Ben Fox, AssociatedPress
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called Saturday for a legally binding international agreement on climate change and a global fund with billions of dollars to help poor countries meet its mandates. “Climate change is the predominant global challenge,” the Commonwealth leaders said in a joint declaration. “For some of us, it is an existential threat.”

Their endorsement of a global fund came a day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, both attending the meeting in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, also backed the idea. Brown said Britain would contribute $1.3 billion over three years, but other countries have not yet specified their commitments.

The 53-nation meeting was the largest gathering of international leaders before next month’s global climate summit in Copenhagen. Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, making rare appearances at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to help drive the climate discussion, portrayed the joint declaration as further evidence of growing momentum for next month’s summit. “I will leave Trinidad fully convinced that it will be possible to reach an ambitious agreement in Copenhagen,” Loekke Rasmussen told reporters after the Commonwealth leaders issued their statement following a private meeting. Some 90 countries have now agreed to attend the summit in Denmark.

The Commonwealth countries, which represent about a third of the world’s population, said in the statement that the members all agreed on the need for an ambitious program to reduce the risks of climate change. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday that his country is willing to sign an ambitious global target. But he set no specific figures and insisted it be accompanied by “equitable burden sharing.” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters progress was being made. “You see as each day passes a large number of states come forward with their own national commitments,” he said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Read more http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jRevX16kVSUo63hTgER6EGQrFyUgD9C8RM703

Five Aussie MPs QUIT in Protest Against Carbon Tax Scam

James Delingpole
London Telegraph
November 27, 2009

Read Full Article Here

Australia is leading the revolt against Al Gore’s great big AGW conspiracy – just as the Aussie geologist and AGW sceptic Professor Ian Plimer predicted it would.

ABC news reports that five frontbenchers from Australia’s opposition Liberal party have resigned their portfolios rather than follow their leader Malcolm Turnbull in voting with Kevin Rudd’s Government on a new Emissions Trading Scheme.

The Liberal Party is in turmoil with the resignations of five frontbenchers from their portfolios this afternoon in protest against the emissions trading scheme.

Tony Abbott, Sophie Mirabella, Tony Smith and Senators Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz have all quit their portfolios because they cannot vote for the legislation.

Senate whip Stephen Parry has also relinquished his position.

For the rapidly increasing number of us who believe that AGW is little more than a scheme by bullying eco-fascists to deprive us of our liberty, by big government to spread its controlling tentacles into every aspect our lives, and scheming industrialists such as Al Gore to enrich themselves through carbon trading, this principled act by Australia’s Carbon Five is fantastic news.

Is This Hoax Finally being exposed??? Will this stop them? Or will it make them Mad??? Liars , Frauds, cheats, and phonies, Deciding Whats best for You and I….

A recent poll carried out in Australia revealed that a majority of its population is in favour of gay marriage. However, so far, it’s been a slow march down the aisle for gay equality.

Two successive Prime Ministers have strongly opposed reforming Australian marriage laws to allow gay and lesbians to wed. The current leader Kevin Rudd intervened earlier this year in his party’s internal push to modify policy on gay unions and gay marriage instructing there to be no change.

However, it seems a ground swell of support is pushing the country towards allowing gays and lesbians the right to tie the knot.

A survey carried out by Australian Marriage Equality found that 60% of Australians would support same-sex marriage, with 36% opposed and 4% undecided. It also found that 58% would support the recognition of same-sex marriages formed in other countries within Australian law.

Earlier this week the country’s first legally recognized gay civil ceremony took place in Canberra after a bill sponsored by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Greens Party was approved. Many expected the federal government to overturn the new legislation as it has done similarly on three previous occasions, but so far the new law remains in place.

Leading Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald also earlier this week ran an editorial headlined “Whatever the Gender, All Marriages Should Be Equal” in full support of lesbian and gay unions.

“It is time to end legal discrimination against gays and lesbians” the paper said “Spain has done it. So have Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and South Africa. All these nations have legalised same-sex marriage, without evident undermining of heterosexual marriage and the family relationships based upon it. And in Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany and New Zealand, where the law allows same-sex civil unions or registered partnerships, there hasn’t been any shredding of the social fabric, either. Yet Australia, which likes to see itself as a tolerant, pluralist society, has not been able to go as far as deeply Catholic Spain in removing remaining forms of institutionalised discrimination against gay and lesbian people.”

For weekly gay news, chat and soundbites visit www.maleforce.com

By Gary Cosby

Climate Change minister Penny Wong, has been playing hard ball against the Liberals of their stances on the E.T.S. bill which only have ended in drama.

The drama turns out to be a opera event, there goes the underscore and the overture. You just have to wait for the fat lady to sing!

That’s what I’d be expecting on monday, where the leadership is taking place between Malcom Turnbull and his opponents.

If Penny Wong and her college Kevin Rudd, was serious about tackeling climate change they might as well just encourage or build some new green electricity farms instead a tax on industries.

How effective will compensation to households and others is really going to help them cope with increases in electricity and utilities bills, good and services?

Will the compensation component also cover for the inflation created by the R.B.A? or the expansion of credit? or even fixed prices on good and services?

I want to know how they can really justified of passing the E.T.S. without any clear idea of how exactly the compensation aspect will play out?

Until next week for the answers, when the develops into detail!

Cheers

Khoa Huynh. As I’m happy to blog on a Friday night when I’m suppose to be going out, but decided to stay instead.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has quit her post as parliamentary secretary. This was a big surprise as not only had I pegged her as a Turnbull supporter, but she had come out in favour of the ETS deal that had been hashed out with Labor on Tuesday. My guess is that she had her preselection threatened. She was probably one of the first targetted, being part of the conservative faction of the Liberals.

From this it would assume that, overnight, Fierravanti-Wells has changed her mind and will vote against the ETS – or at least try and delay it. Alongside her in the overnight change is Bill Heffernan and Helen Kroger. Heffernan, from NSW like Fierravanti-Wells, was probably convinced by leadership not so much a threat to his preselection.He was probably target number 2, being from the conservative faction as well.

Assuming that Turnbull has some control over the senators that have been identified as still loyal to the leadership, and that the delay tactics don’t work and a vote does come up (which is looking less likely, though still plausable), I calculate that he still has these votes: Gary Humphries (ACT), Helen Coonan, Marise Payne (NSW), Sue Boyce, George Brandis, Russell Trood (QLD), Simon Birmingham (SA), Richard Colbeck (TAS), Judith Troeth, Michael Ronaldson (VIC), David Johnston (WA).

Troeth, retiring at her next election and from the left faction within the party, is a certain lock. Birmingham, from the highly factional SA and nemesis of Nick Minchin, is a lock as well. Payne I would say is a lock as well, being a progressive in the party. Brandis too is a progressive within his party on a lot of issues and, while outspoken in his criticism of the Greens in the past, I imagine he is supportive of Turnbull and the ETS. Coonan is part of the shadow cabinet and hasn’t quit yet – probably an indication she would vote with the Liberal leadership and for the ETS. She’s also a Howard veteran who won’t easily be strong-armed around like Fierravanti-Wells. But she’s also a survivalist it would seem (having been a cabinet member of Howard, then Nelson, then Turnbull). She might see her vote against the ETS would position her better in the future and vote no. But having stuck this long, I think, has doomed her anyway.

So if these five vote yes, Turnbull and Labor only need two more votes if it comes up. I think Humpries is one to focus on. He’s a bit of a renegade – the first Liberal senator to vote against Howard in 10 years over the ACT’s civil union issue. Ronaldson is another I would work over. Troeth’s state compadre, she probably has a line of communication there to use. He also has Turnbull to thank for his quick rise to power. He’s also part of the shadow cabinet, and hasn’t quit yet, so there’s an indication much like Coonan’s. There’s a theoretical seven votes.

Ideally, both Labor and Turnbull would like to get eight or nine, just to be safe. I believe that the WA senators will be coping it from all sides, and will probably fold. So focus on the QLD senators, where Brandis has some relationship with them. Boyce and Trood who have stuck with the ETS this long are the two I’d go for. There’s a real danger for Trood, who is up for reelection at the next election. If it’s a regular election, the ETS issue will be at the front and with Rudd, Swan and other prominent faces of the government turning out the vote for Labor, Trood could lose his spot in the Senate.

There’s under an hour until the supposed deadline for the ETS vote. We’ll see what happens.

Thomas.

It’s a strange thing, how the brain works.

Without having said a single word to steal the headlines from the Liberals’ infighting, my respect and regard for the Rudd government has shot through the roof.

I’m not afraid to say that I was a huge fan of Rudd in the 2007 election, and for the first year, he had a great checklist as I saw it. I wasn’t disappointed, but I had nothing to maintain my prior excitement so it naturally fell off. But the past few months, what with the ETS unveiling, vote-down, and negotiations, lagging in some areas, no progress in others, I had become a bit critical of Rudd. Probably good, as I wouldn’t still be a blind zealot. But I was getting a bit down on him.

But I think about the government now, and I’m back to admiring them on 2007 levels. And they’ve done nothing. The Liberals are slowly killing themselves and Labor, smartly, are just stepping back and keeping quiet. The perfect political move. The next NewsPoll won’t just show a plummet in the preference for the Coalition and Turnbull, but I feel that it will also show big gains for Labor and Rudd, rather than undecided growth.

It certainly would pay for someone to investigate the whole psychology of why one party can implode and that they turn into gains for the opposing party. It happened in 2007 when Howard & Co. were in August discussing a change in leadership, and it happened all through Howard’s reign as Labor couldn’t get their act together. I want to know what it doesn’t eventuate that a party shoots itself and that just increases undecideds.

Someone probably has looked into it, and I’m just too lazy to go find it. But I just find it interesting.

Thomas.

The rock magazine Rolling Stone has been tipped to win a Walkley tonight for not running a cover of Kevin Rudd, it has been announced.
At the annual awards for excellence in journalism the magazine will receive the gong for not featuring the Prime Minister despite an extensive interview with him about the music he claims to like.
Media analyst Mike Charlton said: “In a year when Rudd’s been featured breaking a loaf of bread and walking on water on the cover of The Monthly, I’m quite glad that someone’s grown some nuts and told him to eff off.”
Rudd has been featured welding a pipe for Appliance Retail magazine and pointing at a graph for Human Resources Weekly, but Rolling Stone says it dropped the image of the Prime Minister because it was ‘publishing suicide’.
Rolling Stone photographer Matt Moss said: “He wanted a picture of himself sitting beneath a halo… we wanted to take his specs off and put a dildo in his hand. In the end, it was easy to see that his currency was uncool.”
In his interview with the magazine, Rudd admitted to listening to every popular band within each demographic over the voting age, but said the Wiggles were “gash” and that Sarah Blasko “would get it”.

The rock magazine Rolling Stone has been tipped to win a Walkley tonight for not running a cover of Kevin Rudd, it has been announced.
At the annual awards for excellence in journalism the magazine will receive the gong for not featuring the Prime Minister despite an extensive interview with him about the music he claims to like.
Media analyst Mike Charlton said: “In a year when Rudd’s been featured breaking a loaf of bread and walking on water on the cover of The Monthly, I’m quite glad that someone’s grown some nuts and told him to eff off.”
Rudd has been featured welding a pipe for Appliance Retail magazine and pointing at a graph for Human Resources Weekly, but Rolling Stone says it dropped the image of the Prime Minister because it was ‘publishing suicide’.
Rolling Stone photographer Matt Moss said: “He wanted a picture of himself sitting beneath a halo… we wanted to take his specs off and put a dildo in his hand. In the end, it was easy to see that his currency was uncool.”
In his interview with the magazine, Rudd admitted to listening to every popular band within each demographic over the voting age, but said the Wiggles were “gash” and that Sarah Blasko “would get it”.

The Rudd Government has given the green light to allow front bench politicians to eat popcorn during sittings of Parliament.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that the entertainment offered by the Opposition during Question Time was now so good that “it was hard to look away”.
“I nearly pissed myself yesterday… you can’t look away for a minute, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s awesome stuff,” he said. “I love the bit where Turnbull comes back into the room and you want to scream ‘watch out, behind you!’”
Bowls of salted popcorn will be available from the next sitting of Parliament, the spokesman said, with the government considering instant pizza deliveries, heated reclining chairs and a 3D Gold Class where the Coalition look like real people.
James Melville from the Institute of Constitutional Studies said: “I love a train wreck as much as the next guy, but this kind of entertainment should really be on pay per view. The kinds of plot lines being offered up by Malcolm Turnbull and his team is, like, fuckin’ Hollywood man… who could have seen Andrew Robb springing up to defy his leader like that? It’s like ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist… and like that, poof, he’s gone’.”

The Federal Government has announced plans for an emissions trading system picture book to be made available for senators who don’t understand the legislation, but pretend that they do.
Passage of the ETS moved forward yesterday after the Coalition held a 14-hour meeting during which they took turns to give leader Malcolm Turnbull nipple cripples and forced him to eat large lumps of coal.
The picture book, which will have pop-up chimneys and solar panels with a voice-over by Rolf Harris, will make it easier for senators such as Steve Fielding to digest the legislation and form arguments to take to the media.
Head of Federal Policy & Picture Books, Neil Tanner, said: “I think it’s going to be quite fun, really it’s paramount that this moral challenge is broken down into child-like digestible bites for decision makers who have the mental age of a seven-year-old.”
Senators will also get a padded room full of soft building blocks and nursery rhymes about reducing carbon emissions, climate change and nappies in case they piss themselves with fear.
ETS researcher Janet Wood said: “There’s nothing more dangerous than a senator without reins, walking into the world without knowing what the fuck they’re talking about… the last time we left Fielding alone he walked out of the nursery dressed as a bottle of ketchup. But he hadn’t had a nap. That wouldn’t happen now.”

Recently, some cool nerd hacked into a system mainframe and nicked a stack of e-mails from a flock of crazy warmist scientists exposing them as frauds perpetuating a dirty lie.

Amusingly, this fiasco has been dubbed as “Climategate”, I just love that suffix, but there’s nothing funny about what these unethical eggheads tried to pull off. Here’s a whole list of media sources that have covered this feral cat that’s been pulled from the bag.

Apparently, these scientists were caught trying to manipulate data, and shutting out and aggressively discrediting anyone who disagreed with them, a well-known fascist tactic employed by those who are thin-skinned and serve a pre-determined agenda for control over others by silencing opposition. Also, according the Washington Post, some even had delusions of inflicting physical harm on climate change skeptics. These boffins are madder than Mad-Eye Moody when he hasn’t taken his Polyjuice Potion – just as two-faced, too.

Naturally, this comes as a huge blow to warmist alarmists and their plans to use this fake junk science as an excuse to dominate the planet with a global government, funded by a cap and tax scam system. However, they haven’t given up on their goals, so naturally they’ll just search for some other invented ecological problem to exaggerate and whinge about, and implement it into government policy so as to rein people in and “mould the world to their heart’s desire”, as the Fabians usually like to put it.

What’s next for the globalist elite who wish to exploit our collective naiveté? United Earth presidential hopeful Al Gore will perhaps realize that his claims of global warming have been exposed as fraudulent (evidently, he already has because he’s too chicken to debate with Lord Christopher Monkton on the subject), so either he or another Madison Ave. frontman will ride the waves like an eco-messiah brat with a god-complex and assert claims of some other form of environmental extremist pseudoscience. Perhaps the next one will be that the earth is running out of oxygen and we need to stop burning things or otherwise Mother Gaia will be deeply upset and inflict revenge upon us all like in Roland Emmerich’s 2004 crapfest The Day After Tomorrow.

Not only that, everything that gets burnt will need to be taxed under a centralized global system that overrides national sovereignty, with new laws that infringe on people’s individual rights and personal freedoms, like breathing for instance. They’ll force you to pay, because bureaucrats love twisting people by the balls and pretending money is no object to anyone. That’ll teach ya, you filthy human carbon emitters. By the way, I hear even trees hate CO2 now, amazing.

Regardless of this major exposé on the corrupt side of the scientific community, which rocks the foundation of the argument that these new draconian government policies are based on, you’ll still see idiots like Kevin Rudd drumming up even more fear mongering because he’s too stubborn to accept defeat like the dogmatic extremist that he is.

Unfortunately, this news story will probably just irritate the crazy warmists who have a foothold on governments and mainstream media and it’ll just make them angrier and more dangerous. Only a small portion of the mainstream media has had the balls to pick this up, and the Crappy News Network (CNN) has decided to ignore it altogether (great journalism there, folks!), but Moonraking Drax has it covered.

Just watch out, these nuts never give up.

Family First senator Steve Fielding has used the negotiations over an Emissions Trading System to reveal that he was once touched on the bottom by climate change as a small boy, which is why he chose to ignore it.
The admission was made quietly but within earshot of a number of cameras who had been tipped off by the senator that he was about to ‘steal someone else’s thunder’.
“I wouldn’t like to upstage the huge job we have ahead of us here to kill off any hopes of curbing the effects of climate change,” he said, “but I remember it breaking into my bedroom via a sudden gust of heat and touching my bum… at that point I swore never to give it the satisfaction of knowing that I knew it existed, like any other paedophile.”
Fielding, who once dressed as a freckled white settler with a pitchfork ahead of the apology to the Stolen Generation, is known for performing cheap stunts to satisfy the two per cent of red necks who handed him a senate seat.
James Melville, from the Centre for Marginal Studies, said: “Poor Stephen, I don’t think he even knows what’s coming out of his mouth some days… Those are the kinds of nutjobs that can use The Bible to jusify having sex with pigs.
“I very much doubt he even knows how to spell ETS, let alone make a judgement call on it.”

Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull faces a leadership showdown as the Government presses ahead with its amended emissions trading scheme.

Much of the amendments have already been leaked and involve giving more compensation for heavy-polluter industries and small businesses.

Turnbull faces an increasing vocal backlash to any sort of deal from within his own party with a growing sentiment that the ETS represents more of a panic driven billion dollar tax slap rather than a genuine attempt at reducing the effects of climate change.

The Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme puts a cap on carbon pollution and then allows companies to trade pollution permits beneath that cap.

According to news.com.au Mr Turnbull will have to convince a majority of his MPs to support the new-look deal, which has been reached after five weeks of painstaking negotiations, but it is still causing deep divisions within the Coalition.

Mr Turnbull’s supporters say he will get a decent majority for the deal. But critics have promised a fight and some are said to be planning to cross the floor when the Coalition partyroom meets.

A strong majority backing would bolster Mr Turnbull’s position, but a defeat would leave him looking very shaky. Even a narrow majority backing would merely maintain the current situation of festering dissent and regular rumbles about the Liberal leadership.

In what has been described as a “shot across the bow” from disaffected Liberals, former minister and climate change sceptic Kevin Andrews has refused to deny that he has been sounded out about taking over from Mr Turnbull should he fail today.

He says he has not been canvassing colleagues about the leadership but would not rule out that others have approached him.

“The leadership is the gift of the parliamentary Liberal Party. At the moment we have a leader, I’m a loyal servant of the people of Australia hopefully and my party and I’ll do whatever job people regard as appropriate for me to do,” Mr Andrews said.

“It looks at this stage tomorrow’s party room meeting is about the ETS legislation, that’s what’s the main item on the agenda and that’s what we all want to discuss,” he said.

A roundup of Australian Jewish news … by Garry Fabian in Melbourne

**

Building Connections of Communal Harmony

SYDNEY – Seventeen-year-old Enzo Somosi may not always broadcast his Jewish
identity. But when a special envoy from the NSW  Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) visited his Coffs Harbour school to give a presentation on the  Holocaust last week, he felt compelled to wear his kippah during the proceedings.

“If anybody asks me, I’ll be honest. It’s not something I hide,” Somosi, the grandson of
Holocaust survivors, he said.  “But I found it  necessary on this occasion to show respect.”

The presentation was part of a whirlwind five-day  tour of NSW’s mid-north coast taken by JBD CEO  Vic Alhadeff and education manager Lynda Ben-Menashe.

The trip was a bridge-building exercise that saw  the pair meet more than 1000 people, including  leaders of the Uniting, Anglican and Assembly of  God churches, MPs, city councillors, Rotary club  members, media personnel and students.

“It’s all about relationships,” Alhadeff said.  “The objective of generating understanding of the  Jewish people ­ who we are, what Judaism is  about, the Holocaust, racism, anti-Semitism and Israel.”

Jewish connections emerged unexpectedly  throughout the tour, he added. Among them was the  admission by a Pentecostal church head that his  great-uncle was former Jewish governor-general Sir Isaac Isaacs.

Another student at a Catholic college revealed  that four of his Jewish grandmother’s eight siblings perished at Auschwitz.

“It was particularly gratifying to note how much  interest there is in the Holocaust and the
lessons that emerge from it,” Alhadeff said.

So far, the response has been positive. “We got  more than we were expecting. The boys were blown  out of the water,” said Mark Harrison, a history  teacher at The Armidale School, an Anglican  boarding school for boys, which was one of the tour stops.

“It was the perfect lead-up to our study of  Germany up to the beginning of World War II. The  presentation had an emotional charge, and the  boys picked up on it. They were really appreciative of them coming to our class.”

*
Jewish School receives $1.5 million government grant

MELBOURNE – Adass Israel School has been awarded a $1.5 million Government grant for
the construction of a hospitality and training centre to be located at the school’s main campus in King Street, Elsternwick a Melbourne southern suburb.

The grant is part of the federal Government’s  multi-billion dollar Trade Training Centres in Schools program.

While all secondary schools were eligible for  grants worth between $500,000 and $1.5 million,  funding approval was based on the needs and application of each school.

Education Minister Julia Gillard said the funding will be used to construct and equip a training  facility at the school, with the new building to  include a kosher hospitality kitchen complete  with cooking, preparation, storage and multi-purpose areas for a training restaurant and general hospitality learning.

With grants worth $387 million available in the second round of the Trade Training Centres in Schools program, applications of almost double this were received.

*
Australian Government denies shift on Mideast Policy

CANBERRA – The federal Government has  denied a shift in Middle East policy, despite
changing Australia’s vote in the United Nations  on a motion on Palestinian self-determination.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign  Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said Australia’s UN  voting pattern is strongly based on the country’s  “long-standing support for the Middle East peace process”, including a two-state solution.

Representatives of the Executive Council of  Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the Zionist Federation  of Australia (ZFA) and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)  wrote to the  Prime Minister and Foreign Minister asking for an  explanation about the vote change.

The vote in question was in a committee of the  General Assembly earlier this month. The motion  reaffirms the right of Palestinian people to  self-determination and urges all states to help  the Palestinian people realise this.

While the motion itself is not considered  controversial, preceding statements refer to the
International Court of Justice’s controversial  ruling on Israel’s security barrier; to East
Jerusalem as part of a future Palestinian state;  and to Palestinian relief agencies, which some argue have been found to do more to exacerbate  Palestinian problems than solve them.

In previous years, Australia has abstained on the  vote, but this year the country voted in favour.

The DFAT spokesperson said even thought the motion referenced the International Court of Justice’s ruling, that ruling was only an advisory opinion.

“We will not oppose a resolution in the General  Assembly on the Middle East simply because it  refers to that advisory opinion,” she said,  indicating somewhat of a shift in tack.

The spokesperson added: “As we clearly  demonstrated in our opposition to the Goldstone
resolution, we continue to support Israel’s right  to live in peace within secure and internationally recognised borders.

“Similarly, the Government is committed to the  Palestinians’ right to a state of their own.”

The federal Opposition was swift to criticise the vote shift.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said: “It is  deeply regrettable that the Rudd Government is  overturning Australia’s policy of refusing to  support one-sided resolutions against Israel in the UN General Assembly.

“Resolutions at the UN General Assembly that speak only of Palestinian rights to a homeland, yet make no reference to the right of the state  of Israel to exist, are inflammatory and counter-productive.”

The only countries to vote against the motion  were Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia,  Nauru, Palau and the United States. Only  Botswana,  Cameroon, Canada, Tonga and Vanuatu abstained.

According to the letter to Foreign Minister  Stephen Smith from the ECAJ and ZFA, “the
explanation given by Australia for its abstention  in previous years was that while Australia  recognises the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the text of the motion  gratuitously ‘tacks on’ other matters, which are far more contentious”.

AIJAC’s letter also expressed disappointment  because the resolutions, while appearing to be  “ostensibly reasonable”, “omit any reference to  Palestinian obligations, and, in so doing,  perpetuate the counter-productive narrative that Israel’s policies are the sole obstacles to peace”.

This latest vote change comes a year after the  Rudd Government instructed Australia’s UN  representative to, for the first time, vote in  favour of resolutions calling for a halt to
settlement activities in the Palestinian  territories and for the Geneva Convention to be
applied in the Palestinian territories.

At the time, Smith said Australia adopts its  approach on a “case-by-case” basis and saw these  votes to correlate with Australia’s support for a two-state solution.

*
Chabad House by the beach
MELBOURNE – It has long been said  that where there is Coca Cola there is Chabad and
now the Mornington Peninsula, a seaside area just  30 minures from Melbourne is no exception.

Chabad of Frankston and Mornington Peninsula will officially open its doors later this month,  providing services to Jews in the area.

“There are a lot of elderly people, quite a few  Russians, Israelis and Aussies, there are young adults, young families and uni students,” Chabad  of Frankston and Mornington Penninsula’s Rebbetzin Rivkah Bondar said..

“Some people have thought they were the only Jews  in the area when there are actually two other families in their street.”

Together with her husband, Rabbi Levi Bondar and their four young children, the family moved  permanently to Frankston, an outer suburb of  Melbourne some 40kms from the CBD,  in July.

In the lead-up to the opening of the Chabad  House, the Bondars ran services during the High  Holy Days. Rabbi Bondar also runs weekly shiurs  and the couple delivers challahs each Friday.

“People are so appreciative and happy to have us  there. They are always offering their help or their houses. It’s nice to be so appreciated,” Rebbetzin Bondar said.

Having established a minyan in Carnegie, which  began in their home with two people and grew to its own premises with more than 200 people, Rabbi  and Rebbetzin Bondar decided they wanted a new challenge.

“We wanted to build a community [somewhere] where  we, as a young, growing family, can live and afford to buy.”

Rebbetzin Bondar said since they made the move, they have received many phone calls from other young families who are keen for a sea change.

Despite the distance to Jewish Melbourne, the Bondar children still attend Yesodei HaTorah in  Elwood for school during the week.

*
Toben Free  but web site to be monitored

ADELAIDE – Fredrick Toben has been  released from jail after serving a three-month
sentence for contempt of court charges stemming  from his denial of the Holocaust.

Toben walked free from South Australia’s Yatala prison early on November 12.

The Adelaide-based Holocaust denier, who spoke at  a 2005 Holocaust denial conference in Iran, can now add Australia to the list of countries including Germany, Austria and the UK, where he has served prison time.

His Adelaide Institute reported on its website that Toben was “unbroken and unrepentant, and appears very refreshed and relaxed after his little holiday”.

The website also stated he was “welcomed home by his friends and supporters who held a celebratory dinner for him on November 12. During his speech on the night, he vowed to continue his work in demolishing the Holocaust lies.”

Toben was taken into custody on August 13 after losing an appeal before the Federal Court, which earlier had ruled that he was in contempt of orders to desist from publishing false and offensive material about the Holocaust and Jews.

At the time of his arrest, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Robert Goot described Toben’s activities as “outrageous denial that the Holocaust occurred and that six million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis”.

Goot said ECAJ would “be ­monitoring the website” and would “take such action as we consider appropriate”.

*

The Australian – Polish Connection restoring an icon

MELBOURNE – In a town called Dzierzoniow in Poland, there once was a thriving
Jewish population. In what was once the centre of town, the Reichenbach Synagogue still stands — one of only a handful of shuls that survived both Kristallnacht and the ensuing years.

Once an imposing structure with a glorious past, the Reichenbach Synagogue until recently stood  windowless, its support beams visible and its  facade showing the very signs of its age and struggle to survive.

Fred Moses, an Australian who has taken an  interest in the restoration of the shul after
visiting it, said that “one look at the still  imposing stature of the Reichenbach Synagogue
suffices to imagine its glorious past”.

“But at a closer look, one feels as if there were  a ghostly and sad atmosphere hanging over the whole structure,” he added.

Inspired by its history, Mr Moses is assisting a  foundation committed to restoring the Reichenbach  Synagogue to its glorious past, which before 1937, and again after 1945, was a religious hub.

The Beitenu Chaj — 2004 Foundation, or in English “Our House Lives on 2004″, is led by
Rafael Blau, who lived in Dzierzoniow (then Reichenbach) with his father for five years as a
child, before making aliyah in 1965.

Blau, who now lives in Be’er Sheva in Israel, spends his summer months in Dzierzoniow,
dedicating his full time to the foundation’s  activities in the restoration of the synagogue.

The foundation has begun works to restore the  synagogue, which upon completion will once again serve as a bustling shul and educational centre for the now growing Jewish population in Poland.

In addition to functioning as a religious centre, the Reichenbach Synagogue will also include a museum.

The foundation states as its objective to “make it possible for people from all over the world, Jews and non-Jews, especially young people, to get to know the story of the Jews in Poland, not just in relation to the horrors of the Holocaust,  but also to the ancient, rich heritage of Judaism, related to its contribution to the history, culture and the development of the Polish nation”.

The foundation has, to date, repaired holes in the synagogue roof, replaced windows, missing gutters and downspouts to stop rain and snow from coming in, and erected a fence around the synagogue.

“Much has been done, much is being done, but so much more has got to be done,” Mr Moses said. “It is most definitely an enterprise of great merits, which should be rewarded accordingly.”

Together with a group of others, including foundation vice-president Beata Sauermann, who  lives in the United Kingdom, and John and Maria  Koch from Canada, Blau is seeking further  assistance for the continued restoration project to “bring new life to the synagogue”.

Now in its fifth year, the foundation is obviously making progress, with the Reichenbach
Synagogue hosting its first service in more than 20 years on Rosh Hashanah.

*
Maccabi Tennis shines at top tennis venue

SYDNEY – If you feel like a game of tennis, White City,where international  tennis
tournaments are played,  should be your first port of call.

That’s the message from new Maccabi Tennis Club president Steven Goldberg, who has taken over the Maccabi presidency for the third time, after James Beecher’s three-year tenure ended at the club’s recent annual general meeting.

Maccabi has settled into its new home at the  traditional heartland of NSW tennis after moving from Bondi last year, and while membership  numbers have increased, Goldberg wants to continue to build the club’s profile in the community.

“It’s a fantastic site, it’s just superb. an oasis in the city. There is a tranquillity there,
despite the hustle and bustle of the city,” Goldberg said.

“People should come down and try the facility, whether they want to become members or not. They’re supporting the only Jewish tennis club in Sydney.”

The club’s facilities include six floodlit synthetic courts, as well as a grass court and an
artificial clay court; a clubhouse; on-site  parking; and a streamlined coaching and junior
program under the management of Steve Loeffler, which aligns the coaching with the club, rather than setting its own agenda as an independent business.

The club had to overcome some members’ initial reservations about moving away from Bondi, but membership has since peaked at 185 — although the objective is to tap further into the community to attract younger members, women and players from the North Shore.

“It’s a much better location, a lot more attractive to those on the north . we really look
forward to catering to the whole Jewish community,” Goldberg said.

The club is an interested spectator in the dispute between the White City Tennis Club and
John Alexander, which has made its way to the High Court after the NSW Court of Appeal ruled in favour of White City.

The appeal prevents Alexander from creating his  dream sporting complex, while restoring the White  City Tennis Club as the owner of the property pending Alexander’s appeal. Maccabi awaits the verdict, as it will influence what happens to its clubhouse.

“We don’t mind who our neighbours will be,”  Goldberg clarified. “The plan is to share
facilities when they knock [the clubhouse down  and rebuild it]. Otherwise, we’ll use the
embankment going up to Glenmore Road.”

*
Fabian is Australia bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World.  His email is fabiang@sandiegojewishworld.com

Could the government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) get any worse? The unfortunate answer is yes. It can, it has already and it’s likely to get worse still before parliament ends for the year.

Radical action is needed to avert an irreversible climate change disaster. Australia has some of the best conditions in the world for wind and solar power. An emergency program to phase out fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy in a decade is needed.

Given the crisis, it’s hard to imagine a more useless response than an emissions trading scheme.

Carbon trading schemes now exist in 35 countries worldwide. Yet nowhere have they successfully driven down carbon emissions.

In their various forms, however, all have proved to be highly lucrative for a new breed of carbon speculators, who can profit from trading in a new commodity — our air.

Friends of the Earth said the European Union’s emissions trading scheme will be worth about US$3.1 trillion by 2020.

Such cap-and-trade schemes face increasing criticism as failures mount, but profits — and emissions — rise.

In July, the billionaire financier George Soros told a London School of Economics conference that carbon trading was the wrong response to climate change. “The system can be gamed; that’s why financial types like me like it — because there are financial opportunities.”

Australian climate activists and most environment groups have condemned the proposed CPRS as a woefully inadequate response to the global warming crisis. Its weak targets ignore the scientific evidence that rapid emission cuts are needed.

The federal climate change department’s own figures suggest that the scheme won’t lead to a significant drop in Australia’s emissions for at least 20 years. Climate scientists say that’s far too late to prevent runaway climate change.

The low targets are a ghastly joke in the face of a looming climate disaster. But even worse, they are not real targets at all.

The CPRS will allow business to meet the emissions cuts targets through buying carbon offsets from overseas — that is, they can pay projects in other countries to make 100% of the cuts on their behalf.

The scheme gives A$16.4 billion taxpayers’ money as “compensation” to polluting industries, diverting resources away from direct investment in solar thermal, and wind power, energy efficiency measures and public transport.

The proposed payouts have grown so large the federal treasury was forced to revise its revenue projections for the CPRS on November 2, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said. Treasury now expects it will be $2.5 billion in arrears by 2019-20.

Critics also point out the scheme’s subsidies will keep polluting industries in business, rather than phase them out.

In its first year, the CPRS carbon price will be capped at $10 a tonne — a rate so low it’s certain to price renewable energy alternatives out of the market.

So much for the supposed ecological benefits of a “free market” in pollution.

The only thing truly “free” in this scheme is the 95% of permits the government will hand to the dirtiest and richest companies at no charge.

The climate depravity of the two big parties is hard to overstate. Negotiations between the ALP and Coalition to get the scheme passed by the Senate are certain to add even more loopholes for the big polluters.

The ALP government has ruled out any negotiations with the Greens, who want far stiffer cuts in emissions.

Emissions from agriculture are the latest casualty of the political horse-trading. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on November 15 agriculture would be permanently excluded from the CPRS. It was a key demand of the climate denier-riddled opposition.

After stationary energy, agriculture is the next biggest contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan to cut emissions in this crucial area is now official: we have no plan. But in truth, this is only a marginal change from the Rudd government’s climate policy for other sectors. There we have a plan that is sure to fail.

Other Coalition amendment proposals include: triple compensation payments to electricity producers; lock in the weak targets for 10 years instead of five; and exempt mining companies from having to worry about the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from coalmines.

At least some of these proposals will become part of the final legislation if it is to pass into law.

A question arises as to whether the big environmental NGOs, who were suckered into backing the CPRS in May, will now finally distance themselves from the polluter-friendly scheme.

The ACF has said many times it would end its support of the CPRS if it was “substantially weakened”. Yet the exclusion of agriculture from the CPRS — amounting to about 16% of Australia’s emissions — still hasn’t led to a policy change.

As the circus surrounding the CPRS draws to its miserable finale, new evidence of the looming climate catastrophe has emerged. It is almost as if the warnings from climate scientists become more dire in inverse proportion to the worsening of Australia’s climate change policy.

On November 20, parts of New South Wales were placed on “catastrophic fire danger” alerts. South-eastern Australia braced for more days of searing heat and fierce winds.

Meanwhile, a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience by a group of climate scientists from the Global Carbon Project said average temperatures are highly likely to rise by 6°C by the end of the century.

The scientists assessed that such a rise was probable given current emissions. The study said world emissions rose 28% between 2000 and 2008. In the 18 years from 1990, the rise was 41%.

They also confirmed the rate of emissions is now higher than ever — at a time it should be coming down fast. In the 1990s, emissions rose by about 1% a year. Since the turn of the century, the yearly rise has been about 3%.

The November 18 London Independent pointed out that a 6°C rise “would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and threatening the basis of human civilisation”.

Lead author of the study, Professor Corinne Le Quere, told the Independent December’s Copenhagen climate talks had to make a strong commitment to cut emissions.

“If the agreement is too weak, or the commitments not respected, it is not 2.5°C or 3°C we will get: it’s 5°C or 6°C — that is the path we’re on”, she said.

But any hopes that the Copenhagen conference will deliver the agreement the planet so desperately needs are misplaced.

US President Barack Obama announced on November 14 that no legally binding agreement would be made — exactly what the rich countries, including Australia, have pushed for over the past few months, against the wishes of the poor nations. The setting of binding targets will be delayed for at least a year.

In a display of outrageous hypocrisy, Rudd called on world leaders to show greater “political courage” at Copenhagen, said ABC Online on November 18.

Real political courage is exactly what is required. But it won’t be found in the pro-corporate political parties or the international gatherings of the so-called world leaders, who will lead us only to oblivion.

The political courage we need is the courage of the street, of the activists, of the people. The courage to fight for the measures we need and not give up. The courage to take decision-making power out of the hands of the elites who have so grievously abused it.

The courage to tell the truth about climate change. The courage to demand what science and justice dictate, not what is desperately inadequate but “politically acceptable”.

The courage to keep building a movement that can make governments fear the people, and fear the consequences of just pretending to act on climate change any longer.

That kind of political courage is all that stands between a safe climate future and climate chaos.

Earlier this month, the ACT State Government introduced laws that recognised same-sex civil unions.

However, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has declared that the Government had not ruled out vetoing the laws.

“We’ll just see what the legal advice says in terms of what can be done here in the ACT,” he told reporters.

Good job too. I mean, if we start giving gay and lesbian people equal rights, pretty soon everyone will want them.