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NATION UNITED
Bob Brown’s anti-coal madness has united Australians from all walks of politics:
• Prime Minister John Howard: “It would cost thousands of jobs and cause immense damage to the Australian economy. It’s the very kind of knee-jerk reaction that we don’t need.”
• Labor leader Kevin Rudd: “Coal is part of Australia’s long term future. It also is part of a responsible strategy dealing with climate change and Senator Brown’s proposal to eliminate Australia’s coal exports in three year’s time is absurd and should not be supported by anyone within Australian politics.”
• Labor’s Wayne Swan: “It’s absurd and ill-informed to assert that you can’t have a strong coal industry as well as taking effective steps to combat climate change”.
• Climate Change Coalition candidate Patrice Newell: “No sane person wants to shut down the coal industry in NSW overnight.”
When even Patrice - Mrs Phillip Adams - is identifying Brown as beyond the realm of sanity on environmental issues, we’ve reached a grand new level of consensus. By the way, Brown has an additional demand besides the instant destruction of our economy:
In the next period of government the burning of native forests – another major cause of climate change – must be halted forever.
Tell it to nature, Gaia-boy.
UPDATE. Further on Crazy Bob from Senator Eric Abetz.
UPDATE II. Could Brown’s fellow enviro-doofus Tim Flannery be a John Howard, er, plant? Miranda Divine: “By hitching its wagon to climate-change catastrophists, Labor may have been too clever by half. That may explain the look of genuine delight on John Howard’s face as he congratulated Flannery on becoming Australian of the Year. Maybe he sees the bearded zoologist as his Trojan Horse.”
UPDATE III. Queensland Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce keeps the consensus coming: “When you take away our major income-earning potential, you’re on the way to living on the streets under tarpaulin.”
At the same link, Queensland Labor premier Peter Beattie: “It’s just lunacy.”
UPDATE IV. Terry McCrann: “You want to get an idea of what an Australia run by Flannery and Bob Brown may look like? Take a trip to Zimbabwe.”
Leftist academic Mark Bahnisch: “These remarks by Bob Brown have lessened my respect for him considerably.”
Labor deputy leader Julia Gillard: “Senator Bob Brown’s statements are just plain dumb, really, and should be rejected by anybody in politics who’s thinking about these issues seriously.”
The Australian’s Paul Kelly: “I think there is a risk here for Labor. There’s no doubt, of course, that the climate change issue is a political dividend for the Labor Party but Labor’s got to be careful. It does need to put distance between itself and the climate change apostles, people like Bob Brown and Tim Flannery, whose ideas and solutions would do a lot of damage to Australian society and to the Australian economy.”
A repost from another thread.
And I don’t have a clue about economics, but its not just 30 000 workers and $25 billion. Its the knock on effect to all the communities, mostly in regional areas. The service industries, general commerce. After the drought crushes farmers, lets really go for the jugular in rural and regional Australia.
And that’s before governments starts paying tens of billions of compensation to all the multinational coal mining companies for tearing up their long term mining leases. In essence, we would be nationalising an industry, then crushing it. Wonderful stuff. And on compensation, add the ports corporations. And the railway and road carriers. Logistics companies. There would be a huge line of companies with their hands (legitimately) out.
And, of course, all adding immensely to our international commercial reputation in the cut-throat fight for development global capital.
Maybe Brown Bob sees the sacked mining workers and families participating in renewable, green energy production, Matrix-style?
Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 02 10 at 02:42 PM • permalinkUmmm… You can’t stop the burning of forests. They just damn well do that, from time to time (unbeknownst to the more retarded kind of environmentalist, they’re full of… wood!). Marlboro butts are not the only source of heat the world has ever known. Trees have spent the last billion years or so evolving to cope with this.
Posted by Don't Bogart that Midget, Comrade! on 2007 02 10 at 03:12 PM • permalink“Coal is part of Australia’s long term future. It also is part of a responsible strategy dealing with climate change and Senator Brown’s proposal to eliminate Australia’s coal exports in three year’s time is absurd and should not be supported by anyone within australian politics,” Mr Rudd said.
Yes but Rudd supports an emissions trading regime that will be equally effective in eliminating all major Australian Industry, but over longer period of say 10 years or so. Now that’s a marvellous forking policy!
And, hey I searched Google News for “emissions trading rudd” and found this reference:
Rudd backs states on carbon trading
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 8 Feb 2007
The states may go ahead with their own carbon emissions trading scheme if the federal government fails to act on the issue, federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd ...but the link returned a different article posted on 9 Feb 2007 with no mention of Rudd.
Could it be that someone is getting nervous and wanting to distance himself from the folly of a national emissions trading scheme?
So what has Bob Brown got against Banksia?
If he wants to eliminate native forest burning forever, he is going to wipe out an entire genus of plants, and the fauna that depends on it.He is an environmental vandal, and should be exposed for this.
(For USA’ns, Banksia is a plant that absolutely has to burn in order to propagate)
Banksia#8 m
You’re too kind. Give my regards to 007 will you.Carrying on the thinking aloud about Patrice Newell - I’ll bet she contests an electorate in the city, probably ‘Bligh’ (held by Clover Moore), and by slamming Bob Brown all she’s trying to do is wedge the Green vote in Bligh. So in fact, she’s politicking, this rejection of The Brown Blueprint For Destroying Australia is all politics. Truth be known, she probably agrees with Brown. I’ll bet hubby does.
#12 Bonmot, “wedge the Green vote”? How do you drive a wedge into that chaotic mess?
Green candidate 1: All those who want to make everyone drink their piss vote for me.
GC2: Damn, that’s my policy. OK, all those who are pro-abotion vote for me.
GC3: Damn, that’s my policy. All those in favour of euthanasia vote for me.
GC1/GC2: That’s our policy!
The only things that can save us from this PC GW madness are the general inanity and unworkability of the proposed “fixes”. We need more enviro-cultists to speak out. Well done, Mr. Brown.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 02 10 at 06:14 PM • permalink#13 rebase, I think wanglese may be right and many species need fire to open the hard seed husk.
For some species, the heat needs to be intense.It is not only modern arsonists who start fires in Australia. Aboriginals have been doing it for millennia and have thus shaped today’s species.
#7
The Adams family live over a coal seam in the upper Hunter at Gundy.
So the ‘dunny lane imperialist’ still has the Paddington terrace in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, eh?
I’ll bet that Ms Adams stands for the inner city seat whilst enjoying the benefits of the rural retreat in ‘redneckville’ on weekends; if her local rural ‘rednecks’ lose their jobs at the hands of her policies, I’m sure she’ll see no contradictions.
I hope that the Gundy locals spit in the homemade jam that they supply to the Adams from now on: that orta sort out the tuckerbox for that Gundy guy.#17
I think you’ll find scarification of the husk by critters is the principle means of reproduction; the thick husk allowed the species to withstand the Abo’s burning methods.
Brown should have the nads to publicly acknowledge this and, if he doesn’t want the bush to burn, replant burnt bush tracts with non-fire-promoting pioneer species: his mate Flannery should be able to help out, as his early research was in this area (‘Future Eaters’).My back of the envelope calcuations indicate that with existing solar panel technolgy we could power the whole of Australia for a paltry 1000 billion (I think I am a bit low here as well but oh well). Of course they would have to be replaced every 20 years or so, plus ongoing maintenance would be a bummer (maybe a few lazy billion per year) but what is money when the environment is at stake!!! Those 30,000 out of work coal miners could spend their time usefully by washing off the dust, grit, fried animals etc. We would effectively turn into a nation of squeegee men! Its all good people!
Plus just think how wonderful a solid block of 70km x 70km of solar cells will look like from space!!
I think you will find that for many years now Patrice Newell has been fighting against expanded coalmining in her neck of the upper Hunter. I seem to remember news articles about Patrice and others fighting proposals to open further coal mines and maybe processing (or whatever they do) facilities in that region because of the damage it will do to the river and the local environment. Riverfront and local environment that the Adams Family own a significant chunk of (about 5,000 acres I think).
So call me a skeptic but I think that maybe Patrice aint really that fond of the coal industry after all.
And I agree with others, whats the bet she stands in Sydney’s eastern suburbs where they keep their townhouse and their 20 million dollar art collection so beloved by socially aware little proletariat footsoldiers like the Adamasovs.I’ve just come up with a new clinical term to describe the failure of the synapses in the medulla oblongata which deal with processes such as reason, logic, reality perception and not frothing at the mouth and biting car tyres- I describe this phenomena as a Lobobtomy.
Seems to pretty much cover all displayed syptoms.
Which overseas coal mining company is manipulating Brown?
Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 02 10 at 08:29 PM • permalinkCoal-miners are used to hard, demeaning, unhealthy work… so if we installed 30,000 treadmill generators they could all find work and power the country!
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 02 10 at 08:30 PM • permalink#20 egg_.
Critters may be involved but if a fire is not intense enough to promote the release of seed, and the fires do not occur with the right frequency there can be survival problems for the banksia and other Oz species.
It is a complex situation and still under study. All the more reason why Bobtards should avoid such idiotic aims as stopping all burning of wood.Regardless, of Kevin Rudd’s soothing words, and panic control, Labor are desparate to get power and will do anything, even a deal with Brown and the Greens. So it is too late, the agenda is out of the bag. Lets face it, with some politicians the means do justify the ends. As to Patrice Newell, (Climate Change Coalition, oh bloody hell, these people will use any title for an opportunately to get to suckle on the public teet), I never trust people who do not use their real names, when standing for public office. This of course is the typical ‘wolf in sheeps clothing’ socialist stunt. Does she keep old Phil in the background because he is a bit of a liability?
Rudd and his coalitiion’s ‘reassurances’ have not convinced me. Unfortunately there are a lot of gulible fools out there.Wanglese and others—we know all about the relationship between Australian trees and fire here in Florida. (Note: also exists as a Powerpoint presentation for the slow of understanding (such fans of Algore). If these links don’t work, they are the first result when you go to Google and enter the search terms “melaleuca florida fire.”)
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 02 10 at 09:28 PM • permalinkBonmot,
if you hold her arms, I’ll give Ms Newell a Green Wedgie.She was on television a couple of weeks back calling herself a “farmer”, with over twenty years of farming experience. This is why she believes that she can speak with authority on the best way to effect climate change amongst we, the miserable, woefully ill-informed average voting Aussies.
Pphfffpppfffhttt!
Let the wildly inaccurate, unhelpful, bizarre and obtuse speculation of what will keep Paco away from this blog begin.
Perhaps we could run a guessing comp.
Me, one of my guesses is that he has managed to steal the keys to Wronwright’s tardis and intends to go and “fix the Carter presidency once and for all.”
Keep your eyes on the narratives in your history books. Report all changes.
Bonmot 6, listen buddy, I don’t appreciate your comment regarding Bonmot 5. If you think you can just drop in here and abuse Bonmot 5 then you’ve got another thing coming. Bonmot 5 happens to be a regular here and Bonmot 5’s comments are very popular. If you don’t apologise to Bonmot 5, then I hope Andrea takes the “neccessary steps.”
OT - It is now clear to all observers that Bob Brown has finally come under the control of a Rovebot. Go Lobobtomy Go! Destroy the greens!
#25 call that a dust storm? - this is a dust storm
and it was pre cluebat warmening
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 02 10 at 10:15 PM • permalinkPaco, that better be going to write the first blockbuster Detective paco novel. Good luck and happy trails anyway.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 02 10 at 10:34 PM • permalinkShe was called Patricia Newell once I’m sure. She used to advertise toothpaste.
Phatarse used to think that Bob Brown should be the ALP leader. I wonder if he still thinks that?
Posted by Charles Murton on 2007 02 10 at 10:39 PM • permalink#32
The link is about human propagation.
‘Sometimes, however, the follicles do not open sufficiently and some additional treatment may be needed to release the seed. One method that has been successful with some species is to plunge the seed cones into cold water immediately after heating.’Sorry, I don’t subscribe to the fire regime be-all-and-end-all brainwashing.
Disprove this: as little as 20k y.a. the Oz pollen record is predominantly oak (casuarina)*, the now dominant euclaypts** being propagated by the Abo’s methods very recently, Geologically.
Therefore, as little as 20k y.a. fire was not the main means of propagation.
Scarification may be caused by heat or animals.
Fire wasn’t/doesn’t have to be a way of life here in Oz.
*Rainfall inducing microclimate linked to past higher water flow in the Murray Darling basin: Oz was not always the ‘wide brown land’.
Ref JonathanH’s dust storm piccies: around the red centre you’ll find oak are still the (tallest) dominant species over eucalypt in lower rainfall areas (where fire is not an issue) ...
I’ll wager that the Wollemi pines survived in a sheltered enclave away from Abo burning ...
**The US are already ridding themselves of this (dangerous) import.
/steps off soap box
#42 penguin
You’re too kind, especially since I don’t know how you can even type with those flippers. And you’re right, only Mrs Bonmot usually talks like Bonmot 6 to Bonmot 5(“Bonmot get in here and stop that idiotic blogging you moron, I need you to clean the toilet”, to which I reply, using the only two words a woman understands, “Yes dear”). I will place Bonmot 6 in a carton in the garage this afternon, that’s a promise. Mrs. Bonmot will never find him there.#49
No doubt her lil Olive Oil venture is subsidised by the Beef Cattle and her sugar daddy.Aren’t tarpaulins made of plastic nowadays? “I’m sorry, sir, we’re going to have to take that from you. And no setting fire to eucalyptus trees for warmth, either.”
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 02 11 at 12:00 AM • permalink“When you take away our major income-earning potential, you’re on the way to living on the streets under tarpaulin.”
Luxury.
There were 150 of us living in a shoebox in the middle of the road!
Eh, wha…?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 02 11 at 12:01 AM • permalinkPatrice Newell’s thoughts on coal mining could actually best be summed up as “No sane person wants to shut down the coal industry in NSW overnight - unless the coal mine is near their property, then its OK if it never sees the light of day”.
From a speech given by Ms Newell in the Hunter Valley Research Foundation
2006 Lecture Series (Lecture 2 Wednesday, 30 August 2006):
Patrice Newell “.......I’ve been engaged in three local environmental issues that have occupied much of my time since 1995.
First it was sub division; the carving up of rural land for housing.
Secondly water reform. How best to share our unregulated stream.
And thirdly, since 2001, I’ve been trying to stop an open cut coal mine BICKHAM COAL MINE, from opening at the very head of the Hunter Valley Catchment.#49 hazza
The Adams spread is at Ellerston near Scone. The Packer spread is next door, so a hovel it ain’t.
It’s just the sort of place that would be as far from a mosque as it would possible to be. No racial strife in sleepy Scone, no boatloads of refugees dumped on the doorstep - quite an Anglo enclave actually, I tell you. Coolmore Stud is up that way and if you would like your mare served by Redoubts Choice for a lousy $270,000 take her up there.
Adams would be the only Communist in the world who drives a Rolls Royce but prefers Ferraris. Look in the dictionary under ‘hypocrite’ and you’ll find his grizzled old visage.a bientot pacomeister - we will keep the product development going while you are away
dust storm that ate melbourne 1983
moonbob wants australians to die in bushfires. the disastrous fires in victoria have been exacerbated by the failure of the authorities to undertake fuel reduction burns between fire seasons. the rest of the world has pretty much abandoned fuel reduction burning, with terrible consequences, & our dingbat forest managers seem to be headed the same way
Re: #55, “It’s just the sort of place that would be as far from a mosque as it would possible to be. No racial strife in sleepy Scone, no boatloads of refugees dumped on the doorstep - quite an Anglo enclave actually, I tell you.”
Probably no Catholics either, you know how much Phatty hates them.
Ms Newell will be contesting the Upper House (Legislative Council) so everyone in New South Wales, including the Catholics, will have a say on her appointment.
I hope this former model has a better legal team than Anna Nicole.
#54
Tks, got a link?Not much self-interest in Newell’s agenda:
First it was sub division; the carving up of rural land for housing.
I don’t want more neighbours, I came here for the peace & quiet!Secondly water reform. How best to share our unregulated stream.
& I want my share of the water, godammit!And thirdly, since 2001, I’ve been trying to stop an open cut coal mine BICKHAM COAL MINE, from opening at the very head of the Hunter Valley Catchment.
Coal mining’s the Hunter’s chief industry?
Oz mining earnings outstrip agriculture manifold?Bob Brown is playing smart politics. He only has to get about 6% of the vote to get elected and if he has the balance of power he is in a great bargaining position.
It’s the ALP who are vulnerable as a result of his rantings. They have hitched themselves to the Global Warming bandwagon. It’s the ALP that will be associated with this nonsense because the Brown position is entirely consistent with Global Warming advocacy.
Brown will retain his share of the vote and may even increase it with the defection of the hardline enviros from the ALP. The ALP will be left looking stupid by advocating action is necessary to stop Global Warming yet repudiating the very policy position that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Howard lured Latham into his forestry policy to grab the green vote and he’s doing the same thing now with Rudd. Retreat now is a dangerous position for Rudd.
The only person that doesn’t think Brown is a fruitloop is….... you guessed it.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 02 11 at 01:48 AM • permalinkMinefull of Al Gore’s warning ...
Sounds apt for the Hunter“Just Smooth, Clean, Electric Power.”
Oz green lifestyle magazine, G Magazine, of which Ms Newell claims she is on the Editorial Advisory Board, is promoting a mains-rechargeable electric scooter, which claims to be powered by “Just Smooth, Clean, Electric Power.”
G whiz!
Poor old Rudd has been stuck in the arse with a fork over these coal mines.
A major part of the Queensland state budget used to come from coal mining royalties. Of course they were not out in the open - instead of charging a direct royalty, the state owned railway, Queensland Rail (QR) simply charged the coal mines a lot more than the market rate for transporting coal to port. They made a super profit, and then paid nice big dividends to the state treasury.
That used to be the case in NSW as well, but Greiner made it all transparent when he was Premier.
So apart from the direct and indirect job losses, you also blow an enormous hole in state government finances. I guess they could get by through closing hospitals, schools and police stations throughout the land. (But don’t mention cutting Arts funding).
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 02 11 at 03:54 AM • permalinkMs Newell is also Secretary of her local fire brigade. I’d be interested to know her position on controlled burning.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 02 11 at 04:09 AM • permalink#72
Flannery is also on the G magazine Editorial Advisory BoardWhat’s his position on “Just Smooth, Clean, Electric Power”?
Paco.
Hope all is well and that we see you back here before too long.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 02 11 at 04:27 AM • permalink#70 P Newell speech.
Choice! A delightful change of tune… or is she just speaking with forked (in-the-Rudd) tongue? Ceding small points for the sake of the Higher Goal—a socialist government?
“The threat of a coal mine at the head of the Hunter has brought so many people together intellectually and socially, but most of all in their minds”
Probably meant to say mines.
Posted by arrowhead ripper on 2007 02 11 at 05:41 AM • permalinkPaco, your insights and wisdom will be sorely missed. I hope you are back soon. Good luck.
Posted by curious george on 2007 02 11 at 06:14 AM • permalinkWhat I missed in comment #75 is that Rudd, being a Queenslander, and previously been Chief of Staff to a previous Premier, has probably had Beattie in his ear all week telling him that he had better tell Bob Brown to stick his ideas about coal up his date.
I don’t think the Queenslanders have ever been backward about coming forward to protect the interests of their state. Rudd would have a very good idea of just how ruinous an end to coal mining would be to the Qld Treasury.
Bob Brown would have more luck telling the Saudi’s to stop pimping (I mean pumping) oil.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 02 11 at 06:59 AM • permalink#70
Adams Family speech:NIMBYism:
“It’s very hard to say NO to the creation of a job.”BUT ...
• “Soon after Bickham Coal Mine was announced, a group of people living close to the mine site formed an association ...”
• “When you are faced with an open cut coal mine happening along your watercourse ...”
• “... a company that may divert a river into a coal pit?”
• “The mine proposal reminds me of another organisation that likes creating craters, the Bush administration.”Tuff luck:
CSIRO: “... water used in the mining industry generates almost 20 times more income than in agriculture ...”To Patrice the Pretentious NIMBY:
A few words from the proles:
Suck my Nuts(Apologies to the copyright holder)
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 02 11 at 08:10 AM • permalinkInteresting that attacking Brown requires misquoting him, eh? (Or here.)
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• Climate Change Coalition candidate Patrice Newell: “No sane person wants to shut down the coal industry in NSW overnight.”
Or at least wants to admit it in public, where people can hear...Jeez!