Mood:  chatty

* Our predictions of climate intensified storms travelling south to Brisbane, and the real politik implications of that for the pineapple mafia / Rudd led federal Govt, seem to have been realised this week. Implications include perceptions/reality of climate change, and escalating insurance payouts.

You couldn't get a view on the tv news without Rudd, Qld premier and BrisVegas mayor all looking earnest on location of storm damage: While having very little practical to offer in real organisational involvement. They might allocate more funding perhaps. It was all about expressing the politics of symbolic empathy. Poor sods.

We recall a contact telling us how his father, a painter by trade in Rockhampton, was unusual in that he had a metal anchor from the slab of the house up to the roof - to avoid the kind of storm damage all this last week. Quite proud of it too.

Which all reminds us of the ripples of cyclone Wati on 27 March 2006 on the shores of Sydney, though the storm was actually 1000 km north east of Sydney. People crowded the coastal walk to watch the show.

* Tragedy of father and two sons death at Tathra results in local fools beating up media doing their job. This echoes what green people on the South Coast have expressed for years - the tendency for violence by the local loggers for instance, itself encouraged by the culture of Howard Govt domestic terrorism on the environment. Several loggers around Cobargo have been convicted of violent assault, as well as reports of cowardly rock throwing. Such cave dwellers deserve no sympathy.

* A raucous festival (as per ABC audio) of feminists held their Ernies event last week according to radio news. But this year it didn't travel much beyond that. No press or tv news pictures that we could see.

And we can imagine why - ex MP, now Cr, Meredith Burgmann awarded 'prizes' (actually raspberries) to anyone and everyone it seems but ALP figures like now notorious Matt Brown MP (alleged t*tty f*cking), Tony Stewart MP (alleged leg holding bully) both dismissed from Burgmann's own government cabinet.

Is that bias undermining the whole point of the event? Ernie apparently was a unionist after all. Instead Liberal Tony Abbott got a 'repeat offender' award. No wonder most news services dropped the story cold.

* We have our own insights into the cynical tribalism of local ALP politics. Co-author of the Ernies book Yvette Andrews - former staffer of ex MP Meredith Burgmann - still hasn't submitted to a competitive job selection process for the $65K per year manager's job at Addison Rd Community Centre for over 12 months now. This has got to be the most brazen breach of ethical employment policies in any community organisation we have ever heard of.

Now a source advises that copies of the minutes of the recent AGM for ARC are not available to tenants/members let alone the public 'because they might be leaked to the community media'. ARC is all public land and receives significant public funding one way or another. The governance there is also a fearful secretive nepotistic disgrace.

All in all this is why the important purpose of the Ernies exposing sexism is failing in it's mission. It's being implemented with biased motives by  ALP cronies under cover of principle. Meanwhile a much drier but arguably more reliable source of advice in the wake of the Ernies is in the press today, namely federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Ms Elizabeth Broderick, p 9 today's Sunday Telegraph.

* Uh oh, Lisa Carty has a story about Robert Furolo MP, Iemma's ex electorate staffer and Mayor of Canterbury still in the SunHerald. An important story on cash for access to ministers. 

Only they've got the wrong photo on page 13. Maybe they should've just gone to the NSW parliament website (actually his pic is not up yet) or maybe Canterbury Council via google as we did. Furulo is pictured in the free inner west suburban press almost every week. Or did they mean to use the wrong picture? That would be sneaky.

The guy hung upside down finally cut free as the song closes in a cutaway is possibly like one of those folks in an upturned car after a crash, hanging by their seat belt. On sudden release they suffer potentially broken neck. Happens sometimes apparently. Nothing sweet indeed. It is carefully choreographed - the victim is shown aware of the fall to come and his arms are extended hopefully to take the weight?

Superb song all the same. But on the more serious point, emotional violence is a spiral. Reverse sexism is just that, best keep that in mind champ. The rest is sophistry.

* Heather Ridout, of Australia Industry Group and Rudd Govt confidante is revealed as an ex Greiner staffer, which figures given her ideology on energy privatisation.

* Joe Hildebrand runs a YouTube image with his Saturday column in the Daily Telegraph which looks suspiciously like a SAM format of a recent story about US Govt $700B bailout via big alternative media programme Democracy Now! with Naomi Klein and Amy Goodman. We wonder.

* Curiously our SAM micro news website has now had 4 days [make that 5 at 24 Nov] running of 'zero pageviews'. Unlikely given we also look at the website, including from another distinct work station. It's a puzzle. Maybe the host server is cutting back on that information tool in difficult financial times. Maybe we wrote something - last hot one was about W Bush alleged looting of the NSW Treasury in his last 2 months. We haven't got a clue. But we don't write for audited circulation. We write because we can and for peace of mind.

[and now see this graphic, traffic metric stopped at November 19 by the host server based in the USA.]

[Host server writes 25 Nov to say "Unfortunately, we are currently doing maintenance to our servers which is causing you not to see your reports correctly.

We hope to have this resolved by the first week of December.

We do apologize for the inconvenience and we thank you for your patience as we work to get this resolved for you as soon as possible."]

* Imre Salusinsky waxes lyrical in the Weekend Australian applying an apocalyptic metaphor with locusts in the regions swarming closer to the Rees Govt in Sydney. Very literary for a literary premier. A shallow device nevertheless Imre.

* The same newspaper carries ex NSW Treasurer Michael Costa earlier in the week, prominently. Only he writes like a honking goose. Says he shouldn't attack the mini budget, which is laughable after dumping on his Govt at his resignation presser.

He also badly misconceives the reality of his own ALP-union political milieu: It's not the comparatively low 20% membership of unions these days, but the 50-80% coverage of work places by award conditions that truly measures the role of unions. Just as Telstra complains bitterly about other small telco companies as passengers on their infrastructure and investment. Unions feel the same about non union members getting pay rises that unions fought for. But it's no use complaining, it's a systemic reality.

Similarly there is a truism we heard at the Future of Media conference called the '1:9:90 rule': Meaning only 1% of society are very active participants in any given agenda, 9 moderately and 90 tend to be passengers. That puts the union 20% membership in a genuine perspective. They are the victims of their own success in achieving such wide economic coverage and that's a good thing.

The film also featured lefty Sean Penn - and check the film for the Robert Mugabe character feted at the start, despised at the end. Also funny the trailer above shares suspense soundtrack from the Bourne trilogy.  But we digress. You see the UN went up against W Bush's outrageous Iraq war and was supposed to be marginalised and crushed by the neo cons. Somehow we think this might explain this sniping at A lister Kidman, just like Charlie Chaplin?

* Sharp thinker Marian Wilkinson as environment editor at the SMH ran a friendly story out of Deputy Premier Tebbutt's office 2 weeks ago. This coincidentally (?) was when the pressure came on the SMH to run in the newsprint not just hidden away on the website about logging of koala habitat on the NSW south coast. Tebbutt being the environment minister now. Senator Bob Brown will be attending the logging protest later this month down at Bermagui. It still hasn't run in the SMH proper 3 weeks later.

Wilko's colleague James Woodford locally based down there has also failed miserably to report the logging protest either in the Herald or on his real dirt website despite ABC TV news, PM show, JJJ coverage. Tebbutt cunningly gave a feature about how she declined the premiership, crowding out why she declines to protect koala habitat from logging at Bermagui. How shameful.

Sooo this weekend we have a balancer from Wilkinson edging up to the koala issue with picture on page 7, Sydney Morning Herald. Again Tebbutt is in the story as well as some koala study in Gunnedah, still not south coast logging of koala habitat going on NOW at Bermagui.

(Gunnedah reminds of our work in the mid 90ies lobbying for Pilliga wilderness area where we helped with a $1M buyout of a willing seller with koala habitat by the NSW NPWS. )

At least the article mentions "woodchipping" and a quality scientist Dan Lunney. It's a grudging half hearted coverage.

* Nor has Minister Tebbutt been much help protecting the Blue Mtns world heritage area. Recently SAM's editor played a central role in a reversal by Hawkesbury City Council  cajoled, briefed, flattered and embarrassed into voting 12 to zero against a local sandminer. We have reported the saga here exclusively on SAM. In 2004 HCC wavedt the sandmine through. We got an email from a well intentioned staffer for Minister Tebbutt after the event to say 'Oh that world heritage, thanks for the updates etc etc.' Too late, too late.

* Michael Duffy SMH yesterday runs a policy call out advert for the NSW Liberal Opposition in his column, last sentence. This was after colleagues in the Big Media ran press tantrums over many days the previous week which got the anti Labor forces in NSW exactly nowhere.

* Big Barry O'Farrell is to "wield the axe"  on his shadow ministery, says the Sunday Telegraph p15. Seems latest Newspoll has Nathan Rees as preferred Premier still after literally 10 days of fearsome anti ALP tantrums. Wow. And we noticed the tide turning on that attack about 4 days back too. Rees has a certain sense of teflon. Not indestructible but tough all the same. And people warm to strength.

We called it early here on SAM that the big press tantrum(s) over failure to privatise energy was like being 'thrashed by a wet lettuce' and Rees would make it through if he held fast. And so it seems to be. We also raised the prospect of the next NSW election being the first internet one like Obama leveraged the net all the way to the presidency. 2 years is a long time to be writing off Rees.

* A much more convincing piece about the woes of political culture in NSW came from (I say grudgingly) Ken Phillips of the Institute of Public Affairs. It was a bit conspiracy theory regarding the NSW IRC gazumping the High Court of Australia (sounds dubious). But his piece rang more true in The Australian than Michael Costa same day 21 November. Refer Yvette Andrews/ARC above for nepotism.

* Tim Blair despairs at Obama as president elect. Keeps referring to roaring trade in USA gun shops. He really is a nasty piece of work is ole TB. How prescient of TB's parents to choose those initials perhaps alluding to the global campaign to eradicate the persistent disease. (A cheap shot but hey the guy is an avowed gun lover.)

In his Saturday column he notes Rio Tinto greening up with a photo competition about evidence of global warming for staff. TB is dismayed the concern over climate has spread literally like ... TB.

Our source tells us it's much worse than that TB, now increasingly relegated to the back of the newspaper. Apparently Rio Tinto were so averse to bad PR on the environment such as via the Gunns pulp mill that if the greenies had lobbied Rio to not sell the land where the proposed pulp mill is sited to Gunns, they would have blocked the sale.

Only like in cricket, the greenies failed to make the appeal in such a direct fashion to Rio that they felt okay to sell he site Gunns. (In the rules of cricket if the fielding team don't appeal the umpire can't give the batsmen out. We actually saw this once as a colt.) This was in the days before Gunns pulp mill was really ramped up as a national cause celebre, not least ex Premier Lennon exposed allegedly lying about the reasons for cancelling a Planning Assessent Commission (in the press this week).

Our source is a good one - family friend of a staffer in a section of Rio in Tas that would know.

* Petrol is down to about US $50 a barrel. That changes politics alot.

......and many, many more quirky notables in the Big Media but too numerous to go here. Stay tuned.

Posted by editor at 8:18 AM EADT

Updated: Tuesday, 25 November 2008 10:34 AM EADT

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Mood:  not sure

So then we got to thinking about other domestics - like the layout of the micro news SAM website - yes there is a segue in here finally. It is slow and clunky with the host server all the way over there in the USA (safe from then Howard regime business cronies here in Oz at start up Jan 2007 re upcoming federal election Nov 2007).

Little SAM needed a white background colour in the body to speed up a tad. We also needed to get the news story in the top right corner where the eye defaults. Then after trial and error we liked yellow background for the side panel, green for the main title (SAM name and mission), and blue for the links. Yellow, green, blue. That's weeding under a blue sky! That's the golden wattle. That's Australia. That's our soul.

As it happens we were already making some inquiries in parallel about how to monetise a blog, as you do, and by serendipidity about Technorati, and Alexa, blog web information sites. So we registered with Technorati for the first time. We're ranked about 3 million of say 150 million blogs in the world. Woohoo. We have an 'authority' of 2 which is just above the lowest of 1. But more of that dubious cred amongst bloggers below.

Now this is where the zero stats figure for 3 days comes in. Yes there is the second segue folks. We always knew this was a clunky, not very interactive, probably specialist micro news blog website. As such we have come to understand quietly, secretly, that we don't mind if our audited circulation is humble. We care about cred as a specialist service, and real politik effectiveness.

That's partly why we have lower case in the header. It's not really about us, it's about the message.

We take heart from the blacklist by the talkback staff on the phones at a certain abc radio breakfast show. We are not Joe Average after all. We do exemplify the 1:9:90 rule of hyper engagement being a 1 in the ratio of activity, 90 being the passengers in the democracy. We are a citizen but obviously that's not enough.

For instance we notice the logical inconsistency of the ABC ramping up the profile of the Medium Media like the Cumberland press guy, and other Big Media personalities in Fairfax and News Corp while blacklisting the micro guy. We notice too the systemic bias of same ABC show running Lab/Lib-Nat spin doctors and party liners bet never it seems, we repeat never, a rep of the 10% Greens Party. Someone like Ben Oquist for a time (now back in harness) or a retired Green MP or whatever. Even a Democrat like Athur Chesterfield Evans though not Cheryl Kernot please. There was even a whisper from big Deb this might happen but alas.

So getting back to Technorati - they provide a feedback service on what other blogs are reacting to your blog. Given SAM's editor virtually never reads or comments on other people's blogs we hardly care what they say or write. It's the Big Media stupid!

Well almost don't care. There's alot of emotional violence to avoid on the net much like dog poo on the street, but you can't help getting a whiff sometimes no matter how innocent. I had about 26 responses, some nice others not. Tim Blair was making an effort to sledge a few times about 10 months back (that's good, the right enemies), and one Monica Tan at ninemsn.

I noticed you sledging my humble micro news website, only because I 'claimed' my blog on technorati recently. It was an old post about my talk at New Matilda which is by the looks an ALP front operation.

As reaction perhaps to Crikey as a pseudo wet Liberal free market operation.

It seems to me your comments to the effect of being "crappy looking political blog" are assuredly right compared to your own high production values. But then shallow looks are indeed superficial.

You work at ninemsn you say, which is on the slide maybe, maybe not. That suggests you're fairly snobbish and patronising conservative political person. Well that's your right but it's no guarantee.

Here's where your takeout is misconceived:

The SAM blog is not about good circulation per se (that means of itself, it's from Latin! ha ha).

It's about real politik timely strategic analysis. It's not the 20K per month readers. The audience is probably only ever about 1000 political staffers across the Australian parliaments. It's the one influential reader that I'm about. It could be Kevin Rudd. It could be Barak Obama. It could be Laurie Oakes. It could be Tim Blair. It could be an executive producer of 9 Sixty Minutes. It could be a NSW stateline reporter.

3 of these 6 examples I can verify. Another 1 of 3 is highly likely. 2 of 6 is very unlikely but still conceivable. I do stuff to undermine Big Media like your ninemsn. And it's working. They echo my concepts and angles - with their high production values - so often I've lost count. I call you guys my echo chamber. It's very satisfying too.

Feel free to disagree, be dismissive, contemptuous or whatever. But I'm getting better at this, and I'm doing it for nothing. While you are losing circulation it seems while relying on the professional cred to make your living. On the other hand being totally financially independent I have the capacity to make and break people's careers .... in politics I mean depending on their performance and my analysis - because I am trustworthy. It's like giving evidence in court from a totally unbiased perspective. One becomes the professional honest broker.

That's the ngo activist campaigning reality Monica, so now you know a little about why I feel justified condescending to you about my forte.

Good luck with your media career. As it happens my latest post has zero hits for 3 days running about W Bush regime looting the USA treasury in the last 2 months of the Imperium. Which is a record in reverse. No post can be zero, especially SAM with 20K pageviews per month. It's piqued my interest. Rather than being concerned about it, which I was a little to begin with, now I'm fascinated. I'm going to delve into the meaning of it and like the martial art of Jiu Jitsu enlist the force of the incident to my own purpose. Like I often do.

Have a good weekend.

So now we are thinking it could be interesting to ride this zero stats per day thing all the way to the beach. Are people so in denial of W Bush's failure after the Iraq tragedy/fiasco that they can't bear to read or hear Democracy Now! draw back the curtain in our last post? Arguably it is the most important post we have made in the last 23 months. Not one reader?

Maybe they are just noting the headline in their RSS feed and going direct to YouTube or the Democracy Now website via google. But not every one of them. Some would click through via SAM.

As they say in the law of evidence (being a lawyer), there is no such thing as absolutes. Zero is an absolute that doesn't happen. Just as perfect never happens. We smell a curious quandary.

Like the incessantly scratchy phone that regularly rings and tells me I have the wrong number. Do tell. Is this marketing software gone haywire? Another manifestation of Telstra's huge complaints record lately? Or something a bit more dodgy in the land of spookery? A little tutorial run for trainees perhaps at the expense of a blogger? One never knows. So far we've come up with ... zero (!) explanations for the clicks and whirs mid conversation like a Star Wars r2d2. Surely Glen Stevens is not worried about the little SAM spark.

It reminds us of a little proposed home phone repair work in the old factory, which we hasten to add is illegal under the Federal Communications legislation. Didn't do it, you can't prove we did it, it wasn't us, it wasn't our fault etc etc refer Bart Simpson, our lawyer.

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

Posted by editor at 8:41 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 24 November 2008 9:00 AM EADT

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Mood:  don't ask

The first of two video links below - from YouTube - is not pleasant watching. The interview on Democracy Now! suffers from lack of a willing contary view but even if half of author Naomi Klein's concerns are right, the USA and the world and the Obama presidency are in trouble in this last 2 months of the W Bush presidency. God have mercy.

Here's the link and the interview is long - about 25 minutes or more:

"Only a week ago [Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke] announced they wanted to use [the $700B bailout fund] to inject billions of dollars into banks instead of buying bad mortgage backed assets, which was their original pitch.

Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee are irate about the change of plan.

FEMALE CONGRESS MEMBER: The fact that you Mr Paulson, took it upon yourself to absolutely ignore the authority and the direction that this Congress had given you just amazes me.

MALE CONGRESS MEMBER: It seems to me the second largest bait and switch scheme that history has ever seen, second only to the reasons given us to vote for the invasion of Iraq."

For those who prefer more sunlight and wishful thinking then this is alot more uplifting, finally available on YouTube given the CBS website seemed overloaded for at least a day (apparently they had highest ratings for 9 years). Broadcast last Sunday 17 November USA time:

Some stand out moments of each item: In the first one Naomi Klein's capacity for a relentless narrative regarding corrupt special interest governance - $250B of good money after bad she argues. Klein makes quite a case for 'colonial style looting of the US Treasury by free market robber barons compared with the strict controls achieved by Gordon Brown in the UK. As we said - it's grim.

In the second  Youtube is president elect Obama describing the dump of an apartment the he lived in even as a Senator, and the car he drove as younger man complete with a rusty hole in the floor. The experience of that side of life says so much to this writer about the fitness of the man for the challenge of the job ahead. The dismay in Michelle Obama's voice at her man's circumstances was also apparent. But then she didn't have a Phd anthropologist for a mom.

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

Postscript 24 Nov 2008: Not really sure but it looks as if we might have broken the traffic counter with this post. At the least our traffic metric from our host server stops at Nov 19, 2008 as per this screenprint taken 24 Nov 2008, five days of zero traffic:

Posted by editor at 6:14 PM EADT

Updated: Monday, 24 November 2008 8:58 AM EADT

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Mood:  d'oh

* Will the Howard Years episode one deal with a story that 4 Corners was too scared to cover - Jabiluka Uranium mine beaten by the traditional owners, national green groups and NT progressives? This was 1996 to 1999 but in particular mid 98. This set the scene for the Shane Stone Country Liberal Party being beaten in the Statehood referendum and then losing the govt to Clair Martin's ALP. But it all started with the Jabiluka blockade in our humble view and we played our part as a legal adviser taking time out from Waverley as Bondi Ward councillor.

* Pre emptive attack on local councils via AFR story about cost savings by amalgamating councils. Be careful what you wish for - like social security local councils are the democratic social fabric of society. Sure after a GFC it's tempting to cut costs but then so is the slippery slide to Mussolini making the trains run on time.

* '400 Bob Jellys are meeting in Canberra'. So funny. As compared with 'the shallow craven 400 Mike Moores' from the Big Media who live and work there week in week out??? And yes we did do our 4 years tour of duty as a local councillor at Waverley as per the plaque on the library in Bondi Junction.

* Fed Govt backups purchase of Toorale with water rights from Tandou, at 250 gigalitres for $34M 'to buy back the floods'.

* The current reportage of a past period of grim contest ALP versus Coalition Greiner-Fahey Govt from 1991-1995 has lacked a bit of context to our way of thinking:

 15 Nov 2008 That one day in September - National - smh.com.au

There was not only the assassination of MP John Newman in Sept 1994. In the highly political role as NSW campaign coordinator for The Wilderness Society we can say it was like hand to hand trench combat with dueling fax machines and talkback via such as newly invented broadcast fax via single coded sheet. To be frank the death of one obscure MP was a side play to power wrestle with the National Party over statewide policy on land use on forest, logging and wilderness, and the 'minor' matter of the Wood Royal Commission into the Police. Then there were the horror bushfires of summer 1993-4 to recover from. All this was in the backdrop of  Greiner effectively sacked by his own side of politics in 1992 after the Metherell Affair was referred to ICAC.

As regards the Newman murder we got to reflecting that regardless of the intent of the accused/convicted Ngo his high status calls up a sense that any particular criminal might have wanted to appease the Big Man with or without his endorsement. As soon as Della Bosca let Ngo in on Newman's shaky preselection such a rumour could have run and run fast even within hours, including to sinister forces wanting Ngo in place regardless. Newman famously campaigned against organised crime and stated to camera such crims 'didn't fear gaol only deportation to the jungles of Vietnam'. The question is whether Ngo or any other was in on it, and who was the actual shooter.

* We commented in Sunday Talkies on the glowing profile of Kathy Ridge as the acceptable face of the green and reconciliation movement who interestingly grew up to some degree in the shadow of Ok Tedi environmental disaster. Good to see Carol Ridgeway-Bisset native title claimant for Stockton Bight based at Nelson Bay in the story. There is no doubt since Senator Kerry Nettle of The Greens crashed in the last Federal Election this state of NSW is missing the alpha female Green MP at federal level. Or any Green MP at NSW federal level. And one reason we suspect for that election loss is the colonisation of Nettle's office by the CFMEU with their coal and woodchippiong record. So regretable. We took a pic of her senate shopfront post federal election with dead pot plants in the window as some kind of metaphor.

Or maybe Ridge is being positioned to replace aging Jeff Angel or indeed shell shocked Ian Cohen MLC?

 * The lack of ethical framework of Tim Blair and perhaps News Corp itself was clear to see with the juxtaposition of a feature about Obama "Living in the line of fire" Sat Daily Telegraph p85 15 Nov 08 while next page Tim Blair ran cartoon (for mental age of reader) graphic for story "Puppy love with a bang" and "Obama is the best gun salesman we've had". Thank God TB's gun totin fans didn't win the USA election.

* Laurie Oakes has a balancer last Saturday ameliorating the favouritism of PM's wife launching his book Power Plays. We thought that was too close for real independence and stand by that. So Laurie leads with gibe against PM while Rudd is out of the country "Don't say anything, Rudd's in the Room" as if to set the scales to sceptical equilibrium again. Noted LO, noted.

* Interesting biofuel story targetting non agricultural land .... maybe ....

15 Nov 2008 Oil from wasteland tree to power Air NZ jet | The Australian 

* Twiggy Forest is now officially not so rich, down $11 billion to $1 billion in personal wealth. So sad. Actually it really might be given his support for 50,000 jobs in the Indigenous population will be mightily affected. That really is sad.

Forrest down to his last billion as freeze sets in | The Australian 14 Nov 2008

* Biggest con job in modern political economic history? The coal industry have received legislative approval to write off future risk of CO₂ leakage in the future. That explains the 4 full page adverts so far explaining why they are doing alot to combat climate change ....not. The adverts are in sky blue format or is that Liberal Party blue?

We think the world and Australia will live to regret such a free pass for the coal sector, and Senator Milne (Greens) is right. We think the underground reservoirs will leak as night follows day, probably kills hundreds or more in the process, which is why the Europeans don't like it. Meanwhile the coal sector's main concern is expansion at any democratic cost 

16 Nov 2008 Roozendaal declares war on wealth in state budget | The Australian

as some ten thousands march against warming last weekend:

15 Nov  2008 Thousands walk against warming - Environment - Specials - smh.com.au

13 Nov 2008 Business splits on carbon deadline Dennis Shanahan, Political editor  DIVISIONS are emerging in the nation's peak business body over the Rudd Government's 2010 deadline for a carbon trading scheme, with...

There you have it: this mini-budget is about nothing other than doing "whatever it takes" to prevent a downgrading in the state's credit rating. All the rest is either detail or spin. ......

But for the Rees-Iemma-Carr Government there can be no debate. Its reputation as a manager of the state's affairs is already so tattered that to suffer a credit downgrading would be the last nail in its coffin.

Rightly or wrongly, it would be taken as the ultimate, irrefutable proof of the Labor Government's economic incompetence.

Sorry, but Nathan Rees and the union bosses who appointed him just aren't prepared to run that risk to their survival in office.

And if it makes the downturn worse rather than better for the people of NSW, that's just something the people of NSW will have to cop.

At a time when the Federal Government is busy increasing its spending - and rapidly turning a surplus into a deficit - to bolster the economy during the downturn, it may strike you as strange that its state counterpart is doing the opposite: cutting spending and increasing taxes.

You're right, it is strange. Perverse, in fact. Eric Roozendaal says this is a tough budget for tough times. A snappy line, but treasurers haven't believed it made sense since the same mentality helped to prolong the Great Depression.

17 Nov 2008 NSW is in a state of dysfunction | The Australian

Quoting ex Premier Greiner "You cannot have a proposal that goes from being right to wrong in a fortnight. It means there is no systematic plan for NSW and government departments don't know what they are supposed to be doing."

Excuse me, tell that to Lehman Bros. Merrill Lynch. Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac. Countrywide Financial. Bear Stearns. American Insurance Group. And then there was Enron all those years ago. Or HIH here.

Greiner and Kelly have selective memory when it comes to an ALP nominally Left Govt. If the GFC can knock $40B off federal budget projections than a fortnight can knock off the north west metro and it did knock it off.

Kelly then contradicts NSW roundsman from the same paper Imre Salusinszky 2 weeks back that conceivably Rees could go ahead of Rudd in a deal possible under the NSW Constitution. That is due to flexibility in a clash with any federal election in Feb March 2011 and Rudd technically can wait until April 2008 as well. Imre confirms these theoretical views by phone today while noting everyone expects Rudd to go late 2010. But will he?

In Sunday Talkies we also noted: "Paul Kelly hopelessly flawed article in The Australian yesterday. Airbrushes real NSW political history regarding Greiner years - seeking to buy off Metherell's vote on forest destruction by job sinecure in the EPA, over feisty public servant Neil Shepherd. Carr winning on the green vote - narrowly. Falsely conflating two very different energy sell off proposals 1997 to 2007-8 with a $10 billion disjunct in the assets (no transmission infrastructure in the second). Greiner being a big business lackey in name as well as substance today working for British American Tobacco. Kelly needs a good spanking."

* Someone called "Herman Daly, former senior economist of the World Bank, did the maths years ago" says Leslie Cannold in Sun Herald 9 Nov 2008 at p8 of Extra: "He argues that catastrophic climate change is just one manifestation of our tragic miscalculation. .... The economy is not just killing the planet. It's killing the economy." Quite.

Posted by editor at 9:43 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 17 November 2008 8:49 PM EADT

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Mood:  chatty

 

 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 (and see following post on SAM of 'big media short takes')

* Refer previous two posts on the big press ‘tantrum' after the mini budget last week in NSW perhaps indicating the old media don't realize they don't make or break government's anymore in the age of Get Up etc. There is the 5^th estate accountability on their spin and selective editing. True it's still early days but Obama literally leveraged the internet to the US presidency, and young mind Nathan Rees is in the cycle race of his life starting at 29% primary vote polling handicap to win in 2 years. And the alternative media will play a significant role in that now that he has stared down the Daily Telegraph and SMH front page malice. As if in agreement it's a new media future editor David Penberthy to go to new projects in the same stable.

* Speaking of Penberthy, notice this ‘truth or fiction you decide' piece by Joe Hildebrand in yesterday's Terror:

* News Corp papers are at least an hour or more late Saturday morning. Desperate headline too about blood suckers attacking Rees Govt.

*  Paul Kelly hopelessly flawed article in The Australian yesterday. Airbrushes real NSW political history regarding Greiner years - seeking to buy off Metherell's vote on forest destruction by job sinecure in the EPA, over feisty public servant Neil Shepherd. Carr winning on the green vote - narrowly. Falsely conflating two very different energy sell off proposals 1997 to 2007-8 with a $10 billion disjunct in the assets (no transmission infrastructure in the second). Greiner being a big business lackey in name as well as substance today working for British American Tobacco. Kelly needs a good spanking.

* Mark Scott revealed on ABC conversation hour. If it looks like, sounds like, smells like a lone Liberal Party SAS advance inside the ABC then it probably is. Reveals his days as political staffer with Terry Metherell presumably not for his forest loving ways. Rather his attempt to split and scatter the teacher union stronghold in the education sector for free market ideologue Nick Greiner. The man for a job would have been the thought of the Howard clones.

* SMH runs another natural history puff piece for the new Govt via James Woodford about an island habitat on the NSW South Coast. Their real environment reporter did a web story on the koala habitat logging on the NSW south coast a week ago. As did PM abc. As did ABC TV news. As did JJJ late last week. But not the newsprint at Fairfax this weekend. Instead they do a book review of depressed, maybe neurotic, Woodford entitled Grid Life Crisis. Arts graduate passenger on the backs of 1,500 people arrested trying to stop the Eden woodchipper destroying our south coast.

* Indeed the SMH compounds the conformist conservative careerist view of the environment with a profile of Kathy Ridge, a greenocrat former exec officer of NSW Nature Conservation Council at a time when the state govt became quite disastrous on environmental management. But don't take our word for it - let me quote Ridge herself in email effectively reporting on the failure of her own tenure at the helm:

From our own SAM/ecology action archive: Tarnished credentials of Bob Carr's ALP NSW Govt 1999-2003 written about March 2003, and see links below for more archive of the Carr years:

5. Nature Conservation Council spits the dummy and gobs on Premier Bob Carr!?

Extracts of Kathy Ridge Executive Officer summer newsletter article 2002/2003.

[Intro by Tom McLoughlin of Ecology Action Sydney.

The umbrella group for most big and small green groups in NSW - though not all e.g. Greenpeace, NEFA, ecology action and some others - has laid the boot into Bob Carr's 'green' credibility. The NSW Nature Conservation Council is supposed to be a networking and service provider to the green movement rather than a spokesperson per se but the group is recognised in NSW legislation and has undoubted stature and influence with the community and the public. Often it does act as a small 'g' greens spokesperson.

The NSW NCC is emphatically stating there is something wrong in the state of Denmark. It is a safe bet to say Bob Carr is following former NSW ALP Premier McKell's successful rural electoral strategies to win over redneck votes from the coalition. However, Carr has forgotten one thing - McKell was a Premier for a pre-environmental age of the mid 20th Century, when the word 'ecology' was barely invented, and 'environmental flows' meant the reverse of today i.e. damming the next floodwater, not saving the fish or South Australia's water supply.

But don't take my word for it - read the esteemed Ms Kathy Ridge in her last newsletter for summer 02-03, soon to bail out for a legal career as a judge's associate. A careeer change can do wonders for the vocal chords, they say. Extract follows,]

"Selling out the environment"

"Kathy Ridge [pictured, lead story, page 1 Environment NSW, the quarterly newsletter of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW Summer 2002/3]

"At the time when the landscape of NSW and its dependent regional communities are suffering the worst drought in 100 years, the Carr government has backed away from the very reforms that would have delivered a more robust environment.

"The last two months has [sic] seen the NSW government fail to put in place two of the most important strategic natural resource management frameworks - the Native Vegetation Management Strategy, and the State Water Management Outcomes Plan.

"Both policy frameworks were designed to guide the work of regional natural resource committees, including Catchment Management Boards, Regional Native Vegetation Committees and the Water Management Committees.

"Without clear policy positions being articulated by the government, community based planning has been an utter failure dogged by poor data, insufficient resources and lack of transparency and accountability in committee processes.

"It has also limited the discussion of the value of the outcomes within government. Each of the draft regional vegetation plans are of varying quality with no cohesive statewide direction being discernible. The extensive, not to mention expensive, Water Sharing Plan process is going to deliver less than a 0.5 per cent increase in water for the environment statewide, and very little of that increase is protected as environmental health water.

"Against the backdrop of landscape scale failure to address land clearing and over extraction from our rivers, the ongoing destruction of old growth forests, woodchipping and charcoal threats, loss of valuable public lands to developers and suffocating stacks in our suburbs, Carr could well be advised to not rest on his environmental record.
.....
"It will be a long 'hot' summer, both politically and environmentally speaking."

 More archive here:

9 Mar 2006: Blast from the past, Sid Walker former Executive Officer NSW Nature Conservation Council 1990-1995 on Carr's broken 'ban on woodchipping' promise.

21/3/05...Objective analysis of Carr on the environment, it's not the TEC director? [discusses undue positive reports by SMH/TEC re Carr regime '95-99,'99-03 and Green Party/other ngo balance effect]

Material on this page below focuses mainly on the NSW Govt period of 1999 to 2003.  For the Carr Govt "dodges"  up to 1999 see: 

30/1/99...The REAL Carr govt on forest protection and destruction, prelude to 1999 election

.........

Whether despite KR's stirling efforts under an increasingly brown and spin driven govt, or because of it we remain agnostic. We have real regard for her spouse barrister McAvoy, and she did seem to be getting an independent mojo by the end of the NCC tour. But the point is while saying she doesn't want the PR she is pictured beaming into the camera with chunky jewellery and business suit in place. 

KR we assume has never been arrested for her beliefs and lives a comfortable career and that's about the speed of the SMH commitment to the environment. Tame captured greenies including by flattery in the first instance. We reflected recently how precious privacy really is. Good luck KR you're going to need it after that profile piece. And what a miserable life it must be in the public eye 24/7.

Press roundup - decline the Rees beat up, run with breaking G20 summit. Sunday mail in Brisbane re vaccine for skin cancer. SunHerald story about ABC Learning chosen.

First guest is Kim Carr - Industry Minister.  Traverse the Rudd Bush dynamic ‘can't take it seriously' says Carr.

Great out take of axe weilder comedy show with Julie Bishop. Very comic and charming and alarming too. Panel really amused on recommencing.

Next segment of show, grab of Ken Henry don't talk ourselves into a recession.

Panel is Alison Carabine 2UE, Brad Norrington News Corp. Get to his portfolio about industry. Structural advantages. Carr is earnest, articulate big bear of a guy, quite persuasive. Sounds steady. His suit seems to fill ¾ of the screen.

AC goes Rees "betrayal" in NSW. Helped by NSW? Presses. This is the business. Get's to it by saying NSW has "special problems" working through it as soon as we can. Or something like that.

Another ripping out take animation of PM Kevin and Wayne Treasurer on the scene of filim "Australia" (speaking of hyperbole). Bombing of the surplus by the GFC says a lot, levering the plot line of bombing of Darwin, a seriously untold story here of WW2. Hundreds killed apparently. Grim.

Australian Industry Group - Heather Ridout without even looking - 60% per cent reduction. Sounding as articulate as ever, but a lot slighter and softer voiced. Has she been ill? [Reminds saw her in Newtown street possibly but looking a lot thinner than I recalled.] Diplomatically declines debate over 1.5 to 2% Coalition.

BN criticism of NSW? 30% of economy reducing, need Federal Govt send in administrator - very careful investment path, stable let alone growth.

AC lack of political leadership, drag down national economy. Why is Victoria doing better than NSW? It's all about management. Ridout relies on USA for precedent of no arbitration in industry - back to the bad old days. Bongiorno intervenes umpire is in our constitution. Free market ideologue leveraging economic downturn to ruthless business power. Inner Ayn Rand showing.

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

Riley Diary 7, from 8.30am

 Very good comic traverse of Rudd hyperbolic ‘war' rhetoric on all kinds of topics. Hockey line "war on relevance" is cute and Rudd sidelining the institution of parliament is starting to resonate as real. Rudd needs to show more respect for parliamentary institution as a real politik risk, not just an insider's gripe by Ramsay et al. The 4^th estate have got a point. As do Opposition. Don't blatantly avoid parliamentary scrutiny.

Riley off to APEC in Peru this week but cut to LO below during this Q & A.

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

9 Sunday newshour Laurie Oakes interview 8.40 am

LO has Julie Bishop on. It's a balancer for Therese Rein launching his book 2 Fridays ago. His column yesterday was also symbolically rude to the ALP PM though only while Rudd was out of the country.  It's also good value grist about real politik of GFC, fallout of USA election for Howard's People.

Cut's across Q and A in Riley Diary cie la vie.

Missed some of the boiler plate on political economy of the GFC with $21 billion of surplus spent etc. She also retreats  a little on the 2% versus 1.5% growth projections and moderates her approach to ALP Governance - ‘that we will get through this' showing she realizes the problem of blame for talking the economy into a recession as per Henry comments on MTP.

Dives into the "confidential talks" with Bush story but projects her own anxiety over Obama winning, and her side losing. It's a proxy argument, somewhat in denial of changed real politik - for instance refuses to repudiate Howard attack on Obama as friend of Al Qaeda. A disgusting slur. Shows Bishop remains a Howard clone.

LO gives several chances to "repudiate" slur on Obama and she like the nasty Republicans leaves these things hanging out there.

LO presses her hard on this. Combine with MTP grab of  anecdote of the 4 year old axe wielder of sisters swing set  10 Newsweek comedy and that she is happy to reveal her zeal and determination beyond sensible balance, shows that she is indeed something of an extremist. In a telling and cruel blow LO quotes Dennis Shanahan of News Corp hardly a "mad leftie" against her as "damaged political goods" failing to take Swan down. She takes it squarely but it's serious impact on her cred as Julia Gillard floats on through as deputy PM (as per Crabb columns).

Worth consulting the transcript in due course to fill gaps.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/oakes

Insiders 2: 9- 10am

Headlines, showcasing Fran Kelly on Howard Years. Cross to G20 ie GFC summit fallout.

Refers to Rudd Bush dynamic [is this all a real subtextual balancer in power relations for US ambassador attacking Latham in domestic politics here? That Rudd is an Obama barracker.]

Panel - Fran Kelly. Handshake Bush v Rudd barest of handshakes. Meglo. Mal Farr. The pro observers all agree. But the fact is Obama is pres and it's all about Bush being seriously damaged. The more Bush reacts the more the Obama folks will like him.

Footage of Rudd aggregated stimulus packages of 1 trillion dollars.

Lindsay Tanner - Q of financial sector serving wider economy or other way round. ABC childcare via local councils discussed. Boilerplate about retail and jobs ticking over and public construction hinted at. Diverse approach.Cute reference to arm wrestle or mud wrestle with State Govts after Federal support. Left out Barnett from WA - bad form? Tanner boilerplate doesn't answer.

Have to renege on election promises? Doesn't agree. Tanner says Bush Rudd dynamic is "nonsense" attacks Bishop re slur on Obama. True she was deliberately hardball. Tanner is covering about ‘body language' as Kim Carr was.

BC cross refers to LO interview suggestive he watched it pre 9 am maybe or maybe building on Tanner comment.

Every person segment refers to Barak as Beroc as in berrocca energy lift drink.

Meglo points out deficit under Costello in 2000-01 discreetly. Mal Farr questions loathing of deficit word and won't be marked down if do mention it. Footage of Swan refusing to mention deficit without damaging confidence.

Meglo formula of words "not afraid of deficit to keep the economy growing".

Australian editorial sticks by their story. Good source. Fran Kelly says sure it's false story. Ill judged. Reflects on PM via tone of self aggrandizement. The panel buys in seriously now. Mal Farr from same News Corp stable waxes on it. More realistic person would know it wasn't true. The tone of the story is that a staffer ran a false story and Rudd won't cut them loose.

Rudd footage on Downer refusing to who released a story in 2003. "Unacceptable" .

Paul Kelly late emergence in the show at 9.38 perhaps because of his weasley piece in The Oz yesterday. Voice is a little thick and nasal like a cold, like LO last week, must be going through the gallery? Bangs on about G20.

Kelly says Opp has unhealthy fixation with Ken Henry re mid year forecasts. Opp target officials "never works" should target ministers. Treasury at press club still optimistic. In place most of the Howard period, no question of integrity of independence.

Robb grab not attacking officials, silence critics on every front. Meglo warns Robb be much more careful. Go the govt not the officials. [So is Robb projecting their own period in govt - of cooking up, or at the least anticipating Fran Kelly interview re kids overboard dishonesty courting the One Nation cohort - that rings true].

Nice grab on Rudd using Member for Wentworth not Leader of Opposition. Meglo says one of the best questions in the last 20 years. Cut away to Govt laughing at Rudd would have been good. Rudd amused also.

Showcasing of Howard Years. Daily Telegraph Mal Farr unhappy didn't get a copy of The Howard Years but direct competitors did. Sunday Telegraph did get it. Interesting ABC sanction. Mal sounded aggrieved.

Kelly says loyalty remains to Howard from his then ministers Downer, Reith.

Jim Ballman Cincinnati Inquirer, talking pictures, constructive competition. Likes Obama for being a young mind text and email.

[Howard suffered so long and so deep he wasn't going to give up his achievement to anyone else who hasn't suffered as much. He has set the bar too high really for anyone to aspire for leadership transition. The Liberal Party is deformed by Howard gigantism.]

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

Inside Business - 2 at 10am

Refer http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/

Posted by editor at 10:22 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 17 November 2008 10:44 AM EADT

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Mood:  d'oh

Comment from SAM editor

Fairfax hypocrisy over a sexualised society, and poor sense of news values has infested the Sydney mainstream press this last 4 days. It's mostly a tantrum about big corporate advertisers and political mates not getting their snouts in the trough of a $15 billion energy industry that is publicly owned.

Today it's an embarrassing massage parlour site, wickedly leveraging the unrelated gruesome murder of 2 Chinese alleged sex workers who have nothing to do with the Premier's electorate office, or him.

The Sun Herald front page story is pure political malice by the Fairfax owners, who care little or nothing for their own journalists. Their sexual hypocrisy about objectifying women is pretty (!) obvious in the screen prints we took of the Fairfax website from today and Saturday's archive. Flesh is the word. But not just on the web, burgeoning home of modern porn, but also racy lifestyle pages in the newsprint.

Ironically it's News Corp, equally malicious who decline the sex angle - wisely given the number of brothels near Holt St. Rather yesterday in true schlock tones they take a horror "blood" suckers route. Vampires anyone? There's nothing in it except special interest private health insurers paying their share for the blood bank public service. These are the insurance folks who destroyed public health in the USA.

 Is Premier Rees also a nazi, child molster, AIDS carrier? Stay tuned for day 5 of The Tantrum and no doubt all will be revealed.

We reserve special attention for later this morning to Paul Kelly in The Australian promoting the false history of NSW politics via ex Premier Nick Greiner - a man thrown out of office for corruption later reversed on appeal.  Good lawyers are like that. Greiner now works for British American Tobacco and he's the honest broker? Head shaking stuff really.

One howler in Kelly's piece can be mentioned here already - the 2007 energy sell off proposal did not include the wires and transmission infrastructure - a mere $10 billion dollar difference when compared with the 1997 proposal. But Greiner conflates the two as did Paul Keating in his own opinion piece in Fairfax earlier this year - who also works for big business these days.

Posted by editor at 7:16 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 17 November 2008 9:24 AM EADT

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Mood:  a-ok

Well, it's turning into one of those days again. Pulling the weeds, managing middle age ailments, when the ABC runs a brief line or two at 11 am: The editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph has resigned. Such a short story yet so significant in context.

Some of that context appears in this google for a start:

You get the drift - Penberthy has been a player in the meat grinder that is NSW politics.  A crucible that reaches red hot temperatures. Other metaphors come to mind - live by and die by the sword.

As the ABC reports below, News Corp's editor has blinked in a power struggle in two respects - political power over who decides govt, and also who decides policy on public energy assets. 

We were always going to do another post on the 'big press tantrum day 1' after our penultimate post: Some things we noticed in the Sydney press today:

* Although both newspapers run negative front page stories they are both fairly thin. One about single deck train purchases (Fairfax), one about a so called "Labor MPs in Budget revolt" (Daily Telegraph).

* But the front of the Herald is mitigated by rebel MP Stewart looking more 'conspiracy fetish' and 'Walter Mitty' by the day. Fair or not. And as every administrative law student knows any judicial review in his favour in the Supreme Court just means a re-run of the process by the same decision maker - Rees, Ronaldson SC or whoever. Stewart's political capital is arguably going backwards faster than the Rees premiership.

* The front of the Tele is mitigated for Rees by the page 4 breakout with a classic Liberal Party newsletter demographic - newsagent from Campbelltown. No lost Labor voter there. Then there is the story above with a shopping list of "must do" and tucked in quietly is sale of $10 billion in public energy assets. Which is the whole point of the campaign against Rees to deliver $10 billion in assets into private corporate hands. It's a free market ideological thing. A fairly bizarre editorial claims this in fact would be to "take on the top end of town on behalf of the little guy". Little guys like investment banks and foreign energy multinationals? That's confusing.

* Nor does Tony Stewart MP get off free in the Telegraph either. This graphic shows his ALP Right amigo and factional prop ex PM Paul Keating is being trashed for not supporting charity while on a lifetime PM's pension. You can't play in the public life of the nation Mr Keating and not pull your weight for charity. Talk about basic politics.

* Then we have Simon Benson in the News Corp tabloid misconceiving Australian history comparing NSW in Premier Jack Lang's time in 1932 with Rees in 2008. Foolish because in those days NSW had the stature and size of a national govt, and the feds were the beggars. Today tax and budgetary roles are reversed along with revenue base. Apples and oranges Simon. Bad history. The irony is that this is Paul Keating's history lesson via ABC radio some years back.

* Peter Hartcher in the Herald conspicuously displays his political economy credentials in the main opinion piece.  As if in riposte to our sledge about big press weak grasp of political economy in their trantrum of yesterday, but likely a coincidence. Patronising as Hartcher is, his piece is quite informative of why the federal Opposition attack on Rudd economic governance is misconceived, as arguably the News Corp tabloid gets it wrong versus the NSW Govt economic governance. Hartcher mentions our Australian good fortune regarding

• strong company profits
• low unemployment
• fat order book
• $10.4B federal budget stimulus
• 20% fall in dollar for export sales
• 30% fall in price of petrol
• echo of other western countries' stimulus packages
• RBA dramatic interest rate cuts

Which apparently lends to PM Rudd powering along in the polls. Certainly Rees is not so blessed in NSW but he's in there swinging and it's News Corp who look to have blinked today.

Ouch. 

* Punters on the rail might have noticed something more than the daily press of concern to wonky obsessives: There was a security blitz Tuesday evening on the public rail system. It's reported in part on page 11 of today's Terror. We say a big bunch at Windsor and Blacktown last Tuesday evening. 900 arrests all up says the little report. We think this might be the equivalent of road works in the last 6 months before a local council election (engendering a sense of - finally we get some govt attention around here), only this time it was rail security and a mini budget for the State Govt.

Posted by editor at 11:44 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 14 November 2008 3:44 PM EADT

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Mood:  d'oh

We have some appointments but given the ramp up in both press today in Sydney some preliminary comments are timely:

* You know there's a rat in the stew of Big Media coverage when Piers Akerman of all people accuses the ALP of spin doctoring. Excuse me, that's rich coming from machine operator Akerman there at tabloid News Corp. Akerman thinks balance is a sugar substitute. Talk about hypocrisy.

* The rusted on Liberal Party readers load up a survey of 89% at the News Corp tabloid who want to junk the 4 year terms. An important reform in 1992 that prevented govt be the plaything of Big Media corporations for a start. And so what? Let's see a real poll done independently based on public rejection of energy privatisation and willingness to make sacrifices for that.

* You can't take the ex News Corp tabloid out of the woman: Devine refers to "bankrupt" NSW - fact checker anyone? We saw "bankrupt" bobbing around somewhere else too by some know nothing.

* The give away to the spin machine of the Big Press today with it's fearsome tantrum is the constant reference to failure to privatise the public's energy assets e.g. Telegraph editorial but also Gittins influential column p1 Herald yesterday. Sue Cato chimes in on the 'spin doctors' segment abc radio.

But none of these are man or woman enough to admit that the Global Financial Crisis meant such a sale would have been a disastrous outcome for undervalued assets.

* To top it all off about the whining and carping and cant is that petrol is now heading to $1 a litre. Which will save more money than any tiny increase in congestion charges.

If these capitalist reactionaries in the press don't even know their own political economy why should anyone else take them seriously. Let the tantrum proceed. However be assured, it's both boring and boorish Big Media bullshit.

* The federal budget has lost some $40 billion in projections - what makes people think that the cost of a capuccino per day won't come off their lifestyle as well? Wake up to yourselves.

* A "cheap shot" at Rees is that he doesn't have a car license as if it's a metaphor for lack of understanding or sympathy. But how dumb is this attack? Anyone in a really busy job knows how much work can be done in a car if you are not driving, not least from mental energy saved not watching the road rules. The idea of premier or minister driving themselves is a false economy.

Rees is a dedicated cyclist previously competition level. We are not. But even we were surprised the other day taking only 25 minutes by bike from Marrickville to the CBD. That's quicker than train and car. We took 50 minutes to Bondi on Tuesday last (and back again similar time phew).

Admittedly this was after a year of training up the fitness levels. But we are no spring chicken and it does show how dumb the car really is as a primary mode of transport in Sydney.

Posted by editor at 10:15 AM EADT

Updated: Thursday, 13 November 2008 4:50 PM EADT

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Mood:  special

Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:12 AM

That:

1. The application under S96 to modify Development Consent DA0134/95, Lot 2, DP 628806, No. 6102 Singleton Road, Mellong be refused as, due to non-compliance with Condition 4 of the original consent, the consent has lapsed and Council is unable to consider the application.

2. A Notice of Intention to serve an Order be issued on the operator to cease operations due to there being no current consent for the operation.

3. A survey plan is to be submitted to Council within two months, showing the location of diversion works in relation to the property boundary. Should any works be located outside the property boundary of Lot 2 DP 628806, those works are to be removed immediately and the land rehabilitated to its natural state.

Background to the paper and comments on the report are here:

Posted by editor at 12:04 PM EADT

Updated: Wednesday, 12 November 2008 2:32 PM EADT

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Mood:  chatty

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

* Bush still the president for 2 months until 20 January 2008.

* Saturday Daily Telegraph preaches 10 things to do list to Obama pres elect leaves out "planet in peril" while Sunday Herald carries story that Obama opening press conference spoke about ... climate change. Is this News Corp bias by omission? Curious photo in Fairfax of first presser with Rahm Emmanuel in the prized far right spot taken by "David Katz/Obama for America" indicating not journalist but inhouse slant. It is a compelling photo too.

* By coincidence we well remember Friday Sept 13 1994 as "a black Friday" on ‘wilderness policy protection of the coalition govt'. We infiltrated the State Office Block press conference - as NSW campaign coordinator for The Wilderness Society - by Premier John Fahey, who gulped and now I realize the security tensions at innocent moi slipping through the security lines unchallenged. Paul Mullins at Ch10 said I caused a "royal commission" about how I got in. The truth is I just walked through and they must have thought I was late arrival with the press for the presser by Fahey. We commenced a presser back on veranda of Parliament House half an hour later standing with Kevin Parker Director of The Wilderness Society national office.

* Another ouch story for NSW ALP is ICAC complaint made by high media profile smooth talking copper Dave Darcy about being leaned on by Tony Stewart over policing in Bankstown. Talk of a shouting argument between two suggesting useless aggression in politics. It would be wrong to think Darcy doesn't play a political game too as he did in the Kings Cross command and as community liaison with ngo protest groups. Whether Stewart is exposed the reader should judge for themselves too.

* Obama notes he is "a mutt" like mongrels from the pound - shows he understands his genetic diversity above and beyond his gifted parents i.e hybrid vigour. And the comment shows he is doing the internal personal reflections on ego and id that such a big change in status invariably must involve. Indeed the confusion of rising above either parents and or peers and friends. He is a very bright fellow to address his own psychological balance by transcending the self image inherent in the parental exemplar. The truth is he is sui generis (one of a kind) due to the unusual combination effect of gifted African and European humanity.

* Laurie, Laurie, Laurie - Oakes that is. His book Power Plays is out. It was launched by the PM's wife Therese Rein we notice. This puts her directly in the "power plays" herself and fair game in the political cut and thrust. And sure enough Opposition Leader Turnbull has mentioned she is rude in reportage today. Minister Tanner says it's bad attacking the PM's spouse but that's gross naivety or dis ingenuous (the latter). And Laurie has given Treasurer Swan a free pass for not knowing the projected inflation figures at a presser under the cover of the Obama (aka BHO, and thank heaven for the H) victory, in Saturday's Daily Telegraph. That's wrong, even for our hero of political journalism LO. Ironic that his book should have such a full stop being compromised in his independence. Should we say Laurie is officially moving into semi retirement as feisty indy hero?

Which all calls up LO talking to Deborah Cameron on abc 702 in Sydney on Friday and saying journalist's private lives didn't need as much scrutiny as political leaders. Cameron was suitably sceptical. Mmm. I wonder LO, I wonder. 5th estate blogocracy anyone keeping the 4th estate honest?

In conclusion Oakes had no business challenging Hockey on Sunday News 9 below about Rudd's wife without declaring the book launch last Friday. Or in his column about Swan on Saturday. He's made a serious error of judgment in our view.

* Claire Harvey showing style in Sydney News Corp with cute story about swallows on the way out, and more seriously Australia's first black prime minister. We notice a kind or centrist beating heart in a News Corp reptile.

* Speaking of books. Gough Whitlam, the only Australian PM to ever fight in a war. Nice extract of 1972 pioneering diplomacy with Chinese Premier Zou Enlai. Significant for the highly sophisticated politiking of the leadership of this huge country. Significant because it was this event as entre to Nixon going to China - already in train. Significant because PM Rudd got his inspiration to join the Labor Party here from that media coverage at home. Significant because Rudd now is a Mandarin speaker and PM of Australia ideally placed to act as some kind of intermediary for the West and for "a planet in peril" to quote one BHO, president elect of the USA.

* A general theme amongst conservative commentators (say Piers Akerman, Greg Sheridan, even kind hearted Andrew O'Keefe) is that the national problems for Obama are intractable and solutions are unrealistic. To avoid disapppointment they say don't buy into the "fairytale". We say that's measuring Obama against mediocrity to which they have grown far too accustomed.

"Serial boofhead" aka Cardinal George Pell takes a leaf out of Pauline Hanson's book too in his Sunday News Corp column noting Obama's "Muslim" dad from Kenya, his "fanatical" support for abortion [along with Malcolm Turnbull leader of the Liberal Party in Australia] and "as a young man mixed with some of the wildest from the radical Left, urban terrorists and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation". And just in case you didn't get boofhead's slant on all this "and his financial advisers [like Warren Buffet?] include those who helped provoke the financial meltdown".

Like Akerman Pell doesn't get the need for public housing in that little economic argument. Millions of poor people who need but can't pay home loans still need shelter and just think what a few million rampaging angry folks with no shelter would have done to bank assets and society in the USA long before the GFC came along? Crime, vandalism, mayhem, possibly even revolution.

* Lots of effective weight measurement adverts paid for by the government.

* Helen Clark defeated in NZ general election by former investment banker self made millionaire as market system falls to bits.

* Bali mass murderers get their wish and are made 'martyrs' for the cause by the Indonesian policy of capital punishment. Reprisals are expected to follow says Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. Timing of execution presumably relates in part to the shift in US politics above where the message of extremism will be much harder to sell in Muslim countries for symbolic reasons?

* NSW ALP Govt 'murders' some koala habitat near Bermagui as reported by SMH and ABC national tv news this last week.

10 Meet the Press:  8- 8-30 am

Obama intro footage, missed half of this about "hope".

Shadow finance (?) minister Andrew Robb in news catchup re shooting of 3 Bali bombers. NZ election to conservatives.

Mood for change - incumbency under threat Robb says.

Footage of current USA Ambassador - G20 ‘gaffe' closed matter, not accurate reportage by either.  Says Rudd can't be trusted.

Footage of awesome McCain then Obama speeches. "My former opponent my president ... "What we did today. " Very profound.

Panel of Mal Farr News Corp Daily Telegraph, Phillip Clark 2GB.

Footage leads in with climate renewable energy issues. Mal Farr notes heavy weight climate change agenda. Supports cap and trade scheme. Robb tap dances. Goes back to need for global consensus, what Obama can deliver. Notes USA going into recession. Congress voted both sides against the scheme. Says Govt here worried about ministers under threat from Greens [Albanese, Tanner].

Clarke top question which side you on denial or believe re climate?  - Robb says not climate sceptic, but Rudd sceptic. Says motives not appropriate. Best tackle from position of economic strength. Agree with Rupert Murdoch - have to give planet the benefit of the doubt. Get on with the job, do in a way that doesn't export jobs or emissions. Says more so in China and India. [interesting twist on rhetoric but sounds too cute.]

Footage of Wayne Swan - tough decisions. Where will you go? Rail public transport etc or ports highways.  ..... Agrees city congestion is major drag on economy.

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

Out take - footage lame joke animation about Kevin Rudd name dropping stakes.

Last 1/3 time guest - Claire Martin re-appears on the public stage as head of ACOSS

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

Riley Diary 7, from 8.30am

 Roundup of Obama victory. Lots of dancing in Japan and Kenya.

Wayne Swan used victory as "cover" for bad economic news. Obama One like Obi Won Kinobi in Star Wars. Holograms in US coverage and

Footage of McCain doing the Howard shushing with the outstretched hands.

Great Tina Fey real Sarah Pallin footage.

Cut back to Swan 8 minute search for inflation figures.  Lots of Yes we cans and stunned black kid watching on at history and hope.

Q&A at end about reality and disappointment likely? 2010 before any change in economic improvement.

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

9 Sunday newshour Laurie Oakes interview 8.40 am

 Joe Hockey juxtapose with F Troop DVD big promo adverts. Really really really funny. Likely to be better than anything Joe has to say.

Clash with Riley Diary likely to happen anytime. 9 carries Peter Hughes survivor. "I guess it will another day for me. Q. People mass murder sends a message, is a supporter.

Missed first 10 minutes noting Bali mass murderer executions and new NZ PM "with a touch of the Turnbulls" as a self made millionaire.  LO has a touch of the head colds.

Hockey sews seeds of doubt in govt capacity to look after economy [which in turn drags down the economy and confidence at a premium in the political cycle? Overly negative? Wouldn't it be better to say doing okay, but they could be better. Faint praise would be more effective tactics of the Opposition?]

Going to war not consulting the generals. Hockey stuck in trench warfare mode.

Oakes notes tone "sounds ugly". Heroic magic pudding promises. Hockey goes to town in attacking aggressively the govt. Where are they going to get the money [all but said the sky is falling in].  Says govt's "error of judgement". Break key election promises? We warned of dark clouds on the horizon.

Govt doesn't understand what it is doing. Ford, GM and Chrysler needing $20B injection in US. Merging or existing in future, Toyata ructions too. Says hold back. Don't bail out individual business, rather protect industry, didn't bailout Ansett and in hindsight was the right decision.

Right decision to keep ABC Learning open until Christmas. Agrees with Turnbull on that.

Why did Turnbull drag Rein into "it" about being "rude". Hock disagrees defends Turnbull not attacking Rudd's wife. Story is page 2 News Corp Sunday Telegraph. [See above postscript added re LO conflict of interest with Rein launching his book the Friday before.]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/oakes

Insiders 2: 9- 10am

Lead in with Bali mass murderers excuted last night. NZ Labour PM Helen Clarke loses the general election. 47 year old. Overseas investment banker. Only in politics for 6 years.

New administration in Washington. Obama victory. Wrap on annual deficit of 730 billion in US and total deficit of 1,400 billion or 1.4 trillion. In Australia 5.4 billion surplus despite rhetoric of Rudd tough ugly hard future.

[Obama opening presser will be important to watch via YouTube or Google Video.]

Stephen Smith says credible intel on terror attacks, take advice on travel to Indonesia. Australia has generally opposed capital punishment. Urge countries against capital punishment.

Travel to Bali. School leavers soon. Read the advisory. November 2002. Reconsider the need to travel. True many Australians will so contemplate. Urge travel industry maximum flexibility. [This is a big issue for Australians.] Abu Bakir Bashir calls on murderers to be treated as martyrs. Smith says his views treated with contempt. Don't want extremism, respect and regard for peoples faith. Interfaith dialogue. No room for intolerance and extremism.

Views on NZ election. Welcome etc.

G20 ‘gaffe' story about Rudd spinning Bush alleged ignorance. Smith says it was wrong story. Doesn't know who generated the story. Barry Cassidy stands on his digs about journo accuracy.

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

Every person segment with restaurant 3 30 somethings.

Panel newspapers Karen Middleton sbs, Dennis Atkin News Corp Brisbane, Tim Blair News Corp Sydney re NZ election. Throw away ignorant sledge on Green Party in NZ by Blair.

Like Riley they run the Wayne Swan minutes delay finding inflation figures.

Funny use of Mike Wran SA PM, "yes we can".

Dennis Atkin deconstructs Swan presser, got it in real time, not briefed to ask the real questions.

Paul Kelly soliloquy. Swan mid year forecast - $40B down, should prepare people for budget deficit. .75 interest rate cut by RBA very aggressive to keep economy stable.

Govt has to rework its agenda and political strategy. States are in the firing line. 2 big trends. Falling polling and in revenues thus no tool to reverse. Big question over COAG with

Turnbull and Keating in social debate last Friday night with footage of that.  Journos impressed by Turnbull confidence.

Talking pics - Warren and Jason Chatfield who does a nice Democrat elephant and donkey.

BC howeler that the largest thing Obama has run is a senate office. Well that sort of ignores the longest running campaign in world history, with a $1 billion in donations budget, having defeated the highly competitive Hillary Clinton.

[If that's not forged the heat in of electoral battle then nothing is. Such an unrealistic and foolish comment echoing professional Clown Tim Blair as to be shocking. It may be BC is biting off more than he can chew with a new digital tv channel show 6 till 9 or so with Virginnia Trioli. BC is highly professional and yet remember what happened to over worked Andrew Olle doing morning abc 702 breakfast and then backing up with 7.30 report that night. He died of a stroke after an undiagnosed brain tumour. Ambition is a corrosive drug I would say.]

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

Inside Business - 2 at 10am

US ex Clinton adviser Gene Ludwig on how to "fix" the USA economy.

Refer http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/

Picture: Obama confronts race and unity 18 March 2008, hard to find on Youtube but we found it here on MSNBC

Posted by editor at 10:23 AM EADT

Updated: Sunday, 9 November 2008 9:22 PM EADT

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