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)

Is there anybody out there?

We cannot do another term of Nationals - we just cannot.

They have been here forever, the last one for 27 years ... somebody ... anybody Save Our Souls!

Here in the electorate of the Upper Hunter we are drowning in a landscape of coal and gas and now that the government has truncated our railway line, we cannot even get out.

We are stuck in the middle of ecocide and injustice, our very own 'Faustian bargain' arranged by democracy.

Save our Souls.

We cannot breathe, we cannot farm, we cannot get to the doctors', we cannot get to the beach, we cannot get educated, we cannot get trained ... why?

... because Mike Baird and the Liberal National coalition are locked in a death spiral as a result of dodgy deals arranged by dodgy developers and dodgy politicians.

Mike Baird has got it seriously wrong.



Starting with trains and at the risk of being repetitive, it is unseemly for a premier to try and avoid the provisions of the Transport Administration Act which expressly forbid the cutting of a railway line except by Act of Parliament.

The Upper Hunter electorate is not impressed by his attempt to vest ownership of the railway line to the Hunter Development Corporation for railway acquisition purposes and neither are we impressed by their partnership with General Property Trust under the auspices of the government owned Urban Growth NSW.

(Screen capture from NSW Railpage)


Wendy Wales from the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMSHEG) is appalled that yet another vital public asset is being removed from collective use.

"I want to know why the information that Mr Robert Hawes, apparently a member of the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund Board and the Hunter Development Corporation ... I want to know why that piece of information that he donated $60,000,000 to the government to assist with their 'deliberations on the future of the rail line,' ONLY appeared in the very last paragraph of the Newcastle Herald article 'City's future plotted by shadow government.'

"I want to know why this '$60,000,000 donation' mention hasn't been discussed more.

"I couldn't believe I was reading it correctly, you know $60 million donated to get rid of 2km of Newcastle rail so I raised the matter with George Souris.

"He told me via email that he had no knowledge of any of the assertions or content of this article and that he was sorry but he couldn't help me. He also went on to say that he'd had 'no engagement with ICAC on any Newcastle issue, but whatever it is, it ought to be given straight to ICAC,' whatever that means."

The article in question has since been removed from the Herald's site,



... however you can 'read all about it here!'

But back to Wendy's question, why did that $60,000,000 donation only get such a little snippet of reporting in the paper?

Why?

What is the back story there? Cui bono? Who benefited?

When you read the four documents that also featured in the 'now-removed-Newcastle-Herald' article,

1. Master Planning Group documents Friday 24 May 2013 — 10:00am

2. McCloy letter to Brad Hazzard Feb 2012

3. DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND INFRASTRUCTURE March 2012

4. Brad Hazzard response

... you get a very chummy little picture ... all parties seem very connected and red flags are going off.

Conflicts of interests anyone?

You're not saying anything, Mike, and here in the Upper Hunter, we all want to know.

Simmering away behind Upper Hunter's transport injustice, the mines keep digging for humanity ... and a big gold-star for global pollution.

Is there anybody out there? Coal is ruining my valley



Once famous for its wines, today we are more famous for our mines, and along with inversions & DIDOs (drive-in-drive-outs), 'Keep-Out' and 'For-Sale' signs dot our landscape.









Take a drive on the New England Highway beyond Maitland, and the landscape vandalism caused by coal mines is obvious.



But leave the highway to take a detour, and abandoned houses hint of another vandalism.





Author, grandmother and long time hunter resident before her move to the North Coast hinterland late last year, Sharyn Munro told me that the damage done to communities by runaway coal and the gas extraction industries is heartbreaking.

"Despite all the hype and all the promises that streets would be paved with gold, and progress for all, a very good example of the reality is what happened with the Peabody Wilpinjong mine over at Woolar just over the range from the Hunter Valley.

"They had 96 entries in the phone book when that mine started, and most of the people in the village were all for it but then in five years of that mine opening, there were only 12 entries in the phone book – that village became unliveable."



"We’ve lost so many villages here in the Hunter; Warkworth, Camberwell’s owned by the mines, brave little Bulga’s struggling to survive against illegal encroachments. We’ve got Jerry’s Plains fearing for its life from the Peabody mine and Denman is at great risk from the 4 mines proposed for its community."



"Yes the money is huge but you know, at what cost, at what cost?"



Sharyn Munro's view on coal-induced community vandalism is shared by John Krey, member of the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association.

"We’ve been fighting a proposal which is an open cut mine expansion which would see the centre of Bulga be unliveable because of noise and dust.

"This has a massive effect on people’s psyche, on people’s view of the future, their view of where they are currently, and an open cut mine actually moving in such that they can no longer live in this area and their family and already families are splitting up."



John Krey says the DIDO miners work their shifts and leave as soon as they’re done.

"They don’t add anything to the social fabric of the village … the whole social approach or the whole social cohesiveness of the village is gone, and they do not contribute. It’s not the miners’ fault because they’re here to make the big money – but that does destroy the village."

No-one can argue that Bulga has not been destroyed.

Despite the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association's earlier victory against Rio Tinto, 'government-lobbying' for 'Big Mine' has seen the massive mine expansion finally approved followed by the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) suggesting that the village of Bulga could be relocated.

This is classic community vandalism perpetuated by the lunacy of coal with only our community elders prepared to take up the baton of defence ... sigh



We should be screaming from the rooftops ...

WE ARE SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS

Meanwhile bubbling away over the Barrington Tops in the east of the Upper Hunter electorate is Gloucester, fighting for their future, fighting for our future.



Right now there has been a suspension of AGL's coal seam gas activities as a consequence of chemicals used in their drilling processes appearing in the water.

Despite fierce opposition to the drilling and desecration of people's lives, the fossil fuel group has dominated the area of the local council's management side making it difficult for the actually elected councillors to take a position.

Ken Johnson (OAM), a former Principal in the NSW Department of Education, currently part-time university lecturer and representative on various government working parties, and the president of the Gloucester Project, says Gloucester can either choose a fossil fuel economy or a food future economy, the latter of which has already attracted a lot of positive attention from many different agencies.

"At last year's Australian Regional Development Conference in Albury, I gave a presentation on socio-economic, sustainable, regional development, showing the relationship between Gloucester approaching climate change difficulties and potentially being one of the areas to be favoured by climate change.

"As a gateway to the North Coast, this whole region could become an important food bowl for Australia, but to date the concept has been thoroughly blocked by Gloucester's council management which refuses to give it proper consideration.

"The purpose of the Gloucester Project is to increase the significance of sacrificed zones in relation to agencies with responsiblitiy to prepare areas for anticipated difficulties from climate change.

"Gloucester council management are not prepared to consider the emerging pattern that agencies promoting the fracking process are likely to be liable for adverse community outcomes because they have responsibilities regarding land use and the people who live in there.

"The process of fracking has a greater impact than previous methods of gas extraction because 'fracking' the strata increases the amount of chemicals escaping into the environment. We are looking at clear evidence concerning migrating methane and migrating mining impurities having a dire impact on people and communities.

"Mothers and babies living in close proximity to CSG wells have an increase risk of significant health difficulties."



The outlook is grim for the Upper Hunter.

Yet despite the countless studies available concerning the impact of fracking on humans, animals and vegetation, pointing to a chain of evidence against coal seam gas extraction, the Liberal National Government is determined to continue with their policy of CSG business as usual if re-elected.

Ken Johnson feels it will not be long before all agencies from governments and industries will have to accept their responsibilities towards maternal and infant health because the evidence is already showing that inadequate advice leads to litigation.

"We need to look at today's playgrounds, and think about the little girls playing in them who will be Australia's future mothers, and remember that in reality those little girls are playing a deadly lottery that will see a proportion of them who live within 30km of a well suffer from significant health problems - we are potentially sacrificing children.

"It is an inescapable issue and government and industry are complicit in the creation of maternal and infant disability - the research is there."

Back in Scone and 30km to the west of me and my family, we have just found out that AJ Lucas has just bought a licence to frack for CSG in Bunnan.

(Screen capture: Jeremy Buckingham, NSW Greens MP)


When will this madness stop?

We know that the National Party candidate plans to carry on as per the will of the current NSW government which really means as per the will of Big Corpa; you know 'Big Gas' and 'Big Mine' and 'Big Developa.'

(Image: with permission from Knitting Nannas)


The Gloucester Knitting Nannas are right when they advise us all in the Upper Hunter electorate to the put the National candidate last, and basically vote for someone else, anyone else.

The National Party has not served our interests in the electorate, only their own, and they are not entitled to this seat.

The beautiful Hunter Valley and the Upper Hunter electorate are being systematically destroyed and no-one, nothing is safe.



We can no longer listen to National party policies heavily weighted towards Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas imaginings - our reality ought not to have to entail National Party representation - they have failed us.



"Dear mythological creature in whom I don't believe,
Please don't let the National Party win in my electorate."

(also cross posted to Freedom Cyclist blog)

Frackman: 'no Australian should miss this'

Paid for, downloaded ... and temporarily put on hold until I find a better internet connection! But watch it I will within the next 72 hours!

Why don't you do the same too ... either get to a cinema nearby (if you have one, lucky ducks) or find it, like I did, online.

CSG ... NO FRACKING WAY

#VOTEFORSOMEONEELSE

#putLNPlast

#putMIKEBAIRDlast

#putTHENATIONALSlast

#putMICHAELJOHNSENlast

(cross-posted to Freedom Cyclist Blog)

Oz police book Oz woman without Oz helmet on Oz bicycle

(Rose red highway patrol car, snow white bike, Scone)


Lights, camera, action!!!

Lights, camera, in-car tape recorder!!!

Lights, camera, siren!!!!

Very quiet sunny day in Scone today so what's a policeman to do?

"We did but see her cycling by ... BOOK her!"

And so the rather Australian saga of booking people using bicycles to buy raspberries and blueberries when they're not wearing helmets starts all over again.

I had actually waited for their car to go past before I crossed the road, and as they did it did half cross my mind that they might to a u-turn at the roundabout and come back for me.

However so engrossed was I in my 'Infinite Monkey Cage' podcast...



... I got quite a surprise when I realised the siren and lights coming up beside were ... well, for me!

So I hopped off my bike, took out my ear-phones, asked the policeman to wait a minute while I turned off Professor Brian Cox, and then tuned in for the 'Do you know it's against the law to ride a bicycle without a helmet?' spiel.

And so I proceeded to educate the young law enforcer why the law was flawed, and that the benefit claims of helmets and helmet law were dubious, and that scientists across the globe were in dispute on this matter and that therefore it had been highly irresponsible of our politicians to make helmet wearing compulsory on the flimsy advice they had received.

I delved into it a little further for him saying there were no laws to stop us overeating or overdrinking or oversmoking which was a good thing, and that people really ought to be able to run their own lives if they didn't cause harm to others.

I mentioned that I felt I was imperilled by the government and that self-defence was provided to me under section 418 of the NSW Crimes Act. I lost him here a little bit and he wanted to know if I was 'self-defending' myself from him, to which I replied a categorical no, that it was the government's daft law that had put me at risk, not him.

He asked me why I thought such a regulation had been put in place if not for a good sensible reason and I told him that it was the result of good marketing and hysterical doctors - he was very surprised by the 'hysterical doctors' bit.

I also mentioned that when I was booked in Adelaide last year the police ended up not proceeding with the prosecution of me to which he commented that they were probably too busy, to which I added 'doing real police work,' immediately seguing into why I though it was such a shame that regulation 256 wasted his time as well given that they clearly had better things to do than book a middle-aged lady on a bicycle cycling on her way home from the shops listening to a science show podcast.

I can't really remember what else we chatted about but by now he was well and truly leaning on the bonnet of his car whilst his partner-in-police-work, still sitting in the patrol car, was probably wondering what the hell we were talking about for so long.

Anyway with my licence in hand he got back in the car and goodness knows what came up after they punched all my details into the in-car computerised data-bank gizmo but it was clearly cause for much mirth.

Finally he reappeared with my penalty notice (and licence), and we bade our farewells and parted company with me saying as per usual:

'See you in court.'

(cross posted on Freedom Cyclist blog)