Six weeks since I touched the ground
Miranda Gibson, Still Wild Still Threatened
28.01.12 12:30 am
Miranda feeling the weather. Pic: Alan Lesheim
In December I climbed 60 metres high into the ObserverTree, a giant Julia Gillard promised to protect, but Forestry Tasmania still plan to log. I came up here to keep an eye on this forest and to pressure the state and federal governments to honour their promise on forest protection. This coming Saturday (TODAY) I will help bring the forests to town and be beamed live from the ObserverTree to talk to at a family picnic event in Hobart. I’ll be a key note speaker at the picnic and also participate in a discussion group and have the opportunity to talk one-on-one to picnickers via a live web-stream.
• Rob Blakers’ picture-essay: Mt Mueller’s forests, HERE
A Million Horses: Hydro’s powerful heritage
Gabrielle Rish
27.01.12 4:47 am
Tungatinah power station, in the gorge of the Nive River
Gabrielle Rish’s historical overview of power in Tasmania as sweeping reforms are planned for the state-owned power industry The reforms would see electricity retailer Aurora privatised and power output divided to conquer what a State Government-ordered review has characterised as the looming giant that deters the entry of retail competitors to the Tasmanian market. That giant is Hydro ...
• Tigerquoll, in Comments: Read the TasCOSS discussion paper and realise this latest Hydro cash grab is a Tasmanian Labor Party farm selling resolve to cope with the Gillard Labor Government’s denial of massive GST revenue to fund core Tasmanian public services and infrastructure.
‘Democracy does not apply to Aboriginal people’
Christoph Behrends, New Internationalist
27.01.12 1:21 am
Photo by bixentro under a CC Licence
This year’s Australia Day, one of the world’s longest occupation protests turns 40. Activists of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra have been fighting for acknowledgement, sovereignty and self-determination of their peoples ever since. Michael Anderson, Aboriginal rights activist and former ambassador of the Embassy, talks to Christoph Behrends about past and current struggles – and the offering of a peace pact.
• ABC Online: Indigenous leaders condemn ‘disgraceful protesters’
• Christine Milne: Abbott’s ill-considered remarks highlight need to acknowledge national day truths
• The Age, Saturday: Gillard adviser resigns after melee leak
• Katherine Murphy, The Age Comment: A peek at the best and worst of Gillard: Gillard’s capitulation on pokies was in large part a function of cashed-up gaming barons and clubs clubbing a weak government into submission. And in the US, there’s concern about the impact of super slush funds controlled by third party interests on the Republican contest.
Kim Peart.
26.01.12 5:00 am
Dr John Ondawame and Rex Rumakiek, refugees in Australia dreaming of West Papuan freedom. Pic - when the Leichardt and Marrickville Councils flew the West Papuan flag on Dec 1, HERE
On Australia Day many may go to the local club for a flutter on the pokies, to drain their bank balance, even going into debt. A politician of principle, Andrew Wilkie, helped put the Gillard Government into power and Gillard made a written agreement with Wilkie to address those money vacuum cleaners of problem gambler’s pockets. We read in the ABC News, “This morning Ms Gillard launched a broad defence of her decision to dump the deal with Mr Wilkie, saying it was no longer a “real world” option. “Government is about getting things done,” she told Radio National.” [5] Is this the standard of Australian politics? Promises don’t count or matter. Written agreements can be ignored. It is all too like our betrayal of the West Papuan people in 1962 and again at the UN in 1969.
• Tim Morris: Australia Day must be moved
• The Habitat Advocate, Wattle Day should replace Invasion Day: Australia needs to leave the British colonial nest. The current national celebration of Australia Day falls on 26th January each year (today). It is the day British Captain Cook first came ashore at Botany Bay, part of what is now Sydney. It was a British invasion of foreign land and preceded many massacres of the traditional people to the point of genocide. Read the full article HERE
THE AGE:
• And the Australian of the Year is ... Geoffrey Rush
• Ricky, Maggie, Jess and Graeme awarded
The truth about the new live export regulations and the ‘public consultation’
Suzanne Cass, Stop Tasmanian Animal Cruelty, http://www.liveexportshame.com
26.01.12 12:03 am
Identifying the millions of sheep sent to the Middle East is clearly unworkable, since it known that countries import them, then on-sell them to other countries, and generally, to anyone who wants them to do with as they wish including butchering them in the streets. They are handled, transported and slaughtered under unspeakable conditions, and this we have seen in multiple exposures by Animals Australia over the past decade.
Island ... looking forward to a new future
Dale Campisi, Editor; Rachel Edwards, Managing Editor, Island
26.01.12 12:01 am
The recently threatened Island Magazine will be launching their 127th edition next Wednesday, February 1 at 5.30 at The Lark Distillery Hobart at a free event that is open to the public.
Anne Layton-Bennett, Friends of The Tamar Valley
25.01.12 6:36 pm
ANZ Bank is due to make a decision about extending a debt facility to Gunns by 31st January, and the bank is now on notice that an ongoing nationwide campaign will result, should it continue to facilitate financial support for Gunns.
Government Must Act before possible Incursion by Japanese Whalers: Greens
Acting Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne
25.01.12 6:00 pm
The Greens have a Bill ready to go when Parliament resumes to require a patrol vessel to be sent to monitor any whaling activity in Australia’s whale sanctuary and we are looking forward to the support of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to get this through the Parliament to ensure that the integrity of the Liberal legislated whale sanctuary is upheld.
Why we can’t trust Gillard any more. Greens ‘still in touch’
Michael Short, The Age, January 25, 2012 Opinion
25.01.12 6:45 am
She ought to have introduced the legislation; it is unimpeachably better to honourably lose a vote on the floor of the house than to prove beyond doubt that your word is not able to be trusted. One of the greatest thinkers and leaders of all time, Socrates, that magnificent practitioner of the dialectic method of investigation and learning, might have had such circumstances in mind when he asked: ‘‘Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?’‘
• Christine Milne: Greens remain extremely popular and in touch with everyday Australians
Pokies: Billion-dollar loss while Gillard fiddles
Kim Booth MP, Greens Gaming spokesperson, MR
25.01.12 5:00 am
Greens $1 Bet Limit Gives Liberals A Chance To Actually Stand For Something The Tasmanian Greens today released figures showing that about one billion dollars would be lost to poker machines in Tasmania before Federal Labor’s promised reforms took effect in late 2016.
Reduced to a number on a map ...
Charles Zuber, Church Studio, Franklin
25.01.12 4:32 am
Carbon Stack, Marcus Tatton
Artists behind the action But the exhibition is more than a few iconic images, it is a demonstration of how much support there is by artists for the landscape, and for the recognition that landscapes are not there just to be painted or pixellated, but there to be kept in perpetuity for the generations to come. Landscapes in Southern Tasmania formed in their complexity over millions of years are still being reduced to a number on a map to disappear on a due date for no profit and no joy.
• Jenny Webber: Tasmanian Forest Protests commence Prime Ministers promised conservation areas
• PICTURES: Tasmanian Forest Protests commence in Prime Minister’s promised conservation areas
• Thursday: Tasmanian Forest Activist Released from Remand
Travels around Tasmania with some latte sippers - the sequel
Jarvis Cocker
25.01.12 4:16 am
I’d argue that Nikolic reveals much about his own perspectives in his virtual admission that is knowledge of Tasmania’s economy is steeped in 1950-era rhetoric. Yet the loggers love him. If only they released that the working poor are the ideological enemy of the Liberal Party. And the obvious fact Nikolic is standing in Bass, a primarily urban electorate which is growing rapidly tired of endless handouts to an industry seemingly unwilling to stop sucking on the public teat. I’ve offered my services to Andrew as a consultant, as I think he needs better advice than he is currently receiving. He’s got my email address. Over to you, Brigadier.
Pontville asylum detainees on hunger strike
ABC Online
25.01.12 3:36 am
Earlier, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the detainees were angry and frustrated because they believed they were going to be given bridging visas and allowed to live in the community. “That simply hasn’t happened; they haven’t been told when they’ll be released; they’re not being told anything and being given no expectations that they’ll be given bridging visas,” he said.
• Earlier: Keep Pontville open, says Foster
• as nationally: Asylum seeker talks hit a brick wall
Lara Giddings and the choice. Restore MP numbers: Sign Petition
Matthew Denholm, The Australian
25.01.12 1:55 am
Giddings’ budgeting skills can be traced to the latter years of school, spent as a boarder, with Sonya, at Melbourne’s Methodist Ladies’ College, while her parents remained in PNG. “Boarding school makes you independent at the age of 12,” Lara explains. “I had $100 a term, $300 over a whole year and out of that I had to pay for my toothpaste, my washing detergent, my shampoos and other incidentals.”
Monday:
• Lara Giddings push to expand Tasmanian lower house
• Economy report a bleak read
• Tim Morris: Restore MP numbers
• Wednesday: Peter Chapman President of the Tasmanian Constitution Society Inc, Jane Diprose Secretary: The proposal to restore the House of Assembly to 35 seats is not an expansion but a restoration of the House to the same size it was in 1998. • Sign Petition, HERE
TODAY: Target ANZ. Mill protest
Anne Layton-Bennett, Friends of The Tamar Valley
25.01.12 1:00 am
Rallies will be held by the No Pulp Mill Alliance, (of which Friends of the Tamar Valley is a member) outside major ANZ Bank branches in Launceston, Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne, and information about the Bank’s financing of Gunns given to bank customers as ANZ is put on notice that an ongoing nationwide campaign will result, should it continue to provide financial support for Gunns.
• Check today’s Share Price HERE
• Conservationists’ occupy Ta Ann Tasmania’s Huon Valley Mill Our Campaign against Ta Ann is only just beginning with a public demonstration outside of their head office in Hobart planned for next Monday at noon.
• Wednesday, FTV: ANZ Bank remains on notice
Tim Jacobson, HACSU Acting State Secretary
25.01.12 12:30 am
A memo set to be circulated across the Launceston General Hospital (LGH) foreshadows a significant reduction of services as a result of Corporate Vacancy Control and Budget pressure being placed on the Hospital by Departmental bureaucrats.
Flanagan at Rushdie death-threat Indian Lit-Fest
New York Times
24.01.12 7:00 am
Internationally-acclaimed Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan is one of the speakers at an Indian literary festival which has been rocked by a Salman Rushdie death-threat controversy.
• Stand up for Salman Rushdie: The Hindu’s editorial, HERE
The Justice Secretary “Resigns”
Nigel Burch
24.01.12 5:12 am
Paul Lennon, Age Pic, HERE
Lisa Hutton was appointed by Paul Lennon without the usual selection process. She replaced Peter Hoult, who was compulsorily transferred to Health, again by Paul Lennon. Lara Giddings appears to be in a quiet process of “de-Lennonisation” of her administration, and Ms Hutton may have joined a growing list of the casualties.
Huon Valley Guessing Games: A bit of decorum, please!
Bob Hawkins. Pic: Rosalie Woodruff
24.01.12 4:56 am
Rosalie Woodruff
Armstrong was up to a tactic he often resorts to, especially when members of the public are asking, or appear about to ask, something that, in the case of the former, he doesn’t like, or, in the case of the latter, he anticipates he won’t like. As a long-time politician, he knows full well that an interjection can throw a speaker off balance, confuse their line of argument, or, in the case of the meek, shut them up completely. From past encounters, the mayor knows Woodruff is made of pretty stern stuff, and is not easy to stop when in full flight — so that is possibly why his outburst as she spoke was much more vehement than one of his routine, often spurious, interjections. At the January 18 meeting, Woodruff was speaking in support of her “alternative motion” relating to council plans to build a $170,000 toilet block in Cygnet’s Loongana Park and demolish the existing one.
Justice for the few: NAB v. Society
Matt Norman, Wingman Pictures Pty Ltd
24.01.12 3:08 am
Let’s have a quick look at some statistics for a minute ...5. The National Australia Bank are the main sponsor for the Australian National Press Club.
North-West cycleway opportunity
Paul O’Halloran MP Greens Member for Braddon. MR
24.01.12 2:48 am
Rather than spending more than a million dollars on removing these bridges, why not look at using some of that money to convert them into bicycle and pedestrian crossings? Finding suitable river crossings has been of the main sticking points in the plan for a north-west cycleway, so this could be a golden opportunity to solve some significant logistical and engineering challenges.
Today
• Travels around Tasmania with some latte sippers • Bobby-z ... and the Miners of Potosi • MIS growers felled again • Ancanthe ... all that will be lost • Writers, artists, journalists ... how to foment a (peaceful) revolution
• Tony Abbott Offline about Cyber-Safety • Jimmy Barnes and Guy Pearce join calls from marriage equality ... and ... and ... and ... • Senator Parry to join Coalition Online Safety Working Group • Governor-General’s praise of Aussie farmers spot on • TFGA urges farmers to have their say on Fair Work issues
• Brand Tasmania • Dr Karl’s Flaccid Pill • Gunns’ new logo • The New CEO • HAPPY New Year, says Davo
#8 John Groves you dodged my question. I’m debating alright John but just taking the debate in a direction you mightnt…
• Island ... looking forward to a new future • Summer Music In Tolosa Park 2012 • Tasmania Over Five Generations: Return to Van Diemen’s Land? • Hi-Tech tree sit to beam the forests direct to a Parliamentary picnic • Send the Love party