Shenhua Watermark Coal is WRONG WRONG WRONG

(YouTube clip: Our Land Our Water Our Future)


 Watch and weep ... and then write:

"Tell Shenhua not to bulldoze Liverpool Plains koalas!"

TO: 
Mr Michael Johnsen, MP (NSW State Parliament)

20 Bridge Street
MUSWELLBROOK NSW 2333

P (02) 6543 1065
F (02) 6543 1416
E upperhunter@parliament.nsw.gov.au

TO:
Mr Joel Fitzgibbon, MP (Federal Parliament)

3 Edward Street
CESSNOCK NSW 2325

P (02) 4991 1022
F (02) 4991 2322
E joel.fitzgibbon.MP@aph.gov.au

 ... for those of us in 'Upper Hunter' and 'Hunter.'

Now listen here, Tony, Naomi Changes Everything

(Powerful Image: Nature Vs Man By #MarioSanchezNevado, published on www.UpFade.com)

In Australia we lamely take instructions from a guy who believes that:

... Prison camps are for safety ...
... Coal is good for humanity ...

But Naomi has a different take, and every word she utters is just plain essential:

"Fossilised thinking is a threat to life earth ... when you're in a hole just stop digging ... no more new coalmines"

And in a nutshell if we don't start soon to act upon what she has to say we're fucked.

Her clarion call to arms is obligatory for those of us who believe in intergenerational equity, and it's just not an option anymore to turn our heads and pretend we don't see what's happening all around us.

"We simply cannot afford to allow trade to trump the planet" ...

Tony, Naomi is a true global leader, and she's not in the least bit dangerous ... now, you, on the other hand, are not good for humanity and are ...

... dangerous that is.

You, Tony, are positively #dangerous ... sigh

Open blogpost to Michael Johnsen MP member for Upper Hunter on behalf of Animals Australia

(Image: Animals Australia, the voice for animals)


Dear Michael,

If you and your colleagues pass the Biosecurity Bill 2015 into law you will be giving biosecurity officers greater powers to target 'animal-cruelty' investigators than the RSPCA has to protect animals.

Worse still, the maximum penalty under the Bill would be $1.1 million and a 3 year jail term dwarfing any penalties dealt out to those found guilty of serious animal cruelty.

The bill is utterly unconscionable, and how the parents and grandparents amongst you politicians can then face your children and grandchildren after committing such a deed (the passing of the Bill) remains an utter mystery to me. Or don't you plan to tell them about the factory pigs, and the factory hens, and the factory puppys, et al, suffering interminably?

This bill is a betrayal of democracy itself.

Kind regards,

Sue (no-relation-to-tony) Abbott
Scone NSW Australia

Business-as-usual must not carry on

(Film by Spencer Cathcart, YouTube)


Thought provoking and stirring - time to claw back everything from Big Corpa and our pathetic representatives who do Big C's bidding like the good little lobbyists that they are.

The Old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori

My first ANZAC Day in Australia was in 1983, the same year that Redgum's song was released. I was 23 and it was less than two years on from my father's death following the ditching of his RAF Jaguar into the Atlantic as a result of birdstrike. I had struggled with Remembrance Day, and I could see I was going to struggle with ANZAC Day.

As I remember that first ANZAC Day, it was a relatively sombre affair with little fanfare; basically an opportunity for ANZACs to catch up with each other, minus all the revolting hoopla that has become 'de rigeur' over the passing of the last three decades.

And now in 2015 ...

It's ... Party! Party! Party! ... no kidding today it's a straight out neat pop festival, and alarmingly, a significant number of the festival goers are blissfully unaware that Gallipoli was not a victory for Australia. It's a major 'event' now, with an event management team (vomit), and a programme entailing surf boat races, and cricket matches, and of course politicians tripping over themselves to be seen.

In effect the day is a perpetual celebration of military recruitment, a day of complete 'War-Washing.'

And the crassness of it all is accentuated this year because 2015 marks the centennary of the doomed ANZAC beach landing in Turkey.

Don't we see the message churned out by our ever-war-ready media, and gushy journos, and cynical leaders?:

Your country needs you boys and girls, there's money to be made here for Big Corpa.
Go forth and die for us, why don't you!

Wake up, Australia!

Nothing good comes out of war - NOTHING ...


And just as in 1983, our musicians today are still calling it for what it is; acknowledging the horrific ongoing-toll exacted on a nation, paying tribute to 'all the battle weary mothers' ... but ...

When will we ever learn?

(Cross-posted to Freedom Cyclist Blog)

Let the meme wars begin

Time to tell our politicians that we are not going to sit by and watch them destroy our one and only planet.

The Canadians are ramping up against their Big Corpa acolyte leader - let's do the same here.

How a new kind of politician might improve our lives

Dear Mike and Tony,

With the help of a few Tokyo city transport images to make this post a little eye-catching, I wish to share with you both that in my opinion neither of you are capable of leading us in either a state capacity (Mike) or a national capacity (Tony).


First, I wish to point out that Climate Change is no longer a matter for debate but one demanding urgent attention, and now more than ever we need leaders capable of meeting this crisis head on.

I am afraid your 'busines-as-usual-dig-baby-dig' approach is neither appropriate nor useful, and your pandering to fossil fuel industries renders you both redundant.


INFRASTRUCTURE and MINING are not requisites for successful government yet with you two we can only look forward to:

$$$ More mindless Road Building projects

$$$ More CSG, fracking and coal mines (cf. #myplace #HunterValley)

$$$ Less Public Transport (cf. #myplace #HunterValley #Newcastle)


... as well as

$$$ More multi-national tax avoidance

$$$ More GST

$$$ More TPPs


Whilst it seems to have slipped your attention, the tables have been turned and you now both play junior lobbyist roles for Big Corpa, not leadership ones.

Granting AGL the ability to flare volatile organic compounds within close proximity to homes and a dairy was always going to be madness as was approving a plan to mine the Breeza Plains ... are you kidding ... Australia's food bowl?


Seriously if we've got any chance of survival we need a new kind of politician who recognises that our lives and our planet are wild and need treasuring.

We need a new kind of politician who recognises the imperative to fight Climate Change and the need to reject those who fund its denial.

We need a new kind of politician who encourages 'public moderation' amongst Australians and who fosters municipal generosity; one who eschews the big end of town in order to give the other end of town that much touted 'fair go'.


Articulate and approachable, our new kind of politician will understand that favouring moneyed Big Corpa over the ordinary Australian is corrupt ...

... and our new kind of politician will declare war on the current system that has trapped us into ruining our country.

Oh yes, this new kind of politician will be prepared to listen to our murmurings, our rumblings.

Needless to mention we also need a politician who recognises Australian bicycle helmet law for the $$$ Sexist/Racist crap that it is (and perpetuates).

I'm sorry, boys ... but we just don't need you.

Please turn the lights out as you leave.

Kind regards,
Freedom Cyclist

(cross posted to Freedom Cyclist Blog)