Here he goes again, last week Andy Pandy enthralled parliament with his latest ravings on oil supply. We don’t doubt that all things must come to an end but we can still recall his predictions of $2 a litre fuel by Christmas.. which Christmas Andrew? We might also point out that a quick google of the term Peak Oil will not only give you the version AP reads from but also the flip side which clearly indicates there is sufficient oil in diverse locations and forms to supply the planet for many years to come.
If Mr McNamara so passionately believes we will reach the point where fuel is rationed and we are forced to drastically change our lifestyles for the worse to suit, why doesn’t he start giving us some answers?
Here’s a suggestion - instead of wasting millions on dams that won’t fill, lets open a world leading research centre into alternate transportation technologies. water production & processing technology and other planet-friendly technologies right here on the Fraser Coast.
–o–
Nancy Says Vol: 20
It has come to my attention that in the recent past, Biosolids [********** ***** ********] harvested from sewerage, has been used by local farmers as fertilizer. This material has apparently been supplied to them free of any charge! More importantly the users were not informed of the materials nature and the potential for it to be toxic!
Will council investigate this matter? If found to be correct, will council stop the use of such material being put on local farmland?
I wish to draw council’s attention to Biotech Laboratories (NATA approved), report No. 652214 dated 27th November 2007. This report clearly shows the presence of
Arsenic, Cyanide, Lead and Mercury amongst other chemicals in the biosolid being used as fertilizer.
As this material is being made, supplied and used within the Fraser Coast Regional Council’s area of control. I believe the onus is on you, to put the public’s mind at rest.
Yours sincerely,
Cy d’Oliveira
Strewthisback writes: previous advertising by WBW claimed biosolids were safe for use on crops and further reports indicating that they have full EPA Approvals to use said biosolids in this manner. Mr d’Oliveira’s claims are very serious and we welcome anyone involved who can provide factual data proving his claims or otherwise to get in touch.
While there is no doubting the importance of teaching our children a second language shouldn’t we try and teach them to speak English correctly first. It is, after all, the language spoken by more people than any other and is taught in most Asian schools from the very first year. Many of them speak it much better than most of us do.
A look at current oil prices world-wide tends to indicate two things - firstly, that most countries with oil tend to sell it to their citizens cheaply, and secondly, those countries that can affoerd to pay higher prices are indeed doing so. Check
Australia also appears to export almost as much oil as it imports, export prices being about 10% of the import prices - Why?
And why are we exporting about 85% of our domestic needs overseas and charging grossly inflated world parity pricing at the fuel pump when we should be using our own resources at rates comparable to other oil producing countries?
Perhaps an indication of the reality of oil pricing was last weeks leaked email where Mal Turnbull was rejecting his own party’s call for a cut in the excise duty.
As far as ‘peak oil’ is concerned, I remember the same hysteria being touted during the 1980s.
I agree that we MUST push for more environmentally friendly energy sources, and that the supply of oil will eventually run out, but I am sufficiently cynical to treat the current concerns with a grain of salt and say that corporate profits and government policies are a bigger problem than lack of oil.
Pancho highlights several very important points. The situation where we export petroleum at a fraction of what we import & retail it for is criminal.
We are being held ransome. We have huge natural gas supplies also so why aren’t we tapping into them to meet our energy needs?
Our nation like its big brother America desperately needs to reduce its reliance on oil and look to other sources. The sun is out greatest untapped resource with the continent receiving in one single day enough solar energy to supply the entire world’s demand for a whole year!
Amazing but true and we lead the world in solar energy research yet we’re losing this technology to other nations because we’ve failed to embrace it. Will we wake up before its too late?
GREAT SANDY RAMSAR WETLAND SHAFTED BY THE OIL MEN
Peter Garrett , the man who is about to make a decision on the fate of the Mary River and the Great Sandy RAMSAR wetland concerning TRAVESTON DAM , has decided that the Great Sandy RAMSAR is not eligible to be included for federal ‘CARING FOR COUNTRY GRANTS’ , to protect its coastal and marine values , http://www.nrm.gov.au/funding/coastcare-priority-hotspots.html , this link shows that only the Moreton Bay RAMSAR, is considered to be worthy of funding and yet we have given PG all the information he needs to show that our RAMSAR is under a DEFINITE threat from TRAVESTON.
Is this deliberate?, you decide, brisbane wants 70,000 mgl from the Mary so that they do not screw the Moreton RAMSAR , and if Garrett approves TRAVESTON , they will screw ours, so where does this leaves us ?, well as a consolation prize we get a mega harbor for rich old farts to park thier tinnies , after CRUISING around polluting and possibly killing more marine life in the RAMSAR wetland , which has the sanction of THE LOCAL MEMBER WHO IS THE STATE MINISTER CHARGED TO PROTECT THE RAMSAR , AND WHO MAKES CLAIMS THAT WE NEED TO REALISE THAT CRUDE OIL SUPPLIES ( WHICH POWER THESE MEGA TINNIES ) ARE RUNNING OUT!
IT SURELY IS THE LUCKY COUNTRY , WE ARE VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE THESE LABOR PARTY PEOPLE RUNNING THINGS FOR US , ARE WE NOT?
http://www.nrm.gov.au/funding/coastcare-priority-hotspots.html
I BIN TO BALI TOO
Hervey Bay’s $800m marina project awarded to Seymour
Fiona Cameron | May 22, 2008
A CONSORTIUM headed by one of Queensland’s wealthiest men has won the long-awaited rights to develop the $800 million boat harbour and marina precinct in booming Hervey Bay, 300km north of Brisbane.
Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas yesterday announced the Government had awarded the project to the Seymour Group and Watpac, both headed by veteran developer Kevin Seymour.
The consortium warded off the other short-listed bidder, the Meridien Group, to win the rights to develop the Urangan Boat Harbour and surrounding facilities.
Billions of dollars of development is planned for Hervey Bay, which has boomed particularly since the airport was expanded in 2005 and Jetstar and Virgin airlines both started regular flights from Brisbane and interstate.
Passenger movements jumped from 35,000 a year in 2005 to more than 200,000 last year, with many visitors drawn by the region’s reputation as the whale-watching capital of Australia. Mr Seymour said the harbour development would incorporate 235 additional marina berths, a modern, secure dry-storage facility with capacity for 200 boats, a new tourist terminal, a 50 per cent increase in trailer parking capacity, additional car parking spaces, additional boat ramps and new facilities for Government agencies and the Volunteer Marine Rescue. New apartment buildings on the harbour, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops, would add to the precinct’s vibrancy and attractiveness, he said.
Seymour Group already has significant investments in the district, the largest being the Ocean Blue subdivision.
Meanwhile, the Gold Coast-based Potter Group is preparing to lodge a development application within weeks for its $2 billion masterplanned Mariner’s Cove community — comprising residential, resort and golf course components — on a 290ha site on the northern side of Hervey Bay.
At Urangan, Sydney-based developer Oakstand is pushing on with two projects worth a combined total of more than $100 million that will have views over the boat harbour precinct.
The Seymour Group is Queensland’s largest private development and investment company, and the associated Watpac, listed on the stock exchange, is the largest Queensland-based builder.
Well i must say , are we the lucky ones or are we the lucky ones?, fancy that a bloody great expansion of the current monstrocity that is denuding the front beach in Hevey bay , further denegration of the Great Sandy RAMSAR wetland , and for what ?, so that rich old farts can ponce around in the Marine Park in their mega tinnes , bragging about their wealth ? , or planning the next lucrative Qld goverment handout?
While the Federal Minister and his Hervey Bay accomplice in peak oil , decide that the Mary river and the RAMSAR are to be bled to satiate the profits of the developments lobby ?
Garrett knows that TRAVESTON will decimate the Great Sandy RAMSAR , so does macnamarra , so what has handy andie decided ?, he has decided to sink the knife into the GSS RAMSAR at urangan , by promoting more marine traffic and , wait for it , knocking off dugong and turtle habitat , which are MNES under the EPBC Act 1999 , by allowing a mates rate job . Good one handy , you really are the Minister for UNSUSTAINABLITY , dont forget the peak oil which all the new boats and the expansion will chew up in the process?, or are you just a fraud espousing green wash verbally , while sipping from the development champagne flutes behind the publics back? .
What happened in BALI?, memories fading are they?,
Roger,
Federal ministers and state cohorts are both well and truly aware of reality - make no mistake about this!
This reality is that they are not acting in the interests of those who elected them to their exalted positions.
They are all well aware of the outcome of the Traveston travesty, the fuel fiasco, etc, but they are not dancing to the tune of any Australian piper!
Check overseas fuel pricing, via Wikipedia, or the Australian economy, via cia.gov//cia//publications/factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html (where Australia ranks 160 out of 163 the world’s in debt coutries)to see how fortunate we are not.
Check our current Qld constitution where we now have no rights to private ownership of anything (413 changes without any referendum), including your finances.
Check the Brigalow Corp (formerly Qld Gov)on our rights as Australians. Yeah, we are not even bound by the Australian Constitution, we are owned lock, stock and barrel by the Corporation.
Check your status as a person, or should I say a corporate asset, under the Qld constitution.
Fortunately there is at least one politician, Mrs D. Pratt, Member for Nanango, that has stood up to be counted. Check Hansard 30th April 2008 where Mrs Pratt asked the Attorney-General and the Minister For Justice and Minister assisting the Premier in Western Queensland (Mr Shine) the following -
What steps will the Queensland Government take to restore the rights of property owners?
Are ther any treaties, national or international, or any other mechanism by which the common law rights of freehold property in Queensland can be overridden?
Who is the holder of public and private land title deeds?
I would suggest that you do not try to hold your breath while awaiting an answer, but instead consider how the blazes this state of affairs came about!
Do your own research - there is any amount available on the internet. For a start look up Qld Treasury Corporation on the US Securities and Exchsnge Commission website - (0000852555). Why is our ‘government’ listing itself as a corporation, and why is it borrowing loans from overseas private finance lenders using what used to be your property as collateral?
The questions go on.
A lucky country - I do not think so!
Pancho you are exactly right. We have gradually had our constitutional rights eroded over the years to the point that if we are to believe recent reports, we no longer have the right to own land.
How does that sit for all you people paying off mortgages? What else have sucessive governments removed from us and where will it all end?
What this all amounts to is communism by stealth. If we were told about it in the mainstream press we’d all be rioting in the streets.
Strewthisback is wrong to blame “communism” for the state we are in. Rather blame apathy, we have allowed the hard won rights of our parents to be eroded without raising a hand. The are a certain class of people, not capitalists, not cummunists, in fact not any given group. They switch names like changing socks,as long as they control. They play on fear and division. They keep the hate going, they play people like a musician plays their instrument. Globalisation is the current weapon, once there is a huge pool of unemployed in the world, they will just keep switching industry from one area to another. Little people have always been expendable. They hate unions because they hate organised workers.
Why go on, any thinking person saw this years ago, why did the English fight for a Magna Carta, why did the French and Russians revolt,even America has a bill of rights. People have known all this for years a fought against it. Sad to say easy living has dulled our senses.
Sleep well.
Johnangel,
True: ‘communism’ and ‘capitalism’ are the opposite ends of the same spindle around which the whole corrupt system rotates. One cannot exist without the other.
Your comment on ‘labour pools’ is spot on - our area APEC, (Asia Pacific Economic Community), the America’s NAFTA (North American Free Trade Assoc) and Europe’s ECU (European Economic Community), were all foretold by George Orwell in his novel “1984″.
Check also his book ‘Animal Farm’ for an accurate description of any current political arrangement.
Orwell was not writing fiction, but trying to warn us what was comming by stories in the printed media. A very knowlegable and talented man.
‘Easy living’ - not so easy if you are a pensioner in the ‘Lucky Country’, a nation in fact listed 160 out of 163 nations arranged in rank order of foreign debt, check https://cia.gov/cia//publications/factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
Nigeria ranks 20th, way ahead of the ‘Lucky Country’ and ‘Smart State’ Who is the smartest?
The reason the people you mentioned fought for their rights is that they were informed, and thus involved. ‘Easy Living’ is only part of the problem.
A major factor here is a corrupt media, as witnessed by the local rag’s effective disenfranchisement of many voters during the recent council elections.
100 years of brainwashing via every possible source has bought us to this position.
How to turn it around?
Suggestion, please.
Pancho, I could write on this topic for just about ever. My eyes are out of focus compared to others and I see clearly. Having read Orwell and many others is why I said “people have known all this for years”.
As to suggestions, that’s a hard one, “you can lead a horse to water, but you canna make it drink”. But as I have said before social and political history should be a compulsory subject at school. While possible biased, at least it would open the door to young minds. Secondly, we should all talk about our political system openly, not shy away from it as is the current case. Thirdly, and this is the hard part, look into ourselves and ask, do we really care?