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)

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

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?"

In the March 2009 Queensland elections, called early and conveniently before the Auditor General's damning reports on Health and Transport, Labor clung to power by concealing the likely privatisation of publicly owned assets and promising to maintain the state fuel subsidy. Regaining office, the fuel subsidy went, charges for registration and public transport rocketed and a $15 billion public asset fire sale was announced - although opposed by 79% of the Queensland public.

This is not democracy. This is not honest. It is not even polite. Help create a ground-swell by signing the e-petition calling for a new election. Not sure? Read why in this article.

Originally published: 8 Jan 10. Updated and revised: 12 Jan 10.
See also: "Anti-privatisation candidate confronts Queensland Treasurer" of 2 Jan 09, Open letter to Anna Bligh and Andrew Fraser asking that any planned privatisations be put to the public at forthcoming elections of 17 Feb 09.

Please sign and email the document inside, which calls for Victorian political parties to stop accepting donations from developers. Then send back to Planning Backlash, which will forward them to the Government and the media. Many have just typed their Group name at the and some have added their name as well. Whatever you do is fine. "John-Paul Langbroek and why the Liberal National Party won't survive unless Labor Governments reform"

The Queensland Liberal National Party leader, John-Paul Langbroek tried to restore some democracy in Queensland last week. Perhaps it is because his party can see that if democracy is not restored - by restraining the pursuit of the ALP's private financial power through government - no other political party may ever have a chance to govern again, simply because the ALP has become so rich and its power so far-reaching, and arguably it is less a government than a commercial corporation. Langbroek's reforming initiatives have taken two forms: 1. to call for a referendum into privatisation and 2. to submit a bill to make inquiries into corrupt systems and specific activities in Queensland. Predictably this bill was killed by the ALP on the 2nd reading.
See also"Anti-privatisation e-petition calls on Queensland government to resign"

Real estate speculation occurs on previously unknown levels via the global Internet, with rapid convergence and mushrooming of of speculative industries and professions across government and private sector. At Federal level, the National Foreign Investment Review Board (NFIRB) promotes foreign investment in local real estate and encourages housing purchases by temporary immigrants for high turnover. Local realtors tout Australian property internationally, using private migration agents and local solicitors. At State level (where land use planning laws are made), organizations like the Property Council of Australia (PCA) are closely involved with determining government policy. The Australian citizen has less and less say in any of this.

Michael Hocking of "Axe the Tax" writes "Brumby’s Labor Government is stealing our homes. If this tax doesn’t affect you yet, you need to ask 'What if they decide to do a similar thing to the homes in my area?'" The growth areas tax is to be imposed on land rezoned from rural to urban by a stroke of the government pen. Rates and charges for water and power as well as land will skyrocket with the rezoning, driving out any decent person attempting to preserve bushland or produce food or live out retirement on a fixed income. Hocking describes how farmers will not be able to afford to sell, because of the tax, but, when they die, their children will have to pay the tax - $95,000 per ha -. In a divorce settlement, the same thing will apply. What next? A tax on the head of each child?

We publish and answer here pro-rally comments from "Jack," accusing "Greenies" of violence. Perhaps this is a classical case of "People in glass houses should not throw stones" - only who is in the glass house here? It is hard to deal with behaviour which has rightly been accused of causing threat to human life when you know that the situation which probably caused it left any protesters few if any legal or safe alternatives. Did Repco's and the NSW Government's actions place citizens in an untenable position by suspending environmental protection and democratic rights?

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, has declared a State of Emergency over water shortage there, but Australia's water shortage is far worse and has been more prolonged, yet our ecologically uneducated, incompetent and corrupt politicians sit on their hands as the Good Ship Australia heads faster and faster to run aground as a desert island.

See also: "Environmental group calls for declaration of State of Emergency to save dying Murray-Darling system" of 5 Sep 08, www.fairwateruse.com.au.

"We knew we were gone when the Judge said,
'Time's up, you’ve got one more issue you can raise.' We hadn’t even started. We had only just got past the argument where she dismissed both our ecologists’ reports." Before it has even been run, the REPCO car race has damaged local democracy with impacts far exceeding local boundaries. Environment and democracy, go hand in hand. Environmental destruction and corruption follow closely behind destruction of democracy through unbridled commerce. We think that all judges in the land should be concerned about this.

See also: Repco Rally route - the calm before the storm of 26 Aug 09, URGENT! Contact Peter Garrett re Injunction to stop Repco Rally of 29 Aug 09, Removing Environ laws results in violence"of Sep 5, 09.

This is what we are used to reading about Borneo and the Amazon. Now we can read it about Victoria. In fact, it is happening all over the world. Bad governments are simply going ahead doing awful things in a place near by. What makes you think your government is any different? Are you watching them? Are you helping to protect your forests?

On August 11 twelve Australians were on board a small cruise ship robbed by pirates on the Amazon River.
A very similar attack occured the week before on the same cruise ship, but they were unaware.

In a media release on behalf of the Queensland branch of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), branch secretary Peter Simpson questioned the Queensland's decision to pay as much as AU$200 million to two companies Merrill Lynch and the Royal Bank of Scotland, who recently went bankrupt, for advice on privatisation, for advice on its privatisation fire sale.

Also published on saveourpublicassets.org.

Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) admitted that only 4% of ships cannot enter or leave Port Phillip Bay fully loaded. (Supplementary EES statement process and the hearings, and Report on Channel Deepening by the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration released last September) The Auditor General's report relied on a figure of 50% which he told Greens Parliamentarian that he was given by PoMC. Elsewhere the report recommends that the Port of Melbourne Corporation start to collect figures on this.

ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, Dr Maxine Cooper, is ACT's inaugural full-time Commissioner in the role, yet what relevant environmental qualifications and experience does the incumbent have, or indeed lack, to be officially condemning another local indigenous popluation of Australia's iconic marsupials, our kangaroos, to slaughter for pet food?

Defence Dept Secretary, Mike Kelly insists there are too many kangaroos at Majura Training Area in Canberra. He wants to kill up to 6,000. He says they are starving and degrading rare grasslands. But there is no proof of either claim and the stats are unreliable. This looks like the same ugly pattern as we saw in Belconnen May 2008...see also ABC video footage (5th one down) of protests today 15 April against Majura killing proposals and attend protest Thursday 16th April in front of Canberra Centre shopping complex at 12 noon.

See also: "Majura demonstration in Canberra" on www.canadianvoiceforanimals.org, "Another Slaughter of kangaroos planned" of 14 Apr 09 on Quaker Concern for Animals web site.

Brown Mountain is "literally teaming with endangered species." "The government and logging industry knows it is one of the most diverse and wildlife rich sites remaining unprotected, but refused to identify these animals before they started cutting down their habitat." Wildlife activists had to prove it themselves.

See also Auditor Generals' Reports - especially on Victoria's hopeless wildlife statistics

See also: "Bob Brown: Threatened animal find must stop Brown Mountain logging, "Sue Pennicuik: Heartbreak at Brown Mountain", "Sue Pennicuik: Logging on Brown Mountain is state sanctioned vandalism", "Brown Mountain Rape".

Please support Bob Brown speaking up for Brown Mountain wildlife and forest by coming to Treasury Place TODAY (Wed 28) for 1pm, where he will hold a press conference about threatened species on Brown Mountain.

Contents: "Bob Brown: Threatened animal find must stop Brown Mountain logging, "Sue Pennicuik: Heartbreak at Brown Mountain", "Sue Pennicuik: Logging on Brown Mountain is state sanctioned vandalism"

Why is it that the Australian government, and other governments, principally in the anglophone world, deliberately encourage population growth when common sense and intuition, not to mention the hard evidence, tell us that a larger population cannot possibly be in the interests of the current inhabitants of this country or of the rest of the planet?

Republished on Eye on Immigration and Online Opinion (in a slightly abridged form) together with forum discussion.

See also: "Bligh Government tramples on community rights to impose over-development" of 11 Jun 08, "Redland City to pay with increased water charges for population growth" of 19 May 08, "More chickens of population growth come home to roost in Queensland" of 14 May 08, "About immigration" of 14 May 08, "Shared accommodation a necessity and no longer a choice for many in Brisbane" of 30 Apr 08, "How to end the Queensland economy's addiction to population growth?" of 26 Apr 08, "The Australian laments outcome of Queensland local government elections" of 30 Mar 08, "The Courier Mail beats the drum for more Queensland population growth" of 30 Mar 08, "Rent gouging threatens Brisbane inner city retail community" of 8 Mar 08,
Sheila Newman's 2002 Master's Thesis: "The Growth Lobby and its Absence : The Relationship between the Property Development and Housing Industries and Immigration Policy in Australia and France" downloadable from here.

California is like Bombay - the poor are beggars now.
Those who took democracy and privatised profit now want to nationalise debt.
Capitalism at its most uncivilised.
Will Americans simply let this happen? Will Australians take precautions that their governments do not try this on them?

Are you awake yet, Australia? We are losing all our rights to developer lobbying. Concerned residents sat in amazement last night as Penrith Council voted to condemn hundreds of hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland which NSW Scientists claim is verging on extinction. Council voted 14/15 to enter into a Planning Agreement with developer Delfin Lend Lease to build 3500 houses and clear approx 300 ha of Cumberland Plain Woodland from the ADI Site. Spokesman for ADI Residents Action Group alleges undeclared vested interest among council members.

Recently released Freedom of Information (FOI) files reveal that senior Queensland State Government Departments are working behind the scenes to give hundreds of hectares of prime ocean-front public lands to a Rainbow Beach developer in return for land no longer suitable for development, because of erosion and climate change.

As a result of reporting rules NSW voters voting at local government elections on 14 September won't know until February next year which corporate donors are bankrolling which candidates.

US Democrat Barrack Obama and Canadian Social Democrat Jack Layton are just two different kinds of ventriloquists' doll, and the voice we hear through their lips is paid for by Wall Street. It's not what they say; it's who pays them that matters.

What is the point of having an elected Parliament if they ignore the wishes of 79% of their electorate?

Originally published on citizensagainstsellingtelstra.com.

See also: NSW electricity privatisation can be stopped!, Electricity Privatisation bill a test of whether the people or carpet-baggers rule NSW, Costa threatens MPs over electricity, Rallying against power privatisation, Democratic rights must be respected says State Independent candidate.

The Business Council of Australia represents the corporate lobby groups that have overtaken the process of democracy in Australia and which have raised the cost of land, water, food and housing. If they go off-shore Australians will be better off.

The bizarre politics of immigration in Italy, known in Europe for its porous borders.

Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett has called on the federal Labor government to set up a public inquiry into allegations of bribery and intimidation by Australian government and wool industry officials.

Calls by developer lobby groups to cut local councils out of planning decisions are a shameless attempt to
cash-in on a scandal created by political donations from the development industry itself. It is developer donations that are the problem, not local democracy.