The decision by the Mount Alexander Shire Council to slug the CWA with hall hire fees in excess of $2,500 per annum  is the most stunning evidence to date of corporatisation that is out of control.

This revered rural women’s association has been in existence for many years and countless generations of women have contributed through it to the benefit of the community. It represents values of service that are very precious in this largely consumerist world.

A priority role of local government is to nurture those community organisations which foster engagement and opportunity in our shire. This mean and unconscionable impost comes from an alien corporate culture which seeks to enforce user pays even when the real user is the community itself.

Having just seen the response from the mayor on this issue in the Bendigo Advertiser today, I must confess that I am deeply shocked. I did not think that this council could do much worse than it has over the last four to six weeks. The fact that the agreement to provide the CWA with rent-free accommodation in return for losing their club rooms in 1996 is public knowledge means it is no myth as Cr Cropley would have it.

My manager at my job in Eaglehawk, who is a long-standing resident of Castlemaine told me about it and remembers it very well. It will of course be documented but this mayor does not want to look. If I am elected I will move quickly to right this wrong. If I am not or I don’t get support from three other councillors I will offer to chair a committee to raise the funds necessary for a legal challenge. There is no court in the land that will allow the council to avoid the obligations of “a previous council and a previous administration”. I am reluctantly coming to the view that if asked, this community would be prepared to support a motion of no confidence in this mayor if it were moved.

Yours etc

Hans Paas
Castlemaine. 3450

In Australia we are suffering from a massive failure of public policy. The decision made today at the VCGR is a symptom of a deep illness within all our governments. Julia Gillard’s recent publicly broken promise to Andrew Wilkie is another.

On the VCGR’s About Us page they proudly claim: With a strong community focus, the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation administers Victoria’s gambling legislation by licensing, educating and advising members of the gambling industry and the general public.

The first part is laughable. ‘With a strong community focus’. The jury has been back for a long time on the damage gambling does to communities.

Our State and Territory governments are chronically dependent on gambling taxes, which account for an average 10 per cent of their revenues, and are higher in Victoria (13 per cent), South Australia (13 per cent) and Northern Territory (17 per cent).(1)

State and Territory governments show little interest in protecting us, their citizens, from gambling-related harms. Despite so-called ‘harm minimisation’ measures, gambling losses and harm to individuals, families and communities continue to rise.

In 1983, the Victorian government appointed a board of inquiry to consider whether to introduce poker machines to Victoria. The board’s report ran to 800 pages and recommended they NOT be introduced. (2)

The NOT was in capital letters and on the first line of page one. Pokies were legalised in Victoria nine years later, and every shade of government since has embraced poker machines and their revenue.

A 2010 Victorian Department of Justice report found that pokies were the second biggest cause of crime, behind drug addiction.

A 2005 report by the SA Centre for Economic Studies found that 3.2 jobs are created for every $1 million of gambling income. By comparison, for liquor/beverages it’s 8.3 jobs and for food/meals it’s 20.2 jobs. (3)

Australia had 20.4 per cent of all the world’s poker machines. Additionally, the SA Centre for Economic Studies found that 42.3 per cent of every dollar going through a poker machine was coming from a problem gambler. Around 40 per cent of this tawdry $11.9 billion industry is fed by desperate Australians with a gambling addiction. (4)

These problems are well known in Australia and internationally. The Reverend Tim Costello, speaking in Castlemaine in late 2010, told the story of how a group of Lords from the British Parliament had visited Australia to investigate ‘how to avoid the Australian disaster’.

And the benefits? The captains of the gambling industry have enjoyed benefits, vast profits from public licenses, virtual licenses to print money.

A Sydney Morning Herald investigation found the biggest NSW clubs donate just 2.7 per cent of earnings back to communities. Despite promises of largesse from the MHS , the organisation is planning to come to Castlemaine to make money. It’s that simple. You don’t give your profits away, despite vague promises of $200,000 ($50,000 in cash and $150,000 in ‘free rooms’) and if there were ever an industry more focused on profit than the gambling industry please point it out. And $50,000 is a minute percentage of the forecast revenue from this planned venture.

Bishop Jeremy Alston had a piece in the local hard copy media recently, suggesting we were being divided by tough issues, such as the swimming pool and the poker machines. He suggested we needed to respect each other’s opinions and work our way through, to find our common humanity.

It is nevertheless difficult to find commonality with an industry that has lied and cheated to get its way, that is fixated on power, greed and money and cares nothing for local communities.

The VCGR surely had its tongue firmly planted in its cheek when it wrote in its ruling that The Commission has considered the likely social and economic impacts of the proposal and concluded that there will be positive economic benefits to the Castlemaine community if the application were to be approved.

But then, the VCGR is an arm of government, and what are its commissioners but bureaucrats on the public payroll, 13 per cent of which comes from gambling?

1.Risky business: Why the Commonwealth needs to take over gambling regulation, Alfred Deakin Research Institute
2. It’s criminal how pokies can turn people into hopeless addicts, The Age
3. The South Australian Gambling Industry Final Report, Commissioned by the South Australian Independent Gambling Authority
4. Risky business: Why the Commonwealth needs to take over gambling regulation, Alfred Deakin Research Institute

‘This is a devastating decision’, says Enough Pokies in Castlemaine (EPIC) president, David Stretch. ‘This case was a litmus test for whether the Commission will listen to communities. Castlemaine has spoken louder than any other community before it, and still the Commission wants to let more pokies in.’

The Maryborough Highland Society applied to the Commission for approval of a venue with 65 pokies in the heart of Castlemaine. The application was heard in January this year. The Commission found that the net social and economic impact of the proposal would be neutral, and so the application was approved.

‘An independent survey showed that over 70 percent of the community oppose this proposal. If Castlemaine can’t win, no-one can’, Mr Stretch said.

The local Mount Alexander Shire Council opposed the development due to its anticipated negative social and economic impacts. An unprecedented 574 individual objections from the community were received by the Commission. EPIC, a grassroots organisation reflecting the views of the overwhelming majority of the community, made representative submissions to the Commission.

‘The Government’s dependency on poker machine revenue has become so pervasive that the legislative regime allows governments to ride rough-shod over the express wishes of communities and local governments, in favour of a quick dollar.

‘This Commission hearing is just the beginning of this battle: it took Romsey five years to keep the pokies out.

‘We have to keep fighting, not just for Castlemaine, but for other communities who will face the pokies juggernaut in the future’, Mr Stretch said.

EPIC and the majority of the Castlemaine community now call on Council to continue acting in the best interests of the town by appealing the decision to VCAT. The Council has 28 days to lodge an appeal.

I read with interest some of the commentary on the Aquatic Centre/Western Oval debate. I keep puzzling over several issues, one of which was raised in CI’s Comments section.

July 2007 report - read it here

How is it that in 2007, the Sport and Leisure Solutions Consultant to Council in the “Review of Aquatic Facilities” can state a preference for the existing Castlemaine Pool site as follows -

“We believe this is the best option of all the sites listed. It is close to the hospital, nursing home and hostel facilities which provide great opportunity for the cogeneration of energy which could be a major financial imperative to viability. Close proximity to the caravan park and Botanic Gardens are also positives…. The current Castlemaine Pool site has a large enough footprint to accommodate an Indoor Aquatic Centre.”

The Consultant’s comments in relation to the Western Oval site are “we believe this land is valuable open space that is best utilised by the community for that purpose. It would be costly to design something that negates geotechnical problems given the proximity to a creek bed.”

December 2009 report - read ithere

Three years later the Aquatic Centre Feasibility Study submitted to Council dated December 2009 and submitted in February 2010 by the same consultants is silent on the benefits of energy cogeneration and discovers that the Castlemaine pool site is not large enough for a heated pool and there is no mention of the course of the original Forest Creek affecting the Western Oval site.

Strange!

The other question that keeps turning in my mind is the scale of the plan being used by Council in its information sessions to show the proposed Western Oval Aquatic Centre siting. The amount of open space at the fore of the facility facing onto Forest St appears to be quite significant. However, if you calculate the proportions of the required footprint of the facility it would likely take up a great deal more open space. I guess we have to accustom ourselves to a level of “creative licence” in relation to selling the concept to residents.

Risk is the other issue that emerges in my thoughts.

• Financial risk – how robust is Council 10-year financial plan in the light of ongoing global financial turbulence?
• Climate change risk – more severe weather events and dramatic temperature swings will create unexpected costs to make our infrastructure (Bridges, roads, buildings, water) more capable of withstanding this risk – I would vote for this over an aquatic centre any day
• Political risk – if the volume of dissent from locals is an indication, perhaps there is a risk for our current crop of Councillors from the consequences of not listening to ratepayers.

I wonder where Council’s Risk Assessment for this project is? Is it publicly available?

Yours etc

Jane Fuller

“This sharpens the importance of the work of the Convergence Review and the Finkelstein media inquiry,” said Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

“In a healthy media market with wide diversity of ownership, it matters much less when mining billionaires buy media assets with the clear intention of influencing the political debate. In a market as highly concentrated as Australia’s, however, it matters a great deal.

“Media organisations are not poker chips to be shunted around the table in the service of particular industry sectors. In a functioning democracy, the media must play a role critical to the rights and wellbeing of the public by operating independently of powerful vested interests both private and government.

“The founder of Mrs Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting, her father Lang Hancock, wrote that the power of governments ‘could be broken by obtaining control of the media and then educating the public’. There is a difference between holding governments to account while striving for objectivity – which is a vital public service – and seeking to break the authority of a government by running a propaganda campaign against it.”

Senator Ludlam said the substantive issue at stake was not Mrs Rinehart’s personal world view, but the ability of a small handful of people to monopolise Australia’s mass media under the current laws.

“No one should be banned from investing in the media because of their beliefs. What is at issue is the concentration of media ownership, which amounts to a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few people.”

At the last CI staff meeting

It’s CI’s birthday! Two.

How would you live without us? Let us know! Congratulate us.

Conditions of congratulating us:

1. No hate bloggers

2. No nasty comments about those pro or anti the swimming pool

3. No free trips to the Maryborough Highland Society club in Maryborough to play pokies

4. No calling the editor so deluded it is almost funny/a leftist agitator who does a pretty poor impersonation of a journo/asking him just WHO he is and WHAT planet he is from/that he uses weary old tools of the leftist and points the Nazi finger of shame/saying he has a juvenile and sarcastic manner/an idiot

5. No saying the editor’s sophistry is breathtaking. Sophistication – yes, sophistry – no.

6. No saying Far from being independent and un-biased, the author still favours left/green articles and continues to take swipes at Howard, Bush and other captains of capitalism.

7. No saying CI will suit local self-styled artists and pseudo intelligentsia. Some discretion should be used if allowing minors to visit it as offensive language is contained in some articles.

8. No calling CI a litany of self indulgent shite/not only inflamatory but also pathetic/truly awful, biased and disenfranchised piece of garbage/grubby little ploy … nothing short of disgusting

9. NO THREATENING US in capital letters. No threatening us in little letters. Neither law suits nor fish in the letter box.

10. No threats to inter CI staff at the Olde Gaol (at least if you’re planning it, MAKE IT A SURPRISE)

11. Take out a paid ad with us!

12. Contribute!

This is a letter of objection in regards to the “Council’s withdrawal of commercial waste collection, effective from 1 April, 2012″.

As a retailer in Barker Street I am anxiously concerned as to the choices, direction and outcome this decision has and will make on the “CBD” area of Castlemaine.

What concerns me and my business the most is the health and safety aspect. As Little Makers is now placed in a growing food strip, I am concerned about the “tip toe brigade” emptying their food waste into the public bins. There is one near the front of the shop. I am concerned with the level of hygiene. I am concerned with “a tidy town” illusion for the tourists. I am concerned with the council’s inability to ask questions, advice, ideas on how the businesses of Castlemaine could help with the problem. I am concerned with the: ”Two information sessions will be conducted for Businesses in February and March.”

that seem to be dated too little too late for a productive change.

A quaint gesture on an already sealed decision.

I am concerned with the proposed retail v’s residential loop-hole.

For example in one block of Barker street there is one resident who will be granted rubbish collection rights by the council.

I am concerned about fairness, council supporting the community and working with a fluctuating industry.

I hope youhave heard and understood my concerns

Thank you for reading.

Yours etc

Deita Walters

“The risks of routinely floating nuclear reactors in and out of Cockburn Sound shouldn’t be underestimated,” he said.

“Western Australian police and emergency services personnel are completely under-resourced to cope with even a minor reactor leak.

“While we assume the authors of this report were referring to nuclear powered attack submarines, what of the fleet of nuclear armed ballistic missile submarines? Do we want to be active partners in maintaining a fleet carrying weapons of mass destruction? Would submarines for deploying nuclear weapons be serviced and perhaps even based in Western Australia? And are we prepared for the social and environmental impacts of an expanded foreign military presence in our communities and ports?

Beach at Cockburn Sound

“Labor seems giddy with excitement over the prospect of a base hosting 2,500 US marines on a rotating basis in Darwin and appears hell-bent on locking in a 25-year deal with Washington over the North West Cape base. The role of that base in supporting the American nuclear-armed submarine fleet is already a cause of grave concern and in conflict with our commitments to nuclear disarmament.

“Long after the end of the Cold War, the North West base still facilitates nuclear ballistic missile submarines. The credibility of Australia’s efforts to push for nuclear disarmament on the global level is virtually erased when we lend ports, infrastructure and personnel to legitimising the retention and deployment of nuclear weapons. Offering Garden Island for the same purpose does even more damage to our standing amongst nations and to worldwide efforts towards nuclear disarmament.

“So long as Australia continues lend credence to the notion that nuclear weapons bring security by allowing bases on our soil to facilitate the nuclear weapons apparatus, we are missing an opportunity to demonstrate that reducing and ultimately eliminating the role of nuclear weapons is practically achievable.”

British troops have opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the Bogside district of Londonderry, killing 13 civilians.

Seventeen more people, including one woman, were injured by gunfire. Another woman was knocked down by a speeding car.
The army said two soldiers had been hurt and up to 60 people arrested.

They just came in firing – there was no provocation whatsoever
Father Daly

Crank it – play it loud while you read

It was by far the worst day of violence in this largely Roman Catholic city since the present crisis began in 1969.

Bogsiders said the troops opened fire on unarmed men – including one who had his arms up in surrender.

The trouble began as a civil rights procession, defying the Stormont ban on parades and marches, approached an Army barbed wire barricade.

The largely peaceful crowd of between 7,000 and 10,000 was marching in protest at the policy of internment without trial. Some of the younger demonstrators began shouting at the soldiers and chanting, “IRA, IRA”.

A few bottles, broken paving stones, chair legs and heavy pieces of iron grating were thrown at the troops manning the barrier.

Stewards appealed for calm – but more missiles were thrown and the area behind the barricade was quickly strewn with broken glass and other debris.

The 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, which had been standing by in case of trouble, sprang into action. Squads leapt over the barricades and chased the demonstrators.

The gates were opened and eight armoured vehicles went into the Bogside and the remaining demonstrators were quickly surrounded.

Army claims provocation

The army says it opened fire after being shot at first by two snipers in flats overlooking the street. It claims acid bombs were also thrown.

The shooting lasted about 25 minutes.
Father Edward Daly, a Catholic priest, was caught on film helping to carry a teenager who had been fatally wounded, to safety.

He said: “They just came in firing. There was no provocation whatsoever. Most people had their backs to them when they opened fire.”

Major General Robert Ford, Commander, Land Forces Northern Ireland, who was in charge of the operation, insisted his troops had been fired on first.
“There is absolutely no doubt at all that the Parachute battalion did not open up until they had been fired at,” he said.

A 14th man later died of injuries received during the demonstration.

An inquiry into what became known as Bloody Sunday headed by Lord Widgery in 1972 exonerated the Army. It said their firing had “bordered on the reckless” but said the troops had been fired upon first and some of their victims had been armed.

The results of the inquiry were rejected by the Catholic community who began a long campaign for a fresh investigation.

In 1998, Tony Blair’s government announced a new inquiry into Bloody Sunday.

The inquiry, headed by Lord Saville, spent two years taking witness statements. It ended in November 2004 and had cost about £150 million.

Lord Saville’s final report and conclusions were supposed to be published in 2005 but the large amount of evidence being considered delayed publication by another five years. It was finally published in June 2010.

It concluded none of the victims were armed, soldiers gave no warnings before opening fire and the shootings were a “catastrophe” for Northern Ireland, leading to increased violence in subsequent years.

The Government must end uranium sales to Russia if it is serious about stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the Australian Greens said on Friday.

Greens spokesperson for nuclear affairs Senator Scott Ludlam said strongly-worded statements on Iran from Canberra rang hollow unless the government ends the sale of uranium to Iran’s key nuclear partner – Russia.

“The Russian nuclear industry built Iran’s Bushehr plant and continue to work with the Iranian regime closely. Recently Moscow expressed concerns about nuclear fuel enrichment in Iran but continue to be Iran’s closest partner when it comes to nuclear power,” said Senator Ludlam.

“In April last year the Russian state-run company Atomstroyexport was carrying out the reloading of nuclear fuel at Bushehr. Russia has a significant commercial interest in Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology and missile delivery systems.

“In 2008, CIA Director General Michael Hayden noted Russia’s assistance with civil nuclear technology and Russian company transfers of ballistic missile hardware and know-how in the annual report on Weapons of Mass Destruction related acquisitions. A similar report from four years earlier indicated Iran’s technological and material acquisitions from Russian companies aided Iran’s development of intermediate range ballistic missiles and that ongoing Russian-Iranian trade have assisted Iran’s local missile production capabilities. I’m not a huge fan of the work of the CIA – but this is what Washington’s intelligence agency is saying, and while Canberra listens to everything else the US administration tells them it seems to be ignoring the clear role Russia has in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

In November 2010 Senator Ludlam condemned the Government for cutting a deal to sell uranium to Russia.

“The concerns the Australian Greens raised then are more pressing now.  Russia has a nuclear energy sector known for low safety and environmental standards, the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and at the time of signing, had not been visited by IAEA inspectors since 2001.

“The formidable security and proliferation concerns of uranium deals with Russia were spelled out forensically by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) in 2008. The Government blindly dismissed these warnings. This is an example of short term profits taking precedence over global security interests.”

The Institute’s Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss said the $5 billion estimate is an exaggeration based on the cost of introducing a policy that no-one is actually proposing.

“The gambling industry has exaggerated the cost of poker machine reform in a number of ways. They have ignored the proposed phase-in periods and, in turn, ignored the fact that the cost of replacing machines is less for every year of service, and after seven years, non-compliant machines are replaced with new complaint machines at virtually no extra cost,” said Dr Denniss.

“They have assumed that all machines will need to be individually updated when many machines can be reprogrammed en masse. And they have assumed that none of the machines currently installed have been designed to incorporate the required modifications.

“The industry is clearly cherry picking the worst case data they can find, but the irony is that the more expensive they claim the reforms will be the more new jobs will be created by implementing the reforms.”

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) has claimed that mandatory pre-commitment would require substantial software and hardware upgrades and, in some cases, the installation of brand new machines. If these costs amounted to $5 billion then more than 23,000 jobs would be created in manufacturing, as well as jobs in the software industry.

“The gambling industry has said repeatedly that these reforms will impose large costs on the owners of poker machines, but what they have failed to mention is the huge amount of high skilled jobs that would be created if their worst fears are realised,” Dr Denniss said.

“At a time when Australian policy-makers are grappling with how to support the Australian manufacturing industry it is interesting that there hasn’t been more discussion of the potential for poker machine reform to generate the kind of high skilled jobs that the high exchange rate is pushing offshore.

“Of course, one reason that there has been so little attention paid to the ability of poker machine reform to create more than 23,000 jobs is that nobody in politics or business really believes it will cost $5 billion to upgrade existing machines.

“Given that the Productivity Commission estimates that the costs of problem gambling are more than $4.7 billion per year it would seem that Australia will be unambiguously better off if we proceed with this reform. It will clearly reduce the social costs of problem gambling and the reforms, depending on who you believe, will either be achieved at low cost or with substantial job creation,” Dr Denniss said.

Read about a big MHS lie

Read about other lies from the poker machine industry

Read the complete archive of poker machine stories by clicking the problem gambler at left

The Aboriginal elder has dedicated her life to the preservation of environment, culture and ecological knowledge, and has donated $400,0000 of her own money to establish projects including a local ranger program and a turtle sanctuary.

Laurie wasn’t well enough to travel to Canberra and so her good friend, linguist and anthropologist Bentley James, accepted the award on her behalf.

“She’s absolutely delighted, she’s invited everyone in Australia to share her celebration,” he says.

And on the Crocodile Islands, the celebrations have begun.

“Everybody is delighted, and everyone respects and understands what a great meaning this has for bringing attention to the wealth and joy of homeland living.

“It’s a shining example, like many of the other homelands, of a wonderful healthy way to live in the world.

“It’s a very very important place to celebrate.

The Crocodile Islands are 650 kilometres to the east of Darwin. The largest of the inner Crocodile Islands is Milingimbi, and 30 kilometres out to sea lies Murrunggar, where Laurie was born in the early 1920s.

Bentley says it’s incredibly important for Australia to recognise Laurie’s achievements.

“Baymarrwangga is a national treasure,” he said.

“She has worked in enormously wonderful ways to create homelands, to put together dictionary projects, to aid livelihood projects like the Crocodile Islands rangers, and she’s worked to help bilingual education and help children learn their own language on their own country.

“She was bombed in the war, she survived the bombing of Millingimbi – and Milingimbi was bombed three times.

“Throughout it all, she’s remained absolutely virtuously strong, and passed on her traditions and language and culture to each new generation, with a loving care.”

Cultural protection is a big part of Laurie’s achievements – and part of that culture is ecological knowledge.

For this reason, Laurie used to her own money to established the Crocodile Islands Rangers – a volunteer organisation still seeking some form of recurring government funding.

Bentley explains the important work the rangers carry out.

“The idea is, those people living on the homelands around the coast of Australia look after the coast, completely as part of their cultural activity.

“They look after the land, and sort out biodiversity issues, and keep culture and language strong. As well as doing weeds, looking after feral animals, biosecurity, protecting the coast from ghostnets, looking after turtle sanctuaries, keeping the cane toads off the islands – where some of the fabulous bird sanctuaries are out there, looking after sacred sites.

“She is one of the most wonderful people I’ve met in my entire life.”

“Mr Abbott’s ill-considered remarks demonstrate the need to officially recognise all elements of Australia Day so that we can work towards a truly national day, Senator Milne said in Brisbane.

“The 26th of January is Australia Day, Invasion Day and Survival Day, as the Australia Day committee chair Warren Pearson says. He also says these three truths can coexist and that the one day can be both a day of celebration and a day of mourning. And yet official national events do not give prominence to anything other than celebration.

“At the very least, official events need to recognise these truths so that a truly national day can occur. The day needs to be remembered as a day of dispossession inconsistent with the democratic nation we have become and inconsistent with the rule of law that we uphold. It should be a day when we all recommit to social justice and freedom.

“At the national level, the Greens are working hard to go beyond the apology to the stolen generation and, in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we want to secure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition in the Australian constitution.

“We are also fighting for the retention of Aboriginal languages – including better funding in looming education reforms – and the Greens have delivered in the carbon bills addressing climate change recognition of exclusive and non-exclusive native title as the basis for ownership of carbon rights. It is a start.

“We welcome Mr Abbott’s support today for constitutional recognition, a key reform that the Australian Greens are working hard to deliver as part of our agreement with the Prime Minister. That too is a start in the right direction,” Senator Milne said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s budget submission identifies savings that can be made by repealing wasteful subsidies that encourage greenhouse pollution and urges the government to instead invest in proper protection of our oceans.

As a member of the G20, Australia has pledged “to phase out and rationalise over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” (G20 leaders’ statement, Pittsburgh, September 2009), but so far Australia has not done enough to honour this international commitment.

“The oil and gas industry’s environmental record has been severely tarnished in recent years by the Montara and Deepwater Horizon oil spills and by promoting inappropriate industrial developments in sensitive areas like James Price Point in the Kimberley,” Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Don Henry said.

“Taxpayers’ funds that are currently going to multinational petroleum companies, allowing them to conduct oil and gas exploration in deeper and deeper waters, should be re-directed to provide adequate protection for Australia’s oceans.

“Australia has some of the largest and most diverse oceans on Earth, but at present more than 90 per cent of Australia’s marine areas are unprotected from oil drilling and exploration, leaving an accident waiting to happen.

“If the government redirected just 15 per cent, or $500 million, of the direct tax breaks that are set to flow to big oil and gas companies over the next five years, it would be enough to complete the establishment of a world class network of marine reserves and good management for healthier oceans around our island ‘girt by sea’.

“The oil and gas industry is not short of a quid or protection, but Australia’s oceans are.  It’s time to redress this imbalance.”

Uncle Bennelong: We will decide who comes to this country.

The Cadigal Council last night warned residents that an invasion fleet was due to land at Eora country some time today.

The fleet, believed to be from a far distant land, comprises at least 10 ships. Forward scouts have suggested the invaders practise a form of slavery, and some of the seafarers are in chains.

‘We will keep an open mind about the invaders,’ Uncle Bennelong said late last night.

‘We will welcome them with the due courtesy of the Eora people. But should they pose a threat to our way of life we will deal with them accordingly. We will decide who comes to this country.’

We were forewarned of the dangers, but allowed the machines in anyway.

Here’s some ancient history. In 1983, the Victorian government appointed a board of inquiry to consider whether to introduce poker machines. The board’s report ran to 800 pages and recommended they NOT be introduced.

The NOT was in capital letters and on the first line of page one. Pity they didn’t make it plainer, for pokies were legalised in Victoria nine years later.

Read the full story