The Australian Government has decided not to support a global ban on the trade of the northern variety of the bluefin tuna. Instead, the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has decided to support stronger trade control measures and fisheries management. Japan holds the line on whaling and they are also sending a signal that limits on bluefin tuna aren't up for debate either.

When the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration hearing convened to hear from Peta Duke on 12 March 2010, she did not attend in answer to the summons. She had written the notorious Media Plan proposing a sham public consultation process to earn favour with the electorate. Mr Madden, who had not been summoned, sat in the chair reserved for the witness – his former Ministerial adviser - and said that he would answer questions. This was a blatant attempt to take over the inquiry being carried out by Parliament into his office’s conduct. - Protectors of Public Lands (Victoria)

Decades overdue, but, nevertheless, welcome, the Greens are to introduce, into the Senate, a motion calling for the establishment of an independent National Inquiry into Australia's Population to 2050.

What you can do: contact your Senators (Qld, NSW, ACT, Vic, Tas, SA, WA, NT) and ask that they support this motion. Please let us know of any responses or lack of. Join, campaign and vote for, a party opposed to population growth. Put pro-growth parties last on your ballot form. See also: "Greens call for population inquiry" of 14 Mar 10 on ABC news Online, Greens' Senate media page, "Are the Greens a real alternative?" of 9 Mar 10, the Stable Population Party of Australia, the New Australia Party, Animal Justice Party.

Tasmania's forest industry has rejected a Greens plan to ban logging in high conservation value forests.  The Greens says 300 jobs would be lost but more than 700 created through the strategy.  Even job creation is not enough to move the die-hard destructive mentality.  Both Labor and Liberals support Gunns pulp mill and neither is proposing any new forest reserves.
Trees up to hundreds of years old cannot be replaced overnight, despite how "sustainable" the logging is supposed to be!

Original newsletter sent out by Julianne Bell from Protectors of Public Lands, reporting on the Hearing of the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration.

Population activists have been frequently accused of taking a simplistic approach to our environmental crisis. We are told that it is not just about human numbers, but how we choose to live. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. It is the environmental movement that is guilty of over-simplification. If they concede that population growth is a worthy concern, it is usually an afterthought, and typically framed as a global problem that afflicts distant continents. Their maniacal obsession with per capita consumption invites a countervailing stress on over-population.

The flawed case put by many animal rights advocates fails to acknowledge that we are still in nature and never left. We are merely cocooned in a complex anthroecology that started with microbes and dogs and ended up including a vast number of other species as well.

European Parliament made history when it voted overwhelmingly to ban trade in seal products. Over one and a quarter million seal pups have been clubbed or shot to death over the last four years during Canada's annual seal slaughter. Seals and their pups do not owe swelling human populations a living, and this atrocity is morally unsustainable and unethical.
(photos of harp seals from Wikipedia commons)

Hysteria in Victorian Parliament disrupts Hearing on Finance and Administration. Witness fails to appear, perhaps advised not to by Attorney General. Scandal surrounds the Victorian Department of Planning and the ability of Victorian Law to pursue the truth in Parliament. Report from several sources present at the events. Please submit your views to Parliament - see inside

In 1996, the incoming Howard Government, 'discovered' a massive budgetary black hole left by the outgoing Keating Government. They claimed to have no choice but to impose slash-and-burn budgets and asset fire sales. The excuse of the cupboard left bare or crippling debt, supposedly taking all choice out of the hands of incoming Governments, forms part of a tired and recurring pattern in Australian history. Recently, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has seized upon the debt created by the Rudd Government's incompetently managed 'stimulus program' as an excuse to resurrect his dream of privatising Medibank Private and wielding the budgetary axe. Is history about to repeat itself, yet again? (Note: This article encompasses and replaces a brief article by Sheila Newman of 7 May 09 in which about Cyrius01's video "Krazy Kevin Rudd Responds to the Global Financial Crisis" was embedded.)

Cumberland Plains Woodland has been listed as Critically Endangered Ecological Communities. It is believed that the basis for the Critically Endangered Listing was that CPW had been reduced in area by some 400 hectares. About 400 ha has been lost since CPW was first listed as endangered in 1997/98 and that amount lost has justified the next listing as critically endangered. Yet PM Howard gave Delfin permission to clear practically all the remaining 400 ha at the site in question. The Western Sydney Conservation Alliance is asking Garrett to reverse this terrible decision. Inside: Letter to Peter Garrett.

And the new message from the growth lobby is ..... "Yes, we hear your pain and we understand absolutely. No we don't intend to take any notice of your protests." Analysis of ex-ANZ bank economist, Saul Eslake's article, "Populate and Stagnate." in the Fairfax Press (The Age)

Environmentalists might expect Green MLC Greg Barber, to back another environmentalist, Kelvin Thomson, rather than supply quotes that could make him out unfairly to be racist. Wedge Politics we don't need from Mr Barber MLC who represents the Northern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne in the Legislative Council at State level, which Kelvin Thomson represents in the Lower House at the Federal level. What's going on? Are the Greens for real?

In a Parliamentary speech, Glen Elmes₁ warned how the vast discretionary powers, given to the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Stirling Hinchliffe (pictured), with his past history as a property development industry insider, would add to the consequences of SEQ's already shambolic urban planning and environmental management and runaway population growth.

Speech from Queensland State Parliamentary Hansard of Hansard of 12 Feb 10, linked to from Hansard page, See also: "SEQ Regional Plan a travesty against the people of South East Queensland" of 9 May 09 by Dr Jane O'Sullivan, "The downward spiral of hasty population growth" of 8 Mar 10 on Online Opinion by Dr Jane O'Sullivan.

Please attend public forums against population growth, featuring Kelvin Thomson, Mark O'Connor and others. Brisbane: 8:30AM - 12:30PM, Saturday 13 March, Sunshine Coast: 2:00PM-4:30PM, Sunday 14 March.(See article "Sunshine Coast environmentalists condemn sham population debate" for more details.)

Religion comes in many guises. Orthodox or established belief systems have no monopoly in delusional thinking. In fact, it is my contention that such thinking is central to our makeup, and that efforts to eradicate it, however well merited, are futile. That is why we are doomed. We need comfort as well as truth, and are programmed to ignore or deny long-term threats. Delusional thinking gets us through the night, but it will not get us through this century.

According to the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, the so called "Great Growth Debate" hosted by the Property Council of Australia in Brisbane on Friday 5 March 2010 was rigged in advanced to come out in favour the the continuation of "Business as Usual" rampant population growth that so suited its own members' interests at the expense of the broader community and our environment. (Originally published on 4 Mar 10 on scec.org.au.)

Please attend public forums against population growth, featuring Kelvin Thomson, Mark O'Connor and others. Brisbane: 8:30AM - 12:30PM, Saturday 13 March, Sunshine Coast: 2:00PM-4:30PM, Sunday 14 March.(See article for more details.)

See inside for the AJP's new charter. One of the clauses is "A population settlement and land use system that is truly sustainable for all its inhabitants and ecosystems." I know that the AJP has requested a paper on this subject. Animal activists tendn to be very aware of the impact of human population and activities on habitat and rights of other species. To join the Animal Justice Party, click here.

“ In sisterhood is our strength” Monday March 8 is International Women's Day. The Rye Women's House at 3 Lyons Street, Rye, Victoria, Phone 59 855 955, on the Mornington Peninsula will be celebrating its silver anniversary. It is perhaps the oldest independent feminist institution of its kind in Victoria and it does an awesome International Women's Day. Please come along and experience the intellects, the humour, the politics, the music, the food... They mean what they say when they say, "The microphone is open to all women all day".

EEG trial update. The Brown Mountain landmark trial has begun.

According to software engineer Arved von Brasch the danger posed by Senator Steven Conroy's Mandatory Internet Filtering is that it will confer upon the Federal Government the capacity to censor internet content it considers a threat, in exactly the same way that the Chinese Government now uses the same technology that Conroy proposes to introduce to censor views of its critics. Arved von Brasch also shows there are overwhelming reasons to reject the legislation on technical grounds alone.

Originally published as "The consequences of filtering", with discussion forum, on 4 Mar 10 Online Opinion. Republished under the terms of the Creative Commons License. See also: Internet censorship, Citizens Initiated Referenda and the Greens - an open letter of 23 Dec 09.
Includes Appendix: Why won't Greens move motion to put filtering to a referendum?

Has the nature of politics changed over the last few decades into a struggle of the people against the government? How much of our leisure time is now related to environmental struggles, signified by volunteer-manned stalls displaying educational material? Why do local and state government logos now figure in our community events? How much of our leisure-time and our attention has been taken over by ubiquitous commercialised, organised activities for children and adults? No answers in this article , just observations and questions... on a community event, somewhere, which could almost have been anywhere in Australia.

The Bligh Government has arrogantly proceeded with its privatisation plans despite over 80% of Queenslanders opposing the decision.

What you can do: Attend the protest at Brisbane's Roma Street Forum at 10:30AM on Tues 9 March.

See also: the Queensland Council of Union's "Queensland Not for Sale" campaign site, saveourpublicassets.org, "Labor wrecker of 2007 claims union anti-privatisation campaign a threat to re-election of federal Labor" of 28 Feb 10.

The Keneally Government of NSW has just announced that it will protect 107,000 hectares of Riverina redgums and set up an $80 million support package with logging to be wound down over the next five years.

But after five years the loggers would have done their redgum raping and pillaging, so seriously how much viable forest habitat would be left worth protecting?

Premier Keneally in following others advice has ignored the NSW Government's own community consultative process of the Natural Resources Commission and chosen to ignore the Commission's 16 recommendations. She's no different!

In the last three months of 2009 a discussion on Larvatus Prodeo, about the controversy surrounding 9/11, turned into the online equivalent of a lynching. On 28 December at the point at which the intended victim (myself) was able to turn the tables on his tormentors, the moderators abruptly closed the disccussion. I have been barred from contributing to that site ever since, as if I had been blamed for the abuses of others.

Originally published on 29 Dec 09. Updated 2 Mar 10 to include as appendices, excerpts from the forum discusion and correspondence between myself and the LP moderators. Original forum here (html file, 5.6Mb).
Update (3 Mar): Larvatus Prodeo moderator tells me she is "comfortable with how [she's] represented," but I am still waiting to be advised if I have been intentionally banned and why. See Appendix 3.

Sir Henry Parkes' vision for a federation of Australia over a hundred years ago to unite six separate British self-governing colonies to secede from the British Empire into an independent federation of the British Commonwealth was a logical first step for our new Australia back then.

But Australia has changed significantly over a hundred odd years. Failings of our current constitutional monarchy ruled by three tiers of government, with democracy undermined by unaccountable government between four year term elections, necessitates Australian constitutional reform and for discussion to commence amongst Australians.

Several communities of koalas in the Mumbulla and Murrah State Forests on the NSW South Coast near Bermagui are at risk of regional extinction due to plans by Forestry NSW to commence logging their forest habitat on Monday 1st March 2010.

Originally published 27 Feb 10, Updated 1 Mar 10 with Media Release of 27 Feb 10 from the Conservation Council ACT Region.