Mood:  surprised

[Green Party media release of today's date follows]

 5 Oct 2008

Ronan Lee is Queensland's first Greens MP

The Member for Indooroopilly, Ronan Lee, is Queensland's first Greens MP. Mr Lee resigned from the Labor Party today.

Mr Lee, who won Indooroopilly from the Liberals in 2001 and then retained the seat in 2004 and 2006, says he will provide a strong, sensible response to the climate crisis for Queensland.

Mr Lee said, "Queensland needs to take advantage of its natural advantages to make our state the world's leading solar power economy".

"We also need to focus our infrastructure spending on building a world-class public transport system"

National Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown said, "Ronan Lee's move will give the Queensland Parliament a strong and intelligent Greens advocate to lead debate on the best social and economic way forward in an age of environmental and economic crisis".

"Now there will be a responsible voice free to challenge those old Labor and National-Liberal policies which, for example threaten the death of the Great Barrier Reef and tens of thousands of jobs dependent on it within a generation".

Mr Lee said, "Climate change is the biggest challenge of our generation and now is not the time to sit back and hope that small policy changes will be enough to safeguard our community."

"The type of old-fashioned thinking that got our society in this climate change mess is not the type of thinking that can get us out of trouble - we need a major shift in policy focus with a genuine commitment to renewable energy, public transport, protecting our state's wilderness areas and a smarter water policy that reduces the need for major dams."

"Queensland needs to refocus its attention on climate change and the environment."

"The old political parties have for too long defined the debate about climate change as a choice between doing very little and doing almost nothing."

"Our community deserves and expects much better from our decision-makers," Mr Lee said.

 ............................

From the MP's own website, green leanings apparent:

    

About Ronan Lee Ronan grew up in the small Irish farming village of Ballyjamesduff, near the Irish border and since migrating to Australia in 1989 has lived and worked in Brisbane. He was elected to the Queensland Parliament in 2001 at age of 25, and is now serving his third term as the Member for Indooroopilly. Ronan's 2006 Campaign Launch with Bill Shorten at the St Lucia Bowls Club. Ronan has built a reputation as a hard working local member who doesn’t compromise when it comes to getting the best for his electorate. He is a member of many environmental groups, including The Wilderness Society, Oxley Creek Environment Group and the Cubberla-Witton Catchment Network. He has been a vocal advocate for many environmental issues, including protecting Queensland’s wild rivers, ending broad scale tree clearing and banning duck shooting. Ronan is passionate about protecting Cape York for future generations. Campaigning in 2005 to protect Queensland's Wild Rivers.

 

Posted by editor at 2:36 PM NZT

Updated: Monday, 6 October 2008 2:49 PM NZT

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Mood:  sharp

Picture above: Location of sand mine impacting Tinda Creek near Mellong along Singleton Rd north of Windsor in NSW which flows into Wollemi World Heritage area. These images following are from Google Earth today and date from sometime around 2003. The latest image is from May 2005 below via Hawkesbury City Council file.

Picture above: Mellong in the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains region is at top left of the image.

Picture above: Taken 6th May 2005 by Hawkesbury City Council in overflight showing about 40% out of approved area, and starting to encroach on the northern side (top left of image) into Lot 1 with  no legal development consent in either place. Sand mine operated by Birdon Contracting Pty Ltd at Mellong with huge tailings pond which in the 1980ies comprised the wetlands and headwaters of Tinda Creek, into the Wollemi and then Colo River. Compare Google picture below which despite the 2008 copyright indicates about 2003 stage of workings (less excavation, less tree clearing, less encroachment on unapproved land).

Picture above: Image on Google Earth today but dating from around 2003 given the comparison with HCC May 2005 picture above. Here in 2003 showing much less excavation and smaller tailings pond, and less trees cleared in the east and north of the site.

Picture above: The Wilderness Society endorse the campaign to protect the water resources of Wollemi national park, world heritage area.

"Erosion and sedimentation controls [to be] submitted and approved by Department of Land and Water Conservation prior to any works commencing"

- consistent non compliance with consent conditions by the mine back to 1986 including $10,000 fine in 1989 under a previous operator for water pollution of Tinda Ck, and currently 40% out of area on Lot 2, and no DA consent ever granted for a bypass channel on Lot 1;

- apparent bias by elected Liberal Party councillors to ignore various breaches of planning law and consent conditions from 1986 to 2008;

- Liberal Party councillor verbal advice they would reject their own council officer's recommendations.

- HCC order on Birdon 25 June 2008 for refusal to pay $48,472 outstanding s.94 development contributions "towards RTA's road maintenance program";

- failure to obtain permission for a DA over Crown land between 15.24 and 20 metres in both 1996 and 2006 extension application;

- breach of water license of 40 ML/YR on their dredge pond given DWE officer Conners usage report 155 ML/YR dated 16 March 05;

- breach of an EPA/DECC license issued 2005 to prevent scowering of the bypass channel.

Attachments:

CC

..............................

Picture above/below: Stakeholders inspect the flow of Tinda Creek under Singleton Rd toward Wollemi World Heritage area during an inspection supervised by Hawkesbury City Council on 14 March 2007

Picture above: Greg Hall of Hawkesbury City Cuncil is third from right. Consultant hydrologist for HCC, Chris Jewell is last on right.

.............................

In Independent Assessment 0 6102 Singleton Road, Colo Heights June 2007  by C.M. Jewell & Associates Pty Ltd, tel. 02 4759 3251, www.cm-jewell.com.au

[at page 11 after expert Jewell notes during drought evaporation is much greater effect on Tinda Creek even allowing for less plant transpiration] [bold added]

"As the project proceeds through the stages outlined in the EIS, evaporation losses from the ponds will increase, so that by the end of the operational life there will be a 34 per cent reduction in outflow to Tinda Creek. Post-closure, there will be a net loss to the creek system of about 140 ML/year, or 37 per cent of the natural flow, due to evaporation from the ponds.

If the final landform involved a lake occupying the entire 22-ha operational site, as now proposed, then the reduction in outflow to Tinda Creek would be 204 ML/year, or 53% per cent."

[at page 12]

CURRENT SITE MANAGEMENT

..... On the basis of CMJA's recent experience in gaining project approval and carrying out long term monitoring on other sand extraction sites in NSW, the state regulators have required higher standards of impact assessment and monitoring than is the case with this site. In particular CMJA notes that  groundwater window lakes (or mirror lakes) in final landforms do not receive approval where groundwater resources are an issue of concern.

[at page 12].....Conclusions

.....[repeats the point above]

Recommendations ....

It is recommended that: ....

* Council does not consent to changes to the approved development that result in a larger area of open water in the final landform than is currently approved, unless the proponent can demonstrate, using a more sophisticated and site-specific water balance than is presented in this report, that the final landform will not result in lower catchment outflows to Tinda Creek. Preparing a better water balance would require the collection of site-specific hydrological data over a period of several years."

..............................

As regard's expert Jewell's comments regarding drought compounding water loss from open bodies of water the CSIRO July 2008 make these scary predictions re drought conditions 1 every 2 years in future compared with 1 in every 20 years:

Minister's media release here:      

06 Jul 2008       Droughts to be more severe and occur more often in the future

which leads to this:

An assessment of the impact of climate change on the nature and frequency of exceptional climatic events

which leads to this a 30 odd page pdf file:

An assessment of the impact of climate change on the nature and frequency of exceptional climatic events  PDF [2.5mb]

We had trouble downloading in a firefox browser but the explorer browser works well.

Posted by editor at 12:10 PM NZT

Updated: Tuesday, 7 October 2008 11:28 AM NZT

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Mood:  chatty

 Under construction 

*

* Not strictly press but we noticed Nathan Rees's formative political career was during the rise of Howard's One Nation appeasement. We see the V8 'revhead/redneck' approach at Olympic Park in the same light. The more of whom V8 "is not your cup of tea" complain in real politik terms the happier Rees will be. Especially that lady in the hijab on tv with the beautiful speaking voice. Iemma had pretty much the same sticht with the car racers in various tv news items only Rees is far more obviously bogan stock, speaking as one want to release the inner bogan on occasions.

* The ALP wing of the green movement here

 3 Sept 2008 Reaching for the environmental tipping point - National News ...

referring to Jeff Angel whose formative political career was cutting deals with Neville Wran over northern NSW rainforests such that he thinks there is no point in pitching to all sides of the political spectrum. Jeff is not a Kelly's Bush kind of campaigner like Jack Mundey who prefers the Green Party to the "corrupt ALP government". This particular article caused hilarity and contempt amongst the anti woodchipping campaigners - over Angel claiming "Stopping woodchipping of south-east forests - given 2500-3000 native trees are woodchipped every day in 2008, with recently a record count of 190 trucks to the Eden chipper in one day (per Harriet Swift, ChipStop).

* Peter Garrett the ALP environmental figleaf emphasising the point again that Rudd ran on climate change as a wedge not a political value - you have to go to the Green Party for that:

26 Aug 08 Sidelined minister Garrett 'could target packaging' | The Australian

 

Posted by editor at 7:54 AM NZT

Updated: Monday, 6 October 2008 8:24 AM NZT

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Mood:  blue

The Australian continues as the preferred attack on real climate change action while Fairfax eg SMH or the smaller Crikey.com.au the real take action voice. The former well represented by the Scribe showing his generational blinkers, or more significantly Keith Orchison opinion piece: 

8 Sept 08 Action plan sets us up for a fall | The Australian

who led energy associations for 23 years, that is helped create the diabolical problem for all future generations including his own kids. Orchison is indeed knowledgeable and a respected face on such as NSW Stateline show at times. But like all addicts he doesn’t want to change. He doesn’t want to show others how to change. He doesn’t believe in change. Yet all the addicts must change or die prematurely (along with the rest of us). Orchison like the rest want’s party on western materialism until we die in the gutter. Common to the anti change rhetoric is the airbrushing or in this case sidelining to the end of the column of the value of our “how to” example, to quote:

“and, if the purpose of embracing a high-risk policy [in Orchison’s terms] is to show an example to other countries that have made it clear they don’t intend to follow suit, then Garnaut, it seems to me, is as far away from making a political case for action as he was when the Rudd Government gave him the task almost a year ago.”

But this is mostly sophistry – Garnaut’s job was to provide an economic analysis not a real political analysis per se. For instance just as the Global Financial Crisis has led to contraction of growth estimates for China so will market bans on high density GHG embedded imports. China and India know this especially under either McCain and Obama. Even The Australian as it tub thumps about oil shale bans in Qld is not so stupid about global survival as to ignore the watered down science of the IPCC with this column next door as preview to a Sydney conference 22-25 October:

8 Sept 08 Only a small price to tackle emissions | The Australian

Mind you we at SAM disagree with the 'small price to pay' crowd which includes such as ALP aligned John Connor of the Climate Institute in the energy industry reform lobby. We think this betrays a political wedge philosophy of the Liberal National parties rather than good faith which and the conservatives can smell it. We think like a world war and Winston Churchill it's far better and respectful to promise hardship and misery for a purpose of collective survival. But then Winston had the proof of Nazi extremism to make his case. We have the Doubting Thomas scenario - won't believe it until we see ocean rise, which will be way too late.

We think major land use reform is also quite necessary, neatly illustrated by this speech by Ken Henry as Commonwealth head of Treasury quoted by Alan Ramsey ripping into now Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull back in April 2007:

6-8 April 2007 More than enough dirt under his fingernails - Opinion - smh.com.au

 

an extract here:

 

"Some 38 years ago, my parents walked off the dairy farm they had been leasing and my father returned to cutting railway sleepers and, later, logs for local sawmills. For all but a few years of the remainder of his working life, my father worked in the timber industry, mostly felling logs in state forests. He worked long hours, leaving at dawn and returning after sunset.

"One day, about 30 years ago, he arrived home in the late afternoon. He had something he wanted to show his three young sons. He bundled us in the car and took us down to the sawmill. There, on the ground was the biggest log we had ever seen. When our father stood at its base it was apparent it measured some two metres in diameter. And it was 12 metres in length, as long a log as a truck could carry. All up, about 7000 super feet of timber.

"He was very proud of his achievement: to have taken out a log of that immense girth, single-handedly, with nothing more than his chainsaw. And we were very proud of him.

 

"Then the questions started. 'Dad, how old do you reckon that tree must have been?' 'Oh, very old. At least 100 years. Anywhere up to 500 years.' 'Where did you find it?' 'It came out of the Lansdowne State Forest.' 'How many houses do you reckon you could build out of it?' 'The framing for at least three houses.' 'So how much would that log be worth?' 'I'm not sure, but certainly thousands of dollars.'

"When I think about it now, it seems to me it could have been at that instant that my future career was set. The continuing questions and answers went something like this: 'How much do you get?' 'Not much, only a couple of hours' wages' 'So the sawmill gets the rest?' 'Not all of it. The state government charges royalties on all timber taken out of state forests. Royalties are like a tax.' 'So what would the royalties be on that log?' 'A few dollars I guess, perhaps not that much.'

"Our father told us he had cut down hundreds of trees just like the one from which this log had come, but he'd had to leave them lying in the bush. He explained that old hardwoods typically had hollow cores - 'pipes' he called them - and the sawmill didn't consider it economic to pay the transport costs to bring in a log with less than one foot of solid timber around the hollow core.

"The problem was you couldn't tell how hollow a tree was until you cut it down. That didn't trouble the sawmill, because it paid royalties only on what it took out of the forest. The Forestry Department didn't get a cent for what was left behind on the forest floor. So hundreds of trees, hundreds of years old, were torn down, their carcasses left to rot where they fell. The memory of that afternoon has troubled me ever since.

"I don't know if I managed, at the age of 13, to discover the source of the sense of unease I felt at the time. But if I did, I hope that as I looked at that enormous hardwood log, that I found entirely unacceptable the fact that somebody could legally appropriate, for only a few dollars, this extraordinary asset of the people of NSW that would take perhaps hundreds of years to replace. I hope this smacked to me of highway robbery. I hope I was less than impressed that the elected representatives of the people of NSW appeared to be demonstrating such disregard for the protection of their citizens' property. I hope I wondered about the ability of governments - and not just the venal - to redistribute wealth so arbitrarily, and to disenfranchise future generations. And I hope I vowed that one day I would do something about it…

"Growing up on the NSW mid-North Coast, I was reminded, constantly it now seems, of the failure of economic policy. I recall my disquiet on learning that ancestors on both sides of my family were 'cedar getters'. 'What's a cedar getter, Dad?' What I heard him say was something like: 'Well, that's why we don't have cedar trees anymore.'

"I remember being concerned when I learned that every generation of Australians caught fewer and smaller fish than the preceding generation. I remember learning that weeds were not native plants, and that rabbits that destroyed river banks and foxes that killed chooks were not native animals. I remember learning that soil erosion was caused by humans. I remember being horrified by the apparently wanton destruction wrought by the rutile miners who ripped through the sand dunes where I used to surf, leaving a moonscape devoid of the stunning Christmas bells that used to grow there in profusion.

"I remember being perplexed when the Killabakh Creek that tumbled down through the rainforests of the Comboyne Mountain and then swept around the periphery of my maternal grandmother's dairy farm simply dried up.

"I remember being absolutely staggered to learn that one of the conditions of my paternal grandfather's retaining possession of his 600-acre 'soldier settler' block of rainforest timber was that he clear a certain number of acres each year, and watching over the years as the trees were replaced by bracken fern and lantana, and as the soil washed into the creeks and gullies, replacing the native fish that had long since been exploited to extinction. And I remember, too, that as the weeds spread and farming became too difficult, my grandfather turned to more facile means of making a quid, stripping the native orchids out of what was left of his rainforest property. And if I didn't understand the 'how' or 'why' of these things at the time, I did at least develop a deep conviction that something was horribly wrong…

"When I asked my father the other day why the Killabakh Creek dried up when I was a schoolkid, I suggested that unpriced access to irrigation water was surely the culprit. He thought that might have had something to do with it. 'But don't forget,' he added, 'we fell timber all over the Comboyne Mountain, pushing in dozer and snigger tracks and roads for the log trucks. That's where the water would have gone. You can see it from the erosion left behind.' My question for policy advisers, then, is this: how much erosion are we going to leave behind?"

How's that, Malcolm Turnbull, for "someone who is only a sort of financial person"?

Posted by editor at 7:33 AM NZT

Updated: Monday, 6 October 2008 8:35 AM NZT

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This is not a well packaged story. It’s a contemporaneous traverse of the Sunday television free to air political talkies indicating the agenda of Establishment interests: Better to know ones rivals and allies  in Big Politics and Big Media.

For actual transcripts and/or video feeds go to the programme web sites quoted including Riley Diary on 7. And note transcripts don’t really give you the image content value.

Media backgrounders

Peter Fitzsimmons reckons Julie Gillard is 'hot'.

Full page booze adverts are back in the news big time.

Festival of the boot part 2 later today.

OJ goes down, The Juice on A- peal.

Karry Ann Walsh nails the problem today in “A greed constituency”.

10 Meet the Press:  8- 8-30 am

Deb Knight as compere. GFC – global financial crisis. Press roundup as usual – Henson moral panic story for using children as artistic fodder. Australia should take Tuvalu population [and their TV domain name? Could be good economics.]

Wayne Swan as Treasurer on the low rater as the talent. Shows the Govt serious or reaching? Name dropping US undersecretary of Treasury ….whoever.  GFC – package absolutely essential re bad debts.

“Can’t speculate ….”about share market, or reserve bank. Big question of banks not passing on full reduction in interest rates in future.  [Shows banks under some pressure.]

Outtake Russel Crowe getting applause for bad maths on socialist give away for USA on late night live. [tried to divide 700B by 300M, how do you do it? What is 1 billion in US terms 1000,000,000? Or $100,000,000

Panel Jessica Irving smh, and Mal Farr. MF question. “Can’t speculate on May budget ….” Both sharp tools in the shed.

Can’t confirm 18 weeks parental leave. [There’s a scratch in the record dear Eliza, dear Eliza!]

Animation out take is a cracker – got and opposition of rich people for  rich people by rich people. That’s our democracy.

2^nd guest. Academic prof Steve Keen. Exponential debt levels here in Australia over the last 40 years. This guy is so so so good. Our own debt bubble.

GFC bail out package was a wrong move. Competition as economic vitamin C. Problem is too much competition. MF – what think of $20B infrastructure splurge. Keynsian rather than neo classical. Helps balance sheet but ignores debt. Last year 260 billion debt. Demand is going to fall just like ‘America’.

Meet The Press - Watch Political Video Online - Channel TEN.

Riley Diary 7, 8.35 am

Very clever comparison of the GFC and Australia as the fishing trawler heading into the perfect storm of movie of the same name. Rainfall overlay on Mal Turnbull metaphor on multiple interviews that going to get wet but not sink. The more they say it the more scared we all get and distrustful.

Chats after the tape - Riley in cream suit looks interesting. Reserve bank this Tues.

http://www.seven.com.au/sunrise/weekend

9 Sunday newshour Laurie Oakes interview 8.40 am

Intro News re GFC, and other stuff. OJ goes down.

Clashes directly with Riley Diary for first 5 minutes.

Julia Gillard is the talent as deputy PM. GFC is the topic. Moves onto banks passing on rate cut or not and then infrastructure good investments that also stimulate the economy.

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/default.asp

Insiders 2: 9- 10am

GFC intro with Jim Middleton, namesake on panel with Meglogenis and Henderson looking more like Akerman in profile (?).

Bipartisan support ignoring the Keen analysis on MTP.

Cross to Roland in Washington. Delay re Bush authority. Gone in 4 months, quacking noises getting louder.

Meglo press notes Milne story no rate cut pass through in full. Prestige vehicles on slide. Henderson tub thumps on talent scouting for child models moral panic.

Peter Costello is the talent. Interesting choice given Sydney rounds discussing his book.

Agrees with Swan and Rudd will be okay. Australia should continue to grow. Own role doing a bit with the World Bank. Yes changed financially.

Costello lists some tough question for govt on banks – “highly profitable”. Should be passed on in full. Presents as breezy and insightful sabbatical style break from Treasurer, front bencher jobs as we blogged earlier this week after Seymour Centre talk with the perfumed steamroller Jana Wendt.

Soliliquy by Chris Uhlmann as federal political reporter about impact of the GFC to affect climate change approach of the USA next year?. Grab comparison Wayne Swan last month and this month about not passing on the full rate cut.

Panel discusses banking. Henderson argues private confidential conversations with banks and govt. [Fascist hierarchy?] Grab about Turnbull opportunism capacity for banks to pass on full cut.

Panel chat. Henderson tries an apologia for GW Bush – pathetic stuff really.

Talking pictures – Patrick Cook and Mike Bowers who are both now freelancers ex Bulletin, ex Fairfax smh.

Predictions at the wind up, Henderson gives a advertorial for “excellent” Costello memoir.

Home page is http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/

Posted by editor at 11:51 AM NZT

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Mood:  a-ok

We took a call yesterday from the SMH journo yesterday responding to our update. It's a reasonable report but as with these things there's some missing elements, and the headline is misconceived as dear reader you will see. So we thought we better fillout the complex and highly tactical background.

We emailed Ben Cubby this tipoff Friday morning copy to local objectors from Wednesday prior, as court agent for activist intervenor Neville Diamond in this Land & Environment Court case:

Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 8:59 PM

Subject: CCA got 35 ML/YR permanent with 66 ML/YR trial ongoing to 2011

I have a copy of the orders and judgement from earlier today 9.30 am. Neville also.

I will mail a copy up to you guys - Jane I guess or Margaret or both.

No costs orders against anyone. Our 2 extra consent conditions failed to get up, one to ban bulk export and the other revegetation - though this latter one got closer than I expected.

Moore/Taylor took serious notice of the climate change concerns - and we did well to get that evidence in even though we are not acknowledged directly about that. But given no one else ran the issue up except GCC in their pleadings (Statement in Reply document) says to me we had to be in the case all along and not trust GCC.

Well done xxxxxx for photocopying for me the CSIRO report - again not mentioned specifically but you can see them leaning on it in their cross referencing of other legal cases on the precautionary principle re climate.

For me the critical turning point in the case was Lane being chosen as CAE [court appointed single party expert] who was alwys going to go for an approval.

There is a paragraph too that gets it wrong regarding Peter Campbell evidence which he will want to read, mixing Peter up with Mr Hitchcock on the water sharing committee. There is also an embarrsing typo in the documents referring to trial until 2911! Sounds good to me but should read 2011.

The Commissioners also notably extracted in their judgement exactly the same text I lifted from Lane in my submissions, that contradicted his own verbal evidence to a fair degree.

So in conclusion we kept the trial. And they got 35ML permanent.

Thanks linesman, thanks ball persons! Until the next tennis match.

Kind regards, Tom

This latest decision is not a win for Coke. No costs orders were made against any objector party, neither council or intervenor Diamond. Even when we didn't get our extra consent conditions. Indeed if we hadn't been there alot of climte change evidence would have been airbrushed.

Coke didn't get their trial conditions removed which was their stated case in their application and pleadings, so their appeal was only "upheld" to the extent of a minor increase of 10 ML/YR permanent increase free of the trial consequences in 2011 depending on the data at that time. Here indeed is that very pleading to delete the LEC/Moore C. prescient trial at 66 ML/YR imposed since 2005:

McLoughlin: 'He's not a hydrologist is he?'

Lane " Is he not?"

McLoughlin: "So that's your evidence, you understand him to be a qualified hydrologist?"

Indeed Dr Merrick has written in effect that he is a potential joint venturer with Coca Cola funding his proposals for future academic studies of Peats Ridge. In other words he appears to have a potential financial conflict of interest. In this case Merrick was happy to endorse a whopping '30% reduction in stream baseflow'. Too bad if you're an eco-system in the surrounding national parks dependent on that 30% of water resource!

Another minor nit pick in the SMH story. The NSW Nature Conservation Council rep might well have a valid opinion about the broad situation of bottled water. But they didn't have anything to do with the community litigation in the LEC in 2008. The people on this author's radar were Scott Hickie ably assisting Ian Cohen MLC, campaigner Jon Dee, Clean Up Australia and to a lesser extent Waverley Mayor Ingrid Strewe (till recently) and similarly Peter Macdonald of Manly council.

An extensive history of the latest litigation and our role as SAM editor sometime court agent can be found here:

Monday, 29 September 2008

Coca Cola Amatil to make declaration to the stock exchange any day now?
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: legal

Friday, 19 September 2008

Gosford Council road tragedy: Subpoena skirmish on planning a partial insight into systemic problems?
Mood:  sad
Topic: legal

Thursday, 18 September 2008

Coca Cola water bottling legal case: Commissioner Tim Moore reserves judgement
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: legal

Monday, 4 August 2008

Tactical observations about Coca Cola Amatil water bottling case at Peats Ridge
Mood:  chatty
Topic: legal

Friday, 25 July 2008

Open letter of complaint to ACCC about Coca Cola Amatil deception on 'spring water' at Peats Ridge
Mood:  sharp
Topic: legal

Friday, 18 July 2008

Coca Cola water bottling case: Letter to expert evidence "gatekeepers" re science of Sydney sandstone
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: legal

Friday 18 July 2008 -  

Is this how Coca Cola pick and choose their expert evidence to destroy Peats Ridge Springs?
Mood:  blue
Topic: legal

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Coca Cola Water Bottling Case: Mystery Green Folder found with critical evidence for court expert Lane
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: legal

Saturday, 5 July 2008

Coca Cola water bottling Case, Peats Ridge Springs: Objector gets a chance to be heard
Mood:  chatty
Topic: legal

Friday, 4 July 2008

Coca Cola water bottling at Peats Ridge Springs Case: Decision today in Land Env Court on party joinder
Mood:  chatty
Topic: legal

4 July 2008 -

Coca Cola Amatil caught out breaching bulk export condition in trial at Peats Ridge Springs?
Mood:  sharp

Friday, 27 June 2008

Coca Cola water bottling case: Draft short order of minutes for court consideration today
Mood:  chatty
Topic: legal

Friday, 27 June 2008

Coca Cola water bottling case: Community Objector submissions to Justice Pain today 3 pm
Mood:  chatty
Topic: legal

Tuesday 24 June 2008 -

Does Coca Cola bottled water at Peats Ridge have a chook poo contamination problem in the future?
Mood:  not sure
Topic: health

24 June 2008 Coca Cola's nominated, and court appointed expert 'blinks' twice on report deadline?

Friday, 13 June 2008

Environmental agitator seeks to join legal action against Coca Cola at Peats Ridge Springs, NSW
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: nsw govt

1 June 2008

Coca Cola Amatil bottled water legals: Ratepayers force reversal by Gosford Council so far

1 June 2008
Objecter seeks to be heard in Coca Cola bottled water case after driest May on record

21 May 2008

Coca Cola in Environment Court on 6 June over Mangrove Mtn bottled water extraction

Saturday, 17 May 2008
Coca Cola Amatil 'not a good corporate citizen': Ian Cohen MP
Mood:  sad
Topic: corporates

Posted by editor at 11:08 AM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 16 October 2008 4:26 PM NZT

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Mood:  not sure

We lost 5000 plus hits somehow over the last month! Less a slump as a mini crash. Not that we are too stressed about it. One week laid down with a rotten cold. Flat out with a distracting environmental law case about sandmining adjacent to a world heritage Blue Mountains, other pro bono legal help as tutor for a disabled volunteer. Getting a more serious exercise regime. But these are all excuses, we just do what we do and the readership figures can please themselves.

We got out biggest thrill this month catching out new Opposition Leader Mal Turnbull making a mild gaffe about the national football codes, blogging it and watching it run all week, not to say SAM was the template, but then again maybe it was.

Also sometimes we wonder if our readers are the political activists and hacks who are at times too busy to slum it here say when Parliament is sitting affecting readership. Or maybe there are lots of shareholders who were riding the slippery dip of global financial markets this last fortnight.

On the other hand we similarly try to keep our eye in with comment threads on such as crikey.com.au but less so this last month - which we think might also draw some interest back to the SAM site.

Or maybe we just don't have a clue what builds circulation at all?!

Previous monthly reader pageview figures for 2007, 2008 verified by screen shot (web host provider monthly pageview account details) posted on or about 4th day of the month found in this thread:

• August 08 - 25,344
• July 08 - 22,855
• June 08 - 27,440
• May 08 - 25,046
• April 08 - 19,250
• March 08 - 20,803 
• February 08 - 13,109
• January 08 -  19, 898
• December - 11,627
• November - 10,220
• October - 9, 100 
• Sept -  8,100 (roughly, no screenshot)
• August - 8,845
• July - 7475
• June - 9675
• May  - 9, 059
• April  - 12,087
• March  - 6,684
• February - 5,372
• January 07 -  2800 (3rd Jan - 3rd Feb 07)

Posted by editor at 10:44 AM NZT

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Mood:  quizzical

A couple of times I really wondered what the hell was I doing there (the spurned interviewing the spurned) but glad I went via complementary MUP/crikey ticket. Just rang up and they had one left. Even asked the 2nd audience question about the international financial bailout.

The crowd were quite satisfied I would say even the mild mannered provocateurs.

Peter Coleman presents like a calm overseer. Costello looked uncharacteristicly humble in Coleman's presence. Coleman mentioned how from early on PC presented "like Bob Hawke" as destined "for national leadership of some kind".

This is our take out:

- no regrets from PC refusing the poison chalice offered by Howard after the federal election loss.

- not just affecting a relaxed demeanour, he presents like a man happy in the bosom of his family, with references to 4 months solid of 16 hour days in the concrete bunker on that first budget and then 11 more after that.

- some cracking lines scribbled down in the dark:

- there is a real "buzz" in politics that you don't get anywhere else" spoken like a man who hasn't retired by a long chalk

- APEC 2007: "the week of madness" meeting Putin, Hu, Blair etc during the day, consulting with colleagues about Howard's leadership at night "it could be yours ... it was a saga .... these guys were where I was in 1994 ... " implying he always knew Howard would never hand over, renew the govt. There was an "unreality" and "bizarre" flavour to the APEC week.

- he was in "a psychological" traffic jam'

- it was "better for him and for others" that he vacate the leadership team after the defeat

- "the point of politics is not to be the opposition leader"

- to Jana Wendt  on how long will he stay in Parliament "how that will play out will be determined in the next couple of years".

- issues that he would have handled differently in govt - there were many - Kyoto, reconciliation, and on and on the list went.

All the while wishing Malcolm Turnbull his best. Ouch.

For some reason I wrote down this conclusoin which was not said "hates unions more than Howard", and "Howard family were the imperium" meaning not the Liberal Party whose advice the PM declined when it came to the crunch during APEC.

As I said to the old dears chatting behind me "he's coming back, I can tell".

And what was my question? It went something like this:

The vice president of the US Federal Reserve from 1996 to 2006 was on World Today show yesterday, and I noticed your opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald too. He said the Congress were right to vote down the bail out package. What's your opinion and of the new bail out package too?

In short that new bailout package with conditions should pass and will pass, but that the people on mainstreet were right to be very upset about paying for the irresponsible behaviour of some people on the markets. It was much longer than that but that was the gist.

There was plenty more I've left out and he didn't convince me to vote Liberal or anything but it was a useful evening.

And the biggest elephant of all was not so much silently in the room as bestride the whole building unnoticed by presenters or audience: The Iraq War.

As if on cue Malcolm Turnbull was on Sydney abc radio first item on the morning show. Methinks it would not be a reach to say he was briefed on Costello's little soiree of the night before and felt the call of some publicity of his own?

Posted by editor at 3:46 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 3 October 2008 4:28 PM NZT

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Mood:  blue

Lord, I aint’ goin’ down to no race track
See no sports car run
I dont’ have no sports car
And I don’t even care to have one
I can walk anytime around the block.

- Bob Dylan’s Blues

What's a few hundred trees when between 2500 and 3000 native eucalypts are being fed into the Eden Chipmill on the far south east NSW coast every day?

That's the environmental damage at the Olympic Park precinct at Homebush with Premier Rees approving some mindless V8 car races apparently.

He could have bought into a solar car race perhaps. Or some other more forward looking style of event. But like the ALP, and society more generally he just doesn't get it.

Like Paul Kelly who writes for The Australian he obviously thinks the growth fetish is just fine as the Murray Darling carks it, as rental in Sydney turns oppressive, as native species head south, and the rate carbon emissions escalates. How wrong can leaders be. We should be exporting teachers to help educate the people of the world with alternatives so they can reduce the global population. Instead we escalate exports of coal.

Keep going this way Nathan and we will all be living "in caves" as a result of dangerous climate change. The symbolism really so stinks.

The irony is that Rees was a competitive cyclist who was seriously injured when some redneck car driver took a U-turn and wiped him out broken shoulder and all (so he says somewhere in the Big Media).  But he still didn't learn much from that it seems .....like cars and people are a poor mix.

Posted by editor at 8:00 PM NZT

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Mood:  d'oh

 

September 25, 2008

     

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska met Wednesday with President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan at the Intercontinental Hotel in New York.  

We don't run a story category for the USA presidential elections. We feel it would be impertinent from this far away for a 290 million population 'democracy'.

But we can't help noticing that the author of the Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts movie 'Charlie Wilson's War' based on a true story as set out in the DVD special extras package was the same guy who wrote the West Wing first season or two. That is Aaron Sorkin. Really excellent writing it is too. All based on a true story too.

The real womanising drug taking Charlie Wilson (as he confesses on the DVD special extras) is here:

 The real Joanne Herring played by Roberts is here in Afghanistan via Pakistan:

Joanne Herring in Afghanistan with the mujahideen

And though Sorkin was gone by the time the later seasons ran with the coloured Matt Santos candidate in West Wing tv series modelled on the real life Barak Obama, one gets the feeling there is a fair bit of life and art merging here. After all visual mass communication is what tv drama and election politics have in common.

Sooo in the Wilson movie the Julia Roberts character - who is a real life oil billionaire or something like that - holds a banquet and presentation of the president/dictator of Pakistan namely General Zia. Scary huh?

In a brutally blunt line in the movie the Roberts character asserts her guest in the USA 'had nothing to do with the hanging judicial murder of Mr Bhutto', father of Benizir Bhutto. As if.

Sooo now Sarah Palin, another right wing fantasy character from real life, is meeting another Paki leader in the news recently, this time democratically elected. Thank heavens for small mercies.

And if you think this reference to Charlie Wilson's War movie and Sarah Palin is a reach then how come this story ran 8 September here, via Sunday Times?:

8 Sept 2008 Charlie Wilson's new war against 'sniffy' academics | The Australian

It's all part of the same right wing sticht: "... reinvigorated by a recent heart transplant" says the article of real life Charlie, which is sort of like what Sarah Palin is to John McCain.

Posted by editor at 5:59 PM NZT

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