guilty of only one of five charges. Magistrate refuses to award the $18,000 court costs because of DSE wildlife heavy handedness in arresting rescuers final weekend last years' duck-shooting season and criticizes wildlife officers for refusing warmth to rescuer. Magistrate says legal for rescuers to be on the water, expresses surprise that DSE did not provide care for injured birds at the wetlands - that it was left to duck rescuers to do this. No rescuers convicted or fined. No court costs. Rescuers good behaviour bonds until October this year.

Government departments fail to suppress duck rescuers, waste scarce court resources and taxes

Following a six-day hearing [!] in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in March this year, five duck rescuers were today each acquitted of four charges out of five. Each were found guilty of only one charge when rescuing waterbirds on wetlands near Kerang, in northern Victoria, during the final weekend of the 2011 duck shooting season.

Magistrate Mealy found the charge of 'hindering' proved against rescuers Luke Milroy and Lucas Treloar. The charge of operating noise producing equipment, being a whistle, in a manner likely to cause unreasonable inconvenience or nuisance to any person contrary to the Wildlife (SGR) Regulations 2004 was proved against Linda Duckham, Penny Cameron and David Mould. They were given undertakings (good behaviour bonds) without conviction.

DSE Prosecution fails to get costs

Prosecution costs of approximately $18,000 were sought by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI), but refused. The Magistrate observed that the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) had not been even-handed in the laying of charges (with the DPI prosecuting). He indicated that the Department appeared to hold rescuers responsible for the provision of vets at the wetlands, when the Department should be responsible for the welfare of wildlife.

Wildlife Officers known duck shooters: conflict of interest needs Omsbudsman

Coalition Against Duck Shooting Campaign Director, Laurie Levy, today said: "Last year, DSE compliance officers planned a 'sting' that was code-named 'Operation Bolte' - after the late Victorian Premier, a keen duck shooter - with the aim of cracking down on rescuers in what can only be seen as a blatant attempt to accommodate their duck shooting mates.

"Most of these compliance officers, who are now all working in the newly established 'Game Victoria' within the DPI, are themselves known duck shooters.

"These officers have a serious conflict of interest which must be investigated by the Ombudsman's office."

Undemocratic abuse of taxpayer's time and overburdened court system

"The charges against rescuers have resulted in an enormous waste of taxpayers' money and court time, especially when Magistrates' Courts throughout the state are clogged up and unable to hear important cases for months on end, and when the majority of Victorians oppose the recreational shooting of native waterbirds and want this activity stopped," Levy said.

Source:
Laurie Levy,
Campaign Director
Coalition Against Duck Shooting
MEDIA RELEASE, Thursday, June 7, 2012

Got 6 mins 25 secs to see this video about how Japanese women feel about nuclear power? Forget Hollywood. This is the Japanese reality!!This 6 min. 25 sec. will show you how Japanese women feel about nuclear power and how the Japanese male bureaucracy is trying to foist the deception of the century on the Japanese people by suddenly deciding to hold meetings behind closed doors!

See the video at:

A #Fukushima Woman Asks NISA Experts, "Are You Man Enough to Protect Women and Children?"

If you are shocked, tell your friends to see it too.

LET'S HAVE THIS ONE GO VIRAL!!!

Australia, still a colony, has more supermarkets per capita than the US and nearly three times as many as the UK. [1]India, no longer a British colony, has no supermarket chains. What other country can claim this? Late last year Indian shopkeepers rioted successfully to stop foreign investment liberalisation and multinational supermarkets. Here is a mostly French-sourced article about how emerging powers are looking after their own industries, while the free-marketeers of the west sell the rest of us down the river. See also article about President Francois Holland's program to meet protectionism elsewhere with protectionism at home: ,"New French industry policy to moderate globalisation, Ministerial interview" A word of warning to vegetarians, the sacred cows of India are being sacrificed now to the mighty dollar.

(Adapted from a report entitled, "La pousee du protectionisme a l'echelle mondiale" by Pierre Monègier et Nicolas Ducrot on France2 Journal Televise, Thursday 7 June, 2000hrs.)

Presenter David Pujadas relating the phenomenon to the global financial crisis, says that according to an annual report from the European commission, world-wide, import duties are strongly increasing in number and in size. "This is particularly so among emerging powers, which have no qualms about protecting their markets."

India's export market

The France2 report centers round India.

We see film of a factory where millions of bright green gerkins are being processed. The message from Pierre Monègier is that

"This little gerkin has every chance of finishing up in [a french] plate. Indians produce more than
200,000 tonnes a year, but they don't like gerkins themselves.

The subtitle for this report, filmed in India, is, "You buy my products, I'll tax yours."

Reporter Pierre Monègier tells us,

"All these gerkins are therefore destined for export to France, the United States, Africa... 'Made in India' rolls out everywhere in the world, without obstacle. It's the same for livestock. In the Land of the Sacred Cow it would be sacreligious to put your fork in one, yet this year India will become first in the world in beef exports.

These performances signify a giant in the making. And that makes foreign investors want to have a share in the Indian cake, but in cooking, India doesn't really play fair," he concludes.

The camera shows us a French restaurant in India with a number of business-class looking male diners in the dining room and then moves to the kitchen, where the French proprietor tells us that he estimates that the cost of French products is multiplied by Indian import duties by three and a half to four times, generally. He says that it is the same for all French products - for wine, for fine delicatessen goods.

The reporter says that the result is that it is almost impossible to find french farm products in India. Furthermore, he says, one cannot rely on big supermarket chains in India to reduce the costs and put French products on their shelves.

There are no supermarkets in India

"In contrast to China and Brazil, India is still ferociously resisting foreign investment in the form of supermarket chains here. There are no supermarkets here. Carrefour [French supermarket chain] and Wal Mart have come to grief here. The government rejected them in order to protect thousands of grocery stores."

Proud democratic history of multinational supermarket chain failure in India

It began with an attempt to pass a law permitting 51% foreign investment-led multinational supermarket chains:

"NEW DELHI: Global chains like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco may face problems in opening stores in over half of the 53 cities eligible for FDI in multi-brand retail.

The parties and alliances ruling in 11 major states with 28 cities, have strongly opposed the decision of the Central government to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail which is dominated by small traders" Source: #10;30440909-">"FDI in retail: Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco may face hurdles in 28 cities."

(25 November 2011):"Anger and indigation took over the Indian Parliament on Friday, after the Indian Minister for Industry and Commerce, Anand Sharma, announced the liberalisation of market policy towards foreign multinationals in India. The Opposition parties and the Trinamool Congress, key ally of the Congressional Party in the heart of the governing coalition (UPA), loudly protested against the green light given by New Delhi to big supermarket chains, permitting for the first time, foreign investment at 51% in the country in that sector.

...Direct foreign investment by groups like Wal-Mart and Carrefour to open a retail store would be subject to several conditions: minimum investment of 100 million dollars, of which 50 per cent must be devoted to housing infrastructure (chaine du froid etc), 30 per cent of produce would have to be sourced from small and medium sized businesses, and the stores would only be allowed to open in cities of more than one million inhabitants."
(Translation by Sheila Newman): Source: -la-polemique">25/11/2011 | Antoine Guinard ( Aujourd'hui l'Inde).

It ended with direct democracy:

Policy changes aiming at opening the market up to 51% foreign investment in the form of big multinational supermarket chains resulted on 2 December 2012 in one of those huge popular protests that India does so well and which constitute its chief form of real democracy.

"New Delhi backs down. ... Parliament was paralysed by the anger of the opposition. All the legal projects are in limbo today. Last Thursday the protests went to the streets, with one hundred thousand shopkeepers in a general strike. (Translation by Sheila Newman). Source:#10;6_24.php">"India suspends the introduction of foreign supermarkets." (Article by Vanessa Dougnac.)

All translations in this article by Sheila Newman

NOTES

[1] Numbers of supermarkets in Australia per capita: http://www.stuartalexander.com.au/aust_grocery_market_woolworths_coles_wholesale.php

On January 11, 19 year old Nigel Franks was driving a car towards Huon Hill with two passengers when he hit a kangaroo.

Franks kicked the kangaroo's head twice while laughing, before stomping it to death.  Franks then pulled a joey out of the kangaroo's pouch and threw it into a nearby paddock.

Franks hit, bashed and killed a female kangaroo, disposed of its young, and paraded the hapless animal's body down the streets of Wodonga – leaving a trail of blood!

Magistrate Stuthridge told the court that she was deeply troubled by Franks' complete lack of empathy.  Why then wasn't he given a jail sentence?

Nigel Franks, 20, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated animal cruelty, dangerous driving, careless driving, public nuisance and driving an unregistered car in relation to the January 11 incident.  The "public nuisance" and driving offenses shade into insignificance compared to the animal cruelty crimes? 

Franks was sentenced to six months jail, suspended for 12 months, ordered he complete a 12-month community corrections order, pay a $750 fine and that his licence be cancelled for six months.    A more heavy fine could have been directed towards wildlife carers who are always struggling to find funds.  

A psychologist's report stated the need for Franks to undergo further psychological treatment but the magistrate failed to understand his reasons for the offences.  Actually, there is no "reason" or logic in the violence.  It's lack of empathy, evil tendency, lack of a soul, and love of violence.  All these traits are found in may violent criminals, and many have started their careers torturing animals.

Melbourne County Court Judge Gucciardo sentenced another kangaroo abuser-killer to jail for shooting an arrow in the head of a hapless kangaroo. They are a protected species.

The violence against animals is sickening and gut-wrenching, and animal lovers and wildlife advocates are advocating for greater protection and higher penalties for animal abuse and killing. This light sentence doesn't meet community expectations.

How many criminals start their careers torturing animals?  Acts of violence towards animals are symptomatic of a deep mental disturbance. Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals don’t stop there—many of them move on to their fellow humans.  There are numerous examples of such evidence from the childhoods of well-known serial killers.

Franks should have been given a custodial prison sentence to understand the severity of his appalling crime, but he needs psychological treatment as well as punishment. He should be supervised in learning to empathise with animals,how to care for orphaned and injured wildlife. He should pay a heavy fine so funds can be  distributed to wildlife carers. 

The community should be disappointed by the light sentence given to Franks, at a time when animal advocates are calling out for more severe penalties for cruelty to animals.

Wodonga Magistrates Court,
5 Elgin Boulevard,
(PO Box 50)
Wodonga 3690

Here is a short report from University of Sydney about recent research which threw into doubt the role of genetic inbreeding as a factor in lack of immune defense against the killer tumours in devils.

Picture: "Tasmanian Devil." Photo by Rodrigo Hamede, University of Tasmania.

Mystery of Tasmanian devil tumour deepens – for now

The degree of genetic difference to a tumour rapidly decimating the ranks of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) is not a factor in their likelihood of contracting the disease, according to research led by the University of Sydney.

The finding, published today in PLoS, the Public Library of Science journal, surprised researchers and means they will take a different approach in the race to better understand the Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), a contagious cancer which has already wiped out 85 percent of all Tasmanian devils.

“We looked at the West Pencil Pine population, in north-western Tasmania because they are the first population to be less severely affected by DFTD than other populations,” said Professor Kathy Belov, the senior author of the study from the University’s Faculty of Veterinary Science.

In West Pencil Pine there is lower prevalence of the disease, increased survival time of infected individuals and little indication of changes in population size or population growth rate, four years after the disease was first detected.

“We thought that differences in certain key immune genes might explain the different susceptibility patterns between devils in West Pencil Pine and other devils,” Professor Belov said.

Due to devil populations having low genetic diversity most Tasmanian devils share the same Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes as tumours. The researchers believed that since the tumours were genetically similar to individual devil’s own cells their immune system wouldn’t recognise that the cancer cells were foreign and wouldn’t attack them.

“Many of the devils at West Pencil Pine are genetically different to the animals in the east of the state. We thought these genetically different animals might be able to mount an immune response against the tumours,” Professor Belov said.

“We thought devils that were most genetically different to the tumours would be less likely to catch DFTD. This isn’t the case.”

The researchers will have to go back to the drawing board to try to work out why DFTD is affecting genetically different devils.

“It is possible the tumour itself is suppressing the immune response in some way. We also know that DFTD is evolving and changing over time. Perhaps the strain of DFTD in West Pencil Pine is different and that is why fewer animals are getting sick in that region,” Professor Belov said.

The next step will be to look more closely at the tumours in West Pencil Pine and at genetic difference across the entire devil genome, rather than simply focusing on the MHC genes. West Pencil Pine may still hold the key to why some devils catch DFTD and others do not.

The other contributing authors to the PLoS paper include Dr Amanda Lane, Yuanyuan Cheng, Belinda Wright, Dr Laura LeVan an and Dr Beata Ujvari from the University of Sydney and Dr Menna Jones and Dr Rodrigo Hamede from the University of Tasmania.

Media contact:

Verity Leatherdale: (02) 9351 4312, 0403 067 342 or verity.leatherdale[AT]sydney.edu.au

These photographs of a mass-burial pit in Canberra for kangaroos gunned down by the government was sent to me by 'Friends of AnimalArmy' with the message, "We cannot find an investigative journalist anywhere who will expose the corruption and the lies." I cannot understand why not. Don't we want to know the truth?

Do we want to know the truth?

I think that Australians do want to know the truth, but it seems that the mass media is letting us all down.

This infinitely sad photograph of the dead kangaroo with bent head and hand placed around the body of a hairless joey might remind some of you of pictures of Mary and the infant Jesus, and others of bodies in a pit in Auchwitz. The point is that the photograph documents a deeply tragic mistake on the part of the ACT government, that taints it as brutal and dishonest. This is one of several remarkable photographs that came to me via "Friends of AnimalArmy," with the message,

"We cannot find an investigative journalist anywhere who will expose the corruption and the lies."

"They are shooting 20 metres off major 4 laned highways during peak hour in full view of all traffic, being the ACT Govt they are untouchable and do not answer to anyone."

In the early hours of Sunday morning 3 June 2012, activists uncovered a large mass burial pit at the Kama nature reserve. It contained up to an estimated 300+ slain kangaroo bodies. Evidence was discovered amidst a slurry of mud and blood illustrating unethical and illegal practices including throat shots, partially severed joeys and mature kangaroos with smashed heads. The large kangaroo among the small and tiny ones is a big mature male.

These images were taken of an unearthed pit where hundreds of kangaroos have been buried during this 2012 cull. The images are graphic and may be distressing but think how the kangaroos felt. Can any of us imagine? It is most important to share these truths around to friends, families, colleagues, media, and politicians. Blow the lid off the dodgy 'wildlife management' that goes on in the ACT and blow the lid off the mainstream media conspiracy to hide the facts from Australians.

Click here on Animal Liberation ACT’s new website for further information on what you can do to help!

When I received these pictures from friends of 'AnimalArmy', I wondered where to begin to describe what I can see is happening. Leisa's poem (above) sums it up. Leisa has said to me that the longer she knows kangaroos, and she has worked intimately with them for 25 years, the more impressed she is by their intelligence and their capacity to love - "not just their own species, but humans as well." She also says, "When I look into a kangaroo's eyes I see a capacity to analyse."

In contrast to the Canberra male half-buried in mud, the picture at the bottom of this article is of a healthy South Australian animal interacting with a friendly photographer.

NOTES

[1] This poem by Leisa Moore, a kangaroo rescuer in South Australia was originally written in memory of 453 Belconnen Kangaroos Killed by the A.C.T. Government in a Kangaroo Management Cull, 2009. Leisa called it, "Message from a Belconnen Kangaroo, 'Reflection In My Eyes'.

The ACT government is driving a terrible animal Holocaust involving thousands of kangaroos. This is becoming close an annual event. To wildlife carers, the official rationale seems about as sane as Hitler's reasoning for driving whole sections of society into concentration camps. The ACT government wants more people in Canberra because the growth lobby wants to sell more land and house packages. The violence and dodgy science used to excuse this behaviour, supposedly to protect native grasses, would be funny if we were not actually expected to take it seriously and if hundreds of kangaroos were not currently lying slaughtered in pits for no good reason.

For pictures of the slaughter so far see Article with photos of dead

According to the Australian Society for Kangaroos (ASK)[1] one of the parks where yet more kangaroos are to be killed is where the ABC did a documentary on Canberra’s Kangaroos which went to air earlier this year. The main scientist featured in that documentary admitted that the mortality rate of joeys (baby kangaroos) is 70%.

Picture of what ASK believe to be death pits at Mugga Lane where the ACT government will dispose of the cull victims.

Comment from Sheila Newman: At this rate they will wipe out Canberra kangaroos completely. It has been estimated that a female kangaroo only replaces herself in a lifetime due to the low survival rate of baby roos. This is especially true in wildlife-hostile modern Australia, where the mobs and clans that provide social support for kangaroo families are dispersed and fragmented, leading to short-term population booms, as kinship rules are lost, and long-term population busts, as the supportive network of mobs across established territories is destroyed by human infrastructure expansion and activity.[2]

The Australian Society for Kangaroos (ASK) has said that animal activists have located what is believed to be fresh graves at Mugga Lane where 2000 of Canberra's iconic kangaroos will be buried during this year's slaughter, including the stars of the recent ABC documentary "Kangaroo Mob".

The Canberra government today announced it will shoot another 2000 kangaroos in Canberra nature parks only months after bringing in cattle to control the overgrowth of grasses.

Sadly this years cull will target Wanniassa Hills Nature Park where Madge and her joey Sonny, much loved stars of the recent documentary “Kangaroo Mob”, reside.

The announcement of yet another massive kill has shocked animal advocates who are still reeling from the government's massacre of 75% of the kangaroo population in ACT nature parks last year. Despite claims by the ACT government that their killing program is about protecting threatened species, they have failed to provide any credible evidence to support this claim. (See ACT Roo killings: Who profits? Behind the Earless Dragon mask," for a comprehensive analysis of the 'science' behind the ACT rationales for massive culls.

ASK says that the ACT government has also refused recent Freedom of Information requests from the Australian Society for Kangaroos relating to questions about recent culls in ACT nature parks.

They allege that the Canberra government has breached multiple FOI laws by failing to respond to ASK's request about their kangaroo culls within the legal time frame. They say that four months after the request was lodged, the ACT government refused to provide any of the documents requested. ASK say they will be appealing this decision with the ombudsmen and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Protesters from across Australia wanting to defend Madge Sonny and their fellow kind are gearing up to descend on Canberra ready for a fiery front line battle with park authorities.

For those wanting to protest this massacre please contact:

Katy Gallagher ACT Chief Minister
GALLAGHER[AT]act.gov.au

Shane Rattenbury ACT GREENS
rattenbury[AT]parliament.act.gov.au

PM Julia Gillard
http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Lee Rhiannon GREENS ANIMAL WELFARE
senator.rhiannon[AT]aph.gov.au

NOTES

[1] Source: "Action Alert: Canberra plots death of tv heroes Madge and Sonny," from the Australian Society for Kangaroos
[2] For a critical analysis of population dynamic theory for humans and other species, read, Sheila Newman, The Urge to Disperse, Candobetter Press, 2012

Park Rangers in NSW Public Service Association will take industrial action to show their lack of confidence in NSW Premier's backroom deal with shooters party to give them hunting access in our National Parks. This seems the right thing to do. The current government attitude to New South Wales's beautiful parks and indigenous animals seems unAustralian and somehow blasphemous, for these are our icons and Mother Nature's home. This foreshadowed desecration of our national parks is linked to deals to privatise NSW electricity. See also "Barry O'Farrell, NSW electricity privatisation and shooting in National Parks Australia"

Reluctant industrial action to protect wildlife and the public from unwise government policy

The NSW Public Service Association, which represents park rangers, has directed its members not to assist with any activity involved with establishing recreational hunting in national parks in NSW.

Members will also be asked to withhold information and their expert advice from Minister for the Environment Robyn Parker and other members of the NSW Coalition Government.

General Secretary John Cahill said the good work and safety of NSW National Parks staff would be placed at risk by the State Government’s backroom deal for hunting in parks

Serious risk to public safety

“Recreational shooting of pest animals in National Parks is an unproven, untested, expensive and unsafe activity, Mr Cahill said today.

“Opening the gate for recreational hunting in 79 national parks and other conservation areas in NSW poses a serious risk to the safety of park rangers, visitors, wildlife and the environment.

“Our park rangers should not have to work in fear for their own safety. Our members have expressed serious concerns about the danger to themselves and the community when shooting is allowed in bushland popular with walkers and picnickers.

Vested interests compromise Scientific programs, valuable data at risk

“Our members have been working very hard to control and manage feral animals in parks. Recreational shooting will compromise the professional and scientifically proven feral animal control programs run by national parks staff, placing native plants and animals at risk.

“This move is another shot across the bow of our national parks, with the Shooters and other vested interest groups clamouring for greater access at the expense of the environment and the people who look after them.

“Industrial action like this is not a decision we take lightly but we simply cannot let the State Government’s compromise of our National Parks to go ahead,” Mr Cahill said.

For decades now state governments have been withdrawing support from Australia's national and regional parks. These rangers' numbers have been whittled down. They have been forced to submit to arcane bean-counting exercises and to focus on attracting tourists rather than protecting and studying the wildlife and vegetation in these wild spaces. They risk their livelihoods by expressing these educated views in a system that simply does not play fair with rank and file workers, especially when they are isolated from each other. Natural science has so much to enrich our society but it is a victim of corrupt political processes in our society where land-use is increasingly dominated by a growth lobby that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing, and has no respect for democracy.

Contact: John Cahill 0419 413 577 / Jane Garcia 0434 489 533

Source: Media Release,
Friday, 1 June 2012

See also: Not in Our Parks of 5 June in the Glen Innes Examiner, Riled rangers target national park hunts of 5 June in the Western Advocate, Hunters and objectors of 5 June in the Central Western Daily.

"The car was so fantastic as a rescue vehicle and I am feeling saddened that because of someone hating me so much for helping wildlife that they damaged my car, forcing me to park it elsewhere, this has happened. I recently broke my ankle whilst out checking on animals and relied on my car so much. I cannot continue in the short time doing what I love most, helping the Kangaroos." If you would like to help Leisa to buy another car, or maybe in some other way, we include an address for contact and contributions at the end of this article.

Today Leisa Moore, who looks after the kangaroos in the Adelaide hills, has no wheels. She is still alive, but worries about the kangaroos out there.

On Saturday morning, 2nd June, 2012, Leisa Moore's car was crushed by a tree.

Leisa has been looking after kangaroos for 25 years here. She says that at first it was a fantastic area, but over time mindless hostility towards kangaroos has accompanied population pressure and clearing for development. Kangaroos and kangaroo rescuers are unpopular with people who want to clear land for housing. This has made the kangaroos and her life hell. Although some people appreciate what she does, there is a cowardly group of people who want her to move on and stop helping kangaroos. Leisa is so dedicated - to truth and kangaroos - however, that she refuses to move and continues to go out rescuing in the constantly deteriorating conditions.

Wildlife carers' lives are difficult

This is the lot of so many of Australia's wildlife carers and the public should know. When something goes wrong on top of the general difficulties, it can be very hard to go on. All our wildlife carers need more support and appreciation. Most also need money, but they don't know how to ask for it, even if they had the time.

"I don't know what I am going to do now. I saved so hard to get it and really looked after my car. It was old and I won't be able to get anything as good with what the insurance will pay me as 'market value'. I waited a long time to get a good car as it needs to be reliable in the area I live. I drive in remote areas sometimes to rescue animals. I am already worried about what I cannot do tonight."

Leisa's practice has been to park her car in a particular area near council land and to go on foot to check fences and other hazards where wildlife, especially kangaroos, come to grief. She spends about four hours driving and walking areas each day.

My day starts as soon as it is light to check the roads for injured Kangas and return at dusk after peak hour till dark to make sure there are no Kangas suffering from vehicle collisions. I walk several kilometres checking the vast amount of fencing which is deadly to Kangas of all ages.

During those twenty-five years, but most especially over the past five years, for her troubles, she has been abused, stalked, and had damage done to her car.

In the past few weeks her car tyres have been let down twice whilst she was in the bush checking wildlife.

"Someone stabbed one of the back tyres and did a slow puncture of the other. Before this I found a broken bottle placed under a tyre. Last week I had to buy two new tyres."

Because of the attacks on her car, she accepted when recently a neighbour offered to let her park her car outside his house on the footpath in the same area to make it less obviously a target for the person who had been damaging it. She took up the neighbour's offer on three occasions, most recently Saturday morning.

The Friday evening before Leisa had searched until dark for the mother of a joey she found by itself in the bush. She was unable to find the mother kangaroo and went back home to bed, but she was too worried about the fate of mother and joey to sleep. As soon as it was light she set off to look again for the mother, who she feared was injured and stuck somewhere, unable to attend to her joey. She left her car outside the neighbour's house again, expecting it would be safe.

She says that she got out of the car carrying her 'usual gear' of mobile phone, binoculars, and emergency first aid kit, ready to help any injured animal.

" I had only taken about five steps towards the area I wanted to check, when I heard an amazing noise, one that I know well, the sound of a tree about to crash. I turned and just stared at my car as, with a crash, a huge tree limb thundered down and crushed it. It took all of five seconds. If I had still been getting out of the car, I would almost certainly have been very badly injured or killed."

The SES chain-sawed the limb and removed if from her car, but the tow-truck driver described it as a write-off.

Leisa says,

"The car was so fantastic as a rescue vehicle and I am feeling saddened that because of someone hating me so much for helping wildlife that they damaged my car, forcing me to park it elsewhere, this has happened. I would not have parked in this area under the tree were it not for the recent attacks on my car. I have been parking in the other spot for 25 years, where at least no tree fell on my car.

Now, I am sorry to say, there will probably be many people happy that I cannot continue in the short time doing what I love most, helping the Kangaroos. I recently broke my ankle whilst out checking on animals and relied on my car so much. My ankle will take many months to heal apparently as I have done considerable ligament damage but ... I will keep checking and that is that. I just love Kangaroos so much. I will keep going. I am still a bit shaken over the incident."

Leisa is on a low income and uses her own money to help kangaroos in an area where they are persecuted. She could use financial help to buy a decent car and to help with the expense of caring for the kangaroos.

Candobetter.net would like to make it possible to help her through writing this article and telling you about her good work and hard times. If you would like to help, you could send money or contact her at:

If you want to help Leisa, send money or write:

Bank Details:

Leisa Moore
National Australia Bank.
BSB. 085-221
Acct No 62-224-2063.

Or write to:

PO Box 203, Mylor. SA. 5153.

In Montreal protests against making university students pay for tuition have been ongoing for 100 days and more. Recently a draconian law, Bill 78, that limits protests and free speech rights in Quebec, has turned the protests there from being just about tuition fees, to a fight for civil liberties. Australians can learn a lot about how to protest and the concept of 'throwing your body in the machine' from this video. This writer expresses solidarity with the Québécois students.

Student protests in Montreal have lasted over 100 days. Students are protesting against attempts to charge fees for university study - something that Hawke and Keating did years ago to Australian students, and now our universities host vast quantities of foreign students who have priced out most Australian fee-paying students.

The recent passage of Bill 78, a law that limits protests and free speech rights in Quebec, has turned the protests there from being just about tuition fees, to a fight for civil liberties.

Australians can learn a lot about how to protest and the concept of 'throwing your body in the machine' from this video.

Maybe as important, Australians can compare themselves to these French Canadian students and ask what it is about the Australian system that permitted our country and our universities to be sold off with so little effective protest.There is a difference: the French Canadians are a tribe - there is relatively low immigration there. Similar tactics to those used in Australia of increasing immigration to split communities by importing students and employees are being brought in in French Canada now.

The rest of Canada has a different system and is as far down the path to disorganisation as Australia.

The French Canadians still remember they are citizens, not clients. Time Australians relearned this concept.

See also: Québec students fight globalisation of tertiary education of 26 May, Pots & Pans Protest: Angry Canadians Make a Bang of 28 May on Global Research TV.

See also: Québec students fight globalisation of tertiary education of 26 May 2012, Pots & Pans Protest: Angry Canadians Make a Bang of 28 May 2012 on Global Research TV, BEYOND THE STUDENT PROTEST MOVEMENT: Where Next for the Quebec Mobilizations? of 9 June 2012 by Richard Fidler on Global Research TV.

Those who want to know the truth about the recent Houla massacre, blamed by the corporate newsmedia on the Syrian government, should consider these chilling words said in 2005 by Ziad Abdel Nour, a corporate-financier and founder of "Blackhawk Partners" as well as chairman of the Neo-Conservative run "United States Committee for a Free Lebanon" :

"This Bashar Al Assad-Emil Lahoud regime is going to go whether it's true or not. When we went to Iraq whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, the key is — we won. And Saddam is out! Whatever we want, will happen. ... Whether we lie about it, or invent something, or we don't ... I don't care. The end justifies the means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is right.[1]

See also: LIES AND FABRICATIONS: The Houla Massacre - Full text of Syria's Ambassador to the UN Dr Bashar Al-Ja'afari's Press Conference - 2012-05-29, BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre' in The Telegraph of 27 May, SAVE SYRIA: Demand An End to US-NATO Supported Sectarian Terrorists in Global Research of 2 June.

Those who want to know the truth and want peace and global justice should consider these chilling words said in 2005 by Ziad Abdel Nour, a corporate-financier and founder of "Blackhawk Partners" as well as chairman of the Neo-Conservative run "United States Committee for a Free Lebanon" :

"This Bashar Al Assad-Emil Lahoud regime is going to go whether it's true or not. When we went to Iraq whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, the key is — we won. And Saddam is out! Whatever we want, will happen. ... Whether we lie about it, or invent something, or we don't ... I don't care. The end justifies the means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is right."[#fn1">1]

A vast amount of evidence has shown the Western media claims about the Houla massacre and other aspects of the Syrian conflict, shamefully repeated by Australia's 'Labor' Foreign minister Bob Carr to be a pack of barefaced lies. The claims don't withstand any critical scrutiny[2] and yet Western Governments, including Australia's, are resolved to continue their war
against Syria, whether though proxies or directly just as they did in the past in their illegal invasions of Iraq, based on the lies of "incubator babies" and WMD's, which resulted in 2 million deaths.

Presumably Carr, who cannot be unaware of the truth of the Houla massacre, also believes that "the end justifies the means" and that "might is right".

#houla" id="houla">Appendix: Factual information about the Houla Massacre

Syrian Girl Partisan's Channel on YouTube

SYRIA: Killing Innocent Civilians as part of a US Covert Op. Mobilizing Public Support for a R2P War against Syria - by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-05-30

LIES AND FABRICATIONS: The Houla Massacre - Full text of Syria's Ambassador to the UN Dr Bashar Al-Ja'afari's Press Conference - 2012-05-29.

The assault on Syria: Australian justice trashed May 30th, 2012 by Syd Walker.

West's Houla Syria Narrative Crumbles, Expels Syrian Diplomats Anyway of 29 May.

See also, response to Houla massacre by Syria's close ally Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad published on two sites at Iran's leader: Punishment for Syria massacre and Punishment for Syria massacre: Ahmadinejad [3] on 31 May, BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre' in The Telegraph of 27 May, SAVE SYRIA: Demand An End to US-NATO Supported Sectarian Terrorists in Global Research of 2 June.

Footnotes

[#fn1" id="fn1">1] Quoted from #10;.html">"Might Makes Right" Says Conspirator of Syrian-Iranian Conquest in Land Destroyer.

[2] See, for example, discussions in the The Punch, #comment-200689">Crikey and Somaliland Press. Wherever free discussion has occurred the claims against the Government of Bashar al-Assad have been decisively rebuked and those pushing them have fallen silent.

[3] Ahminejad is hardly likely to be calling for the punishment of his Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad.

Threats to Royal Park: East West link, Children's Hospital expansion onto public land under Royal Children’s Hospital (Land) Act 2007, large new obtrusive metal public toilet known as "Doyle's dunny" after the Lord Mayor prioritised its installation. Meaningful community events planned to combat proposed outrages. Turn up to meet an energetic and politicised crew of public land activists with a taste for local environment and democracy.

ROYAL PARK PROTECTION GROUP INC. NEWS BULLETIN – JUNE 2012

Royal Park Yet Again Threatened by East West Link

Royal Park Protection Group Inc. (RPPG) members would have experienced a sense of déjà vu on 18 May 2012 when Premier Ted Baillieu launched a “review” of the East West Link (EW Link.) In a hard hat (a requisite for politicians in front of cameras) he started up a huge mechanical drill beside the Eastern Freeway not far from Hoddle Street in Clifton Hill, purportedly to obtain earth samples from the area designated as the start of the EW Link Tunnel.

The Premier appears unaware that the State Government has conducted two reviews of the EW Link, namely, the 2003 Northern Central City Corridor Study and the 2008 Eddington Review which found that most traffic is travelling north-south, not east-west. For the past 13 years RPPG has been ever vigilant over the likely destructive impact of a tunnel tollway/ freeway through Royal Park and inner suburbs. On 26 July 1999 Dr Paul Mees, then President of the Public Transport Users’ Association (PTUA), spoke at RPPG’s AGM on the topic “Implications for the inner city of a Royal Park Freeway Link”. Since then under the regimes of Jeff Kennett (Liberal) then Bracks and Brumby (Labor) we have fought extension of the Eastern Freeway, now known as the “EW Link”.

On 18 May when Ted Baillieu flicked the switch on the EW Link, Adam Bandt, Federal Member for Melbourne, called a protest mobilising more than 50 people within 2 hours “to send a clear message that Melbourne residents want more trains and trams over dirty private roads to keep Melbourne liveable.“ The snap protest got coverage on all major news channels and on 774 Drive and 3AW Radio. Rod Quantock (RPPG Deputy Convenor) and Julianne Bell (Committee member) attended and spoke on Channel 10. RPPG is campaigning together with allied groups - Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC); Yarra Campaign for Action on Transport (YCAT); and the PTUA not only to oppose the EW Link but to support the Doncaster Rail Link (but down the Eastern Freeway not through Balwyn and Kew.) (See YCAT and RPPG websites at http://www.ycat.org.au and www.royalparkprotect.org.au )

On Saturday morning last the Hon. Terry Mulder MLA, Minister for Public Transport and Roads, was interviewed on 3AW about the EW Link. While this and rail projects were discussed at length, no mention was made of the Doncaster Rail Link. Hence it seems that the EW Link will get priority.

“Return to Royal Park” Project with Demolition of Old Royal Children’s Hospital Buildings

In March/April last consultations were arranged by a “community engagement consultant” hired by the Department of Health and orchestrated by the City of Melbourne who said they were going to ask people “what they wanted” on the 3 hectares of land on the corner of Gatehouse Street and Flemington Road. RPPG and other community organisations recommended for this land being reclaimed under the old RCH buildings an extension of open woodland of Royal Park and plantings, as specified in the Royal Park Master Plan in keeping with indigenous bushland. We said that account must be taken of the location – surrounded by gridlocked traffic - therefore the dense treed barrier in Gatehouse Street must be continued along the street frontages. The question of what people “want” (suggestions given included a maze and sports facilities) appears irrelevant as under the Royal Children’s Hospital (Land) Act 2007 this land, which is to be declared “surplus project land”, will be reserved by an order of the Governor in Council “as a public park to form part of Royal Park.”

PPL VIC and RPPG representatives met Health Minister David Davis on 30 March 2012 to raise our concerns about the above issue plus Stage 2 of the RCH redevelopment including: construction of the hotel; the second car park extension under Royal Park; the operation of the helipad; and the disposal of the mountain of spoil left in Royal Park after excavation for the first car park. In addition it was pointed out to the Minister that there was no community representative on the RCH “Reference Group”. We thank him for appointing our nominee, Kevin Chamberlin, President of the North & West Melbourne Association and past President of PPL VIC, to represent the community on the Reference Group.

Saga of “Doyle’s Dunny” at Entrance of Australian Native Garden, Royal Park

Most RPPG members will know that the Lord Mayor has, most ill advisedly in our view, attempted to fast track installation of a toilet block at the entrance to the Australian Native Garden in Royal Park. In addition to threatening the environment – 5 heritage pepper (peppercorn) trees and mature eucalypts - and being extraordinarily obtrusive (a huge 3 cubicle stainless steel model), this public convenience dubbed “Doyle’s Dunny” is to be constructed in an unsafe location as it is on a mulched garden bed; directly under the massive upper branches of a 100+ year old pepper tree; on the edge of a bike path; and directly in line with the driveway out of the Gardens. In addition, it is regarded as unwise to locate a toilet in an obscured glade of trees as it is an open invitation for “anti social behaviour”.

See http://melbourne-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/toilets-create-bit-of-a-royal-park-stink/
We thank members for the on-line comments on this article (still on display) and for your support over this important issue for Royal Park. We will keep you posted as we are still corresponding with Council!

Coming Events:

RPPG General Meeting Saturday 2 June 2012
Time: 10:30 am. Date: Saturday 2 June 2012
Venue: Walmsley House, corner of Gatehouse St. and Royal Parade Parkville. Enter off Gatehouse St.
Transport: Parking on Gatehouse St. Tram along Royal Parade. Melways 2A B4 All welcome!

Community Planting on World Environment Day Royal Park Sunday 3 June 2012
Time: 1 to 3 pm. Date: Sunday 3 June 2012 - World Environment Day. Great activity for families!
Location: Ross Straw Field, Royal Park. Enter and park off Oak St., West Parkville. Melways 29 C 11.
Activities: Native planting to help create a natural habitat for our native birds and insects (tools provided); bush tucker tasting and an indigenous plant walking trail; a free multicultural afternoon tea; and an interactive animal pen with native reptiles and other animals from “Wild Action”.

Electricity privatisation continues to cause bizarre consequences as yet another State Premier will apparently do anything to push it through, despite almost total lack of electoral support. See our history of attempts to privatise electricity in NSW. It reads like a war on democracy. Now that war is against the State's wildlife. During his first week in government, the NSW Premier, Barry O`Farrell, made a strong promise to environment groups and the people of NSW that he would not allow shooting in National Parks. Now he has done a deal with the Shooters and Fishers Party so that they will support his electricity privatisation bill. Shame on Barry, Shame on the Shooters and Fishers who many see as just another front for the Libs in NSW, posing as another party.

Barry O'Farrell gunning down democracy

The Premier of NSW has today broken a pre-election promise to keep recreational shooting out of our National Parks. He has announced that the government will be opening up 34 National Parks, 31 Nature Reserves and 14 State Conservation Areas across the state to recreational hunters.

During his first week in government, the Premier made a strong promise to environment groups and the people of NSW that he would not allow shooting in National Parks. Now he has done a deal with the Shooters and Fishers Party so that they will support his electricity privatisation bill.

National Parks are for the protection of nature and for the enjoyment of the NSW public, not for blood sport. This decision by the government shows complete disregard for public safety and for the purpose of our National Park system.

The government is ‘greenwashing’ this deal as a way of managing feral animals, but control of feral animals is best achieved by professionals, not by sporting hunters.

If you are as horrified about this as we are, please take a few quick actions:

1) Give your local member a call today and tell them how you feel about this appalling decision. You can follow this link to look up your local MP's contact details.

2) Visit the SMH website and vote in their poll against shooting in national parks. (Poll closes at midnight 31 May.)

3) If you have time, please write a letter to editor (either of your local paper or one of the State-wide papers), and/or make a call to talkback radio about this issue.

4) Comment below this article.

The National Parks Association of New South Wales (NPA) has a number of key concerns about this decision:

1) The purpose of National Parks is to protect the environment and allow the quiet enjoyment of nature, not for blood sports.

2) This decision poses a huge risk to the safety of the public, who just want to bushwalk, have a picnic or enjoy nature with their families.

3) Control of feral animals should be left to the professionals. Recreational hunting is not an efficient or cost-effective tool for feral animal control in National Parks, and may have serious impacts on our native wildlife.

4) This is a major betrayal of the public by the Premier, who has consistently promised that there will be no recreational hunting in National Parks. It is completely unacceptable for our protected areas to be used as a pawn in a political trade-off.

See below for a list of parks that the government proposes to open up for shooting.

The website of the Invasive Species Council has more information about why so called 'conservation hunting' by amateur hunters is not an effective means of controlling feral animals.

"The NSW and Victorian governments have been funding recreational hunting and opening access to public lands on the basis that hunters can control feral animals.

But evidence (including the failure of numerous bounties) shows that, at best, hunters can supplement more effective methods of feral animal control or provide control in small, accessible areas.

Funding recreational hunting as a primary method of control is a waste of taxpayers’ money. There is also the risk that opening up public lands to hunting creates an incentive for maverick hunters to shift feral animals into new areas – as has occurred particularly with pigs and deer.

The Invasive Species Council has been working with other environment groups to oppose the NSW Shooters Party legislation to expand hunting into national parks, allow private hunting reserves, and permit the release of exotic birds rated as a serious or extreme pest threat by Australian governments."

More information at National Parks Association of New South Wales.

Affected National Parks, Nature Reserves and State Conservation Areas

The government is proposing to immediately consider opening the following National Parks, Nature Reserves and State Conservation Areas up for shooting.

National Parks 

Nature Reserves

State Conservation Areas

Source: Kirstin Proft
Biodiversity Conservation Officer
National Parks Association of NSW
PO Box 337 | Newtown 2042 | New South Wales
T 02 9299 0000 |
W http://www.npansw.org.au | E [email protected]
Watch us on youtub!

Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander from the island of Mer in the Torres Strait, while working as a gardener at Townsville University in the mid 1970’s, realised what was being taught at the University was legal fiction because he knew he and his family owned land on Mer. Here is some background on the Mabo case in Australia.

Article by Joe Toscano, originally appeared in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review, Number 978, 28th May – 3rd June 2012.

Mabo, the background

Despite the importance of the Mabo 1992 High Court decision that found indigenous Australians had rights to land in law, few Australians are aware of the background to this struggle. When the British monarchy claimed the “Great South Land” for itself in 1788, it did it by elying on the legal fiction of “Terra Nullius” – the land was uninhabited. Terra Nullius gave the colonisers the legal right to take the land by force from the original inhabitants without paying compensation for it. The genocide and atrocities that accompanied the colonisation process never legally happened because the land was not officially inhabited.

Despite the Australian people deciding in the 1967 referendum to give the Commonwealth government the power to legislate on behalf of indigenous Australians, it did not change their legal status in elation to the land.

Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander from the island of Mer in the Torres Strait, while working as a gardener at Townsville University in the mid 1970’s realised what was being taught at the University was legal fiction because he knew he and his family owned land on Mer.

For thousands of years before white colonisation families on the Island used stone markers to mark the boundaries of their land. He started using the University library and started talking to interested academics at Townsville University about the possibility of legally challenging Terra Nullius. At the height of the powers exercised by the racist Bjelke Peterson Queensland government, Eddie Mabo began a series of legal challenges that took over a decade to wind through the Queensland Courts and eventually the High Court which on the 3rd June 1992 led to the High Court recognising that indigenous Australians, both Torres Strait Islanders and Aborigines had rights to land in law because of their prior occupation of this land.

Eddie died five months before the judgement. He, his wife and family paid a tremendous personal cost for his defiance of the Bjelke Peterson government. Even in death he was not allowed any peace. His grave site at Townsville was vandalised by racist graffiti. His family fearing further attacks transferred his body to Mer, his original birthplace, where he now rests in peace. Today, Mabo Day, the 3rd June is celebrated with a public holiday in the Torres Strait.

When will it be celebrated with a public holiday in the rest of Australia?

Today is the 95th Birthday of President John F Kennedy. JFK was a kind and selfless leader every bit as great in substance as his strikingly good appearance and charming personality. Amongst his other achievements, JFK literally saved the world from devastation on no less than three occasions when he over-ruled the wishes of his military Joint Chiefs of staff to launch all-out nuclear war. Contrary to lies peddled by phony left wing intellectuals, he strived to end the Vietnam War, just as he had used his influence as a Senator in the 1950's to stop the French colonial war against Algeria.[1]

The world was enormously fortunate in the extraordinary turn of events, both lucky and unlucky, that enabled Kennedy to rise to power.

During the Second World War in spite of back injury that would have disqualified just about anyone else, Kennedy volunteered for military service. He became Commander of a Patrol Torpedo Boat, PT 109, in the Solomon Islands north of Australia during the Second World War. On 2 August 1943 PT 109 sank after being rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Two crew members were killed and two others badly injured. In spite of his injured back, Kennedy was able to pull one of the injured seamen to a nearby island. After the surviving crew were ashore, Kennedy swam back to where he hoped to draw the attention of passing US warships with a lamp in order to seek help in the middle of the night. He fell sleep at one stage and was lucky not to drown. The crew were eventually rescued.

Because Kennedy had shown such selfless heroism, the rise in his political fortunes were unstoppable after he launched his political career in the US House of Representatives upon his return in 1946. In 1961, after narrowly winning the 1960 Presidential election, he became the youngest US president ever to serve at the age of 43.

As president, he lived up to all the highest expectation that others had placed in him. Tragically, JFK's presidency ended with his murder on 22 November 1963. The conspiracy to murder him was covered up by the Warren Commission, set up to supposedly investigate his killing. Since then, the corporate as well as phony left and phony alternative newsmedia have upheld the lie that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin who murdered JFK. This lie was demolished by,
amongst things, Oliver Stone's movie JFK of 1991. However, the establishment gatekeepers have, so far, far been able to hold back the harm that would be done to vested interests by widespread public knowledge of the truth and significance of JFK.

Footnotes

[1] As examples see, from "A Savage War of Peace" of 1977 by Alistair
Horne:

Page 247 of in a section within Chapter 11 entitled "Support from Senator John F. Kennedy": "Then in July Abdelkader Chanderli's influential friend in the Democratic Party, Senator John F. Kennedy, rose to make an important pronouncement in the United States Senate. He challenged Eisenhower and Dulles 'to place the influence of the United States behind efforts ... to achieve a solution which will recognise the ndependent personality of Algeria and establish the basis for a settlement interdependent with France and the neighbouring nations.' He accused United States policy of representing 'a retreat from the principles of independence and anti-colonialism'; and, elsewhere, that it furnished powerful ammunition to anti-Western propagandists through Asia and the Middle East. No speech on foreign affairs by Senator Kennedy attracted more attention, both at home and abroad, and under such pressure United States official policy on Algeria began to shift. Henceforth, instead of backing France at the United Nations, the United States would abstain."

Page 417: "By November it was almost a positive relief to watch the struggle of young Senator Kennedy for the presidency of the United States; though even he had launched his campaign with some pointed remarks about the necessity for France to withdraw from Algeria."

Page 463: "Both at home and abroad the pressures had been mounting on de Gaulle to make peace. In the United States John F Kennedy, the avowed friend of Algerian Independence had become and was soon leaning heavily on de Gaulle."

As great as Hornes's historical works appears to be he, seemingly inexplicably, is former President George W. Bush's favorite historian.

out Yapeen way in the old pub

long converted to a cottage

I've been looking again for the moon

in the window at night

like last year

every night

no moon

instead the voices of

gold rushers filling the dark

slaking dusty throats

sharing exaggerations

a well-turned ankle disappearing

into a back room

the Jaara people

unseen keeping watch

all-seeing

quizzing the drink

the music

the people

there's old Joe in the corner

with squeeze box

fit to beat the band

dancing the well-worn songs

Mary crying for old Ireland

on this hushed and moonless night

NOTES

Wednesday January 25 2012: voices

An Australian Farm Institute study provides a comprehensive review of what is currently known about the amount and location of Australian agricultural land, the rate of land use change occurring, and how governments make decisions both in Australia and internationally. Whether or not there will be sufficient good quality land available for agriculture in the future has not been a high priority issue for most of the past two hundred years.

Does Australia need a national policy to preserve agricultural land?

Obviously we do! This is a question being asked by the Australian Farm Institute

The rate of land use is changing, and it's important how governments make decisions both in Australia and internationally. Australia has the sixth largest land area and the lowest population density of almost any nation on earth, so the question of whether or not there will be sufficient good quality land available for agriculture in the future has not been a high priority issue for most of the past two hundred years. It's assumed that land is an infinite resource.

Our large land mass gives false sense of security, but Australia has only a little more than 6% arable land, irregular water supplies, and Australia features 96 percent desert. It lacks regular water, fertile soils and resources to carry its current population load. Yet, politicians remain bent on adding millions more people to Australia.

Obviously property development is more lucrative than horticulture, and their lobbyists are far more cash-up and powerful. Food security is not high on politicians' priority list.

According to the research report, Australia is being too reckless with its best agricultural land, and future generations might regret decisions that are currently being made about the future use of that land. With urban sprawl, mining, CSG and environmental demands taking more and more land, and foreign investors also purchasing significant areas, it is legitimate to ask whether Australia can realistically plan to become the future "food bowl of Asia". It's also legitimate to ask if our government's drive for perpetual economic growth be justified if it means we pay higher prices for imported food, something that may diminish in future years with global population reaches 9 billion.

While Australia appears to have plenty of land, in reality only about 3% is actually suitable for cropping, and even less of this is considered to be prime agricultural land. Low or high Population density and population size can't be compared to the nations in Europe of Asia with fertile soils, high rainfall and high human "carrying capacity".

The report concludes that Australia currently lacks a consistent and comprehensive understanding of where this land is located, or how much of it is being diverted from agriculture each year.

Australia is now a net importer of horticultural products, whereas it was a net exporter only a few years ago. Wheat, dairy, fishing and sugar production are all down from their previous peaks.

Earlier detailed research by researcher Dr McGovern, lecturer in the Queensland University of Technology’s school of economics and finance, found that Australia exports only around 25 per cent of its agricultural product at second-stage production, not 80 per cent as has often been supposed.

There's a great international market opportunity for a four-fold increase in food production in Australia, but there's no explanation on just this magnificent feat is going to be achieved, especially if climate change scientists are correct. A free-market economy has no parameters for the limitations of Nature, and that the security of domestic food supplies must be a priority over exports.

Once high immigration - the driver of our population growth - created jobs and an economy of scale, now our population growth is threatening our local fresh food supplies, and it must be slashed. We can't rely on imported food as global overpopulation will mean countries will need the food for their own populations. Food is more important than a "healthy" GDP!

Property development and real estate is obviously more lucrative than growing vegetables. It's about short-term profits and cash flows than real planning. What's the use of economic growth - a pseudonym now for population growth - without food security?

We must stabilize our numbers or we will be no better off than bacteria in a petri dish, bemoaning the lack of room for growth, knowing our final demise but being trapped by a leadership vacuum on population and its implications for food security.

The remarks made by prominent Australian businessman and environmentalist, Dick Smith that in 100 years time people in Australia will be starving to death is not implausible.

Minister for Sustainable Population Tony Burke remains silent, while our growth-based economy continues unfettered. . It's a number-free ministerial policy.

See also: The Groundwater Footprint: The Privatisation of the World's Water Resources of 16 August 2012.

The Stable Population Party Australia is reaching out to members and sympathisers in a series of networking events across Australia. Should be interesting and fun to meet like-minded people and help to organise a coordinated electoral response to the growth lobby that has taken over our country. (Candobetter Ed.)

Invitation to all sympathisers

A message from William Bourke, National Convenor of Stable Population Party of Australia:

We'd like to welcome members and non-member supporters to Stable Population Party networking events across Australia.
These social events present a great opportunity to engage with like-minded people on sustainability and population matters.

Each event will run for around 3 hours & include:

- Party update
- Opportunity to meet current candidates
- Opportunity to meet state coordinators to discuss policies, campaign support and expressions of interest in candidature
- Opportunity to purchase lunch/dinner & beverages

Details:

NSW

12pm on Saturday 2 June @ Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Sydney (L1, Lounge Bar):

http://www.edinburghcastlehotel.com.au

Queensland

6pm on Friday 8 June @ E'cco Bar, Brisbane:

http://www.eccobistro.com/ecco-bar.html

Victoria

12pm on Saturday 16 June @ Richmond Club Hotel, Richmond (L1, Balcony Bar):

http://www.richmondclubhotel.com.au

WA

12pm on Saturday 23 June @ The Court Hotel:

http://www.thecourt.com.au

ACT

12pm on Sunday 24 June @ The Kingston Hotel (Red Room):

73 Canberra Avenue, Kingston

For planning purposes, please RSVP ASAP by replying to this eNews or contact us through our website: CLICK HERE

Networking events: NT, SA & Tas

Would you like to attend a networking event in Darwin, Adelaide or Tasmania in July?

If so please contact us ASAP to express your interest. You can reply to this eNews or contact us through our website: CLICK HERE

Your support is vital...

Our grassroots community party relies on its members and supporters to make these events a success. We look forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards

William Bourke
National Convenor
On behalf of the national committee
STABLE POPULATION PARTY
www.populationparty.org.au

Like us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/populationparty

Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/populationparty

"More than 50% of the people who come here under the permanent migration program end up in either Sydney or Melbourne competing with unemployed Australians for work." "If we go down the path of enterprise migration agreements, we will end up with a situation where we have foreign companies, using foreign workforces to send our resources in foreign ships to foreign countries for the use and enjoyment of foreign customers." "I'm supportive of the idea of the jobs board." "These projects will be built. If this takes another year or two, then, frankly, so what? "I am...confident that these resource projects will proceed and that labour resources are there provided Gina Rinehart and others are prepared to pay people appropriate rates ... and... training..." (Kelvin Thomson)

Transcript of Kelvin Thomson video on Enterprise Migration Agreements

KELVIN THOMSON: I wanted to talk this morning about Enterprise Migration Agreements. I do not support Enterprise Migration Agreements.

In the first instance, they are a confession of failure in regard to our permanent migrant worker program. Since the mid 1990s the permanent migrant worker program has been multiplied by more than five times."

This program is supposed to be meeting the needs of the mining boom. It is not doing that. In fact more than 50% of the people who come here under the permanent migration program end up in either Sydney or Melbourne competing with unemployed Australians for work.

If the permanent migrant worker program was successful, why is it that we turn to temporary migrant worker programs such as this one? The permanent migrant worker program should be properly targeted to meet the kind of needs that are being expressed here.

Secondly, if we go down the path of enterprise migration agreements, we will end up with a situation where we have foreign companies, using foreign workforces to send our resources in foreign ships to foreign countries for the use and enjoyment of foreign customers.

Now, this may be the idea of some people about how we spread the benefits of the mining boom but it's not my idea. If this is in the national interest I'll go hee for tiggy.[1]

The third issue is that Enterprise Migration Agreements come at the expense of indigenous Australians. We've seen recently a debate between Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, where Andrew Forrest has said he wants to employ indigenous Austrlaians on mining projects. Gina Reinhart wants to bring in foreign workers. Andrew Forrest is right. Gina Reinhart is wrong. But, if we go down the path of enterprise migration agreements, we'll get the Gina Reinhart outcome at the expense of indigenous Australians. Under her proposal we're getting 1700 migrant workers and 100 aboriginal jobs. It should be the other way round.

High immigration undermines local training programs

JOURNALIST: Government is responsible for training. Isn't the situation where people are saying, I've got this massive project to build, construct or operate, but I don't have anyone to build it. Where is the government with in terms of the training of people like indigenous people you talk about?

KELVIN THOMSON: Well the government is engaged in training programs but it seems to me that the objective of these training programs is undermined if you bring in workers from outside. If we don't bring in workers from outside, we will have the training that people like Andrew Forrest say we need, and we will get outcomes in which indigenous Australians and other Australians get the jobs.

JOURNALIST: Isn't the issue that it needs to be built now and there isn't anyone to build it?

Mining Projects: Where's the fire?

KELVIN THOMSON: When you say it needs to be built now, I think that this suggests a lack of faith in market forces. If we pay people enough they will come, and these projects will be built. If this takes another year or two, then, frankly, so what? These resources have been here for hundreds of thousands of years. All the historical evidence suggests that they will increase in value over time and that they will be worth more to Australians over time than they are now. I am highly confident that these resource projects will proceed and that labour resources are there provided Gina Rinehart and others are prepared to pay people appropriate rates to experience the hardships of the Pilbara and prepared to engage in the training of indigenous Australians and other Australians so that they can do the jobs that are needed.
...
I think that the government should not proceed with the Enterprise Migration Agreement. I think that we should be putting the effort into training and skilling Australian workers, particularly in this instance, indigenous Australian workers.

Australia's immigration program far too large overall

...It's been my view for quite some time that both our permanent migrant worker program and our temporary migrant worker programs are too large and I think that what we're seeing here is effectively a confession of failure that the permanent migrant worker program is not delivering the outcomes that it's supposed to.

JOURNALIST: It's been said that the Prime Minister insisted on this "jobs board"[2]as a condition of the EBA. Why aren't you convinced that the Prime Minister's idea of the jobs board will protect Australian workers will ensure Australian workers are involved?

KELVIN THOMSON: I'm supportive of the idea of the jobs board. Indeed, I mentioned it in a speech in parliament over a year ago when I talked about issues to do with skilled migration and the fact that the manufacturing worker's union had set up their own skills register and were proposing the idea of a jobs board which I think it a good idea. I'm certainly of the view that it is a good idea, but unions are saying that there are abuses in relation to the temporary migrant worker programs, the 457 visa programs, and that they are not able to achieve an outcome where those workers are being payed in the same way that Australian workers are being payed. I had one union leader mention to me a case in the Pilbara where his advice is that Chinese workers are being payed 50 to 60 per cent of the Australian rate that he has raised it with the relevant officials but has not been able to get a satisfactory outcome. So people are concerned that if we have the migrant workers being brought in that they will be exploited. There have been many examples of 457 visas being exploited.

JOURNALIST: Do you have people in your electorate or people you know just generally who would love to be able to go and work on Gina Rinehart's project at a fly-in fly-out rate?

Australian workers displaced by foreign workers imported by companies

KELVIN THOMSON: I think that if people are payed appropriate wages and given appropriate training they will come. I've certainly had people in my electorate contacting me to say that they are interested in getting work in particular industries like IT, but in fact are not able to get that work because companies are bringing in people, either under the permanent worker program or the temporary worker program, at their expense.

NOTES

Headings supplied by Candobetter Editor.

[1] * hee for tiggy = an old expression, now sadly fading from the Australian lexicon, rooted in the childhood game of "chasey" also known as "tiggy-touchwood", abbreviated to "tiggy". If you were tigged - or touched - you were deemed to be "hee" and became the chaser. Obviously, to say that you would go hee voluntarily means that you're so sure of your argument that the dire possibility would never arise. Source of explanation was http://iamdoghearmesnore.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/yes-we-can-plagiarise.html

[2] Julia Gillard has promised no Australian worker will miss out on a job as a result of the Federal Government's decision to allow mining magnate Gina Rinehart to import more than 1700 workers for an iron ore project in Western Australia."Companies won't be able to bring in foreign workers if there is an Australian ready, able and willing to do the work on the jobs board," the Prime Minister said in Melbourne this afternoon.‘‘We will have a jobs board which will be a way for Aussies to know what’s happening in the resources sector and what the jobs are,’’ Ms Gillard said. Source: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/no-aussie-job-will-go-overseas-insists-gillard-20120526-1zbeg.html

Published on Thursday, May 24, 2012 by Common Dreams
by Ellen Brown

According to both the Mayan and Hindu calendars, 2012 (or something very close) marks the transition from an age of darkness, violence and greed to one of enlightenment, justice, and peace. It’s hard to see that change just yet in the events relayed in the major media, but a shift does seem to be happening behind the scenes; and this is particularly true in the once-boring world of banking.

In the dark age of Kali Yuga, money rules; and it is through banks that the moneyed interests have gotten their power. Banking in an age of greed is fraught with usury, fraud, and gaming the system for private ends. But there is another way to do banking, the neighborly approach of George Bailey in the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Rather than feeding off the community, banking can feed the community and local economy.

Big banks trading against local interest

Today the massive too-big-to-fail banks are hardly doing George Bailey-style loans at all. They are not interested in community lending. They are doing their own proprietary trading—trading for their own accounts—which generally means speculating against local interests. They engage in high-frequency program trading that creams profits off the top of stock market trades; speculation in commodities that drives up commodity prices; leveraged buyouts with borrowed money that can result in mass layoffs and factory closures; and investment in foreign companies that compete against our local companies.

We can’t do much to stop them. They’ve got the power, especially at the federal level. But we can quietly set up an alternative model, and that’s what is happening on various local fronts.

Alternative models

Most visible are the “Move Your Money” and “Occupy Wall Street” movements. According to the website of the Move Your Money campaign, an estimated ten million accounts have left the largest banks since 2010. Credit unions have enjoyed a surge in business as a result. The Credit Union National Association reported that in 2012, for the first time ever, credit union assets rose above $1 trillion. Credit unions are non-profit, community-minded organizations with fewer fees and less fine print than the big risk-taking banks; and their patrons are not just customers but owners, sharing partnership in a cooperative business.

Move “Our” Money: The Public Bank Movement

The Move Your Money campaign has been wildly successful in mobilizing people and raising awareness of the issues, but it has not made much of a dent in the reserves of Wall Street banks, which already had $1.6 trillion sitting in reserve accounts as a result of the Fed’s second round of quantitative easing in 2010. What might make a louder statement would be for local governments to divest their funds from Wall Street, and some local governments are now doing this. Local governments collectively have well over a trillion dollars deposited in Wall Street banks.

A major problem with the divestment process is finding local banks large enough to take the deposits. One proposed solution is for states, counties and cities to establish their own banks, capitalized with their own rainy day funds and funded with their own revenues as a deposit base.

State Bank of North Dakota amazing exception to the rule

Today only one state actually does this, North Dakota. North Dakota is also the only state to have escaped the credit crisis of 2008, sporting a sizeable budget surplus every year since. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, the lowest default rate on credit card debt, and no state government debt at all. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) has an excellent credit rating and returns a hefty dividend to the state every year.

The BND model hasn’t yet been duplicated in other states, but a movement is afoot. Since 2010, 18 states have introduced legislation of one sort or another for a state-owned bank.

Values-based Banking: Too Sustainable to Fail

Meanwhile, there is a strong movement at the local level for sustainable, “values-based” banking—conventional banks committed to responsible lending and service to the local community. These are George Bailey-style banks, which base their decisions first and foremost on the needs of people and the environment.

One of the leaders internationally is Triodos Bank, which has local offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany. Its website says that it makes Socially Responsible Investments that are selected according to strict sustainability criteria and overseen by an international panel of “stakeholder” representatives representing various community, environmental, and worker interest groups. Investments include the financing of more than 1,000 organic and sustainable food production projects, more than 300 renewable energy projects, 33 fair trade agricultural exporters in 22 different countries, 85 microfinance institutions in 43 countries, and 398 cultural and arts projects.

Two U.S. banks exemplifying the model are One PacificCoast Bank and New Resource Bank. Operating in California, Oregon and Washington, One PacificCoast is comprised of a sustainable community development bank with around $300 million in assets and a non-profit foundation (One PacificCoast Foundation). Its commercial lending business focuses on such sectors as specialty agriculture, renewable energy, green building, and low-income housing. Foundation activities include programs to “help eliminate discrimination, encourage affordable housing, alleviate economic distress, stimulate community development and increase financial literacy.”

New Resource Bank is a California based B-corporation (“Benefit”) with $171 million in assets, which focuses its lending and banking services on local green and sustainable businesses. New Resource was recognized in 2012 as one of the “Best for the World” businesses, being in the top 10 percent of all certified B-Corporations and scoring more than 50 percent higher than 2,000 other sustainable businesses in overall positive social and environmental impact.

Risks in choosing banks

All this might be good for the world, but isn’t investing locally in a values-based bank riskier and less profitable than putting your money on Wall Street? Not according to a study commissioned by the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV). The 2012 study compared the financial profiles between 2007 and 2010 of 17 values-based banks with 27 Globally Systemically Important Financial Institutions (GSIFIs)—basically the too-big-to-fail banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan, Barclays, Citicorp and Deutsche Bank. According to the GABV report, values-based banks delivered higher financial returns than some of the world’s largest financial institutions, with a return on assets averaging above 0.50 percent, compared to just 0.33 percent for the GSIFIs; and returns on equity averaging 7.1 percent, compared to 6.6 percent for the GSIFIs. They appeared to be stronger financially, with both higher levels of and better quality capital; and they were twice as likely to invest their assets in loans.

Community Development Financial Institutions CDFIs

Along with the values-based banks, community investment is undertaken in the United States by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), including Community Development Banks, Community Development Credit Unions, Community Development Loan Funds, Community Development Venture Capital Funds, and Microenterprise Loan Funds. According to the CDFI Coalition, there are over 800 CDFIs certified by the CDFI Fund, operating in every state in the nation and the District of Columbia. In 2008 (the last year for which a report is available), CDFIs invested $5.53 billion “to create economic opportunity in the form of new jobs, affordable housing units, community facilities, and financial services for low-income citizens.”

Two of many interesting examples are the Alternatives Federal Credit Union and Boston Community Capital. Alternatives FCU, located in Ithaca, New York, is committed to community development and social change and is part of the Alternatives Group, which includes a non-profit corporation (Alternatives Community Ventures); a 40-year old trade association of community groups, cooperatives, worker owned businesses, and individuals (Alternatives Fund); and a not-for-profit organization that facilitates secondary capital investment in the credit union (Tomkins County Friends of Alternatives, Inc.). The credit union has over $70 million in assets and offers many innovative financial products, including Individual Development Accounts—special savings accounts for low income residents that offer matching deposits of 2 to 1 up to a certain amount—in addition to more traditional services such as loans for minority and women-owned businesses, and affordable mortgages. The credit union also offers small business development (classes, seminars, consultation, and networking programs), free tax preparation, and a student credit union.

Although its lending programs focus on lower-income borrowers, Alternatives FCU has had lower delinquency and charge-off rates than many major banks that avoid these types of customers. Boston Community Capital (BCC) is a CDFI that is not actually a bank but invests in projects that provide affordable housing and jobs in lower-income neighborhoods. BCC includes a loan fund, a venture fund, a mortgage lender, a real estate consultation organization, a solar energy fund, and a federal New Markets Tax Credit investment vehicle. Since 1985, it has invested over $700 million in local organizations and businesses. These funds have helped build or preserve more than 12,800 affordable housing units, as well as child care facilities for almost 9,000 children and health care facilities that reach 56,000 people. Their investments have helped renovate 850,000 square feet of commercial real estate, generate 5.9 million KW hours of solar energy capacity, and create more than 1,500 jobs.

Less Money for Banks and More for Workers: The Models of Germany and Japan

Values-based banks and CDFIs are a move in the right direction, but their market share in the U.S. remains small. To see the possibilities of a banking system with a mandate to serve the public, we need to look abroad.

Germany and Japan are export powerhouses, in second and third place globally for net exports. (The U.S. trails at 192nd.) One competitive advantage for both of these countries is that their companies have ready access to low-cost funding from cooperatively-owned banks.

In Germany, about half the total assets of the banking system are in the public sector, while another substantial chunk is in cooperative savings banks. Germany’s strong public banking system includes eleven regional public banks (Landesbanken) and thousands of municipally-owned savings banks (Sparkassen). After the Second World War, it was the publicly-owned Landesbanks that helped family-run provincial companies get a foothold in world markets. The Landesbanks are key tools of German industrial policy, specializing in loans to the Mittelstand, the small-to-medium size businesses that drive the country’s export engine.

Because of the Landesbanks, small firms in Germany have as much access to capital as large firms. Workers in the small business sector earn the same wages as those in big corporations, have the same skills and training, and are just as productive. In January 2011, the net value of Germany’s exports over its imports was 7 percent of GDP, the highest of any nation. But it hasn’t had to outsource its labor force to get that result. The average hourly compensation (wages plus benefits) of German manufacturing workers is $48—a full 50 percent more than the $32 hourly average for their American counterparts.

Banks in Japan

In Japan, the banks are principally owned not by shareholders but by other companies in the same keiretsu or industrial group, in a circular arrangement in which the companies basically own each other. Even when there are nominal outside owners, corporations are managed so that the bulk of the wealth generated by the corporation flows either to the workers as income or to investment in the company, making the workers and the company the beneficial owners.

U.S. banks

Since the 1980s, U.S. companies have focused on maximizing short-term profits at the expense of workers and longer-term goals. This trend stems in part from the fact that they are now funded largely by capital from shareholders who own the company and want simply to grow their returns. According to a 2005 report from the Center for European Policy Studies (PDF 566K)(in Brussels, equity financing is more than twice as important in the U.S. as in Europe, accounting for 116 percent of GDP compared with 62 percent in Japan and 54 percent in the eurozone countries. In both Europe and Japan, the majority of corporate funding comes not from investors but from borrowing, either from banks or from the bond market.

Funding with low-interest loans from cooperatively-owned banks leaves greater control of the company in the hands of employees who either own it or have much more say in its operation. Access to low-interest loans can also slash production costs. According to German researcher Margrit Kennedy, when interest charges are added up at every level of production, 40 percent of the cost of goods, on average, comes from interest.

Globally, the burgeoning movement for local, cooperatively-owned and community-oriented banks is blazing the trail toward a new, sustainable form of banking. The results may not yet qualify as the Golden Age prophesied by Hindu cosmology, but they are a major step in that direction.

This piece originally appeared on Alternet as part of a their five-part series titled “New Economic Visions”

About the author - Ellen Brown

Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.” She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. She is president of the Public Banking Institute, http://PublicBankingInstitute.org, and has websites atWebofDebt.com and EllenBrown.com.

Previously published on Global Research TV, YouTube

Retired Captain Ray Lewis served within the ranks of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Police Department for nearly a quarter of a century. Now he is at odds against the force’s higher ups, however, over his role with Occupy Wall Street.

Captain Lewis became a regular at protest and rallies since the infancy of the Occupy movement last year. Regularly donning his Philadelphia PD uniform, Lewis was caught at demonstrations across the country demanding for changes within the system. Speaking with Russia Today (RT), though, the 24-year veteran of the force says it hasn’t been easy.

After first involving himself with OWS, Lewis says he received a letter from the department condemning his uniformed protests. “They want to make sure that no other officers join me in promoting this Occupy movement,” he tells RT. According to the captain, the aesthetic of a uniformed officer rallying against the backbone of the law enforcement industry is the reason behind the department’s demands.

“It is my belief that they were pressured by corporate America, because the one sign I carry on a daily basis is to ask people to watch the documentary Inside Job,” says Lewis. “Inside Job is a scathing, indicting film of banks, specifically in the 2008 financial collapse, and anybody who watches that documentary will fully understand the corruption of our banks in this country.”
The ties between the police and the nation’s financial institutions might not be clear cut, but Lewis attests that it is certainly there.

“In Philadelphia, the Fraternal Order of Police — a lot of cops want to be the president of that union — and they have elections. And these elections are run just like any other political election: they are based on money. A lot of advertising goes into these elections and those cops don’t pay for that advertising out of their back pockets. This advertising is paid for by corporations, banks, financial institutions.

“Subsequently, when you are elected, you are beholden to those financial institutions. And when I come out condemning those financial institutions, if the president of the [union] wants to get continuing contributions, he better pay heed to the banks,” explains Lewis. Now, he says, his benefits with the Philly PD could be revoked if the department decides to pursue an investigation into his role with the protest movement.

Lewis says that the union’s response to his participation in the Occupy movement wasn’t exactly what he had expected. He tells RT he “was taken aback” when he received a letter in the mail from high higher-ups at the Fraternal Order of Police.

“They threatened me with having a hearing, perhaps to expel me,” he says. “I was surprised that they took that extent, without even giving me the courtesy of a phone call and finding out exactly what I was doing; what I was about.”

After going public with his grievances over his demands, Lewis was let off the hook — for now. He says that the way the department acted over his involvement with the Occupy movement should be a chilling wake up call to the rest of the country, though.

“When they come out and say what I’m doing is illegal or improper and give me an order to immediately cease and desist wearing my uniform…or they will take any and all unnecessary action to stop me, what’s so egregious about this is it sends the message to officers that they can violate people’s First Amendment rights,” he says.

Today Lewis says he has yet to be expelled but is still sure that the department will continue to investigate his role with OWS. As for the movement itself, he says he has no expectations but is still behind it 100 percent.

“It’s not going to do any good wondering where it’s going to go,” he says. “I’d rather spend my time and my positive energy on determining what path I can take, what can I do to further the goals of the movement.”

The signs continue to gather of a Bulldozer apocalypse for Melbourne and her citizens' democracy and our formerly quiet peaceful lives. Our leaders are not on our side. Not in Melbourne and not in any other Australian city.

This gives you an idea of the push by the Developers Union (The Property Council of Australia) to walk all over the rest of us. Developers have taken over government.

Watch out or you will find yourself 'renewed'!

Australian Financial Review, Tuesday 22/5/12, page 57 "Melbourne Rushes to Meet Urban Renewal Targets", describes an urban renewal briefing hosted by the Property Council of Victoria at the State Library on Monday, where a study into Melbourne's urban renewal was launched backed by Charter Keck Cramer 'research'.

Melbourne falls over itself to Meet Urban Renewal Targets: Key Points

1. A record 14 960 new dwellings will be constructed next year in existing suburbs

2. Major residential urban renewal is expected to account for 38% of Melbourne's total new housing supply over the next two years (short of the 53% govt. target).

3. Almost half the the urban renewal required between 2005-14 will happen over the next three years.

4. Number of apartment, detached and medium-density dwellings is tipped to increase.

5. "Ms Cunich said the study helped to explain why development in urban areas was more effective in some suburbs than others. ....

The Victorian government has a great opportunity to really nail smart urban renewal".

6. Biggest increase over next two years in Stonnington and Yarra Council areas.

AFR Tuesday 22/5/12, page 56 "Frustrations mount over Vic planning", describes the recent review, quotes developers and opponents. "The DLA Piper recommendations outlined the need for statutory separation between the planning department and the Minister".

AFR Tuesday 22/5/12, page 49, "Developers slam NSW system", complains about the NSW Independent Planning Assessment Commission rejecting large housing projects (Coalition govt. handed planning power back to Councils for State significant projects).

Human exposure to 1080 is very severely restricted by law, for obvious reasons. The same does not apply to other species in baited areas. The major animal welfare concern over the use of 1080 relates to its extreme cruelty and its lack of an antidote. The major environmental concern relates to its effects on non target animals, either through ingestion of baits or by secondary poisoning.

Article by Sheila Newman with Maryland Wilson, President, Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC)

1080, sodium fluoracetate, is all bad news

1080, sodium fluoracetate- for which there is no antidote, is cheap and easy to use, but a cruel solution.

(Photo of Eastern Grey joey, "Acacia," by Brett Clifton.The late Dr Peter Rawlinson La Trobe University zoologist stated in 1987 (as an Australian Conservation Foundation Councillor):

“The wallaby does not know the carrots will poison and kill her...they are laced with 1080; she will die and her joey will starve! There is no antidote to the progressively slow and agonising death...as her functions fail...” Photo: Brett Clifton “When ingested, wallabies, possums, wedge-tailed eagles that feed on smaller prey are progressively debilitated and die a slow, agonizing death as its systems fail. Death may ultimately result from a variety of causes ranging from heart failure to suffocation. There is no antidote to 1080 poisoning”.

For these reasons, human exposure to 1080 is very severely restricted by law. The same does not apply to other species in baited areas. The major animal welfare concern over the use of 1080 relates to its extreme cruelty and its lack of an antidote. The major environmental concern relates to its effects on non target animals, either through ingestion of baits or by secondary poisoning... the toxic chemical that slowly kills.

Secondary poisoning

Secondary poisoning occurs when animals, such as birds of prey, eat poisoned mammals. Falcons and eagles are a case in point. Many of these animals are increasingly rare:

"Australia and its territories host 35 species of birds of prey: 24 diurnal raptors and 11 owls, many of which are endemic. Nine species and as many subspecies are listed as threatened nationally and/or regionally....

As predators at the top of food chains they are vulnerable to secondary poisoning and the accumulation of persistent pesticides, and subject to persecution." Source: http://www.birdlife.org.au/documents/OTHPUB-Raptors.pdf

Pets and domestic animals victims of 1080

Dogs and even horses are at serious risk. Here is a case in New Zealand:

"The land treated could easily have been treated for possum control by safer alternative methods, ie. trapping and ferratox in bait stations, as it is NOT REMOTE, NOT INNACCESSIBLE, and NOT RUGGED TERRAIN.

It is obvious from the position of the animal, the damage to its leg, the vomited lungs and the distended veins, that this animal died a horrible and cruel death. Deer have been observed to have tried to rip open their own bellies in their agony, and have inflicted similar and worse damage to their bodies while under the effects of 1080. Dogs are driven insane by the excruciating pain inflicted upon them before succombing to a cruel death. Poisoned possums can travel several kms and may take up to 18 hours to die." Source: http://emigratetonewzealand.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/1080-3/

Dingos are a better idea than 1080

The alternative idea of supporting the return of terrestrial predators adapted to Australian conditions has recently been the subject of serious discussion, most recently and fascinatingly in this article by scientists, Corey Bradshaw and Euan Ritchie: "Can Australia afford the dingo fence?" The authors write:

"...Why do we invest billions of dollars in feral animal control and the subsequent recovery plans for endangered wildlife using the same techniques for decades, when a more proactive and natural alternative exists? It’s a solution mired in controversy because it involves yet another “introduced” predator – the dingo.

...And poisoning is not the answer either. In addition to killing non-target native species, baiting dingoes might in fact result in increased dingo densities due to social breakdown of the pack, resulting in increasing attacks on stock, not to mention a higher likelihood of hybridisation with feral dogs. Baiting also leads to more juvenile dingoes."

Article by Sheila Newman with Maryland Wilson, President, Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC)

Campbell Newman is permitting bauxite mining within the original buffer zone of the wild river reserve John Howard gave taxpayer support to after Steve Irwin's death in 2006. Bauxite mining is especially hazardous to tropical wetlands. Australia's Steve Irwin was loved by the world and arguably the most successful wildlife defender of the late 20th and early 21st century, eras not known for their sympathy with nature or democracy. This seems like an environmental and unpatriotic obscenity.

Concrete connection Campbell

We all know how difficult it is to chisel any protection for nature out of governments, so the Wild Rivers Act 2005 almost certainly underestimated the buffers necessary to protect Australia's wild rivers. Now Queensland's new Premier, Campbell Newman, a man many will already associate with grandiose failed concrete projects that depend on public money and bauxite, is going along with mining's song of how they can open-cut mine pollutant, water and energy intensive projects ever closer to these fragile river systems.

In "Wenlock Wild River declaration to be lifted," Courier Mail (Queensland) 23 April 2012, Brian Williams, writes that Cape Alumina Mining is set to mine bauxite in the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve in Cape York. This rape of the wilderness is now possible due to the new Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, weakening recent conservation laws that protected the reserve under the Wild Rivers Act.

The Wild Rivers Act 2005

The Wild Rivers Act 2005 says, "Mining leases—tenement conditions for granted or renewed leases: Only low-impact exploration activities and specified works, such as roads and pipelines are permitted on the surface of a high preservation area or a special floodplain."..."Prospecting permits—tenement conditions for granted or renewed permits
A permit cannot be granted over land in an HPA, SFMA or a nominated waterway." (Source: http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/factsheets/pdf/water/wr18.pdf Bauxite mining is high impact and particularly problematic for tropical wetlands because it affects hydrology, changes water acidity and soil structure. This damages river health and aquatic creatures and carries through to land-animals and birds. The operation requires substantial clearing for open cut mining and the roads leading in and out of the mining area, as well as infrastructure for accommodation, offices, storage and processing. Fluoride is used in the processing of bauxite to get aluminium. The industry is energy and water intensive.[1]

Newman was formerly Mayor of Brisbane and known for his gung-ho participation in inflicting massive money-losing private-public partnered tunnels on Brisbane despite sustained public protest. Not then a liberal party member, he was imported to lead the Queensland Liberal Party just prior to the recent state elections. This bizarre decision replaced long-term liberal member, Dr John-Paul Langebroek as leader. Dr Langebroek had questioned privatisation and corruption in the former Labor government. Campbell Newman is pro-privatisation.

In a rare environmental gestures, former Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, had allocated public money to help fund the purchase of the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve after Irwin was stung to death by a stingray in 2006. The Wild Rivers legislation was an exceptional creation of a former Labor Government, not known overall for its respect for nature. Bauxite provides feedstock for aluminium production and is used in the cement industry and in the manufacture of building materials and many other mass-produced items, including soda cans, cosmetics, artificial gemstones and aluminium products like saucepans and cars. Expansion of bauxite mining is a symptom of overdevelopment associated with overpopulation and a throw-away commodity based economy that depends on huge energy expenditure and costs us all quality of life and environmental amenity. Currently in Australia these ills are exacerbated by a boom and bust mentality that is encouraging rapid strip-mining of anything that can be dug up and exported. This culture is impoverishing our country.

Democracy treated as just "Politics"

Queensland Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps reportedly said that mining companies would still face strict regulations after Wild Rivers Act was changed, but that "...politics won't be getting in the road." Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-24/qld-government-moves-to-review-wild-rivers-laws/3969460

One wonders at the 'politics' that see the reversal of environmental protection in tropical forested North Australia, at the behest of the mining industry and Campbell Newman's election promises.

All in all this is terrible news for biodiversity, nature and democracy in Queensland. It is also incredibly sad in its disrespect for Steve Irwin's memory and contribution to our land.

What is a wild river declaration?

(Source of this information is http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/wildrivers/declared_areas.html)

A wild river declaration is a statutory document under the Wild Rivers Act, which aims to preserve  a river that has all, or almost all, of its natural values intact. This is done by regulating, through the declaration, certain new development activities that have the potential to impact on the river’s natural values. A declaration sets out:

• the extent of the declared wild river area and its various management areas
• any caps on resources that can be taken in the declared wild river area (e.g. water)
• any rules or limits that must be complied with when undertaking new development activities (such as quarrying, agriculture and mining) in the declared wild river area
• any development assessment codes that must be applied.

A river system is declared a wild river area where it has all, or almost all, of its natural values intact. This means the riverine processes of the river (and other natural values associated with the river such as wildlife corridor function) have not been significantly altered from their natural state. Special features (which are on- or off-stream elements of the river network), may also play a significant role in maintaining the natural values of the river system.

A wild river declaration outlines where new development can occur in the wild rivers area and under what conditions. Wild river requirements do not apply to everyday activities such as feeding stock, refuelling machinery or fishing and camping along the rivers, or to developments existing at the time of declaration.

NOTES

"The production of aluminium takes in three main processes, bauxite mining, refining of bauxite into alumina and finally the electrolytic reduction of alumina into aluminium. Each process has its own set of environmental issues.

Bauxite Mining can have significant particulate/dust emissions due to the extraction process that involves explosives and the transporting of raw materials to the smelter.

Bauxite refining (Bayer Process) requires significant amounts of water and energy to separate the alumina from bauxite. producing gaseous emissions that include particulates, SO2 and NOx.

Aluminium refining (Hall Heroult Process) uses sodium aluminium fluoride(cryolite) and an electric current to electrolyse alumina to aluminium. The process is energy intensive. Emissions include fluorides and particulates. SO2, NOx and CO are also generated by the power stations used to supply the refinery with electricity.

Global warming is of special interest to the aluminium industry as approximately 14 MWhr/tonne is required for the aluminium refining process resulting in associated high levels of CO2 greenhouse emissions." Source: http://www.ecotech.com/applications/aluminium-industry

"There is one announcement in the budget which I cannot in all good conscience overlook and with which I strongly disagree. The government has increased the permanent migrant worker program from 125,000 to over 129,000. This is heading in absolutely the wrong direction. We should be cutting the number of migrant workers, returning it to the level it was in the mid-1990s —around 25,000. This is because, firstly, Australia has big cost-of-living and congestion problems arising from our rapid population growth, and increases the number of foreign workers only makes these problems worse." Kelvin Thomson - see last four paras this article.

Speech by Kelvin Thomson, Monday, 21 May 2012, House of Representatives, recorded in Hansard, p.96.

Mr KELVIN THOMSON (Wills) (19:34): I rise to speak in support of the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2012-2013 and cognate bills, which help create a budget that continues the Australian government's tradition of sound economic management, assisting those who are most in need and supporting those sections of the economy struggling under the pressures of a high exchange rate and a two-speed economy.

This budget has taken the tough decisions needed to balance the books. Its core theme of economic responsibility stands in stark contrast to the shamelessly shallow budget reply delivered by the Leader of the Opposition—an unflattering commentary both on his economic illiteracy and on the quality of modern-day political debate where spin doctors come up with one single proposal designed to occupy the airwaves for 30 seconds and draw attention away from the absence of any serious, detailed, costed budget alternative. On this occasion it was the proposal regarding languages other than English, but frankly it could have been anything. Anything will suffice so long as it distracts attention from the total absence of numbers in the opposition leader's response—a budget reply without numbers or figures. It reminded me of the pub with no beer!

The opposition leader treats the Australian people as fools prepared to trust him as Prime Minister without the faintest idea of which government programs and benefits he would keep and which ones he would axe. The opposition leader's budget reply shows the Liberal Party is still besotted by the free market and globalisation. But, as John Quiggin has identified in his book Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, the assumptions behind neoclassical economics have been laid bare by the global financial crisis. The extra investment generated by more favourable tax treatment is supposed to be allocated efficiently so as to produce higher rates of long-term economic growth, but the economic crisis has shown that success was built on sand. Much of the extra investment went into real estate or into speculative ventures that collapsed when the bubble burst. Having cut taxes drastically, governments were left with inadequate financial resources to convince now-cautious investors that their bonds were a safe investment. More generally, the global financial crisis has exposed the view that incomes accruing to different groups in the community are an accurate reflection of their marginal contribution.

The opposition leader talked about deficit and debt.
He did not tell us that Howard government policies resulted in the spending of 94 per cent of a $330 billion increase in tax revenue from 2004-05 from the mining boom mark 1. This in turn forced the hand of the Reserve Bank, which pushed interest rates higher to contain inflation.

The opposition leader raised the deficits of the past four years. Again, he conveniently overlooked the global financial crisis, and the effective measures undertaken by the government to protect Australia from that crisis. The OECD has found that Australia's fiscal stimulus measures were amongst the most effective in the OECD in terms of stimulating economic activity and supporting employment. The Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz lauded the Labor government's stimulus spending, saying:

Not only was it the right amount, it was extraordinarily well structured, with careful attention to what would stimulate the economy in the shorter run, the medium term and the long term.

When I look around the world, it was, I think, probably the best-designed stimulus program in the world and you should be happy that in fact it worked in exactly the way it was designed to work.

In fact we are in a better budgetary position today than we would have been had unemployment risen, as it would have done had Joe Hockey been Treasurer.

The budget is in better shape than it would have been because the largest item on the revenue side—the pay-as-you-go taxes—has defied the trend of falling revenue. Personal tax collections are, in fact, stronger today than Treasury thought they would be at the depths of the GFC panic in early 2009.

The opposition talks about net public debt. The budget papers outline that net public debt will peak in 2011-12 at 9.6 per cent of gross domestic product. Most countries, and every large Western economy, would love this result. By comparison the average net debt position of the major advanced economies is expected to be around 93 per cent of GDP in 2016 and 2017. Our public debt is trivial compared to the OECD average.

Other countries would love to be in our shoes.

The strength of our public finances is a key reason behind Australia receiving a AAA credit rating with a stable outlook from all three major rating agencies for the first time in our history. We are one of only eight countries that currently meet this standard. Returning to surplus sends a strong message of confidence to the est of the world during a period of heightened global uncertainty.

I want to particularly welcome those initiatives that support manufacturing, invest in the nation's universities and enhance skills training. The pattern of growth in the Australian economy is uneven, with the resources and resource related parts of the economy growing strongly. Business investment as a percentage of GDP is expected to reach a record, with companies planning to invest $120 billion in the resources sector in 2012-13, or around 150 per cent more than two years ago. The resources and resources-related sectors of the economy are likely to average growth of nearly nine per cent per year over the next two years, accounting for 15 to 20 per cent of total GDP. Let me note in passing that this makes a nonsense of those predictions of doom and gloom in the mining and resources sector over the mining tax and the carbon price made by some big mining businesses and their Liberal and National Party puppets.

In stark contrast, the non-mining part of the Australian economy is forecast to expand at an average annual rate of just two per cent over the same period.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is facing challenging conditions, which I know of first hand from the recent pressures on components manufacturers in my own seat of Wills. Manufacturing employed 997,000 Australians in November 2010, but this fell to 945,000 by November 2011, a fall of over 50,000 workers or over five per cent of the industry's workforce.

Although the relative decline of Australian manufacturing has been a multidecade trend, its contraction has accelerated in recent years. Eighty-six thousand manufacturing jobs were lost between mid-2001 and mid-2011. It would appear the loss of manufacturing jobs is gathering pace. Total employment in the industry fell below one million in May 2010 for the first time in decades. Of the 86,000 net jobs lost in the industry in the past decade, 69,000 were lost between February and August last year. This is a troubling picture. The decline in manufacturing's share of employment has been more rapid in Australia than in most other developed countries.

The ACTU has concluded that it is conceivable that Australia will soon have fewer workers employed inmanufacturing, as a proportion of total employment, than any other developed country. I regard it as incredibly important that we stop this from happening.

There has been plenty of research to show that manufacturing is essential for economies.
Manufacturing provides better-paid jobs, on average, than service industries, is a big source of innovation, helps to reduce trade deficits and creates opportunities in the growing 'clean' economy, such as recycling and green energy. These are all good reasons for a country to engage in it.

Technological innovation is important to growth in manufacturing. Advances in computer integrated manufacturing can increase productivity by saving businesses time. Increased efficiency is not the only benefit of computer integrated manufacturing.
In addition, Australian innovators can license their technology for local or overseas use. Improvements in CIM can also reduce geographic constraints, allowing Australian companies to operate more effectively through global supply chains. The NBN is an important development for further improvements to compute integrated manufacturing.

In the budget the Australian government has recognised the importance of innovation in manufacturing by investing $30 million over four years to establish a Manufacturing Technology Innovation Centre to bring our brightest researchers and manufacturers together to drive innovation through new and improved industrial products and processes.

It will establish sectoral collaboration to support major manufacturers, small and medium enterprises, industry bodies and research agencies to create solutions in their production lines. It will help them realise new market opportunities through harnessing new technologies, business processes and technical knowledge.

The Manufacturing Technology Innovation Centre is consistent with the Prime Minister's Taskforce on Manufacturing, and demonstrates this government's commitment to facilitating the transition of manufacturing to 21st century technologies and processes. This stands in stark contrast to the opposition, who would pull the rug from underneath the manufacturing sector and allow it to wither and die.

Manufacturing is important to our economy. Without the initiatives of the Labor government, the high Australian dollar will see manufacturing continue to retreat, and we will end up with a two-state economy.

Queensland and Western Australia will benefit from the mining boom, but other states, like my state of Victoria, will not.

The ACTU has concluded that it is conceivable that The budget's $714 million loss carry-back scheme will Australia will soon have fewer workers employed in help support businesses that are not in the mining fast lane of the economy. In 2012-13, companies will be able to carry back losses incurred in that year of up to $1 million so they get a refund against tax previously paid. From 2013-14, companies will be able to carry back losses for two years. This means a manufacturing, tourism, education, retail and construction business which is currently profitable and paying tax will know that, if it undertakes investments in 2012-13 that initially result in a loss, they will get a tax refund of up to $300,000 when they lodge their 2012-13 tax return.
This measure will provide assistance to nearly 110,000 companies.

Higher education teaching and learning will also see an increased funding commitment, of $38.8 billion over four years from 2012-13. Government funding to the university sector in 2011 was around 30 per cent higher than in 2007. Training more students will help Australia meet emerging skills shortages and deliver a highly skilled, productive and innovative workforce.

Immigration

There is one announcement in the budget which I cannot in all good conscience overlook and with which I strongly disagree. The government has increased the permanent migrant worker program from 125,000 to over 129,000. This is heading in absolutely the wrong direction. We should be cutting the number of migrant workers, returning it to the level it was in the mid-1990s —around 25,000. This is because, firstly, Australia has big cost-of-living and congestion problems arising from our rapid population growth, and increases the number of foreign workers only makes these problems worse.

Secondly, it is not true that we are short of workers.
We have 600,000 people out of work, and the budget papers indicate that unemployment will go to 5.5 per cent this year—that is, it will rise. Furthermore, it is government policy—and I totally support it—to lift our workforce participation rate, bringing people who are presently on pensions into the workforce. We are short of jobs rather than short of people. The idea that we are short of workers is wrong.

To give the House an example of what I am on about, there has been a debate between Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart about where workers for their mining companies should come from. Gina Rinehart wants to bring them in from overseas. Andrew Forrest wants to find local workers, particularly Aboriginal workers. I think Andrew Forrest is right and Gina Rinehart is wrong. But, for as long as we continue to run a massive program of migrant workers—permanent migrant worker numbers are up from 24,000 in 1996 to over 129,000 now, and temporary migrant worker numbers are up from less than 40,000 a decade ago to more than 90,000 last year—Gina Rinehart's view will prevail, and the mines will employ foreign workers, not local ones.

In conclusion, the 2012-13 budget spreads the benefits of the mining boom to help families on low and middle incomes with the cost of living and provide much needed help to small business while still balancing the books as we need to do. This budget also supports businesses in meeting the challenges and opportunities of the mining boom through a loss carry-back reform, while support for skills training and our universities will help us adapt to the structural changes in our economy and facilitate innovation. It continues the foundation for lower inflation and lower interest ates than we had under the opposition, and lower unemployment than we would have if they were to be returned to government. I commend the bills to the House.

Kelvin Thomson's home page.

"Canberra's Nature parks will be closed tomorrow for a "cull" of Eastern Grey Kangaroos. About 2000 are to be slaughtered for a "sustainable" number, to protect the flora and fauna. Polls of about 600 residents reveal that 79% of the city want the killings to go ahead. It's ironical that 9 "Nature" parks will be closed, under that assumption that kangaroos are not part of Nature and a threat to conservation efforts and sustainability.

Endangered flora and fauna are being threatened by "over-abundant eastern grey kangaroos". Just how does Daniel Iglesias, the public servant responsible for the decision, actually evaluate what is "abundant" or "sustainable"?

There are never any government polls or public debate on what is a sustainable human population, for Canberra or any city. Kangaroos are native animals, living in harmony with the environment, and softy-treading animals on the Earth. Humans, on the other hand, drive cars, use energy-consuming technology, change irrevocably the landscape, emit greenhouse gases and pollution, but there's no discussion on human "carrying capacity" or sustainable numbers, only for kangaroos!!

Animal activists have located what is believed to be fresh graves at Mugga Lane where 2000 of Canberra's iconic kangaroos will be buried during this year's slaughter, including the stars of the recent ABC documentary "Kangaroo Mob". Despite claims by the ACT government that their killing program is about protecting threatened species, they have failed to provide any credible evidence to support this claim.

The ACT government has also refused recent Freedom of Information requests from the Australian Society for Kangaroos relating to questions about recent culls in ACT nature parks. The Canberra government has breached multiple FOI laws by failing to respond to our request about their kangaroo culls within the legal time frame.

Thanks to the Australian Society for Kangaroos for the photo:

One of the intended burial sites for the kangaroos was switched to another location yesterday after the activists stumbled upon the proposed burial ground in south Canberra.

Activists ready to disrupt cull of 2000 roos - Canberra Times

Parks and Gardens Conservation services director, Mr Iglesias, said the culling was necessary to keep the number of kangaroos at sustainable levels that did not have a detrimental impact on other animals and plants. Just how is "sustainable", a vague and ambiguous word at the least, measured? Grasslands were used by pastoralists for many years causing species extinctions and land degradation. Nature should be allowed to find a natural balance to restore ecological systems, and this includes kangaroos.

[email protected]