According to Australian Koala Foundation estimates, there are fewer than 100,000 koalas left in Australia. Needless to say, koalas were in abundance when the European settlers first set foot on these shores in the late 1700s.

As with many of our native species, habitat loss is the major problem. As we have chopped down trees and cleared the land for development, koalas have lost their homes and food supply. Under stress, koalas become susceptible to the disease, chlamydia.

It was stress-induced chlamydia (an extremely painful condition that leads to infections in the eyes, urinary, reproductive and respiratory tracts) that led to the demise of bushfire hero and mascot, Sam the koala. No amount of surgery could repair the damage to her organs and she was euthanized.

Sam’s story helped to create awareness of the plight of koalas and there is a move to promote their conservation by adding them to the list of vulnerable species under the Federal EPBC Act (Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999). Speaking on the 7PM Project recently, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the government was reviewing its koala conservation strategy.

Most of us love koalas – they are as integral to Aussie culture and heritage as vegemite and Ned Kelly. But what about all the other native species that are disappearing at an alarming rate; species that may not be so attractive and emotive? Because there are lots of them; approximately 1500 plants and animals and close to 3000 ecological communities are threatened with extinction due to inappropriate land-management practices.

In her book, On our Watch, zoologist and conservationist Dr Nicola Markus points out that the restoration of a patch of native eucalypt woodland for koalas would also benefit a large number of birds, mammals, nectar feeders, invertebrates and small reptiles. This is all to the good. Effective conservation is not just about individual species but about repairing whole ecosystems.

Markus highlights some of the inadequacies and inconsistencies in environmental law and the politics surrounding conservation. Vast amounts of money and resources were invested in recovery plans for the orange-bellied parrot as compensation for giving a wind farm the go-ahead. Markus argues that many other threatened species would have resulted in a better return on investment. They just weren’t as high profile.

While I applaud moves to upgrade the protection of koalas, real conservation progress will only come when less sexy creatures – such as the common mistfrog, the Boggomoss Snail, the broad-toothed stag beetle, the Plains Rat, the bog willow herb, the square tassel-fern and the woolly ragwort (all listed as threatened under the EPBC Act) also cause a public outcry.

We can’t just latch onto the cute and cuddly creatures and hope the environment will take care of itself. Every native plant and animal, however large or small, has a part to play in maintaining the health of our natural environment. Now that climate change pressures are adding to the stresses on our brown and arid land, the need for realistic and targeted conservation action becomes all the more urgent. It’s no coincidence that the subtitle to Markus’ book is ‘The Race to Save Australia’s Environment.’

A small sigh of relief, thanks to Peter Garrett, the federal Environment Minister, who has rejected a Queensland Government proposal to build a massive dam near Gympie. The ABC reports on Garrett’s decision here. The dam was always a bottom shelf idea, dragged into contention during the state’s recent, dire drought. So why am I breaking my convention and mentioning political stuff on what is, nominally at least, a writer’s blog? Because Gympie was kind of my turf, way back when, and the thought of prime agricultural land being deluged by a dam that just didn’t add up in the efficiency and environmental stakes, made my blood boil. It must be a big relief for those affected, who haven’t been able to develop or plan for their properties under the shadow of the flood. I wonder what happens now to the land already bought to make way for the dam?

I take my responsibilities as Environmental minister very seriously

Well the announcement interrupted Ellen, but I think she will be okay with it. A media conference at 12.45pm today, announced Peter Garrett’s “proposed decision” against the Traveston Crossing Dam, as indicated under the EPBC Act.

The winners are those who campaigned to save the Mary, and undoubtedly Peter Garrett himself.  After years of criticism of hypocrisy Minister Garrett came closer than ever to legitimacy.

What a proposed decision means is a little confusing to me – and if anyone knows what a ‘proposed decision’ means. It’s connotations to a lay person is a little odd – to propose a decision as a minister with the total delegated authority makes me think what, was he just pontificating? Or it can be overruled by caucus? Or is it justifiable language as it needs to go through parliament? I actually have no clue and it’s my proposed decision that it is the latter.

Anna Bligh has been pwned again. Her press conference was announced on channel 9 as being in an hour.

For more information about the activists running the Save The Mary River campaign, follow the link.

With the federal election coming closer and the Qld Labor government becoming ever more unpopular – are the links between state and federal being severed for federal QLD seats in the federal election?

I can’t imagine how much Anna Bligh’s pressies are scrambling right now.

First I could not believe it!

How anyone can be so stupid of thinking Barack Obama is going to be the saviour of the GFC?

I do not want to go on about how the government intervention never stops recessions but only delay recessions.

Well, the stimulus packages allows businesses to keep on running unprofitable, add in more debt, barely any saving being achieved, continues to redistribute wealth around the country, devours capital and limited resources, they can’t adjusted themselves to any ecomonic climates and once the stimulus runs out then a must bigger recession is on its way out.

Many of those voted on the facebook poll will be dead wrong, not even Kevin Rudd can prevent it even Barack Obama would still say “Yes, We can!”

I won’t be wrong about voting ”who cares, doesn’t affect’ because nothing prevents the GFC!

Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett will be on the meet the press show on Sunday morning. I’ve already sent my question to the show, by hoping they will read my question out to him on my behalf. The question is:

Dear Mr Garrent

Given that you’ve response to the Melbourne University full take over of the VCA, by saying “That’s not part of my portfolio”. Which is a strange response from you even though you are wearing the federal arts minister title.

Would you rather not get intervened the current position the VCA is in and any chances to its education model or rather allowing the Free Market to run its course?

Khoa Huynh

Cheers

After 10 weeks of posting my concerns about this disaster in the Timor Sea and critisising the lack of media and political coverage they have all woken up. The pollie in oposition a Mr Hunt has been asleep for ten weeks or has been waiting to try and make a name for himself, he should be thrown out along with Martin Ferguson, Bob Brown and Mr Midnight Oil. The Greens in my opinion are the worst of all, they are suppose to care about the planet but their silence has been deafening. Now the bloody rig is on fire and what was a tragic disaster for Australia and its neighbours is now a monumental catastrophy, as for issueing PTTEP more drilling licences is beyond all comprehension and all the political drum beating and hypocracy isnt going to put this fire out and plug the hole. If there are experts somewhere in the world that know what to do to stop the flow of oil then where are they. I know what Id like to plug the hole with and they are all in Camberra.

Peter I implore you.  Please don’t contest the next Federal Election.  It’s not that I think you’re doing a bad job or anything.  I just really think your heart’s not in it. 

I watched you on the Sound Relief concert.  I’d listened to it live on radio and in my head I saw you in suit and tie standing at the microphone simply singing the lyrics.  What I saw when I watched you singing on the DVD was a passionate musician who loved being back out on stage and doing what he does best … entertaining.

We may differ on a few points when it comes to the environment but one thing I know in my heart to be true and that’s that you were seduced into politics by the promise that you could make a difference from the inside.  And it must have been a shock to find that as a politician, you are a slave to many masters, most of them corporate stakeholders; it really isn’t as simple as it seems.

I remember my Grade 6 teacher was the one that first introduced me to Midnight Oil … it was the album with Beds Are Burning on it I think.  She was heavily into politics and stickin’ it to the man too. I was probably too young back then to understand what you were on about but I knew it must have been important … you danced like a man possessed, a man wracked with pain and conviction.

How can you sing lyrics like “What do you believe is true. Nothing they say makes a difference …” and then spend your days making grant announcements and awarding prizes for literature? You could be out there telling the government to get its arse into gear instead of sitting on yours in endless meetings and parliamentary sittings. 

You must admit it’s not what you thought it would be?

Did the Sound Relief concert give you a sense of how relevant your band’s lyrics still are?  Music has so much more power than a seat in parliament; so much more power to educate people, to mobilise them to want to make a difference too.  We need our musicians to have the passion to tell it like it is, not sugar-coated drivel that only sells ‘cos it has a good base line.

So Peter … please tell Kevin247 to shove it, ditch the suit and tie and get the band back together.  Rob Hurst certainly still has the goods and the guns.  And can I put in a special request that your first concert include a re-formed Hunters and Collectors and Split Enz?  Man that would be something worth seeing.

The time has come.   A fact’s a fact.  You belong on stage.  Bring the Oils back.

By Captain Paul Watson

Way back in October 2007, I had urged thousands of Australians to vote for Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett’s Labor Party. Why? Because they promised to get tough on illegal Japanese whaling. They promised to take Japan to court. They promised to send a ship down to the Southern Ocean to monitor the illegal activities. They had severely criticized the former Howard government for not doing enough.

Since then Rudd and Garrett have demonstrated that they have done far less for the whales than former Environment Minister Ian Campbell had done.

Under Campbell, Australia was the toughest voice at the annual meetings of the International Whaling Commission. Under Garrett, the whales have become a very minor concern. Under Campbell, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was given encouragement and support. Under Garrett, we have been disparaged, and now we are being harassed as the Rudd government seeks to sabotage Sea Shepherd efforts to defend the whales.

Peter Garrett does not want our ship the Steve Irwin to return to the Southern Ocean in December. Why? Because the government of Japan has requested that the Australian government intervene to prevent us from returning to the Southern Oceans.

Legally, they can’t stop the Steve Irwin from departing for the Antarctic coast but it appears they believe they have found a way to sabotage our mission.

And thus I, and my 1st officer, Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden, have had our visas to enter Australia cancelled and our new applications denied. My Bosun, Dan Bebawi of the U.K. was ordered off his plane at London Heathrow and was told that his visa was no longer valid. After a week and an expensive re-issue of his ticket, he was given a limited visa.

The story is not so simple for Peter Hammarstedt and I.

The Immigration department is now demanding that Peter and I provide police reports from Norway, Canada, and the United States in order to proceed further on the visa application. Once these reports are received, we will be informed of additional requirements.

In other words, they will make us jump through bureaucratic hoops for months if need be to prevent us from re-joining our ship in Australia.

I do not have a single felony conviction on my record from any nation in the world. There is not a single warrant out for my arrest. Japan has not pressed charges. Our flag nation of the Netherlands has not charged us with anything. I have entered and reentered Australia dozens of times without incident, but now only a few weeks after Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was given an ultimatum by Japan to stop Sea Shepherd, Peter Hammarstedt and I have found that our return to our own ship has been blocked without any reason given.

This year our campaign has been named Operation Waltzing Matilda in recognition of the fact that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has received overwhelming support from the people of Australia.

Australia has been our base for operations against Japan’s illegal whaling operations since 2005 and Australians have demonstrated that Australia is the most passionate nation on Earth when it comes to defending the great whales from the illegal and viciously cruel whaling activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.

Unfortunately, this support from the people for the whales is not reflected in the actions of the government of Australia.

The Rudd government has turned its back on all the “get tough on whaling promises” they made before the election and has now become more submissively loyal to the demands of the Japanese government than to the concerns of the Australian people that elected them.

The Steve Irwin left Brisbane this month on a tour of Australia to raise support for Operation Waltzing Matilda. Under the command of Dutch captain Alex Cornelissen, the ship is presently berthed at Circular Quay in Sydney across from the Sydney Opera House.

The Steve Irwin is scheduled to visit Melbourne and Hobart before reaching Fremantle, the port where the ship will depart in December for the coast if Antarctica.

Unfortunately, I cannot be onboard my own ship during this tour until a visa is granted, something that was simply routinely granted prior to last month. I am now being informed by the Australian Visa office that this “harassment” is routine. They need to establish that I am of “good character” prior to issuing a visa.

Of course, the Australian Federal Police could and most likely already have obtained all the records on me that they require. Despite this, I need to spend hundreds of dollars and weeks of time tracking down the police reports on my “character.”

Strangely enough, I have found that it is easier to get a police report if you have an actual criminal record than if you have no record at all. Since I have never been convicted of any crime in the United States, I have been told that I need an F.B.I. report saying that I have never been convicted of any crime in the United States. This requires being fingerprinted and filling out a lengthy report requesting a document stating that no police criminal record exists. If this is considered “routine” then no one would be visiting Australia at all.

Japan is mobilizing every bureaucratic measure they can to prevent us from engaging their whale poaching fleet this year. They are leaning on the Dutch government to strike our flag. They are leaning on the Australian government to intervene. They have made requests of the United States and Canada to prevent Sea Shepherd and I from continuing our efforts to defend the whales.

Despite this, we are on target for departure for early December and I will be there, visa or no visa. Peter Hammarstedt will also be there. No power short of a bullet will prevent us from returning to the Southern Ocean in December to once again cut the illegal Japanese quota in half and to negate their illicit profits.

Operation Waltzing Matilda is on target and with the Steve Irwin joined this year by the Earthrace, we will mount the most ambitious and most aggressive effort to date to obstruct the slaughter of the whales in the Southern Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is organizing a petition drive of Australians to support the character requirements for Peter Hammarstedt and myself.

We have less than two months to secure the visas to allow us to take command of the only ship in the world that can save the lives of hundreds of defenseless and endangered whales in the Southern Ocean.

I am confident that the Australian people will send their voice to Canberra to support us and the whales. Rudd and Garrett need to be reminded that it was not the Japanese whalers who voted them into power, it was Australian citizens, and Australians want the bloody slaughter in the Southern Ocean ended.

Red Sails in the Sunset is a seminal album from Australian band Midnight Oil. It was their first Australian number one and I think represents the best period of the band. The album was recorded in Tokyo and was released in 1984.

Australians will know only too well that the lead singer of the band, Peter Garrett, is now a member of the Australian Labor Party. The decision by Garrett in 2004 to join a coal-loving political party is one which provoked deep disappointment. Left-wing Australians had hoped that Garrett—politically vocal and a staunch environmentalist—would join a more socially and environmentally-concerned party. Alas that was not to be.

The cover image by Tsunehisa Kimura depicts what Sydney would look like after a nuclear strike (or a dust storm as some have already noted). If you know Sydney geography then you’ll recognise the places that have been hit directly: The Rocks (location of a particularly fierce anti-development demonstration in the 70s), Woolloomoooloo (close to the naval base), and Kirribilli (official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister). Whether these locations were chosen intentionally is unknown.

Tsunehisa Kimura was born in 1928. His photomontages, according to the ABC, were popular in magazines of the 70s and 80s and were critical of the Liberal pro-development party of Japan. Kimura was no doubt chosen to create the art for this album because of his strong political beliefs, it is therefore a shame that Peter Garrett was prepared to water down his beliefs for the sake of a career. Perhaps now the more appropriate cover image would be something like the Kimura image below:

Terrible as it might seem to some fans of the band, there is one song on the album that until now I had not heard. It’s called “Helps me Helps You” and contains lyrics that are the bitter reminder of a political hero turned bad:

Hypocrisy helps me helps you
Democracy helps me helps you
Ideology helps me helps you
Put your trust in me
I’ll help you through

Hypocrisy indeed. Now that Australia is in a full death spiral environmentally (Garrett’s Labor party support the expansion of the coal industry), perhaps we need someone like Buckminster Fuller to design us some escape pods. I found the image below on greg.org. The photomontage was created by Bucky and his business partner Shoji Sadao in the 60s. The spheres are “self-contained communities of several thousand people living inside enclosed geodesic spheres a mile wide, which float over the earth’s surface” Just what we might need in the near future.

The hit song ‘Beds are Burning, written by legendary Australian rock band Midnight Oil in 1987 has recently been used in a music video produced by the tck tck tck campaign to raise awareness about climate change and promote carbon reduction initiatives. The song, which was originally written to reflect the bands’ feelings about Aboriginal land rights issues in Australia has been gifted to tck tck tck to assist with their campaign to garner “civil society support for an historic agreement on climate change” at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held at Copenhagen in December 2009. The band has helped to re-write the song, which was remixed to include the voices of sixty musicians and celebrities from around the world including pop singer Lily Allen, Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran, Milla Jovovich, Fergie, Bob Geldof and many more. According to an article on the tck tck tck campaign website, the idea for the song and video was driven by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who also appears in the video clip.

The video for the new song, which contains background animations including human skulls, globes on fire, fire raining down from the sky and exploding continents can be viewed below:

For those interested, I here is a link to the original song by Midnight Oil. For those who are unfamiliar with the band, the large bald man, Peter Garrett, is currently the Australian Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. He has also been credited with creating some of the most awesome and original dance moves of all time.

: : : : : : : : : : :

Continuing my anxiety over the oil spill off the north west coast I still find myself at a loss why there are no media continuance of concern. Once again ABC radio talk back host Geoff Hutchinson had a lady from wherever talking about the oil spill. How many months is it now ( Im losing track) and this lady has evidently been to the site (if site is the word for it) by now the SITE must cover hundreds of kilometres. She observed dolphins and other sea life covered in muck swimming in the awful place. The talk back host (Im fed up mentioning his name) seems somewhat surprised thats this lady had so much to say about the destruction in that area. Media personnel should be pushing for answers, the other drilling rig is digging another hole to relieve the pressure does anyone believe thats going to work? has it been done before? So we are being told that if a gas/oil field is discovered over an area of say 20 square kilometres and you dig a hole you will get maximum pressure for production and if you dig 10 holes in that same area you will get a drop in presssure and little production. Has anyone thought what they are doing here, they have tinkered and disrupted the planet we live on, call it Mother Nature if you like, everything has gone terribly wrong and this site that is spewing thousands of litres of oil into the ocean and maybe doing it for years to come. Who knows different, where are the oceanic experts why the secrecy. Politicians are saying nothing because of the Gorgon Project so everyone is silent and being very money concious. The Federal Minister for the Enviroment Peter Garrett is saying very little how apt is/was it that he was/is the lead singer for the rock group “Midnight Oil” a good name and one thing is for sure hea has plenty of Midnight Oil to contend with right now. So let someone tell us if it is possible to fix this mess or is the spraying of chemicals into the ocean off the north west of Australia something we are going to have to put up with till the oil field runs dry.

On a good morning, our family “walking bus” will set off at a leisurely pace and I will sign my daughter in at the kindergarten at 8:45am and get my son to school in ample time for the 9 o’clock bell, with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

On a slightly less good morning, I will thrust my daughter into the arms of a unsuspecting parent outside the kindergarten, begging them to take her in, and I will then sprint the rest of the way to the school, my brow furrowed and  jaw slightly clenched. 

On a bad morning, I will end up driving my son to school first to make that 9 o’clock bell, and then drop my daughter at the kindergarten some 20 minutes after the session started, my fly undone and my hair still wet, and a stream of “Shitty fuckin’ fucks” in my wake. 

On a really bad morning, I will probably repeat the MO for a bad morning but with a Late Pass thrown in for good measure. And then I’ll come home from the school run, heart still pounding, adrenaline a-pumping and feeling all vague and woozy through lack of food. I will go to make toast only to discover petrified bread already in the toaster is from the last time I’d tried to make myself breakfast three days ago. I will instead decide to perform my morning ablutions, which I have had to put off all morning because it appears to have been “International Hit Your Siblings With a Rubber Mallet Day”. I will then be interrupted from said ablutions by a small boy who has put both hands in the honey tub and is now crying because his hands are sticky. While cleaning him up in the bathroom, I will subsequently discover that my seemingly wet hair is actually no longer wet and is just incredibly greasy because I forgot to shampoo it in the 30 second shower I managed to have before one of the kids had started screaming again because they’d been hit on the head with a rubber mallet. I will then discover my favourite bra sopping wet, stuffed with partially-chewed sultanas and  My Little Pony accessories and stashed behind the bathroom door. I will briefly contemplate returning to bed, possibly never to rise again, but will see the tell-tale ring of grey cat fur on my pillow as evidence of some vindictive anal grooming. I will then kick something in my rage but it will be with the foot where the big toe has a verruca growing under the toenail, which will just make me angrier because a) it fucking hurts and b) I want to know what kind of a person gets something that sounds like a STI on their foot anyway, and then, while jumping up and down in pain, I will accidentally land on a piece of carefully concealed Bionicle body part. At which point, I will start screaming and flailing my arms and legs about like Animal from The Muppets or like Peter Garret used to before he was made to put on a suit and assume the position for the Rudd Government. And I will probably do this for quite some time. 

And then I will finally remember to breathe and it will all be okay again. Except that I’m still hungry and I still need to go to the toilet. And my almost-three-year-old is probably just about to hit me on the head with a frickin’ rubber mallet. 

Welcome to my world. 

• The Federal Government has suspended the environmental approvals process in order to fast track efforts to stop the leak at the West Atlas oil rig.

Crude oil and gas have been flowing into the Timor Sea for more than a fortnight.

Crude oil and gas have been flowing into the Timor Sea for more than a fortnight.

The Federal Government says the slick is now between 25 and 70 nautical miles in area.

A rig which is being sent to the site to drill a relief well to stem the flow of oil is expected to arrive Thursday.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the process will not be subject to some of the environmental approvals normally required.

“Last night I formally exempted these actions from the requirements from the EBPC Act on the basis that it was in the national interest to do so,” he said.

The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, says it will then take about a month to stop the leak.

“It’ll take about four weeks to complete drilling and well operations, taking us to early October to shut in the well,” he said.

Mr Ferguson says there will eventually be a full inquiry into the leak.

“We will focus on a full independent investigation into the operational, regulatory and human factors surrounding the incident,” he said.

But he says the first priority is to plug the leak.

“The operator of the oil field, PTTEP, has decided to stop the leak by drilling a relief well to intercept the leaking well,” he said.

“The best advice available from Geoscience Australian and my department is that this is the most technically feasible safest and fastest option to shut in the well.”

abc.net.au

[This is a copy of the email sent for the Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination (Federal Parliament) petition on the Health Petitions Australia website, copied from a Member's response.]

From: [name, email]
Sent: Friday, 4 September 2009 10:49 AM
To: Abbott, Tony (MP); Adams, Dick (MP); Albanese, Anthony (MP); Andrews, Kevin (MP); Bailey, Fran (MP); Baldwin, Bob (MP); Bevis, Arch (MP); Bidgood, James (MP); Billson, Bruce (MP); Bird, Sharon (MP); Bishop, Bronwyn (MP); Bishop, Julie (MP); Bowen, Chris (MP); Bradbury, David (MP); Briggs, Jamie (MP); Broadbent, Russell (MP); Burke, Anna (MP); Burke, Tony (MP); Butler, Mark (MP); Byrne, Anthony (MP); Campbell, Jodie (MP); Champion, Nick (MP); Cheeseman, Darren (MP); Chester, Darren (MP); Ciobo, Steven (MP); Clare, Jason (MP); Cobb, John (MP); Collins, Julie (MP); Combet, Greg (MP); Higgins Electorate (P. Costello, MP); Coulton, Mark (MP); Crean, Simon (MP); Danby, Michael (MP); D’Ath, Yvette (MP); Debus, Bob (MP); Dreyfus, Mark (MP); Dutton, Peter (MP); Elliot, Justine (MP); Ellis, Annette (MP); Ellis, Kate (MP); Emerson, Craig (MP); Farmer, Pat (MP); Ferguson, Laurie (MP); Ferguson, Martin (MP); Fitzgibbon, Joel (MP); Forrest, John (MP); Garrett, Peter (MP); Gash, Joanna (MP); Georganas, Steve (MP); George, Jennie (MP); Georgiou, Petro (MP); Gibbons, Steve (MP); Gillard, Julia (MP); Gray, Gary (MP); Grierson, Sharon (MP); Griffin, Alan (MP); Haase, Barry (MP); Hale, Damian (MP); Hall, Jill (MP); Hartsuyker, Luke (MP); Hawke, Alex (MP); Hawker, David (MP); Hayes, Chris (MP); Hockey, Joe (MP); Hull, Kay (MP); Hunt, Greg (MP); Irons, Steve (MP); Irwin, Julia (MP); Jackson, Sharryn (MP); Jenkins, Harry (MP); Jensen, Dennis (MP); Michael.Johns@smtp2.aph.gov.au; on.MP@aph.gov.au; Katter, Robert (MP); Keenan, Michael (MP); Kelly, Mike (MP); Kerr, Duncan (MP); King, Catherine (MP); Laming, Andrew (MP); Ley, Sussan (MP); Lindsay, Peter (MP); Livermore, Kirsten (MP); Macfarlane, Ian (MP); Macklin, Jennifer (MP); Marino, Nola (MP); Markus, Louise (MP); Marles, Richard (MP); May, Margaret (MP); McClelland, Robert (MP); McKew, Maxine (MP); McMullan, Robert (MP); Melham, Daryl (MP); Mirabella, Sophie (MP); Morrison, Scott (MP); Moylan, Judith (MP); Murphy, John (MP); Neal, Belinda (MP); Nelson, Brendan (MP); Neumann, Shayne (MP); Neville, Paul (MP); Oakeshott, Robert (MP); O’Connor, Brendan (MP); Owens, Julie (MP); Parke, Melissa (MP); Pearce, Chris (MP); Perrett, Graham (MP); Plibersek, Tanya (MP); Price, Roger (MP); Pyne, Chris (MP); Raguse, Brett (MP); Ramsey, Rowan (MP); Randall, Don (MP); Rea, Kerry MP (Constituents); Ripoll, Bernie (MP); Rishworth, Amanda (MP); Robb, Andrew (MP); Robert, Stuart (MP); Roxon, Nicola (MP); Ruddock, Philip (MP); Saffin, Janelle (MP); Schultz, Alby (MP); Scott, Bruce (MP); Secker, Patrick (MP); Shorten, Bill (MP); Sidebottom, Sid (MP); Simpkins, Luke (MP); Slipper, Peter (MP); Smith, Tony (MP); Smith, Stephen (MP); Snowdon, Warren (MP); Somlyay, Alex (MP); Southcott, Andrew (MP); Stone, Sharman (MP); Sullivan, Jon (MP); Swan, Wayne (MP); Symon, Mike (MP); Tanner, Lindsay (MP); Thomson, Craig (MP); Thomson, Kelvin (MP); Trevor, Chris (MP); Truss, Warren (MP); Tuckey, Wilson (MP); Turnbull, Malcolm (MP); Jim.Turnour.M@smtp2.aph.gov.au; P@aph.gov.au; Vale, Danna (MP); Vamvakinou, Maria (MP); Washer, Mal (MP); Windsor, Tony (MP); Wood, Jason (MP); Zappia, Tony (MP); petitions@health-freedom.com.au
Subject: Do Not Introduce Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination

Dear Member of Parliament,

I wish to express my concern to you with regard to mass vaccination of the Australian public for swine flu, using a vaccine with no long term studies yet potential for dangerous side effects.

There is much talk amongst politicians, medical associations and the media with regards to making this swine flu vaccine mandatory. I do not consent to mandatory vaccination and I wish to point out that my right to do so is protected under informed consent laws relative to each Australian States criminal Acts.

I am very informed as to the risk benefit ratio and the risks far out weigh the perceived benefits.

To put things into perspective, malaria kills 3,000 people every day, and it’s considered “a health problem”… But of course, there are no fancy vaccines for malaria that can rake in billions of dollars for drug companies in a short amount of time. For example; Chinese scientists have already found the cure for malaria yet it is not a drug that can be patented by big corporate money. http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600026/n/The-Last-Bite

But getting back to the H1N1 issue, one Australian news source, for example, states that even a mild swine flu epidemic could lead to the deaths of 1.4 million people and would reduce economic growth by nearly $5 trillion dollars ( http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,25392380-2,00.html ).

This sounds like the outlandish cries of the pandemic bird-flu, when President Bush said two million Americans would die as a result of the bird flu! Where is the Bird Flu now?

As of August 28th 2009 (update 63) ( http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_08_28/en/index.html ), there have been 2185 deaths world wide from H1N1. Compared to seasonal flu, this does not constitute a pandemic let alone justify mandatory mass vaccination with a vaccine that will have dangerous side effects and little proof of efficacy.

Approximately 36 thousand Americans die from seasonal flu every year, 200 thousand are hospitalised. Between 250 – 500 thousand people die from seasonal flu world wide, also resulting in three to five million cases of severe illness. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en The world wide 2185 deaths from H1N1 virus, does not constitute a pandemic yet alone grounds to begin mandatory vaccination of the Australian public.

Just a couple of months ago, scientists concluded that the 1918 flu pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide in a matter of 18 months — which all these worst case scenarios are built upon — was NOT due to the flu itself! http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5146PD20090205?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&sp=true

Tami Flu vaccine, used against seasonal flu, does not work effectively and is not a safe drug. Serious side effects include convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 12 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections Japan actually banned Tami flu for children in 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-11-19-tamiflu_x.htm

In 2007, the FDA in the USA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-25-tamiflu-brain_N.htm

In fact the Tami Flu vaccine has been found to be almost useless http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/397/27 < The risk and dangers compared to perceived benefits of Tami flu are great.

Recently a confidential letter from the United Kingdom Health Protection Agency was sent to about 600 neurologists alerting them to watch for an increase in Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) as a result of the swine flu vaccination. GBS can be fatal as it attacks the nerve lining, causing paralysis and suffocation – as those affected are unable to breath.

The UK Daily Mail reported on the July 29 letter and pointed to a similar U.S. swine flu vaccination used in 1976 when:

* “More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu (25 deaths);
* 500 cases of GBS were detected;
* the vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times;
* the vaccine was withdrawn after just 10 weeks when the link with GBS became clear;
* The U.S. government was forced to pay out 1.3 million dollars to those affected.”

So, instead of giving warnings to the people who’ll be vaccinated, secret letters were sent to neurologists to keep track of the number of human guinea pigs who contract the dreadful GBS without knowing the risk.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease-Leaked-letter-reveals-concern-neurologists-25-deaths-America.html#ixzz0OqsdiuaX

The dangers of using live attenuated viruses in vaccinations can also lead to an out break in flu, just exactly the opposite of what the vaccine was made for. It can actually spread the virus rather than cure it.

The vaccine time below helps illustrates my points.

Vaccine history

• In the USA in 1960, two virologists discovered that both polio vaccines were contaminated with the SV 40 virus which causes cancer in animals as well as changes in human cell tissue cultures. Millions of children had been injected with these vaccines. (Med Jnl of Australia 17/3/1973 p555)

• In 1871-2, England, with 98% of the population aged between 2 and 50 vaccinated against smallpox, it experienced its worst ever smallpox outbreak with 45,000 deaths. During the same period in Germany, with a vaccination rate of 96%, there were over 125,000 deaths from smallpox. ( http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020119hadwin/020119hadwin.toc.html )
The Hadwen Documents

• In Germany, compulsory mass vaccination against diphtheria commenced in 1940 and by 1945 diphtheria cases were up from 40,000 to 250,000. (Don’t Get Stuck, Hannah Allen)

• In 1967, Ghana was declared measles free by the World Health Organisation after 96% of its population was vaccinated. In 1972, Ghana experienced one of its worst measles outbreaks with its highest ever mortality rate. (Dr H Albonico, MMR Vaccine Campaign in Switzerland, March 1990)

• In 1977, Dr Jonas Salk who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists, that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 “Abstracts” )

• In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK)

• In the 1970’s a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73)

In 1976 mass vaccination of Swine flu begain in the USA. Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths. However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics. And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized. ( http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx )

• In 1978, a survey of 30 States in the US revealed that more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately vaccinated. (The People’s Doctor, Dr R Mendelsohn)

• The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine.

• In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981)

• In the USA, the cost of a single DPT shot had risen from 11 cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The manufacturers of the vaccine were putting aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain damaged children and children who died after vaccination. (The Vine, Issue 7, January 1994, Nambour, Qld)

Please do not introduce mandatory vaccination upon the Australian people.

Yours sincerely

[name]
[address]
[email]

Federal environment minister Peter Garrett’s latest blooper is gross. A week after Kevin Rudd proudly announces $50 billion (tax revenue) deal to sell China natural gas from the Gorgon project off WA’s Pilbara Coast, Garrett adds his environmental approval, as if post facto endorsement is normal business. That amounts to a rubber stamp!

Timing could not be worse, as oil continues to spill from West Atlas rig 250 kms off the Kimberley coast, creating a slick 180 kms long and approaching 20 kms offshore. Estimated 470,000 litres of oil per day are spewing into the ocean and with 50 days to cap it with equipment coming from Singapore, the final spill may equal the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. 

Garrett says consent conditions on his Gorgon approval will adequately protect the environment from damage by ‘far the largest carbon capture and storage experiment in Australia’. An experiment indeed!

Proposed site of the Gorgon facility is Barrow Island, an A class nature reserve with significant coral reefs, sanctuary for flatback marine turtles, and geological fault lines susceptible to leakage of stored carbon.

“Compounding one mess with another in the rush to sell fossil fuels in an era of climate change makes us gasp in horror at its insanity”, says Mora Main, Greens councillor Waverley.

Garrett may not be familiar with Zola’s masterpiece ’Germinal’ about miners poverty and socialist rumblings, but he could well consider two Zola quotes:

“The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men”.

“If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow”.

• Greens leader Bob Brown says the Government’s approval of the Gorgon gas project off the Western Australian coast is environmental vandalism.

The project involves injecting 3.5 million tonnes of C02 a year into a reservoir under Barrow Island.

The project involves injecting 3.5 million tonnes of C02 a year into a reservoir under Barrow Island. The carbon capture technique will cost Chevron and its partners more than $1 billion and is the biggest geo-sequestration project of its type ever undertaken.

But Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he is satisfied that the $50 billion project will not cause unacceptable damage to the local environment.

He has given approval to the project’s joint venture partners – Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Shell – as long as they meet 28 new conditions to protect the Barrow Island ecosystem.

This includes the protection of the endangered flatback turtle and detailed surveys will have to be completed of Barrow Island and the surrounding marine environment before and after construction.

But Mr Brown has described the conditions as window dressing.

“How can you build a plant like this on the rookery of an endangered turtle and expect there’s going to be no outcome for that species?” he asked.

“How can you have 3,000 people on the island and expect there’s not going to be introduced species? It just goes against environmental common sense, let alone science.”

Mr Brown says the Gorgon partners could have moved the project and its plans for a carbon capture and storage facility to the mainland, and the Government should have forced them to do so.

“There were good alternatives to this project but there’s no alternative to Barrow Island,” he said.

The Greens say Mr Garrett was left with no choice because several lucrative deals to export the gas to China and India have already been signed.

While Mr Garrett has been weighing up his decision, other members of the Federal Government have been bragging about the deal’s potential to boost the economy and create 6,000 jobs.

Mr Garrett denies he has been swayed by the project’s economic benefits.

He says he was not required to consider alternative sites under this approval process but he has indicated he would like to be more involved in similar decisions in the future.

Meanwhile the Opposition’s Greg Hunt is happy the project looks set to go ahead.

“We wanted to see that there was a clear set of protections both for land-based animals and also the marine environment. Those conditions which we set out, appear to have been met,” he said.

The head of the Gorgon Project, Colin Beckett from Chevron Australia, says they are confident they can meet the new conditions.

Article:abc.net.au, also visit, www.gorgon.com.au

DOUBTS have emerged over whether the giant $50 billion Gorgon gas project can safely bury its greenhouse gas emissions deep beneath the Barrow Island nature reserve off Western Australia.

Technical experts working with Gorgon’s developers, Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil, found it was possible that carbon dioxide could leak from faults in the geological formation under the island which is supposed to act as the burial site. Their findings were disclosed in the developers’ response to complaints from the Conservation Council of WA, which argued the plan to bury the gases was highly risky.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/50b-question-gorgon-carbon-claims-in-doubt-20090825-ey3j.html

My wife and I are well into our third winter in a row, (not counting our brief flirtation with summer in Nova Scotia) and it is starting to get to me.  I may be plagued with a mild form of seasonal affective disorder.  After too many months of short days, the lack of light trips something in me and a general sense of malaise sets in.  This particular string of winters was entirely voluntary, of course, triggered by our decision to spend November through February in Turin, Italy, where we had a brief fall, then full-on winter.  It would have been summer here in Melbourne.

There are signs of spring now.  The birds are getting up very early and the sun is going down later.  One street in our neighborhood is lined with cherry trees and the blossoms are out.  It reminds me of  Washington, DC, where we lived for three springs.  Japanese cherry blossoms are so fragile and lovely that they seem inappropriate in the American capital, my nation’s nest of political intrigue and greed.

Unfortunately, spring is tax time here in Australia as well as in North America.  If you are from the Northern hemisphere and this fails to make any sense to you, here is a simple breakdown of the seasons in the Southern hemisphere.

• Summer: December to February
• Autumn: March to May
• Winter: June to August
• Spring: September to November

This is just a rough comparison.  This country is almost the same size as the continental United States and has a number of different climate zones.  Up North, it is simply “dry” or “wet.”  It gets very, very wet up there even though this is the driest continent on the planet and all the cities in the South are clamoring for water.  Summers are very hot.

I have mentioned before that tax prep is my least favorite activity, so I have to get an early run at it and put an enormous effort into procrastination in order to get anything done.  We don’t have sufficient income to make it worth hiring an accountant, but the language of tax baffles me.  My brain seizes up as if I had early onset Alzheimer’s.  It puts me into a real funk for weeks.

The only antidote is humor.  Fortunately, there is some first rate stuff in this land.  My favorite is a TV show called “The Hollowmen.”  Is is about a unit set up within the Prime Minister’s office to help with his most important tasks– defeating the opposition and getting himself reelected.

Their job is to develop the “long term vision,” to ignore tomorrow’s headlines and focus on next week’s catastrophe.  The cast and the writing are wonderful.  Each episode begins with a crisis (such as childhood obesity) which calls for immediate action by the prime minister and results in a great deal of rushing about before it dawns on the staff that every action has unintended consequences, such as alienating major campaign contributors.

In the end, like a dryer at the end of its cycle, there is nothing but spin.  It is absolutely fabulous, up there with “Fawlty Towers.”  In one of my favorite episodes, the team tries to reduce its carbon footprint as part of the PM’s “Carbon Challenge.”  They turn down the heat, install new lights and get on bicycles.  Their intentions are inevitably sabotaged by their own ignorance and the necessities of finding the very best “photo op” for the prime minister, which seems to be in the Antarctic.

Last week’s Sunday supplement had a feature on Peter Garrett, former lead singer for the rock group “Midnight Oil,” now besieged politician.  To say that his segue from adored pop star to Minister for the Environment, Arts and Heritage has not been smooth is something of an understatement.  Even as rock star, Garrett resisted interviews.  This time they didn’t give him any choice.  The article would be written with or without him.

He has made a couple of missteps and several decisions which have been considered betrayals by his former friends among the Greens.  The denunciations have been pretty savage.  Prime Minister Rudd took away half his portfolio (climate change and water) and gave it to another minister, Penny Wong.

The giant,bald headed Garrett was once Time Magazine’s “icon of outrage.”   Now some environmentalists consider him the ultimate sell-out.

He approved the construction of the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar valley (which seems to consider old growth forest simply future wood chips for Japanese paper);  he said yes to the resumption of zinc mining operations in the Northern Territory; he supported plans to dredge Port Phillip Bay here in Melbourne and he’s given the nod to a couple of big uranium mines.

On the plus side, he’s been instrumental in implementing a national waste strategy plan and the most significant household energy efficiency measures in the country’s history.

He has his moments of glory, even now.  After the devastating bushfires in Victoria, Garrett got his old band back together again for a “spellbinding” concert to raise funds for the victims of the disaster.  Garrett clearly cares about the environment, but he has made his pact with the political devils that drive the country these days, the PM, party and the “stakeholders.”

To me, that is a real shame. I liked him better when he was a powerful voice singing for the wilderness. If you’re going to sell out, you might as well do taxes.

The trumpets are blaring out in the national capital our political masters are claiming a wonderful result for the nation. 50 Billion dollars in gas exports to China plus the already 20 to india. Mind you the gas field hasnt been tapped yet and the whole project is yet to built but glory hallelujah how the dough is going to flow into Australia. Giving enviromental approval is a formality, Peter Garrett past lead singer for Midnight Oil will no doubt have to toe the political line and give the project the thumbs up regardless of the ruin to the species of endangered sealife e.g. the flatback turtles that exist in that area. But putting all that aside as they will I was interested to hear the news comment that the 5% of the gas from the gas field is earmarked for local consumption, but amazingly the next comment was, that local consumers can expect to pay more for their gas. I would have thought that such a mammoth project that is generating so much wealth for the nation would have had factored into this export bonanza the means of giving the gas consumers their gas for FREE. Who is going to be the main beneficiaries of this project? We all know the politicians will gain from it but I mean which humans will benefit, shareholders, banks, big corporations,overseas companies like SHELL. How much of the benefits will flow through to the ordinary Joe, Il tell you how much……………Jack Shit……….Our premier Mr Barnett, the poor mans draft excluder is running this state into the ground, sure we have all the saleable energy but who benefits from it, is his cobber Grylls going to get a slice of the gas cake for regional developement? This state is becoming a joke there is no equality here we are devided into categories and regions and the aussie fair go for all is fast becoming nothing more than pure political BULLSHIT.