Energy and water efficient houses and businesses;
Boosting solar power and cogeneration through a national feed-in tariff;
Sustainable transport funding, prioritising public and active transport; and
A National Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change Fund to build the health of Australian ecosystems to protect them from the impacts of climate change.

"We do not give up. We do not quit....I don't quit."

"the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. All this was before I walked in the door. (Laughter and applause.)"

"So, as temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we've proposed."

"By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year."

"And it lives on in all the Americans who've dropped everything to go someplace they've never been and pull people they've never known"

... Mrs. Loomis: Now Wilma Dean. Bud Stamper could get you into a whole lot of trouble. And you know how I mean. Boys don't respect a girl they can go all the way with. Boys want a nice girl for a wife. Wilma Dean, you and Bud haven't gone too far already, have you?
Deanie: No, mother.
Mrs. Loomis: Tell me the truth, Wilma Dean!
Deanie: No, Mom, we haven't gone too far.
Mrs. Loomis: That's a relief.
Deanie: Mom...is it so terrible to have those feelings about a boy?
Mrs. Loomis: No nice girl does.
Deanie: Doesn't she?
Mrs. Loomis: No, no nice girl. ...

Dine at your local Indian restaurant on Wednesday 24 February 2010.

Let’s find a way to show support for the Indian community and signal that we will not turn a blind eye to violence in our city.

This violence threatens all Melburnians’ sense of safety and pride in their home. I want the Melbourne Indian community -and all immigrant communities – to know that they are welcome and entitled to feel safe here.

How cool would it be if Melbourne displayed a show of force by all going out and eating Indian food on a certain night, to embrace and show solidarity with our local Indian community?

Let’s do it!

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House action taken by the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) officers in the raid accompanied by a police officer at Rainbow Beach QLD on the 25 August 2009 at 7am to the residence of Jennifer Parkhurst, Wildlife photographer/author and member of the National Dingo Recovery Program. Your petitioners therefore request the House to ensure that:

1. All video, photographs, field notes, personal letters etc be returned immediately.
2. A report on all activities for the last 7 years from DERM rangers on Fraser Island regarding hazing and shooting of the dingoes.
3. An independent and transparent investigation into the management of Fraser Island by QPWS (DERM).
4. An alternative report to the recent report of the Fraser Island Dingo Management Strategy from qualified people, such as vet’s researchers, indigenous owners, local residents etc who have a better knowledge of the Fraser Island dingo.
5. All rangers be given opportunity to express their feelings anonymously about current management strategy.

Greens welcome Garnaut backing

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has welcomed Professor Ross Garnaut's support for the Greens proposal for an interim carbon tax until the nation finalises its carbon emissions reduction strategy.

Professor Garnaut called the proposal ‘another politically practical way forward'.

Senator Brown and Greens climate spokesperson Senator Christine Milne wrote to Prime Minister Rudd last week flagging the $23 per tonne carbon tax, to begin this July and apply only to the 1000 worst polluters in Australia.

The Greens plan comes from Professor Garnaut's report, which was delivered to Mr Rudd in 2008.

However this morning the Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong peremptorily cancelled a meeting with Senator Brown and Senator Milne in Canberra today.

"Clearly the Government's answer is ‘NO" - they are in a negative blocking mood. That is unfortunate," said Senator Brown.

... After the yacht Australia II won the 1983 America's Cup, a jubilant Prime Minister Hawke memorably stated: ‘Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum.’ ...

Theatre Of The Absurd

... The Rudd Government's support for extending the market in education presents some startling paradoxes.

Paradox 1: Completing the Howard/Kemp agenda of a market in education after opposing its introduction. ...

Paradox 2: Extending the market in education while blaming markets for the economic crisis. ...

Paradox 3: Following the failing UK and US market models while ignoring the most successful education system in the world. ...

Paradox 4: Supporting evidence-based policy while ignoring the evidence on markets in education. ...

Paradox 5: Advocating reporting school results to improve transparency while denying public input into how results should be reported. ...

Paradox 6: Extending the market in education while weakening national equity goals in education. ...

We Still Love You Bernard!

The monomedia may have turned against Bernard Tomic, but Gold Coasters think he's tops and hope he gets a good night's sleep when he comes home [Gold Coast Highway 24/1/10]

... Rupert stood up and, turning his back on the stage, surveyed the vast crowd. So many happy, eager faces. Many girlfriends already on boyfriends' shoulders. Comedy hats in the shape of huge bananas, earnest banners, raised plastic bottles saluting the roadies on the stage.

'Look at that,' Rupert said. 'Just look at that, a sea of placards saying that those girls want to "make poverty history". Do you see any placards saying, "and I'm prepared to pay more for my Gap clothes and my Nike shoes in order to make it happen"? Is anyone pleading for higher interest rates so that their bank can invest more in the third world? More expensive petrol so that Shell and BP won't screw the poor Africans quite as fucking viciously? No! They're bloody not. Because the people in that crowd want to make poverty history but not if they have to pay for it themselves. Not if it means sacrificing their cheap clothes, cheap food, cheap credit, cheap air travel and low taxes.'

Henry leaped to his feet, squaring off in front of Rupert. It looked as if Henry was going to hit him.

'Life involves compromises,' he shouted, 'so does principle. That is not an excuse for moral inertia!'

'Pardon?' Rupert curled his lip. 'Do I hear a politician making noise and saying nothing? How very rare.'

'Of course these people care about their own jobs and services, their homes and their well-being. But they still want some moral justice. How can you doubt it? I mean seriously, Rupert, how can you fucking doubt it? They are calling on us politicians to get off our arses and create a new mindset. To start working towards a fairer and more equitable ...'

'They are fucking NOT,' Rupert replied, raising his own voice for the first time. 'They say they are but they don't mean it. Because if they did mean it, you'd do it. You're a politician, Henry, and you know that you and your cronies will do whatever it takes to get re-elected. If sending the entire contents of the Bank of England to Ethiopia would secure you another term, you'd do it in a second. But you know that it wouldn't because if people really wanted to make poverty history they'd vote Green or Socialist or Anarchist or some other pointless silly bollocks, but they don't. What people want is low taxes and cheap money, which is why they vote Tory or New Labour or Lib Dem. Why do you think the entire media is behind this event? Every newspaper proprietor? Because they know it will change nothing. It's a joke. A party. Just like Jimmy says. Yes, people would like to make poverty history, it would be very nice, but NOT if it means taking a cut themselves. Any more than Bono and U2 want to pay the tax they've been lucky to avoid these last twenty years just by being Irish. That's why we're all fucking hypocrites. You, me, Bono, Coldplay and every bloody overexcited shop assistant in the crowd. Why the fuck should we, having condemned half the planet to living in abject misery to support what we see as a basic lifestyle, then expect to be able to strut about in Hyde Park boasting about how caring and generous we are at the same time.' ...

... A council spokesman said workers would use a small boat to begin scooping out the algae at the Pacific Pines Central Park lake.

Yesterday, The Gold Coast Bulletin painted a bleak picture of the popular lake, where tests have revealed that ducks and swans may have been killed by botulism, a paralytic illness. ...

[21/1/10]

Breaking The CPRS Deadlock

Dear friend,

This morning, Christine Milne and I moved to break the political deadlock on climate action.

We have written to the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the key Senators proposing that we adopt Professor Garnaut's suggestion of a two year interim scheme with a fixed carbon price with no trading and no offsets.

Our proposal is a building block for future climate action that's got real teeth. If adopted, it paves the way for a much better climate change outcome.

The proposal gives half its revenue back to Australia's householders and is still in the black. Mr Rudd's CPRS pays polluters to keep polluting and ends up deep in debt.

We Greens are putting forward a constructive proposal to get Australia moving towards the zero carbon future and you can see all the details on our website.

By passing this message on to your friends you can help us build the public support we will need to convince Mr Rudd's government and two more Senators to embrace this interim solution and get Australia moving.

On our website you will find all the details on this proposal and resources to email the Minister, send letters to the editor and help out in other vital ways.

Help our Senate team make a crucial breakthrough in national climate change action!

Senator Bob Brown
Leader of the Australian Greens.

PS: We know this solution isn't perfect, but, unlike the CPRS, there is no way it can hold back climate action. It can only help get Australia moving towards a zero carbon future.

By passing on this message you can help us break the CPRS deadlock.

www.greensmps.org.au

The Sounds Of Summer

Whatever has happened to the sounds of summer? The lazy sounds, the drowsy sounds, the indolent sounds?

To those who have time to mark variety in a world where the pace is accelerating at such a rate that variety tends to blur and lose any real definition, the four seasons, rotating still in their own capricious, disorderly, and untamed fashion, act as slyly on the senses as perfume or poetry or that haunting tune one cannot quite remember.

I was thinking the other day, how much of the essence of a season is embodied in sound. The rustling of breakfast cereal in a plate can evoke for me autumn in Kensington Gardens and idle scuffing about in dead leaves, hail on a tin roof is spring and any force of water roaring brings back wild winter days and the excitement of the rains pouring into an underground cistern. Cicadas are summer.

Last summer, and for many summers before that, in Greece, we used to lunch in the garden, and after luncheon, in siesta time, we often sat on under the thick green hang of the grapevines, immobilised in time, like the figures on Etruscan sarcophagi. Not talking. Listening.

The cicadas would shrill their chorus, and stop, and start again. From the bronze-plated mountain there was the occasional thin drift of bells ... a pad of mulesteps or the patterings of donkeys in the lane outside and the soft jingle of harness ... the clank and gurgle of a bucket at the well. Sounds just distinct enough to emphasise the silence; it washed over us like healing poured from some immeasurably vast receptacle. The scent of roses was almost audible, and every yellow nasturtium shouted glory.

I remember, one summer, watching the face of an English guest we were entertaining at the time. He had come to us a week before, from London, neurotic, pasty, anxious, drinking too much. Now in the garden his face wore an expression of rapt contemplation, like a child listening to a seashell. His hand no longer shook. The smoke from the cigarette held in brown relaxed fingers ruled straight up. His glass of wine was still untouched. He had mislaid his pill box two days before. He did not seem to feel the necessity to project any longer. He was as silent as we were, or the summer day around us. One saw how infallible was the panacea of that hot silence to the tense and troubled ones.

This summer in Australia, my first here for many years, is nearly over now and they tell me it has been a very unseasonable one. Certainly it has been different, but then with two summers strung together across the width of the world it was bound to be very different. But the most different thing about it has been my inability to find the old evocative summer sounds.

It should have been so easy, too. We live high, on a rock outcrop that is ancient and was once a tribal meeting place for the Aborigine. It is an old house, many streets removed from the busy traffic, and insulated against noise by an overgrown, dank, and rather mysterious garden. But sound rises, and there are swimming places below, so that it is holiday sounds, the sounds of an Australian summer, that come up to us.

Now, if I close my eyes this is what I hear. Four - no, five - separate motor-mowers, each with a distinct engine-note, one like a buzz-saw, which my children call The Screech, and of the others one might even be a motor scooter. Engines of cars swelling and fading. Somewhere a pneumatic drill. Television in one room and record-player in another. When these are shut off for the purpose of the exercise I hear a Cessna droning overhead, the snarl of a jet, motor launches chugging, the whine and roar of speedboats. As I open my eyes to check on the speedboats (there were two of them, each towing water-skiers) four young people pass with a transistor turned up full volume. The telephone rings, a gust of wind bangs the door, and the ice-cream van turns into our street playing a chime of 'Greensleeves' on a public-address system.

Somewhere in all this, several layers down, there are other summer sounds. Birds burbling and laughing and chiming (they are so numerous and so wonderfully exotic here, that sometimes it is a little like living in a fantastic aviary), dogs barking, children calling to each other, and beneath them again, but unheard, there must be, I suppose, other unmechanised sounds like the thump of a ball or the slow wet slap of sails, neighbours chatting, ice chinking in long glasses, waves brushing on sand, perhaps even lovers whispering (if lovers do still whisper). And under all this there is silence, which must have been the essence of this ancient place form the beginning.

Silence, I know, can be disquieting as well as therapautic. There is no deception in silence. No distortion. If you ask it a question you might only hear the pounding of your own heart. It will allow you nothing but the rare and difficult consolation of being alone with yourself, and your joys and your agonies and longings whether painful or perverse or immortal.

But I think that people probably came to this place once because of the silence, which would have been all the more profound for the bird calls rising and falling in it and the heat tripping the switch of the cicadas.

Now they bring their transistors.

It is strange to think of the immense power for invasion that lies in that tiny little battery thing, everywhere infiltrating the silent places with noise that summer holiday-makers are tying to get away from. Does silence make them uneasy now, disquieted, one wonders? Or is it that the sense of hearing has suffered permanent disablement under a surfeit of mechanical sound?

A careful watching and hearing of television commercials might offer some clue. There are some soft-voiced wheedlers, of course, but there is no continuity of employment of Sotto Voce on any of the networks, and the lure of the tempter is usually offered at a pitch well above that of ordinary human speech. The point is that from these vocal enticers one is led to believe (if one can put any faith in the fact of some sort of psychology motivating the advertisers) that summer fun, summer success, summer status - boy getting girl, girl getting boy, hostess getting praise for picnic food, Dad getting a day Away From It All or even just being admired for smoking the right cigarette, kids getting a square meal - lies in a mass of people pursuing their holiday hobbies or each other at a demented pace with stretched smiles and deranged gesticulations, singing extraordinary snatches of song to the accompaniment of the loudest possible noise, usually in a racket of highly modern machinery.

But doesn't anybody want to sit quietly any more in a quiet place, or lie in the sand or on a carpet of leaves, sun-sodden, drugged with heat-torpor, and listen to the soothing lap of water, a keel scraping on a shingle, or a bird or a single voice calling or a leaf dropping or a footstep passing or a chorus of cicadas starting and stopping and starting again. Indolent sounds. Lazy sounds. Therapeutic sounds. Sounds that used to mean summer ...

In the 1800s, monsters were everywhere but at least there was media diversity, according to experts.

A monster was netted and shot in 1906 following reports that cattle and dogs had disappeared. But there was still media diversity.

Monster skins made nice shoes in the 1940s, but even through the war and depression years, there was media diversity.

In 1974 hunting monsters was banned in Queensland and there was ever diminishing media diversity.

By promoting fear and hatred in 2003, monsters supported the invasion of Iraq.

Many Monster Watch websites lamented Australia's monomedia culture and its effect on democracy throughout 2009.

Grow Your Own

Napalm?

Poster in a shop window, Southport Central [20/1/10]

He came from the Tweed district to establish a wharf road to cater for boats using the Nerang River to reach the settlement at Nerang. Neddy Harper's grave marks the Aboriginal camping ground of the people wiht whom he lived and whose language he spoke fluently.

Gold Coast Council media release [20/1/10]: Creek condition ‘best in years’

Currumbin Creek is in the best condition it has been for years according to local businesses and community organisations.

Divisional councillors Daphne McDonald and Chris Robbins recently met with members from local groups, who said they were pleased with the outcome of the recent dredging campaign and the overall condition of the creek.

Cr McDonald said Council had dredged more than 57,000 cubic metres of sand from the creek which was used to replenish sand lost from Palm Beach following major storms last year.

“Each year, Council is authorised by the State Government to dredge Currumbin Creek for flood mitigation and beach replenishment purposes, however, due to the build up of sand in the creek, we were able to dredge more sand than in previous years,” said Cr McDonald.

“This helped to restore sand to Palm Beach which was severely eroded in May last year.”

Cr Chris Robbins said creek’s excellent condition had ensured it was a popular destination for locals and visitors during the busy Christmas holiday season.

“The creek saw a large number of visitors over the Christmas and new year period and it is hard to believe that it is only seven months since severe weather decimated our beautiful beaches and washed large volumes of sediment and runoff into Currumbin Creek.”

Local professional fisherman Brad Smith said the community was generally pleased with the improvement in the creek’s health and overall quality.

“The creek is looking better than it has in a while and I think boaties are pretty happy,” said Mr Smith.

“Although it is not officially recognised as a navigable channel by the Department of Transport, the creek is still a popular recreational boating spot, and the dredging really helps.

“Keeping the estuary in good condition is not only important from an environmental perspective, it is also good for local businesses because it keeps visitors coming.”

... The moment Bush and Clinton became the faces of the Haiti campaign, two things became evident. 1) Much more money would come in, and 2) A smaller part of your $10 will ever reach the people who need it.

Your money has become a political tool, a way to make sure Haiti is ready to turn into prime real estate soon. Major military base. Great resort. A dozen Gitmos. All in one.

On this day, just one final question for you: What do you think Martin Luther King would have said about all of this? How do you think he would have commented on Haiti 2010? Would he have stood shoulder to shoulder with W? Or would he have stood with the people of Haiti instead? See, that I find is something interesting to think about.

Yep. The free market will fix it, so you go right ahead and book that Caribbean cruise!:

Luxury cruise ships will continue to dock at an idyllic resort in northern Haiti despite the deadly earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation a week ago, a company said.

Royal Caribbean International (RCI), which has donated $1 million to the Haiti relief effort and is bringing in emergency supplies on its ships, has defended the move.

RCI says it is important to keep the Haitian economy ticking over despite the tragedy. ...

All Australian Citizens Encouraged To Enrol To Vote On Australia Day 2010: AEC Media Release [19/1/10]

As thousands of the newest citizens enrol to vote this Australia Day, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is urging all Australian citizens to make sure they are enrolled to vote as a federal election is likely to be held sometime this year.

Electoral Commissioner, Ed Killesteyn said enrolling to vote was an important part of fully participating in Australian life and it was a concern that over 1.3 million eligible Australians are currently not enrolled.

“A federal election could be held sometime in 2010, so this Australia Day is an opportune time for all eligible Australians to make sure they are enrolled to vote or, if they have recently moved, to check that their enrolled address is up-to-date,” Mr Killesteyn said.

“Some Australians have missed out on their vote at previous federal elections because they were not enrolled, but by simply completing an enrolment form you are registered to vote in the next federal election.”

Mr Killesteyn said AEC staff would be on hand at citizenship ceremonies across Australia to assist our newest citizens to immediately take up their democratic right of enrolling to vote, and he looked forward to these new citizens joining the new Australians who have enrolled at Australian Day citizenship ceremonies over previous years.

To enrol to vote or update your enrolment simply complete and return an enrolment form, which is available on the AEC website at www.aec.gov.au, or pick up a form at any AEC office, Australia Post outlet, or at any Medicare, Centrelink, or Australian Tax Office.

It’s compulsory for all Australian citizens aged 18 years and older to enrol to vote, and you must be enrolled before you can vote in Australian elections.

The AEC website also has enrolment information translated into 26 languages and contact details for the telephone interpreter service.

To check your enrolment or find out more information visit the AEC website at www.aec.gov.au or call the AEC on 13 23 26.

Threat Of League Tables Drives Teachers To Test Ban:

Greens Media Release [19/1/10]

Teachers have been forced to consider a ban on administering the year 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy and numeracy tests, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Dr Kaye said:

"Teachers have a right to exercise their professional consciences.

"The publication of school-by-school results next week will inevitably lead to league tables that will stigmatise schools, force teachers to teach to the tests and mislead parents.

"Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard is misusing the test. NAPLAN was never intended to provide comparisons between students, let alone schools.

"Teachers have been left with little choice but to act.

"Imposing a ban on administering the tests is the only way educators can protect their students, schools and communities from the damage that league tables would do.

"Julia Gillard and her state colleagues have refused to listen education experts, teachers and parents.

"They have ignored the lessons from the UK and the USA where so-called 'name-and-shame' education policies have undermined educational outcomes and devastated schools serving low-income communities.

"NSW Education Minister Verity Firth could have put an end to this last year by refusing to hand over the state's results.

"Instead she buckled under to pressure from Julia Gillard and put the state's schools and students at risk.

"Teachers will today weigh up the educational benefits of the NAPLAN test against the damage that league tables will do by humiliating schools that serve disadvantaged communities, undermining learning outcomes in all schools and reducing the quality of information available to parents and students.

"Australia is fortunate that it has a teacher workforce that is prepared to save this nation from the mistakes that are crippling school education in England and the USA," Dr Kaye said.

Why Commercial Radio Is So Annoying These Days

From 'Top Of Their Voices' by Jude Rogers (published in the 'Australian Financial Review' [15/1/10]:

"... Three modern vocal styles have been particularly prominent in the Western world in the past decade: the mid-Atlantic, talent show soprano; the highly processed, auto-tuned vocal; and the heavily ornamented regional accent. Their variety reminds us that a singing voice is a choice, particularly in a culture where human beings are bombarded with so many modes of delivery, phraseology and feeling. To sing is to represent our individual selves in a way we are comfortable with, to locate our identities within wider traditions.

The mid-Atlantic soprano has become one of the modern world's most bankable instruments. It has been developed since the start of pop music and has become the dominant way in which young female singers express themselves. These pop wannabes look up to the likes of Beyonce and Christina Aguilera and copy performances centred on technical tics - soaring high notes that prove their singing mettle, exaggerated warbles that indicate soul. Melisma - the passage of several notes over one syllable - is an important part of this process, a flourish first used in Catholic and Orthodox plainsong. Today's modern melismatic icons perform in stadiums instead of cathedrals and they have become the worshipped rather than the worshippers.

Carrie Grant, a professional vocal coach who has worked with Charlotte Church and Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls, and as a judge on the BBC talent show Fame Academy, says that young female voices have become homogenised. She thinks this has happened in the past decade. "Singers used to come in to be coached and say, 'Make me sound like myself' but now they say, 'Make me sound like someone else'."

Grant mourns the disappearance of 1970s pop, in which distinctive, soulful singers such as Randy Crawford, Aretha Franklin and Minnie Riperton coexisted, and she blames two phenomena for having a negative impact: the powerhouse tyles of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and the TV talent contests that promise riches and dreams. She talks about the songs with "money moments" - long, held notes near a song's climax and key changes that are meant to register an uplift of emotion.

They're meant to make us feel something, but do we actually feel anything? "We rarely do," she says. "These moments are actually about the individual going, 'Look at me, listen to how far I can push this'. It's about singing being a sport, rather than something that moves us." It's also about pushing a well-known style one stage louder, Grant says - something that Pixie Lott, Duffy and Shingai Shoniwa from the Noisettes, for example, have all tried to do since the success of Amy Winehouse.

The new singing style is also a very audible means of what the philosopher Judith Butler calls gender performativity - the reinforcement of sexual identity through reiterated acts. A melismatic, mid-Atlantic vocal style is meant to reveal a woman bursting with emotion, but who remains in control. She is, in effect, superwoman writ large.

Butler's ideas also help to explain the runaway popularity of Auto-Tune over the past 10 years. A computer program designed to correct out-of-tune vocalists artificially, but which also produces effects of its own, Auto-Tune has been used to extremes by American male hip-hop artists such as T-Pain. By delivering all his vocals through the pitch-correcting program and bending the natural glissandos of his voice into stark, jumpy shapes, he has transformed it from a means of treatment into a style in itself.

T-Pain's songs are principally priapic creatures. In Tipsy, a man tries to get a girl drunk to take her home; in I'm Sprung, a man gets horny and has to return to his woman even though she doesn't deserve him; and in Chopped and Screwed, women wrong and tease men. It is no conincidence that T-Pain's heartfelt ballads - such as Keep Going, a song for his wife and children on 2008's Thr33 Ringz - are delivered without the Auto-Tune effect. Nor is it surprising that international smash hits by fellow rappers, such as Lil' Wayne's innuendo-heavy Lollipop and Snoop Dogg's Sensual Seduction, also make sexual desire sound automated and automatic, reducing sex to machanics rather than a play of emotions. As Butler might have it, Auto-Tune helps these dirty dawgs perform masculinity. ... "

Many of the housing commuting issues affecting low-paid workers are illustrated by the experience of Rosa. She is a sole parent who provides for herself and five dependant children. She works two days a week as a room attendant at a major luxury hotel. She is paid $14.33 an hour. Because of her parenting responsibilities, Rosa has made a decision to work on a more secure permanent part-time basis rather than as a casual (and thus to forgo a casual loading on her hourly wage). In an attempt to make ends meet, Rosa also works an additional sixteen hours a week at a shop, where she is paid $10.70 an hour. She is not able to work overtime because of her family responsibilities. Her yearly wage is about $20,000. Rosa's youngest child goes to family day care for ten hours a day, five days a week. The other children attend school, for which she pays some tuition fees. She goes home to a full domestic load, without any prospect of buying services to relieve her of her second shift.

Government allowances and tax benefits increase Rosa's income by almost one-third, bringing it up to about $30,000. This includes a rent subsidy. Rosa's wages are allocated to everything else. Without government support, she could not pay the rent: 'Oh, my goodness! ... The government allowances helps a lot.'

She rents a three-bedroom house in the private market for almost $1,200 per month. For Rosa, rent 'is a burden'. Rosa's family moved into their current home six months ago. The new house is quieter and there are more rooms. The new neighbourhood is also quieter and safer. However, Rosa does not get to see her neighbours because she and they are working during the day and at night: they have no time for themselves and each other as they are 'just tired'. As she says, she 'doesn't have time for friends or neighbours as [it is all] work, work, work'.

Rosa describes her life as 'a struggle', but she also emphasises that she works hard and manages. She stresses that while it would be better if she personally had a fair, livable income, she wants to speak up for and assist others, and she does not want to be seen as complaining for herself.

Rosa's experience illustrates many elements in the low-paid story. Rosa supplies an essential service in a large city that depends on her labour. By any definition, she experiences housing stress, where she stuggles to provide a frugal life for her children, despite government rental support. Her commute in a busy congested city includes travel between two jobs, home, school and family day care. She is one of the growing number of Australians who live in sole adult households with dependants.

She is time as well as income poor. She could be employed casually, but 'chooses' against it in favour of predictable time with her children, sacrificing a loading of 20 per cent as a price for predictability, a paid holiday and sick leave. Rosa works two jobs. She will never own her own home. She feels that the demands of her workng life 'close down' and constrict her social interaction, despite the value that she places on community connections.

Rosa's experience is not unusual. Housing issues, in particular, shape the experience of working poverty in profound ways, especially amongst people less than 60 years old, even in a city like Adelaide where the housing affordability is better than in other Australian cities like Sydney.

Low paid workers' housing situations include public rental, private ownership (with mortgage) and private rental. Regardless of their situation, however, many low-paid workers find their housing secuirty is tenuous. For the majority of interviewees, the home in which they live is a significant factor in their overall level of life satisfaction. Their low wages directly impact on their level of, and prospects for, housing secuirty as well as many other aspects of their lives including their social inclusion and community engagement. Securing affordable housing is a daunting challenge for many low-paid workers across their life cycle. And the purchase of a home does not signal the end of their housing delemmas. The ongoing precariousness of their financial position often affects their efforts not only to acquire, but also to live in, maintain and keep their home. All the while, he financial pressure to meet these challenges exerts a toll on social relations within and beyond the home itself. ...

A northern Gold Coast cane farmer fears the northern corridors growing demand for sand could cost his industry its future in the area.

The cane farming industry stretching from Woongoolba to Steiglitz is quickly being replaced with sandmining operations, a trend some believe will eventually render unviable the Rocky Point sugar mill and remaining farms. ...

Meanwhile, Gold Coast City Council has begun rubberstamping sandmines, one at Norwell Road, Norwell, one at Holmstead Road, Steiglitz, and the extension of an existing mine at School Road, Woongoolba.

My question is about chemicals used around Lake Cootharaba as part of the remediation of pasture land. Near Elanda Point there was extensive clearing for native timber and later the area was used for dairy cattle. According to a sign in that area, the land was extensively cleared, ploughed and sprayed with pesticides and herbicides around 2003 and onwards then planted with native species. According to the sign, an organisation called 'Greenfleet' was involved in the program. I wondered if the Department Of Environment And Resource Management had any information on that program and could identify the chemicals used during this process?

The revegetation of the Elanda plains began in 1992. This is achieved by clearing the land initially of introduced grasses and groundsel using mechanical means and the application of two herbicides. For the grasses glyphosphate is used, and for the groundsel 24D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid). No pesticides are used during the revegetation program. Following this the cleared areas are re-planted with native vegetation. No further herbicide treatment is applied after the initial clearing.

Between 2003 and 2008 Greenfleet was part of a cooperative program with QPWS to revegetate Elanda, although it must be noted that all ground preparation and vegetation control was undertaken by QPWS staff. Greenfleet measures sequestered carbon for the offset benefit of its clients. The revegetation program is still being conducted by QPWS.

Ferocious storms, a sea level rise of a metre and flood water raging down Gold Coast rivers - these are all things that the city's planners have now accepted as real possibilities.

But little is being done to protect tens of thousands of homes built on land lower than the future predicted flood levels.

Coastal researcher Professor Rodger Tomlinson said many governments around the world were looking at building flood banks and flood proofing houses, but the Gold Coast City Council was yet to put measures in place for homes built before the effects of climate change were known ...

... KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: The scientist has been researching jellyfish for nearly 20 years. This is one of the biggest seasons he's seen.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: Beautiful. I've caught more irukandji off the beach here at Cairns here in the last three or four days than I have in my entire career. We've seen more boxies, big box jellyfish on the beach here than I have for many, many years.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: For half the year the deadly jellyfish close many North Queensland beaches. Those who do brave the ocean are huddled into protective nets or forced to wear full body suits. But Jamie Seymour believes global warming will soon make the creatures a menace elsewhere.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: We're seeing it. We're seeing it now. Thirty, 40 years ago the length of the season was about a month, month and a half. The length of the season now is about five and a half to six months. And it's increasing like that as water temperature goes up. The other thing we're seeing they're getting further and further south. In the past it's been a problem for North Queensland. We don't need to worry about it. Give it time, it will be a problem down in Surfers Paradise.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: All it'll take he says is a rise in water temperatures of just half a degree.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: Noosa and those sorts of areas, the Sunshine Coast - the next five to 10 years I will be amazed if we don't start seeing irukandji stings down there. ...

LOST: A-FRAMES Last seen at the Qld State Elections at various Greens booths.

Please help: Our A-Frames love to wander across the electorate. They evade capture by hiding in garages, store-rooms, sheds, and under houses. A-Frames are invaluable to our campaigns and local work. They are hand-made by volunteers using their own time and resources, and so are not easy to replace. If you spot one please call or email us and we will fawn over you with gratitude and then arrange to pick it up. ...

"Imagine people chatting at a cocktail party at a government embassy. A glossy cat is slinking around people's legs as they drink and talk. Nobody takes much notice of him but that cruising cat is more than he seems...

In the 1960s, someone in the CIA had the idea of a cat 'spy'. Operation Acoustic Kitty was a plan to wire a cat for sound. They would implant a microphone into a cat and an antenna in his tail, and then train him to obey orders.

It was a costly project and a big mistake. Anyone who has ever owned a cat knows it won't do anything it doesn't want to do. When the cat got hungry, he went for a snack. If a female cat wandered past, he went after her. Then, when the CIA sent him off to spy on people in the park, poor Acoustic Kitty was knocked over by a car on his first day. A CIA agent rushed over to get back the equipment from his insides.

This is only one of the crazy ideas dreamed up by spy agencies during the 1950s and 1960s - a period known as the Cold War. Up until a few years ago, the CIA's files from this time were top secret - no one was allowed to see them. Now the files are open and they tell us some interesting things."

The Queensland Government says it is trying to grow the world's best mangoes to export to growing markets including Japan and China.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) says the value of the Queensland mango industry last season was around $50 million dollars.

The state exported more than 2,500 tonnes of the fruit. DPI spokesman John Chapman says Australian mangoes are highly prized.

"They are the king of the fruits and we have got a serious breeding program in the department where we are trying to breed the world's best mangoes," he said. ...

"Officially opened 1996. The name Coombabah is derived from the Yugambeh Aborigianl word for the Tereda worm which was plentiful in the water logged timber once found around here. The local term for this worm was pronounced Goomba Kambo or Gambo. To the local Kombumerra people who also recognise this ridge as a dry pocket of land, this worm was a delicacy that ranked with oysters. Other foods found in this area included shellfish, such as mudwhelks, oysters and cockles. Over many years discarded shells from these meals formed shell mounds which can be found throughout Coombabah environment park."

*UPDATE* [8/1/10] Channel 7, NBN and the on-line 'Gold Coast Bulletin' (not the print version) have reported on this story unsatisfactorily over the past day or two, providing no real answers or information. Where's the local ABC? Where are the State and Federal Environment Ministers and Queensland Senators? Where are the Greens' candidates for the upcoming Federal election?

And where are the local political representatives? Councillor Donna Gates, Michael Crandon MP and Stuart Robert MP? Sure it's summer holidays, but isn't a major poisoning of a waterway that is a crucial part of the ecosystem in your electorate/division important enough to warrant some leadership and governance to get to the bottom of this? Arranging for contractors to remove the dead fish is a start, but what about the cause?

Who's running this place? Obviously our elected representatives just don't care.

And as for the Department of Environment and Resource Management saying it will take a couple weeks for the test results to be revealed. Why does it take that long? Surely this should be treated with some urgency?

... You can sell a president through an effective marketing campaign. You can also sell his policies the same way. Neither the man nor the measures need truthfully be anything like the image you paint of them, no more than a car or a detergent need anything but a feel-good recognition factor. Both the person and the acts only need to resemble as much as possible what people would like them to be. The best liar wins. The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.. if you can fake that, you've got it made, said Groucho. That’s not some sort of accident, it's what the country was built on.

And they only need to do it for as long as it takes to move all gambling debt magically off the books of the players and onto the national public balance sheet. Then when the loot has been loaded into the get-away planes, trains and automobiles, they will get the hell out of Dodge and slip away like so many thieves in the night as literally as they can. Après ça, le deluge.

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