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?

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.

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

NEWSFLASH! Environment East Gippsland v Loggers. Court case begins tomorrow (March 1, 2010) between Environment East Gippsland for Brown Mountain against the Government and logging interests. All welcome. This is a very important test of our environmental and democratic laws. In the preliminary hearings Judge Forrest did not make going ahead with the case dependent on EEG providing a financial bond for costs to the logging interests if EEG lost the case. This public interest decision on his part has made this case possible. The requirement of such a bond was what stopped Blue Wedges from going ahead to represent the public and try to stop the dredging of Port Philip Bay.

This is about another new party with a small population policy and more. The key objectives of NewAustralia are to: Swap 'Bad' taxes for 'Good' taxes - a major shift to eco-taxation; Stop population growth; Shift spending from road to rail; Shift spending from defence to education while improving Australia's self-defence capability; Increase housing affordability; Shift spending from private health to public health; Reduce the current account deficit. There is a forum to discuss and help form the policies which are not all set in concrete. You do not have to join to participate in the forum. You can just register as a supporter. Membership is free, but candidates will have to finance their own campaigns. I urge people to interact and support all new parties in the short term because without political diversity nothing will change. Go here to join free.

A new political party is being formed to help stabilise Australia’s population at around 23 million through until 2050. This is in contrast to current projections of at least 36 million. Australia’s high population growth rate leads to a doubling of our population every 30-35 years, and causes or exacerbates many of our major economic, environmental and social problems. Download membership application form (PDF, 418K).

To contact SPPA: www.populationparty.com, stablepopulation[AT]live.com.au,

Form may be downloaded from here.

We do need an Animal Justice Party NOW! Our kangaroos are dying of fluoride poisoning apparently from dust levels from a brick factory at Craigieburn and the Alcoa aluminium smelting plant near Portland. DSE was informed of the problem in 2008 and the EPA was told in 2005, but signs of fluoride-related symptoms in kangaroos were noted as early as 2001. DSE's wildlife statistics are unreliable and the EPA is known as a toothless tiger, but how many of us would have thought there was enough fluoride dust out there to kill herds of kangaroos? And where does that put humans, especially children?

At the Sustainable Living Festival, Greg Hunt says he will work 'in a bipartisan way' with Kelvin Thomson on population numbers. Kelvin Thomson advises, "Say 'no' to new suburbs and 'no' to new high rise and infill."

"Save our Bush" Rally
Wednesday 24 February from 12-2pm
on Parliament House steps

How about this! There is a new political party in Australia, just for the animals and people who care about their rights and want them to have happy lives and their own space!

In this article: Kelvin Thomson talks about Global Population Speak-out, full employment and asks why the economists are not concerned about rising prices for food and power due to Australia's overpopulation, whilst expressing great concern about the cost of supporting an 'aging population'. Amazing to find that there is a sane and compassionate voice in Federal Parliament, Australia. Kelvin's You-tube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/KelvinThomsonMP

World-famous physics professor, Al Bartlett, takes Australia's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong's figures apart on climate change emissions and population numbers, showing that Ms Wong is wrong. "To accommodate the projected population growth AND to reduce overall annual emissions by 60% would require an annual rate of decrease of per capita emissions of polluting greenhouse gases of 3.543 percent per year over the next forty years. The per capita annual emissions would have to be cut in half every 19.6 years!" Bartlett also says that at its present rate of growth, Australia’s population will double by 2050."

Wednesday 24 February from 12-2pm
on Parliament House steps, Melbourne

This is a supplement to a comment about population growth and consumption in Europe. The comment suggested that Europe was decreasing its consumption whilst growing its population. Graphs comparing per capita and National petroleum consumption in Australia and France, also showing population numbers and rate of growth.

The sector in Australia that has the most costly dependency ratio must be the property sector, since it costs all Australians an enormous and unreasonable amount just to cover the cost of land for housing, business and agriculture. Most of the very high costs involved are completely unnecessary, except in the eyes of greedy developers and their hangers-on. The only reason that the costs are so high is that the industry wants it that way and our state and federal governments are in cahoots with it.

2nd FEB 2010: Victorian State Election meeting held by Kew Cottages with Rod Quantok, MC and featuring a number of Members of Parliament
Topics for discussion: * How has the State of Victoria managed to loose $17 million building and selling 55 houses in Kew ? * What will each of our local MP's do about protecting all of the remaining Kew Cottages Public Land if re-elected ? * Do our MP's support the Kew Coalition's Alternative Plan ? * How can the community help ?
[An article on the current sell off of the Kew Cottages site and its background may be found on this site entitled 'Victorian Madness with Kew Cottages']

Wake up Australia...Be Fair !
Camels are our models here
They drink but once a week

Click image for film. This is a short film that all politicians and economists and most religious people should see. It is about economics and exponential growth. It is funny and really short.

Someone else who isn't impressed by the Australian and state governments' statistics and treatment of wildlife. 6000 signatures already on the petition!
See alsoDamning Auditor General Reports on Fauna protection in Australia
(Photo by Brett Clifton)

[Video inside article] The recent Auditor General's Report on the incompetence of the Victorian Government's wildlife statistics collection and maintenance mean that the Victorian government could not logically have the authority to make decisions about sustainable forestry where local fauna habitat is affected, in the opinion of this candobetter.org writer and environmental sociologist. It seems to me that Environment East Gippsland has clearly won its case in advance. But we have to get the information out there so that it cannot be ignored. See also: Damning Auditor General Report on Fauna protection for Victoria

National President of SPA, Sandra Kanck, says “If we pause on Australia Day to reflect on our identity, our thoughts should turn to reforming the anthem. It is an absolute nonsense to say that this continent has boundless plains to share, as is claimed in the second verse of the anthem."

"Hi mum and dad - I won't be around when they announce my award on January 26th. I am with Sean Penn, Diana jenkins, Oscar and 15 doctors embedded in the 82 Airborne ( USA) Dante would describe it as hell here. There is no food and water and hundreds dying daily. The aid is all bottlenecked and not reaching here . The other day i assisted with amputation (holding them down) while they used a saw to cut a young boys leg off with no pain killers. " Written by Australia Day Honours List member, Alison Thompson, to her parents in Sutherland Shire (Sydney, on 24 January 2010.

Report from HAITI UN base, relayed by The Real News warns the world to monitor US activity in Haiti because of the US history of 'disaster capitalism' and previous damaging interference in Haiti's politics and economy. Report says that there are hospitals that were not damaged which are not receiving help.

A French writer, Louis Préfontaine, talks about the roles of the United States, Canada and France in propping up dictatorships, and of the United State's particular role in divesting Haitians of land and public institutions. See also "The U.S. Role in Haiti’s Food Riots: 30 Years Ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It Needed. What Happened?"

A blogsite called "Catholic Dialogue" sounds so extreme in its condemnation of feminism, contraception and women's choice that you wonder if it's actually a joke. The blogsite warns people not to donate to Caritas Haiti because they support condoms, the celebration of Women's International Day and present a 'negative image of the Catholic Church'!

Please DO therefore consider donating to Caritas Haiti. And thanks, Catholic Dialogue, for telling us about them. They have survived the earthquake. Personally I think they are improving the image of Catholicism.

Labor Holdings, Labor Resources, Labor Inc, Rudd, Swann and the States: Is the Australian government and are the Australian state governments acting in our best interests or someone else's? Indeed, can they still be called 'governments' or are they becoming something else, to which citizens owe no allegiance?

See also: other articles about Labor Holdings

How the tragic situation of Haiti's overpopulation and poverty came about? There were not always 9m hungry people there. When this once rich and beautiful island was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, it was inhabited by a population of about 100,000 Amerindians, living in a steady state economy. The Amerindians refused to mine gold for the Spanish, so the Spanish imported many thousands of slaves from Africa. The French took the whole island over in 1697 and it remained their most lucrative possession until 1825, despite the inhabitants claiming independence and freedom from slavery under the French Revolution of 1789. At that time there were few Amerindians but about 400,000 African slaves and 100,000 colonists. Added on 17 Jan 2010. Slavery is ongoing in Haiti.

After publishing articles about reports by auditor generals in Tasmania, Victoria and West Australia, on the state of threatened species protection, I sent emails to the Auditor Generals in the ACT, the NT, NSW and South Australia.
Today I received this email from the Auditor General's office in the ACT. This response tells us that no audit has yet been done in the ACT. To me this is an indicator that the ACT statistics are probably in the same poor order as those in other states. I am grateful to the ACT Auditor General for their prompt response. The ACT State of the Environment Report referred to seemed unhelpful regarding reliability of statistics in the mean time.