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sydney alternative media - non-profit community independent trustworthy
Thursday, 17 May 2007
Julian Armstrong, State forest public servant does the logger's PR in local paper Narooma News
Mood:  down
Topic: nsw govt

Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 10:09:02 +1000
To: narooma news
From: harriett swift.....Subject: letter to the editor

Julian Armstrong of Narooma (NNW 16/5) has written in support of logging the beautiful spotted gum forests at the foothills of Gulaga Mountain.
He has a right to do so, but I think he also has an obligation to tell us that he is an employee of Forests NSW.
Forests NSW spends $1.5 million a year on propaganda, which should be more than enough. Its employees should not be writing to the media as private citizens in their spare time without declaring who is paying them.
Yours sincerely
 
 
Harriett Swift
Convenor


CHIPSTOP campaign against woodchipping the SE forests, PO Box 797 Bega NSW 2550 Australia, http://www.chipstop.forests.org.au
Pictures below: Gil Mathie, logging contractor leans on car bonnet (top) and watches (bottom) as police close up their paddy wagon after arresting another member of the local community Tuesday May 15th 2007. The day before Tilba Chamber of Commerce President Sol Ramana-Clarke was also arrested. One of Gil Mathie's crew was convicted of criminal assault against conservationists in 2006.


 

 


Posted by editor at 2:18 PM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 2:43 PM NZT
Get Up to get up our sad, sorry democracy in Oz Election 2007
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: election Oz 2007
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:49 AM
Subject: Big decisions

Dear friends,

Right now we've got some big decisions to make, and we need to make them together, as a community.

Sometime before the end of the year, Australians will go to the polls to choose the next government of our country. We all know how it works: the parties will posture, out-manoeuvre and outspend, while the pundits speculate and the voters alternate between trying to make sense of it all and just tuning out altogether.

But for the first time there's something new in Australian politics this election year - you, the independent, connected movement of people for a progressive Australia. The next six months will be critical to our country's future, and we need your vote now to decide how we can best make a difference.


http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/BigDecisions

GetUp's people-powered experiment began just over 18 months ago, when few imagined anyone but wealthy donors, party power-brokers or media barons could change Australian politics. Since then we've worked together to help stop child refugees from being detained in Nauru, achieved the first major budget increase for the ABC in more than a decade and put the political spotlight firmly on the issues we care about - from climate change to Indigenous rights, justice for David Hicks and defending the voting rights of every eligible Australian.

Lately we've been hearing from GetUp members across the country about why this election matters to you, and what sort of role you want us to play. These are big decisions; we can't make them alone, so we're making it easy for every GetUp member to be heard right now.  

Tell us why you believe the next election is important to Australia, what issues you want us to focus on and whether we should sit on the sidelines of the election campaign - or take our collective gloves off to fight as effectively as possible for the issues we care about.

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/BigDecisions

Thanks for speaking up,
 
The GetUp team
 
PS: We can't wait to hear from you so we can report back on your priorities and our next steps by early next week! Be quick to give us input and help set the course for our future now.


Posted by editor at 2:00 PM NZT
Stop press: Trioli ABC announcer does her job criticising Premier Iemma, accused of being a Liberal Party stooge
Mood:  cool
Topic: big media
 
Picture: the 'ugly duckling' Virginia Trioli: The self described skinny nerdy dag as a child who grew into a swan as regards broadcasting in Melbourne and now Sydney.

We felt compelled to send this report below on to the new media crikey.com.au ezine below and feel one qualification: It's an ALP town here and there are usually consequences for bucking the bully boys/girls of the ALP whether media, ngo or whatever.

But it is also the only way to keep a clear conscience if not much of a career path we say with knowing experience. Will Trioli continue to fly along from her groovy perch there? We wonder. Certainly she has arrived as a power player in Sydney Town and as long as she exercises due responsibility with that power all should be well.

The one concern with such as Trioli is that she may suffer excessive exuberance at times, with that sparkling voice and humour, at her undoubted success as a broadcaster, to as much a degree as Morris Iemma can be as boring or cynical as a wet cat. 

We know this feeling of highs and lows - is it an Italian thing? - when emotional security is actually the goal in life. She sounds happy which is good for broadcasting and democracy in this city and this state. May it continue to be so, with a nod to Guiseppe De Lampedusa's The Leopard phenomenally good book on democracy of interest to a local book club recently.

Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 9:36 AM
Subject: breaking news Trioli takes on Iemma sleazy dead bat this morning

Dear Crikey

Virginia Trioli did her job on 702 ABC this morning in the sensitive pre 9 am segment, with maybe a bit of extra school mistress wood on Premier Morris Iemma for dodging a question about when he really knew an election promise was undeliverable (the Spit Bridge upgrade). Morris got a calm but determined scold for lack of real "conversation" as in lack of probity to his answers. We lawyers call it being "unresponsive" which can be grounds for contempt of court in the witness box, in this case the court of public opinion.

Many callers apparently backed up the announcer's displeasure, but one Charles said she was biased to the Liberal Party because she never takes that approach with PM Howard.

What we found amusing as a one time staffer at Media Monitors (2 years, 2000-2001) is that she milked this accuser for what seemed like ages but perhaps was only 3 minutes of airtime on the talkback making his articulate accusations.

Now Trioli has rolled gold proof she is not an ALP, Greenie or Lefty stooge because she is 'biased' to the Liberal PM. Or maybe she was JUST DOING HER JOB - do yer reckon?! Clever how she milked the claim of reverse bias for all it was worth I thought.

Tom McLoughlin, editor SAM news blog, ecology action sydney

PS ... and no, you can't have her back, she's damn good.

Posted by editor at 11:48 AM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 1:58 PM NZT
Aye me hearties, and Peter Hartcher @ Sydney Morning Herald, it's talk-like-a-pirate day!
Mood:  vegas lucky
Topic: corporates

Picture: The fog over Sydney today at right 17th May compared to same street last week at left, serves as a Shakespearean symbol for the attempt by journalist Hartcher to cloud the immoral extremely excessive Macquarie Bank salaries under fire this week.


At the time of writing yesterday morning 16th May 2007:

Macquarie Bank bosses paid 100x our political leaders just another name for corporate fascism
Mood:  irritated
Topic: corporates

we didn't realise (believe it or not) that the front pagers of Sydney Morning Herald here

The fineprint: a $33m pay cheque Bank boss Allan Moss is worth 669 graduate teachers or 108 prime ministers.  ...but you will pay their tax bill 

and The Australian

Treasurer can't share Mac bankers' glee | News | The Australian

as pictured below 16th May 2007, both went the Big Sledge on sleazy Macquarie Bank with their huge salaries. To see these late last night was very heartening really because truly it is said the root of all evil is the love of money.

We felt it was a big story courtesy of Stephen Mayne's piece in Crikey.com.au ezine a full 12 hours before the traditional press, and woke up keen to echo his work, having spent the night feeling beaten over the ongoing forest destruction in my state of NSW and East Gippsland  

(Gulaga story immediately below, but also here Tuesday, 15 May 2007 Lib-Lab bullies and their logging/mining mates vandalise our local water catchments and our society index.blog?topic_id=1083693),

and it seems the Big Media were on their production timeline in parallel with the same concerns about Macquarie.

But Peter Hartcher, who we generally have a high regard for, get's it way wrong about moral values, if not Australian ones, in the Herald today here: Macquarie's small bickies compared with big boys.

Not only does Macquarie prove there is a failure of moral values but by comparing with international rapacious capital of Wall Street all Hartcher is doing is explaining the economically cruel and unsustainable global business system that has led to vicious terrorist backlash, ecological collapse, and profound market failure via global warming. That's nothing to be proud of in Macquarie Bank the so called 'national champion' or the western world generally. The headline writers got it right yesterday, Hartcher get's it wrong today:

But it does underline why even a talent like Peter Hartcher doesn't get it on why he personally should declare his own excessively generous AWA employment contract with Fairfax when commenting on industrial relations for average workers, as all other Big Media should to show they are doing the advocacy of big business hierarchy, a tone set by Macqurie bank. Hartcher is likely on $150-250K pa. We reported similar

Big Journalist squawking and vandalistic clawing last Monday here

14th May 2007 here index.blog?topic_id=1083701

Senior journalists' egregious failure to declare their own huge AWA conflict of interest
Mood:  sharp
Topic: big media


Posted by editor at 10:05 AM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:26 AM NZT
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Community protest today in Batemans Bay re logger vandalism of the tourism coast
Mood:  sad
Topic: ecology


 

 


Posted by editor at 8:57 PM NZT
Updated: Wednesday, 16 May 2007 9:20 PM NZT
Macquarie Bank bosses paid 100x our political leaders just another name for corporate fascism
Mood:  irritated
Topic: corporates

When Premier Bob Carr quit his 'low paid' job in mid 2005 as elected Premier of NSW within weeks he was working for the main organ grinder in Sydney, NSW and Australia - Macquarie Bank, as here

The Hon. Bob Carr joins Macquarie Bank as part-time consultant

And the whole political community understood the significance, with leading citizens asking whether he didn't care about his reputation after politics anymore, and wide coverage:

Stateline NSW

Bob Carr joins Macquarie Bank - Business - Business - theage.com.au

This confirmed the understanding of most experienced non government groups promoting the public interest here: That Macquarie runs land use, transport, planning policy.

Bob Carr joins the Millionaire Factory Bob Carr

Carr is one of a long line of very senior ex politicians who are on the Macquarie shill.

The reason we have a million extra cars serviced by tollways and air pollution and massive congestion in Sydney is Macquarie Bank.

The reason developers finance the major party gerrymander against authentic democracy is because of Macquarie's control of big planning decisions over infrastructure.

This is the corporation that parades its philosophy as doubling their money by cutting a hole in a coin, two from one.

And that's what they have done in NSW and Australia - cut the heart out of our democracy.

Indeed as the documentary The Corporation makes very clear such entities as Macquarie Bank are psychopathic organisations exhibiting:

  • Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
  • Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
  • Reckless disregard for the safety of others
  • Deceitfulness: Repeated lying and conning of others for profit
  • Incapacity to experience guilt
  • Failure to conform to the social norms with respect to lawful behaviors

Of course they have PR trimmings to confuse the situation, just as any clever drug dealer donates to the local emergency ward, as here in combo with Mission Australia but it's a fascade in juxtaposition to the obscene salaries of their bosses.

Crikey.com.au published this table yesterday that tells you in rare form who in effect is running the government, and the parliament, and the corporate media, on their salary and benefits close enough to 100 times bigger than the most senior politican. Even PM John Howard an avowed supporter of capitalism was moved to say on ABC World Today show yesterday 'its a very big amount of money':

CHRIS UHLMANN: To another company, Mac Bank's announced its profit, and that's a great thing. But is Allan Moss, the head of that bank, worth $33.5 million?

JOHN HOWARD: Well I think some executive salaries are over the top and I can understand the…

CHRIS UHLMANN: Is that one?

JOHN HOWARD: Well I… well $33 million is a lot of money isn't it? I mean -

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's a lot more than you make, Prime Minister.

JOHN HOWARD: Ah yes, but more importantly, it's a lot more than most people listening to this program make. And I mean, I am in favour of the capitalist system, I really am, and I don't think it's the business of government to put caps on people's salaries.

But if you ask me as a citizen, do I think that's a lot of money, you bet I do. And I can understand why some people who are genuine battlers, and I'm not a battler, I mean I don't earn anything like that as you all know, but you know I have a comfortable salary, I'm not complaining.

I'm more worried about people who're trying to raise a family on $40,000 or $50,000 a year. They're the people I worry about and they're the people that the Budget was directed to helping.

 

Over to crikey here 15th May 2007 :

Business

26. Macquarie millionaires rolling in cash

By Stephen Mayne, inventor of the Millionaires Factory moniker

In what is probably the biggest remuneration report ever produced, pages 48 to 90 of Macquarie Bank’s 2007 annual review give chapter and verse on who is getting what at the Millionaires Factory.

And record profits mean record bonuses that will surely finally place a handful of Macquarie Bankers onto the 2007 BRW Rich List when it is released later this month.

If bankers collecting $20 million a year caused a storm 12 months ago, what will the $33.45 million pay packet of CEO Allan Moss do this year?

In fact, as the following table shows, the top six Macquarie Bank executives shared a staggering $160.32 million in the 12 months to 31 March, 2007.

Top Six Pay Packets

Executive

Position

2007 pay

2006 pay

Allan Moss

CEO

$33.45m

$21.21m

Nicholas Moore

Investment banking boss

$32.89m

$20.58m

Bill Moss

Property boss

$30.61m

$12.40m

Michael Carapiet

Infrastructure boss

$22.92m

$15.88m

Andrew Downe

Treasury boss

$21.49m

$14.26m

David Clarke

Executive chairman

$18.96m

$11.42m

As usual, the bonuses represent more than 90% of all pay packets as none of these lads are guaranteed more than the $670,811 base pay of Allan Moss.

Chairman and co-founder David Clarke has gone out with a bang with a final payout of $18.96 million before he becomes Australia’s highest paid non-executive chairman on a base fee of $680,000 a year.

Clarke offloaded 326,135 shares during the year but retains 651,113 shares worth $58.3 million, albeit with a $30 million loan still owed back to the bank.

Despite the mind-boggling numbers, don’t be surprised when shareholders give the remuneration report another 90%-plus voted at the AGM because the disclosure is excellent and this group ahs lifted Macquarie Bank shares from $6 to $90 since the 1996 float.

The bank’s bonus system has a strong long-term focus which locks executives into the future, so it’s no coincidence that the same names have been appearing in Macquarie’s top pay packet lists for the last few years.

The bank finished the year with just over 10,000 staff who shared an average pay packet of $360,000. Exactly 50% of the bank’s $7.18 billion in income goes to employees and the remuneration report points out this as in line with its competitors and US consultant Towers Perrin has approved it.

Shareholders have absolutely nothing to complain about, it’s Macquarie customers, clients and counter-parties who should perhaps be scratching their heads about getting out-smarted by what is now arguably the world’s biggest private equity firm.

Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or submit them anonymously here.

Postscript #1


At the time of writing yesterday morning we didn't realise (believe it or not) that the front pagers of Sydney Morning Herald here

The fineprint: a $33m pay cheque Bank boss Allan Moss is worth 669 graduate teachers or 108 prime ministers.  ...but you will pay their tax bill 

and The Australian

Treasurer can't share Mac bankers' glee | News | The Australian

as pictured above 16th May 2007, both went the Big Sledge on sleazy Macquarie Bank with their huge salaries. To see these late last night was very heartening really because truly it is said the root of all evil is the love of money.

We felt it was a big story courtesy of Stephen Mayne's piece in Crikey.com.au a full 12 hours before the traditional press, and woke up keen to echo his work, having spent the night feeling beaten over the ongoing forest destruction in my state of NSW and East Gippsland  (Gulaga story as above and below), and it seems the Big Media were on their production timeline in parallel with the same concerns.

Postscript #2

Peter Hartcher get's it way wrong about Australian values in the Herald today here Peter Hartcher: Macquarie's small bickies compared with big boys. Not only does it prove there is a failure of moral values but by comparing with international rapacious capital of Wall Street all he is doing is explaining the economically cruel and unsustainable global business system that has led to vicious terrorist backlash, ecological collapse, and profound market failure via global warming. That's nothing to be proud of in Macquarie Bank or the western world.

But it does underline even a talent like Peter Hartcher doesn't get it on why he personally should declare his own excessively generous AWA with Fairfax when commenting on industrial relations, as all other Big Media should to show they are doing the advocacy of big business hierarchy, a tone set by Macqurie bank.


Posted by editor at 10:23 AM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2007 9:50 AM NZT
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Wall Street Journal hacks in China reject Murdoch embrace
Mood:  loud
Topic: big media

While big Rupert has gone somewhat green on the the threat of global warming which might potentially be good for a place like China, the staff don't seem to think so via crikey.com.au, according to insider US press blog The Horse's Mouth: 

May 10, 2007

We are correspondents who report from China for The Wall Street Journal, and we are writing to urge you to stand by the Bancroft family's courageous and principled decision to reject News Corp.’s offer to acquire Dow Jones & Co.

There are only a handful of news organizations anywhere with the resources and the integrity to pursue the truth in matters of national and even global importance. Thanks to your family’s committed stewardship, the Journal is at the head of this dwindling group.

Our China team won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting this year for a series of stories detailing the consequences of China‘s unbridled pursuit of capitalism – for China and for the rest of the world. Many of those stories shed an unflattering light on the government and business interests.

The prize is a reflection of the Journal’s substantial investment in covering what is perhaps the biggest economic, business and political story of our time: how China‘s embrace of markets and its growing global role are reshaping the world we live in. It is an important example of the coverage that we fear would suffer if News Corp. takes control.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has a well-documented history of making editorial decisions in order to advance his business interests in China and, indeed, of sacrificing journalistic integrity to satisfy personal or political aims.

Mr. Murdoch’s approach is completely at odds with that taken by your own family, whose unwavering support of ethical journalism has made the Journal the trusted news source it is. It is fair to ask how News Corp. would change the Journal’s coverage.

In 2001, for example, our colleague Ian Johnson shared the Pulitzer for international reporting for his articles about the Chinese government’s sometimes brutal suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Under Mr. Murdoch, these articles might never have seen the light of day. That year, Mr. Murdoch’s son, James, the CEO of British Sky Broadcasting, delivered a speech in California echoing the line of the Chinese government in terming Falun Gong a “dangerous” and “apocalyptic cult,” which “clearly does not have the success of China at heart.”

Newspaper accounts of the speech say that James Murdoch criticized the Western media for negative coverage of human-rights issues in China, concluding that "these destabilizing forces today are very, very dangerous for the Chinese government.”

We believe that it is important for all of us – from reporters and editors to you, the owners of the company – to keep constantly in mind the fact that the Journal is an institution that plays a critical role in civic life. We take pride in knowing that Journal readers trust us to uphold these principles, even in the face of risks.

Your family established and is now entrusted with a unique and important institution. Safeguarding it is a responsibility that you have fulfilled admirably for decades. Yours is the kind of stewardship journalists on the ground in China will require in the years to come if they are to accurately frame one of the world’s most critical news stories. We have enormous respect for your continued willingness to defend the journalistic standards so important to all of us.

Sincerely,

Gordon Fairclough
Mei F. Fong
James T. Areddy
Shai Oster
Jane Spencer
Andrew Batson
Jason S.L. Leow


Posted by editor at 10:46 PM NZT
Lib-Lab bullies and their logging/mining mates vandalise our local water catchments and our society
Mood:  hug me
Topic: ecology
A local environmentalist John Perkins forwards this image from earlier today 15th May 2007 at the Gulaga protest near Tilba on the NSW South Coast. Similarly yesterday the President of the Local Chamber of Commerce was arrested, and protesters were supported by John Williamson of country music fame last Saturday. Gil Mathie logging contractor is shown in the middle of the picture at front.

 

They don’t log the water catchment for Sydney. But they do on the south coast. And they've started vandalising a new area this week

 

Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:14 AM

Subject: [chipstop] gulaga blockade bust - ON NOW!

 

The police are currently at the Gulaga blockade camp. Twelve arrests have been made but some of these are repeats, so it's not 12 people.
The contractor, Mathie arrived this morning to start logging the forest. His vehicles have been unable to enter the compartment; someone is locked onto Mathie's ute.

It appears that the contractor was not originally set to be Mathie, but he is now lined up to do the job. This may be a way for the industry to get the Wandella injunction invoked as some of the people who are subject to that injunction may be involved. Peter Rutherford failed at the chipmill the other day and may now see this as another opportunity to take out some of the key people in the SE forest campaign.
If you can get there - now is the time. Drive through Central Tilba (from south), keep going along Punkalla Road, following "To Mount Dromedary" signs. [and see directions in her following email message: SAM editor]

regards
harriett

CHIPSTOP campaign against woodchipping the SE forests, PO Box 797 Bega NSW 2550 Australia, http://www.chipstop.forests.org.au

…………………………….

 

Harriet writes again regarding the lovely Gulaga area:

 

Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 1:29 PM
Subject: [chipstop] gulaga news

The Gulaga blockade continues, but logging has also started.
A heavy police presence yesterday allowed the Mathie crew to enter with their machines, after a long delay caused by blockaders.
The same thing happened this morning with police arriving more slowly and in smaller numbers, but acting very decisively to clear the road.
Of yesterday's 13 arrests, only one was maintained. The others were told that they were not to be arrested after all.
Today a couple of people were taken away in the paddy wagon for refusing to get off the road quickly enough.

We have had good numbers on both mornings, but a big effort is needed to maintain and if possible increase numbers.

A slight correction to my previous directions: the "To Mt Dromedary" sign at the turn-off from Punkalla Rd is no longer there. The (left) turn is at a T-junction 3kms north from Central Tilba.
Another correction: don't turn left at the  last "To Mt Dromedary" sign about 2.5kms from that turn off. Continue along a further approx 0.5kms to the camp. .....A prohibited zone has been declared, but the road is a council road and cannot be closed by State Forests.

regards
harriett

Picture: Protest Gulaga Mountain, NSW South Coast 15th May 2007

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

 

With all the talk in the news cycle today about Cadia mine in Central NSW stealing water from the public water supply at Orange  

(Crucial water given to goldmine) and coal mines sucking the water table dry too (Mine may need river supply in a crisis) it’s pretty clear who the bully boys in our political economy are.

 

Indeed John Howard is a mediocre hypocrite on this very topic: PM's push to reveal violence in schools. Indeed the PM is obviously indulging in some counter spin after The Bastard Boys docu drama on ABC the last two nights strongly implied he was right behind the pseudo military takeover of employment on the docks in a quasi Mussolini type operation. The show has created quite a reaction generally

Suggestions 'Bastard Boys' timed to Combet election run 'bizarre' - ABC Online - 4 hours ago
Kelty may sue ABC over waterfront drama - The Australian - 12 hours ago

 

The thing about the show over the last two nights was that both Liberal-Coalition and Labor looked like bullies with the former calling up jackboots and attack canines and the latter beating up their own union rep in a drunken rage, to spitting on security to promises to kneecap the scabs.

 

Another frightening example is of this tacit support for systemic bullying especially of the Coalition but also the ALP came last year when the Greens attempted to bring the business slave cult known as the Exlusive Brethren to account for abuse of children and parents. We listened last year with increasing anger at the haughty and contemptuous reactions of the Liberal Minister defending these cultists in the Senate from any transparency. The ALP were similarly pathetic in taking a stand against these cashed up ultra patriarchical, misogynist cultists in that Senate session.

 

The implication was profound: The big party politicians came from the same abusive style of hierarchical power and it would take blatant illegality as distinct from grotesque emotional abuse for the two major parties to pursue the public interest . And didn't the evidence of illegality pile up through 2006 and 7, despite the scornful rejection of The Greens motion that day. I must say I was never so proud of Bob Brown as that day on the PNN radio vindicated here: Four Corners - 25/09/2006: Separate Lives, and Showdown looms for secretive sect - National - smh.com.au and Brethren bid to cover up sex assaults on girls - National - theage ... and ABC Radio National - Background Briefing: 30 April 2006 - Elusive ...

 

The scandal of the EB boss cockroaches under their secretive rock was instructive for the moral cowardice and tacit support for systemic bullying of the two major parties until it became just too ugly even for PM Howard's Liberals as substantial financial beneficiaries of donations. Nor did we hear a pipsqueak from that champion of female rights Prue Goward for a cult that denies education to girls or computers. What a betrayal of public duty.

 

Indeed there is a  Liberal Labor party gerrymander here in Australia. On land use it's backed by brutal union logger thugs like Michael O’Connor.

 

You won’t read about the loggers at Gulaga above though except here on a micro news blog, or maybe the Bega District News well outside the real politik glare of marginal Sydney seats:

 

20 arrests at Gulaga protest

ABOUT 30 conservationists briefly blocked logging equipment yesterday (Monday) as it arrived at the section of forest due to be logged near Gulaga Mountain.more ]

…… Among those arrested in the morning was Tilba Chamber of Commerce President Sol Ramana-Clarke who got his first experience in the back of a paddy wagon after riding his bike up to the protestors' camp on Punkala Road.

Tourism accounted for far more revenue than all primary industries put together, including logging, and the pristine nature of the mountain needed to be protected, he said.

"I just felt for once in my life I should say no to logging of this compartment as its on either side of the road that leads up to the sacred site, an area regularly used by the Umbarra cultural tours and other tourists and visitors who come to this area," Mr Ramana-Clarke said.

"It seems ludicrous that logging be allowed on either side of one of our main tourism attractions and sacred sites for the whole region."

A group of forest activists camped out for a week on Punkala Road adjacent to where the logging activity is now underway.

On Saturday, singer John Williamson drove down from an appearance at Batemans Bay to lend his support to the forest vigil.

NSW Forests says the same 280-hectare section or compartment was logged 20 years ago and that the latest logging is selective with buffer zones around creeks and along the access roads.

But Gulaga Protection Group chair Sean Burke said the community was not consulted properly, especially since NSW Forests and the State Government would have remembered the outcry of opposition when logging was first proposed in the area two years ago.

……………………..

Unless its actually proven illegal logging the Metropolitan ABC both tv and radio are very wary of covering the sacred cow of loggers destroying water catchments like Gulaga on the NSW South Coast, and spreading bushfire risk. Things have changed since 1992-95 when the Big Media were happy to embarrass the NSW Coalition government here. But the public opposition to logging hasn't changed as shown by polls of the great majority of regional people let alone city people:

 

April 2002...East Gippsland opinion poll on attitudes towards logging, of general significance for regional Australia

 

Even criminal assaults by Gill Mathie’s logging crew as proven last year in court were hardly reported in the big smoke except here Sydney Indymedia by this writer 27th Sept 2007

 

South Coast logger convicted of criminal assault of conservationist, is this evidence of terrorism?

 

Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 1:53 PM

Subject: Wandella assault verdicts

 

Judgements in the 2 Wandella assault cases from 23 July last year
were handed down in Bega Court today. Gil Mathie (Director of Bruce Mathie and Sons) and Stuart Byne (contracted tree faller for Mathies) were each charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault. Mathie was acquitted of both charges. Byne was convicted of two counts of common assault. The sentence will be on 10 October.
HS

Picture: victim of logger rock throwing violence NSW South Coast 2005.


Not even the sympathy of country music legend John Williamson last Saturday, or protest of the local President of the Chamber of Commerce arrested yesterday will probably get a mention on the NSW Stateline ABC programme shaking in their boots under the current pro logger Howard Board at the ‘public' broadcaster.

 

Yep. We have a society built on bullying, right out of the bullying British class system probably.

 

Bullying is widespread

 

- in land use decision making privileging the muscle men over good policy as above, and here Run for it while the coast is clear: cash cows are eating your parks

 

- In the schools according to this very sad, expensive case suggesting a life long victim mentality 

Bullied at school - now he'll walk away with $1 millionLEONIE LAMONT | Ben Cox has no friends, is unlikely to make any, or form any romantic relationships. At 18, his teenage life has "all but been destroyed".

-  in the parliaments, as Minister Phil Koperberg in the news today (Minister ready to turn off taps to towns) had to struggle like hell to avoid the blows of the ALP Right and allegedly from the likes of Paul Gibson (Bad blood in new cabinet - National - smh.com.au).

- in politics more generally when ever one tries to be honest and be one’s own man or woman as per this highly revealing feature on the 20 year anniversary of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, such that the Commissioner virtually fled Queensland’s ALP closed shop for doing his job properly: Cost of cleaning out the Moonlight State | Qld | The Australian including this sleazy side of tribal politics where honesty is seen as a deficit:

“IN the mid-1990s, a Queensland minister was discussing a possible appointment to the High Court with a very senior member of the Keating government. He floated the name of Tony Fitzgerald QC.  "Isn't that the bloke who headed a corruption inquiry and ended up jailing National Party ministers?" his federal counterpart asked. Told that it was, indeed, the same person, he replied: "Well, he's got no chance. If he'll jail them, he'd jail our blokes too." That exchange typifies the attitude of many in authority to Fitzgerald; it was wonderful to employ him to do the dirty work and give the Queensland Police Service and political scene a long-overdue enema - but he soon became too hot to handle, mainly because he was his own man. Fitzgerald moved south to NSW in the late 1990s. “

and

“But the politicians and others who wanted to settle scores attacked the figure as excessive. Fitzgerald was wounded. Throughout the inquiry, he and his family had lived under threats of violence and retribution from corrupt cops and underworld figures, and the government was forced to place armed bodyguards in his home 24 hours a day. Several branches of the media were clearly self-serving and unfair to Fitzgerald, and his report contains references that show how he, in turn, regarded the media. He wrote that some journalists at his inquiry constantly misreported that much of the evidence was "hearsay". "Journalists were unfortunately encouraged in this aspect of misreporting by some of those who were the subject of allegations by some lawyers," he wrote. "Other allegations aimed at undermining the commission were published on the basis of rumour or misinformation from sources who had reason to fear the commission's work. "As a result, the public was misinformed." In another section he wrote what every serious journalist should have framed on their desk: "The media played a part in exposing corruption, but as one of the most powerful institutions in our society must also share the blame for its growth. …………………..“

- in the green ngo sector.  Consider the kind of honesty of this writer that identifies that under the Carr now Iemma government there is as much logging of native forest heritage in NSW as when the ALP was elected in 1995. Despite a "peace deal". This exposes the kind of systemic dishonesty that allows peak green group figures here like Jeff Angel to collaborate with government and deceive their own membership that they have done a good job when in fact they have lost the plot, just as NSW collaborates with Victoria’s Bracks ALP to destroy original forest in East Gippsland at the Eden Chipmill.

 Prior to the 2003 NSW Election we published a list of areas to be degraded and chipped by loggers drying out wet forests, promoting hotter bushfires, and degrading volume and quality of water catchments, all massively contributing to the climate change impacts by loss of carbon store. Senator Kerry Nettle (Greens) picks up the theme here today:

 

Federal government get science wrong on logging NSW SE Forests

15.05.07

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has urged federal minister for the forestry,
Senator Eric Abetz to go back to school and get his science right before
backing further logging of native forests in South East New South Wales.

Senator Nettle asked Minister Abetz in federal parliament last week;

"Has the government conducted a study of the climate change impact of
the logging of native forest in south-eastern New South Wales, in
particular for the supply of Eden woodchip mill for export
woodchipping?"

The Minister said No. He then got his science wrong by claiming;

"You chop down a tree, you replant it and any carbon that escapes is
then drawn back out by the new growing tree."

Minister Abetz is just wrong.

The kinds of forest that are being logged for woodchips in South East
New South Wales have been growing for hundreds of years and release
massive amounts of carbon from the wood chips, the roots and soil.

"Plantation forests that replace old growth and high value native forest
never capture even half the amount of carbon that was lost logging the
original forest.

Regional forest campaigner, Ms Harriett Swift said "when communities
around the south east are making important personal efforts to cut their
own greenhouse emissions, policy makers should be calling the logging
industry to account.

"The native forest logging industry is doing enormous damage to the
climate and that can't be allowed to continue," she said.


Contact - Jon Edwards 0428 213 146

 

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

 

 

It’s only getting worse 2003 – 2007 with the foothills of the Gulaga Mountain only the most recent. That list is here

 

19/3/2003...NSW government 'Big Logging List' giving background to the Bob Carr/ALP government real forest performance in the lead up state election in March 2003.

 

That list includes at point 3, and 4 the following litany of destruction by bullies of the environment:

 

3. Big List (100 minimum)of forest logged/seriously damaged from community reports and State Forest records released (forest name, year of logging, info source respectively). This list is not exhaustive given time constraints and lack of co-operation and does not account for other natural areas also damaged:

- Avon River SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Badja SF, 2001-2, 1996 ecology action sydney photos, The Wilderness Society literature, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Bagawa SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bald Knob SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bebo SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bangadilly SF 1996, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Barradine SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Barrington Tops SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Beaury SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bellangry SF 2002 NEFA media release 8/5/02

- Benandarah 2000, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Biddon SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bodalla SF, 1996-2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003, Steve Ryan TWS 7/1/00

- Bolaro SF, 1998 Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Boyne SF 1996-2001 State Forests via Chipstop 2003

- Brother SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bulahdelah SF 1998 TWS 16/12/98 media release

- Bungawalbin State Forest, 2000/1, Richmond Environment Network email, NEFA media release 29/3/01.

- Bungabbee SF 2001, NEFA media release 29/3/01

- Buckenbowra SF TWS Wildernews 1999, 2000 (imminent, and refers to 13 other forests at risk), State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Campbell SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Chaelundi SF 2002, compartments 170, 185-7, 190, 192-3 State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Chichester SF 2001-2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Cobbora SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Colymea SF 1996 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Conglomerate SF, 2000-2, Richmond Environment Network email, NEFA flyer, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Copeland SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Conjola SF 1996, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Clouds Creek - see Conglomerate

- Cumbil SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Currambene SF 2002, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Currowan SF, 1998, 2000, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Clyde SF, 1996 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Dampier SF, 1996-2002, TWS email 7/1/00, ecology action photos, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Denobollie SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Divines SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Etoo SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Ewingar SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Flat Rock SF 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Gibberagee SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Gladstone SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Glenugie SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Goonoo SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Irishman SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Kangaroo River SF 1999, NEFA media release 9/7/99 ("Labor's 1995 Forestry Policy has been dishonoured and subverted ...." Suzi Russel, John Corkhill)

- Leard SF 2001, State Forest via reputable source 2003

- Lincoln SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- McDonald SF 2002, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- McPherson SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Meryla SF 1998 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Manly Dam forest, Sydney 1998-9, Green Left Weekly 30/6/99 at p2

- Marengo State Forest, 2001 NSW forest networker email, The Advocate p5 23/8/01

- Minnon SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Mogo SF, 1996-2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003, Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00

- Monga SF, 2001-2, ecology action photos, TWS, SEFA media release 18/8/01

- Moruya SF 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003, 1999 Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00

- Myall Lakes SF 2000-1, ecology action photos, TWS Sydney flyer 2000

- Myall River State Forest 1999-2002 20-23/2/01 p3, p16, p2, p7/8 Newcastle Herald quoting The Wilderness Society, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Nambucca SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- North Brooman, 1998, 2002 Steve Ryan, TWS email 7/1/00, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Oakwood SF 2003, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Olney SF 2001-2, TWS Newcastle email, State Forests via reputable source 2003, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Ourimbah SF (Watagans/Jilliby Reserve proposal), 1999-2002, NEFA leaflet)

- Orara East State Forest 20/3/01 The Advocate page 3 quoting Coffs Conservation Alliance

- Orara West 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Peak Alone SF 2000, ecology action photos

- Pilliga SF, Jim Tedder North Coast Environment Council 19/8/96

- Pilliga East SF 2001-2002 State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Pilliga West SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Pine Creek SF, 2001, Native Forest Network (re koala habitat) letter, RIC mr

- Scotchman SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Sheas Nob SF, 2001, Clarence Environment Centre news clipping, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Sherwood SF , 2000, Richmond Environment Network email, NEFA flyer

- South Brooman, 1996-2002, State Forests via ChipStop 2003, Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00

- Shallow Crossing SF 1997, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Stewarts Brook SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Stroud Mountain - see Myall River SF

- Tallaganda SF 1996-2002 Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Terry Hie Hie 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Timbarra Plateau and forest (clearing, blasting for gold mine), 1997-2001, various sources

- Tomerong SF 1996 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Tomago clearing koala habitat Newcastle Herald 5/1/96, Daily Telegraph

- Toonumbar SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Trinkey SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Tuckers Knob SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Viewmont SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Wandella SF, 1996-2002, ecology action sydney, TWS email 7/1/00, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Wandera SF 1996, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Watagans - see Olney, Ourimbah, Wyong SF

- Wang Wauk SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Way Way SF (reference?)

- Wild Cattle Creek State Forest 1996, 2002 over from 1995, NEFA media, letter 9/11/95, NEFA media release 7/7/95, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Wingello SF 1996, 1997 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Woodenbong 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Wyong SF, (Watagans/Jilliby Reserve proposal), 1999-2002, NEFA leaflet

- Yalcogrin SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Yadboro SF 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Yarindury SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

Nalbaugh SF?

4. pre-emptive logging of new national park

- Gibraltar Range National Park, 1998, Clarence Environment Centre

- Nymboi-Binderay NP, 1998, CEC

- Bulahdelah NP, 1998, CEC

 

Picture: victim of logger violence in Victoria in 2000. The industry has a culture of aggression and brutality both to the forest and to their green critics.


Posted by editor at 2:46 PM NZT
Updated: Wednesday, 16 May 2007 11:38 AM NZT
Mass murder in Iraq, just like Saddam, made by the hawks in the USA , not the doves
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: human rights

Picture: Local community media by Stevie Bee with images sourced world wide of Autumn 2003 peace/anti war protesters including about 500,000 in the heart of Sydney's Hyde Park that amazing day.

 

The bogus moral assertions of such as Gerard Henderson here

 

Blinkers on in the killing fields

 

, and implicitly Greg Sheridan here

 

Wearing down the West | Greg Sheridan | The Australian

 

are a sly form of sophistry. It's mostly lies built on lies, as here:

 

www.smh.com.au - One lie leads to another

One lie leads to another. Date: April 28 2007. Few governments have invested so much into deceiving the public, and ended up so disastrously deceiving itself.

 

and shows how bankrupt their war mongering military industrial whining and wheedling for an ongoing “blank cheque” in Iraq really is, to borrow the apt term of Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi.

 

The war mongers rail against any diplomatic contact of Pelosi with Syria then undertake the same in a covert dishonest way in a blatant admission of their hawkish failure:

 

The World Today - Nancy Pelosi arrives in Syria

Shrugging off White House disapproval the Democratic Partys most senior politician has arrived in Syria for a controversial two-day visit Nancy Pelosi ...

 

And here

 

Iraq pressing for Rice talks with Iran - Breaking News - World ...

Rice's encounter with Mottaki and talks with Syria's foreign minister later on ... contacts with Iran and Syria as he seeks ways to end the Iraq conflict. ...

 

It’s exactly this kind of public, sleazy rationale that results in private sleazy outcomes by the war mongers – like Wolfowitz who moved on to the World Bank resulting in scandal:

 

World Bank panel corners Wolfowitz | NEWS.com.au Business

WORLD Bank president Paul Wolfowitz's hold on his job appeared ever more tenuous today after an internal probe found he had violated bank rules in arranging ...

 

In lieu of a cold war enemy we are having Al Qaeda boosted from motley bunch of mad criminal religious killers into a so called ‘network’, so called ‘organisation’. Sheridan amplifies dubious reports of 200 of these religious zealots in Saddam’s Iraq into a world war justifying that blank cheque.

 

Now with political and strategic failure staring these hawks in the face just like Vietnam for using war to do the job of soft power, peace keepers and diplomacy, they raise the sleazy dishonest moral sword against their political rivals claiming the accurate critique of the hawks from at least 2002 by the doves is moral equivalence and apologia for Al Qaeda suicide bombers. As if.

 

Get it? Run an intrinsically corrupt economic and military industrial nuclear protection racket and political hierarchy to prop up oil consumption, and material consumption ripped off the poorer nations of the world, as per the Syriana movie thesis, and you get a rabid, fascist murderous religious backlash. They are going to die of poverty anyway, presumably they reason in their fevered desperation and misery. 

 

Well the hawks in the western military industrial complex are looking in the mirror at their own alter ego in Al Qaeda. Violence as a means to an end reaps violence.

 

All the violence is wrong. The bombing of civilians who tell no tales. The murderous cluster and super hot fire bombs of the military. There is no moral responsibility on the 500,000 doves who marched in Sydney February 2003 to not go down this track only to be insulted as “a mob” by politician John Howard.

 

Police action by peacekeepers under a UN matrix including Iran and Syria,  removal of the western military industrial complex rape and pillage of the public revenue (as per economist JK Galbraith condemnation) both in Australia and USA via their latest feeding frenzy in Iraq, and removal of the hawks from our government would all go along way to taking the foot off the accelerator at the terrorist training grounds made by the USA hawks and their apologists.

 

Mature politics by real leaders would go along way to undoing the damage of the Bush-Howard-Blair war mongers. That’s not to say use of hard power is over but the courting of war should have ended decades ago. The graceless victors of the 2nd World War are abusing their victory – pure and simple.

 

As a UN consultant stated some years back for every one accidental or wrongful death by the USA led western war machine an estimated 10 others are severely affected emotionally and psychologically. Over time these ballooning numbers of aggrieved twisted by desire for revenge and grief grow like topsy.

 

Remember shock and awe? Remember the Lancet report of hundreds of thousands of civilians dead in the geo political grinding of tectonic plates between Iran, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia etc over oil? Multiply that by 10. It’s the social and economic injustice behind the spiral of war violence.

 

The USA made Saddam who went rogue, the USA are making Al Qaeda, in a huge tax rip off rent seeking job creation scheme for their ultra right mates. And it’s the doves who will have to clean up their mess, if we ever get the chance, and find a way to defuse this ticking UXB of economic and political cruelty built to maintain grotesque privileged elites in the USA in particular.

 

Yes the suicide bombers are abhorrent killers. But the only difference with the USA (and Israel in Lebanon) bombers indiscriminate slaughter in so many cases is that one is openly murderous, the other in reckless negligent denial preferring pornographic claims to “fighting for freedom”.

 

It’s all inevitable as a result of the Lancet report how not to win the peace. It’s the Heisenberg principle aka 'observer effect' – the presence of the military industrial complex changes everything in place of politics and diplomacy.

 

It’s time to sack the hawks.


Posted by editor at 11:15 AM NZT
Updated: Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:07 PM NZT
Monday, 14 May 2007
Lethal hydatid in kangaroo offal/meat via dog vector is a real worry to us, but not for industry group
Mood:  blue
Topic: ecology

 

This drought year about 3.6 million kangaroos will be shot in the world's biggest wildlife slaughter. It's a small fraction of the total population but we had cause to write to crikey.com.au today about a whole other side to the debate about kangaroos as a source of meat for our population. Their readers are debating climate impacts of ruminants verus kangaroos. But my concern also relates to public health: It revolves around why agriculture was invented in the first place. Keeping food animals free of parasites, with parasites being perhaps the biggest evolutionary force on ...humanity ....ever (that's right, not temperature, not predation, not food availability):

Dear Crikey

Ever since I did a zoology degree at ANU (which specialises in parasite ecology) I've been wondering about risk profile of wild game meat like kangaroo. Milo Dunphy founder of the Total Environment Centre and a keen hunter in his younger days was against kangaroo as a general food source for this very reason.

The kangaroo meat industry [in our view do not] convincingly address the inevitable, dangerous parasite load in kangaroos unlike farmed animals subject to the usual chemical treatments. Recently on talkback on abc Sydney radio an industry representative [stated] on air ... kangaroos only have worms in the gut not hydatid cysts in the meat. [It seems] hydatid is a seriously under estimated issue, which apparently has gone off the radar. Yet 80 or 90 Australians per year suffer potentially catastrophic consequences of infection via farm dogs getting at wild kangaroos and other infection pathways.

Nor does it help to refer to Indigenous consumption for thousands of years. My advice is traditional folks of the central desert cook the kangaroo meat almost to charcoal to feel safe about eating it. Not exactly your gourmet experience. And we shoot for a much longer life span today.

This report from ABC Landline in 2005, Tapeworm continues to thrive in wild dog population, Reporter: Joanne Shoebridge, First Published: 23/10/2005, http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2005/s1486396.htm is a very frightening traverse of hydatid parasites in wild dogs and farm dogs feeding on kangaroo and wallaby carcass, the same kangaroos shot for supermarkets. Crunching into a hydatid in a kangaroo steak could the worst dining experience of your whole life.

The industry says they do inspections under the regulations but the point is farming and chemical treatment to avoid parasites is a far superior prophylactic for high volume food supply which is just not possible in wild kangaroo.

Here is a mild extract of Landline, and think carefully about eating wild meat:

JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE: When he does catch a wild dog, Mark Goullet euthanases them and sends their intestines to the Canberra laboratory of Dr David Jenkins. So far, two in every five dogs tested have been heavily infected with hydatids.

DR DAVID JENKINS: "We are interested from the point of view of, "Are they spreading hydatids in these urban areas?" And the short answer is, "Yes, they are." This is the gut of the dingo or the wild dog in which we're hoping to find tapeworms. And the tapeworms produce the eggs, which then get eaten by a sheep, and each of these cysts represent an egg that the sheep has eaten.

JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE: So you don't get cysts in dogs, you do get cysts in animals like sheep.

DR DAVID JENKINS: That's right. No cysts in dogs. Cysts in sheep, kangaroos, wallabies, but really importantly, this is exactly what happens in people. They don't normally get as many cysts as this, but they will be much, much bigger - maybe 1, 2, 3 litres capacity.

JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE: These dogs, too, are riddled with tapeworms. Hydatid disease is no longer notifiable in most states, which means health authorities have few statistics. David Jenkins has to resort to trawling through the records of individual hospitals to track the incidence of hydatids, which is often poorly diagnosed and recorded.

JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE: Do you think this is a disease that has largely slipped off the radar?

DR DAVID JENKINS: Oh, I'm absolutely sure of it, and not just in the medical profession, in the veterinary profession as well. We get 80 to 100 new cases a year, which in the scheme of things, is not a lot of patients, but nevertheless, for those people who are infected, it can be catastrophic. They can lose a lung, they can lose a whole lobe of the liver. It can take several years to get a diagnosis if the doctor is not really switched on to looking for hydatids, the patient can get progressively more unwell. "

And it doesn't stop there. The prevalence of wild dogs seems to be growing and the exposure of bushwalkers to attack and infection by hydatid that way via bites is also a real one: 7.30 Report - 16/04/2002: Wild dogs eat graziers out of business

Tom McLoughlin, ecology action sydney

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

[Extract of Crikey ezine 14th May 2007 here:]

Kangaroos, methane, etc:

Tim Thomas writes: Geoff Russell's comments contained several errors (Friday, comments). Kangaroos are more efficient at producing meat than sheep. True, kangaroos are not ruminants, but nevertheless efficiently ferment cellulose in their foregut. Some but, not all kangaroo species, are less efficient than sheep in processing dry feed, but make up for this by having a much lower basal metabolic rate as discussed here. In addition, kangaroos have a higher muscle to body weight ratio than sheep, discussed here, and although farming kangaroos is impractical, and in my opinion undesirable, that is not the question. If (wild) kangaroo meat is available in your supermarket, as it is in mine, then eating it lowers your contribution to atmospheric greenhouse gases. Roo shooting might not be much fun but then farming is also full of tough, unpleasant work. There is nothing more boring than preparing the ground for broad acre cropping, which includes the risk of lung damage from dust as well as exposure to a variety of chemicals, among other dangers. On all counts replacing, at least partially, ruminant meat with macropod meat would be environmentally beneficial. As to the efficiency of ruminant digestion it is interesting to note that the production of methane represents a loss of about 25% of the energy present in the animal's feed.

[Friday 11th May 07 crikey ezine]Kangaroos and methane:

Animal Liberation committee member Geoff Russell writes: Andrew Dempster (yesterday, comments) asks if kangaroos produce methane, and if not, why we can't use them instead of sheep and cattle. Kangaroos don't produce methane because of some tricky digestive processes. But they aren't very efficient in producing meat. Ruminants ruminate! This enables them to extract more energy from good pasture than kangaroos which pass food through quickly and relatively inefficiently. The kangaroo digestive mechanism is better on bad pasture, they take in and process a lot of food, while sheep and cattle face a digestive bottleneck. See Knox's "Biology" (the standard University biology text) for more detail. The bottom line here is that kangaroos aren't efficient meat producers, they don't herd, they fight, they jump fences, the mob structure isn't good for farming, and no farmer wants to give up cushy evenings watching Big Brother to go out and shoot kangaroos which is a tough, back breaking and thoroughly unpleasant job. The current kangaroo industry can't get enough shooters to even meet its current quotas which produces very little meat. Read Jared Diamond's "Guns Germs and Steel". He explains in detail why so few wild animal species have been domesticated over the millenia - it isn't for lack of trying. And if you can't domesticate them, you have to hunt them. Hunting wild animals has never and can never support large populations. Again, see Diamond for more details.

Dr Peter Wood writes: In response to Andrew Dempster's question, kangaroos produce a negligible amount of methane: Kempton et al, Methane production and digestibility measurements in the grey kangaroo and sheep. Aust J Biol Sci. 1976 Jul; 29(3): pp 209-14. (Abstract here).

Postscript #1. This important public health debate goes on in the pages of crikey.com.au ezine below, with clarification here of the life cycle indirect danger of hydatid via dog vectors, but also other systems risk of wild versus agricultural meat supply:

I'm indebted to James Thomspon [extracted below] for his sledge even though he mispells my name (Comments 16th May 2007) and partly grovel now re : "Eating red [kangaroo] meat does not result in hydatid infection."  I am no vet or medical man as such and it shows now half folding my tent on this one.  I had forgotten the dual life cycle of the creepy parasite from all those years ago in the lecture room. This diagram here Echinococcosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, or here Echinococcus -- Encylopedic Reference of Parasitology shows the hydatid cyst in the kangaroo whether offal or meat is infectious to the 'definitive' dog stage of the life cycle, but not intermediate host like kangas or humans.The South Australian government web site also makes it clear "People cannot be infected by eating Hydatid cysts in infected offal & Humans cannot infect humans [sic]" Hydatid disease (SA) [pdf]. 

Even so presence of hydatid is enough for sheep carcass to be rejected from an abattoir in WA 2006 presumably for hygiene/marketing reasons ESPERANCE REGIONAL OFFICE AGMEMO  and I still doubt eating one would be much fun if not dangerous directly. It would be extremely dangerous if the pet bow wow ate it with resultant hydatid eggs in the poo then into your domestic environment (garden soil, dog hair, dog licks might be a worry too). And the concern over quality control of meat on farm versus off farm (domestic v wild) is still not over: Anecdotally pet owners are cautious with "wormy" kangaroo meat: Dogz Online and EDBA Forums > Kangaroo Meat, and animal rights people still argue with some logic of other potential contaminants in off farm or wild animal situations here in NSW Parliament re chemical sprays Kangaroo Meat Contamination - 10/10/2000 - QWN.

So I stand by the more general concern agricultural controls lessen risk compared with wild animal meat. For instance in meeting the sledge we found this submission [bold added] of Tony Pople and Gordon Grigg Dept of Zoology, Qld Uni for Environment Australia, August 1999 for the federal govt Overview of background information for kangaroo management - Chapter 7

"Andrew (1988) reviewed the issue of kangaroo meat and public health, including the records of inspections between 1980 and 1987 made of carcasses by Australian Quarantine Inspection Service officers at export game meat establishments (this pre-dated the change of legislation in New South Wales in 1993). There were records for 204,052 red, eastern and western grey carcasses of which 196,104 were passed as fit for human consumption. Of the 7,948 rejected, 81% were rejected for reasons not associated with parasites or pathology, mainly poor handling, particularly inadequate refrigeration. Of the rest, only 1,452 were rejected because of a parasite, and that was for a nematode, Pelicitus roemeri, which is quite harmless, anyway, to humans, but is unsightly.... it is uncommon, but can infect the muscles of the lower leg.."

Elsewhere the authors note people often prefer to cook kangaroo rare.

We understand 3.6 m kangaroos are being 'culled' this drought year (usually 5 or 6 million per year). That's alot of dead kangaroo with no records. Nor is a study of 20 years ago, referred to in 1999 by govt, sufficiently recent for public confidence in 2007. The onus is on the industry not the other way round.

Tom McLoughlin, ecology action

James Thompson writes: Tom MacLouglin (yesterday, comments) has either misunderstood the mode of transmission of hydatids or he is deliberately attempting to mislead the public over the risk of eating kangaroo and other red meat. I agree that hydatid cysts are a potentially serious parasitic disease of humans. However, humans are at risk from the ingestion of hydatid tapeworm eggs, laid by tapeworms living in the gut of farm dogs, dingoes or foxes that had fed on cattle, sheep or kangaroos. To avoid human infection with hydatids, after handling dogs wash your hands before eating and worm your dogs regularly. Eating red meat does not result in hydatid infection. Tom should have paid more attention during his zoology degree.


Posted by editor at 10:03 PM NZT
Updated: Monday, 6 August 2007 11:56 PM NZT

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