It’s Time The Territories Got State Rights – An Issue For The Gay And Lesbian Community?
The Rudd government is set to follow – again - in the footsteps of John Howard’s ultra conservative government. Rudd and his administration are considering, we are told, overturning the recent legalization in the ACT of same gender marriages and rights.
The moral zealots are working overtime in Canberra pushing to see the gay and lesbian same sex union laws buried yet again.
This couldn’t happen if the ACT had the same standing as the Australian States – the responsibility and right to make binding laws on behalf of its citizens. The ACT and the Northern Territory risk a Federal veto on any legislation a majority of parliamentarians may pass. It’s way past time the territories were given the same constitutional standing State governments – and voters – expect and enjoy.
This disparity between territories and states means those living in the ACT and NT do not participate in or receive the same democratic freedoms the rest of Australia takes for granted. This must change. It will take a referendum to do it too. Surely this is a referendum that would command a majority of votes in a majority of states, one Australia would pass. The people in the territories are Australians too, after all.
Gay And Lesbian Rights
Naturally it follows, once the territories are given the same respect – and recognition and autonomy – as the states, we will see laws such as for gay and lesbian marriages in the ACT proclaimed, out of the hands of the moralising minority that somehow manage to populate the federal parliament.
We’d see it taken out of the hands of the conservative crusaders who claim to be christians (none of this newfangled compassion nonsense) shuffling around the corridors of parliament pushing one eyed, “our size fits all”, depraved, dishonest and dissolute doctrines.
I suggest to the gay and lesbian rights movement that to achieve their goals, autonomy for the territories would be the vehicle they need to accelerate their freedoms. This is common ground for their community and the heterosexual majority
This is a broader set of rights. At the end of the day, we all win.
Scott Kane
ETS Lynchin? Better Ask Minchin!
The temperature is rising across Australia this week.
The barometer and the thermometer are peaking out to red. The forecast – FAIL.
Suburban Melbourne faces the first SEVERE fire weather warning on Thursday under the new system. We follow the Weather Bureau’s predictions with our hearts in our mouths.
From Canberra, the news is even more serious.
EPIC FAIL!
- The Australian Greens are campaigning on Climate Change in the Higgins by-election while steadfastly refusing to negotiate with the Federal government in or out of the Senate chamber.
Five (5) Australian Greens Senators in the Senate. Five!
Negotiation? Discussion? Nil, Nix, Nada, Zero, Zilch.
What a waste of activist energy and tax payers money The Greens experiment is proving to be!
EPIC FAIL!
- The federal Labor government knows if they don’t get the Liberal/National Coalition on side their ETS bill will earn a “Catastrophic” forecast too. The ETS faces the same future as PM Rudd’s Grocery Watch scheme. Will we once again have politicians hiding behind “core” and “non core” election promises – as famously coined by John Howard? “Not happy Jan!”
EPIC FAIL!
- The Liberal/National Coalition, currently undergoing the worst ignominy a conservative political party can endure – opposition – are lurking in dark party corners with razor sharp knives for the ritual Seppuku of their leader Malcolm Turnbull.
EPIC FAIL!
- The Coalition opposition are flipping and flopping with contradictory statements of victory in respect of negotiating amendments to the ETS while simultaneously trying to torpedo it.
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has reportedly said:
He’s kidding right? Has Heffernan a future career as a stand up comic at the Melbourne Comedy Festival? He must, because on the same day Senator Nick Minchin states:
A “whole range of other coalition amendments”? Reads like “Our way or the highway” to me. This is not a process of negotiation – it is politcal castration being performed by an absurd and out-to-lunch far left (The Australian Greens) and a medley of Climate Change deniers within the Liberal/National Coalition.
EPIC FAIL!
- The Labor government’s Senator Wong meanwhile takes the fine art of saying nothing while implying new heights, when asked if the Federal government would be “willing to dump other sectors from the ETS to appease the coalition.”
Is that a yes, a maybe or are you just being contrite Senator?
EPIC FAIL!
And it’s not even Summer yet.
Scott Kane
Media Release – Exempt Left-Handed From Climate Change
Today’s announcement by Climate Change minister Penny Wong excluding the agricultural sector from the costs of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme under proposed new compromise legislation is ridiculous and mistaken, say the Australian Democrats, and opens the door wider to further lobbying and rent-seeking by major polluters.
“If minister Wong is willing to destroy the effectiveness and universal consequence of the CPRS with this attempt to buy the support of the conservatives, I would advocate also exempting left-handed people,” the Australian Democrats candidate for the Higgins by-election David Collyer said. “After all, they only produce one twentieth of our pollution, are very nice people and are equally deserving of assistance.
“This proposal is no sillier that minister Wong’s nonsense.
Recent scientific studies suggest farm animals, notably ruminants, are major contributors to climate change through the emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with significantly larger impacts than carbon dioxide.
“These studies need to be repeated, refined and enlarged, but without an environmental ‘all clear’, exempting agriculture from the CPRS is a grave error and probably irreversible.
“Many members of the Liberal/National Coalition are Climate Change skeptics, who do not believe in anthropogenic climate change and are unmoved by the now-extensive scientific literature.
“Minister Wong is desperately trying to placate the implacable. The Opposition are laughing behind their hands at her weakness and impotence.
“Australia’s farmers are now well into their second decade of drought. They know change is needed. And while shifting adjustment costs to others is an old political game, accurately targeting the source of emissions for actions to change behavior is in the interest of all.
Exempting any polluter – let alone an entire sector – means the cost of adjustment must fall more heavily on the rest. The Garnaut Report gave this matter great emphasis and sternly warned against permitting ‘business as usual’ anywhere.
“If minister Wong is so willing to riddle this crucial legislation with exemptions and concessions, then by her measure the left-handed are entitled to a free ride too,” Collyer concluded.
Media contact – David Collyer 0413 248 193
“David Collyer is currently contesting the Higgins by election for the Australian Democrats against Clive Hamilton for The Greens and Kelly O’Dwyer for the Liberal Party,”
DEMOCRATS NOMINATE COLLYER FOR HIGGINS
AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS
MEDIA FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30 2009
DAVID COLLYER
HIGGINS BY-ELECTION CANDIDATE
DEMOCRATS NOMINATE COLLYER FOR HIGGINS
MELBOURNE:- The Australian Democrats have preselected David Collyer to contest the Higgins by-election on December 5 caused by the resignation of Peter Costello.
“We are the voice of middle Australia, the party of moderation and progress,” Collyer said at the announcement.
“I see great dissatisfaction and a sense of alienation among voters over the management of the nation’s affairs. The two party system denies oxygen to all, except for the insistent selfish demands of the labor movement and of the conservatives. Too many people have abandoned hope and retreated into sullen despair, as though nothing can be done.
“I say, voting for the Democrats is the surest way to stop Labor and the conservative coalition preferring sectional interests over the greater public good.
“The federal parliament is grappling with many difficult issues; climate change, water, immigration, a fragile economy, infrastructure and energy. Meanwhile, education, the ageing population and our defence needs simply aren’t being addressed.
“By-elections are notorious for producing unusual results where grumpy voters – who will be called out to vote again within months, if the pundits are to be believed – try to communicate their dissatisfaction to Canberra.
“The Democrats in parliament have always sought to improve legislation with our line-by-line review of key bills, willingness to negotiate and strategic voting – in the interests of all Australians. If elected, I will faithfully continue this essential work,” he concluded.
David Collyer was previously senior adviser to then-senator and party leader Lyn Allison. Earlier, he held key public affairs roles at the Metropolitan Ambulance Service and at Kodak Australasia. He is a graduate of Melbourne’s film and television school, then at Swinburne and now at the VCA. He is the father of two and lives in Kew East. He publishes on the Victorian Democrats’ blog at dinkumdemocrats.com
Media contact – David Collyer 0413 248 193
The Forgotten Nightmare: Nuclear Winter, Global Cooling and Universal Radioactive Fallout. More fingers on more genocide-buttons
While global warming dominates the headlines a more urgent danger threatens life on earth. Global warming could make the planet uninhabitable by the end of the century. Global cooling – the “Nuclear Winter” that would follow nuclear war – could achieve the same result in days or weeks.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union a disturbing complacency has set in. It is as if the threat imposed on us all by the hair-trigger readiness of thousands of intercontinental nuclear-armed missiles no longer exists. Perhaps this is understandable with the political and media discussion of the issue focussed almost entirely on the potential danger posed by non-state terrorism and so-called “rogue” states.
The selective finger pointing, fear mongering and drum beating only serves to distract attention from the chilling reality: the US and Russia still possess 97% of the world’s nuclear weapons and neither has any genuine commitment to nuclear disarmament. It is they and the other 7 established nuclear weapon states that pose the greatest threat to humanity and all other species on the planet.
If even a tiny fraction of the world’s nuclear arsenal were unleashed catastrophic climate change would follow. For example, a “small” nuclear war employing 100 bombs of the size that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki would pour millions of tons of smoke into the stratosphere. The smoke would come from the raging firestorms consuming cities, industries, neighbourhoods and people. As the smoke spread around the globe it would reduce the sunlight and destroy much of the protective ozone layer. Temperatures would drop and food production would plunge due to shortened growing seasons. Hundreds of millions of people, possibly a billion, would starve to death. [1] Think of Hiroshima. Imagine 100 times Hiroshima. (3) And this can quite accurately be described as a “small” conflict because it would be equivalent to less than half of 1% of the explosive power of US and Russian high-alert nuclear weapons. [2] That figure bears repeating: less than half of 1%.
A large conflict involving all of the Russian and US high-alert nuclear weapons would pour 50 million tons of smoke into the stratosphere, blocking the sunlight and dropping global temperatures by 4°C. [1] Think of Hiroshima. Imagine 79,000 times Hiroshima. (4)
Now consider a war involving the entire world operational nuclear arsenal. Think of Hiroshima. Imagine 177,000 times Hiroshima. (5) 150 million tons of smoke would rise into the stratosphere enveloping the planet, absorbing the sunlight, reducing global temperatures by 8°C; creating another Ice Age.
Climate change from global cooling would occur not in decades or years but in weeks or days. Survivors would have no time to adapt. [1] Until they died off from the lethal radioactive fallout they would be left with razed cities, destroyed infrastructure, horrific injuries, birth deformations, cancers, disease epidemics and mass starvation. Perhaps the tens of millions or hundreds of millions instantly vapourised or incinerated would be the lucky ones.
The potential for a catastrophic mistake is enormous, particularly in the case of a suspected submarine launched attack. Russian and US “Launch on Warning” systems” would give their presidents only 2 to 3 minutes to decide whether or not to retaliate. [6] Typical warheads have 20 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb. Typical nuclear missiles carry 8 or more of these independently programmed to destroy multiple targets. Think of Hiroshima. Imagine 160 times Hiroshima – from one missile.
With this spectre hovering over humanity it is difficult to understand how anyone, least of all an environmental luminary like James Lovelock, could advocate nuclear power as a solution to global warming. [7] This solution sidesteps the health, environmental and security dangers associated with building and operating at least a thousand nuclear reactors; the increased environmental and security risks associated with mining, transportation, processing and storage of vastly increased quantities of uranium and deadly radioactive waste; and the fact that high grade, low cost uranium deposits consumed even at the present rate will be exhausted in fifty years. [8]
More importantly, it overlooks the enormous danger posed by more leaders of more nuclear weapons states (that would inevitably emerge) with their fingers on more doomsday buttons. While there are nuclear reactors, there will be nuclear weapons. While “peace-loving” countries like Australia mine and export uranium they are complicit in keeping the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation.
Here in Australia, advocates of uranium mining and export claim that this gives us a more credible voice in the world arena than we would otherwise have. They say our position as the largest source of uranium and the second largest exporter after Canada makes us more effective in preventing nuclear proliferation than we would otherwise be. In other words, by selling the stuff from which nuclear weapons are made, we are helping to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
This absurd reasoning extends to the so-called “safeguard” agreements – essentially book-keeping entries – that supposedly track every morsel of “Australian Obligated” uranium during its travels around the world, including its reprocessing and on-selling. We can rest assured that Australian uranium won’t be used to make nuclear weapons – or free up other uranium for that purpose – because we say it can’t and the buyer nations say it won’t.
History tells a different story. Of about 60 countries that have nuclear power or research reactors more than 20 have used their “peaceful” facilities for covert nuclear weapons research or production or both. India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa and North Korea have all developed nuclear weapons under cover of “peaceful” nuclear programs. Other countries have made considerable progress before ending their programs. (South Africa is the only state to eliminate its nuclear weapons.) [8]
Egypt, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Romania, South Korea, Taiwan, and the former Yugoslavia, all signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), have violated their agreements by conducting forbidden weapons-related activities or not meeting their reporting requirements to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). [8]
North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty; India, Pakistan and Israel were never members. The “declared” nuclear weapons states – the US, Russia, the UK, France and China – have all violated their NTP obligations and shown by their actions that they have no intention of abandoning their nuclear superiority. [8]
The belligerence and blatant double standards demonstrated by the “big five,” who also hold the five permanent seats and veto power on the UN Security Council, provides motivation and “justification” for other states – some repeatedly threatened with attack, including nuclear attack (“all options are on the table”) – to develop a nuclear “deterrent” of their own. “Peaceful” nuclear programs are the obvious way for them to develop the necessary expertise and facilities and to acquire the technology and essential raw material: uranium.
Five years ago Australia’s uranium exports had already produced about 80 tonnes of plutonium – enough for 8,000 nuclear bombs. The Beverly Four Mile mine in South Australia recently approved by the current government has the capacity to produce enough plutonium for 4,500 more. [9]
It seems the straight-faced hypocrisy of successive Australian governments is boundless: joining in the vilification of the latest designated nuclear “rogue” states, worrying over nuclear terrorism and mouthing non-proliferation platitudes on the one hand while allowing exports of the raw material for nuclear proliferation on the other. If Australia were sincere it would leave its uranium in the ground.
In December, representatives from about 170 countries will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. Hopefully, amidst the media circus and political theatre they will commit to the carbon emission reductions necessary to prevent catastrophic global warming.
Hopefully, too, the world will awake from its nuclear slumber in time to prevent the other climate change nightmare: global cooling.
[1] http://www.nucleardarkness.org/index2.php
[2] http://www.nucleardarkness.org/globalnucleararsenal/usrussianhighalert/
(3) Hiroshima yield 15,000 tons x 100 = 1.5 million tons
(4) [2] Yield 960 million tons/15,000 tons
(5) [2] yield 2,225 million tons/15,000 tons
[6] http://www.nucleardarkness.org/highalert/launchonwarning/
[7] http://www.jameslovelock.org/page11.html
[8] Climate Change: Nukes No Solution
http://www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/nfc/nuclear-climate/
[9] Arena Magazine, August/September 2009
Robin Davis lives in Victoria, Australia. He is a freelance writer and graphic designer. He can be contacted at: robindavis@hotkey.net.au
The Model Is Barely There – Disgraceful And Debasing Portrayal Of Women.
The fashion industry, notably the Ralph Lauren company, is out of control.
For years now society has demonstrated it does not find the ultra thin bodies preferred by the fashion world attractive. Authoritative research has proved these thin models we are all familiar with have a destructive psychological impact on women, particularly young women and teens, and can lead to psychological disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
The data has been collated, analysed, charted and presented. The verdict of public opinion is well and truly in.
What is Ralph Lauren’s response? To release a clearly Photoshopped image of a model whose head is larger than her pelvis. (If you click on the image you can zoom in)
Arguably both of the images, side by side, have been Photoshopped. But look closely at the one on the left. Her skin is a superfluous accessory. This lady, through image manipulation, has been rendered skeletal. Not that she was in any way large or even average to begin with. One female model – again a mere slip in stature and weight – Ms Hamilton, said Ralph Lauren did not renew her contract because she was “too large.”
This is a disgrace. Business has a responsibility to not only sell its wares, but to also operate within what is socially and culturally acceptable. This cynically modified image is neither. To display a full grown woman – after tricking it to proportions no woman could stay alive with – purely to create an ideal based on the “desirable body shape” of somebody with a lot of problems (Ralph Lauren?), is bizarre, socially unacceptable and sick.
I usually hesitate long and hard before advocating government regulation of business. But living people must come first. My own daughters are exposed to this moral deception – every hour of every day. Your daughters, girlfriends, wives and mothers are dismissed and denigrated by an industry that has no respect for the health of the people they are selling stuff to. It is no better than the tobacco companies selling poison and death by the packet.
Ultimately, we pay for the mental anguish and health care costs of our loved ones that are caused by the deliberate excesses of companies whose moral and cultural compass has been sent to orbit Pluto.
It must change. Legislation if necessary. Clearly, they are not going to yield on their own.
But then I wonder “Why portray women like this? What happened to you people as children?”
The rights of women as individuals have come a long way. But this kind of imagery demonstrates how much further there is to travel.
What can we say, except maybe: “ET go home!”
A remarkable similarity.
.
Scott Kane
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