Thwaites Feels The Crack In The Dam Wall

The signs of desperation are revealing the cracks in the Victorian Labor Party.

John TWITer Thwaies seems to be the first who will be looking to working for a living without the public purse to promote his gross inefficencies that are all on record. Imagine in a drought situation with farmers on their knees even considering watering PARKS !!!

Read This: ..................................from the "Border Mail"

A NEW facility will recycle up to 4.3 billion litres of water for farms and parks in central Victoria from next year.

Water Minister John Thwaites yesterday announced the State Government would inject $6.5 million (of YOUR DOLLARS) into the $35 million Epsom Spring Gully project in Bendigo to ensure recycled water would be available by April.

The Federal Government will contribute $6.3 million (again your dollars).

The project will supply billions of litres of water for farm irrigation as well as for parks and recreation areas.

The water will not be used for drinking.

"This recycling project is a major step forward towards securing sustainable supplies of water for Bendigo," Mr Thwaites said.

Bendigo is now in the grip of stage 4 water restrictions, which ban watering gardens, topping up pools and washing cars or windows.

The State Government has a target of recycling 20 per cent of Melbourne's treated water by 2010.

A spokesman for the Opposition said the Government had dragged its feet on water conservation and recycling.

"It has taken Labor seven years to wake up to the fact Victoria has an issue with water," the spokesman said.

Wimmera Mallee Pipeline and Government Expenditure.

Wimmera Mallee pipeline scheme, intended to replace the open channel system, has had a less than enthusiastic reception from those other than the political and corporate sectors who will benefit most from its implementation.

It was revealed by a public spirited participant in the process that the contract, for stage 1 and 2, has been signed by relevant local government and water authorities for 50% more than the figures presented to the public. It was also revealed that the original extent of the pipeline will now be truncated and those effected will have to bear the cost of providing the necessary piping to reach their properties. As if the farmers do not have enough new regulations imposing more financial pressure upon their ever increasing debt burden.

Considering the Bracks government track record in massive over-budget contract completions we can only expect the final cost of the pipeline to blow out and significantly add to the debt burden of all Victorians, particularly those immediately effected by the scheme.

The Bracks government has placed the Victorian people in an unenviable position in their exuberance to do the bidding of their foreign masters. The massive spending on infrastructure projects, such as high speed trains, Port Phillip Bay deepening, redevelopment of the city and the Docklands, the Wimmera Mallee pipeline and development of rural and regional areas, are just some of the iceberg that will melt and ultimately drown our future generations. In June 2005 in a special report, it was revealed the Bracks government had spent $500,000,000 on consultants since 2000. Approximately half this expenditure is hidden from the public view because this government's policy is not to detail any consultancy expenditure under $100,000. Not only does this line corporate pockets with tax payers money and increase our debt, but nicely provides a scapegoat should the advice produce a negative outcome. Who, us? It was bad advice from the consultants.

Surely it would be more cost effective to just contract consultants full time and we would not have to fund an obviously inadequate, under qualified, over paid government that cannot administer to the requirements of the people. Why not ask this government exactly how much debt they have imposed on each and every person in Victoria? Of course, how could we trust any publicised figures?

This government is also complicit with the U.N. in the implementation of Agenda 21 with their commitment to Public Private Partnerships. An extract from a report exposing the massive handouts to corporations involved in PPP's states;

"Audited information should be officially available to confirm or deny claims made to the effect that Connex and Yarra Trams, at $500 million, are twice the cost of the Met. in 1999, and that City Link tolls paid to Transurban are twice that needed to finance the same road financed by government debt. Also, it may show that the benefit of the $1.8 million Southern Cross (old Spenser Street) roof could have been achieved with the expenditure of $100 million from the current budget surplus, that the Packer families County Court will cost $400 million more than the Federal Court, which is of similar capacity, and the R.W.H. will cost $400 million more than if it was financed out of government debt". These are only some of the major PPP's.

Interesting to see Peter Ryan, the National Party leader in Victoria, trying to convince the rural communities just how dedicated he is toward the rural cause now there is an election on the agenda. It is comical how these political parties are in everyone's face when there is an election in the wind, but once the elections are over they do not want to know those who elected them, or support them in public issues.. Well, where the hell was he when the initial costing on the pipeline was being hidden from the people? Where was he when the rural areas in the pipeline scheme wanted support in their fight to prevent the mass medication by the Bracks government, with their intention to fluoridate the pipeline supply? Have we heard any comments from him in relation to the massive increase in the pipeline costs to those he is supposed to be concerned about?

Not that our elected politicians would be truly concerned about these huge debt increases, for their lurks, perks, over-the- top superannuation and pensions are not dependant on any accountability to the people of this state, and ensures them a comfortable life style. They have no accountability. We need to have contractual agreements with our elected representatives that hold them accountable for their decisions, before we elect them. The people have to reclaim their constitutional rights. The people are sovereign and democracy demands the government are subordinate to the people and accountable to the people.

John Sloan

Snowy sale 'mischief' kept hidden

Bracks and his crew are asking for your vote next month and this is the way he treats his masters, you the citizen. If a major newspaper is thwarted from getting to the truth and reporting it so you all can make an informed decision about where to put your X on the spot, what trust remains? Check the story from the AGE Newspaper below.

This story is undeniable evidence that our previous statements recommending that Independents be elected if even for only one term, so as to open the BOOKS to the public and media, holds ever so more important at these elections. Our elected representatives are running rampant with the intoxication of autonomous power they wield as each year passes by.

FOI (Freedom of Information) applications are supposed to be a safe guard for the people to keep the bastards honest. What a joke! Even the Greens are seeing the value for running as Independents instead of standing behind the big green machine, for they know that people have had enough. Look deep into the back-ground of each Independent running as you may well find that they are either Green, or Labor covert vote gatherers. Demand to know where preferences are being allocated. If they can't tell you that now, they are being deceitful and have an agenda that may not be in your interest.

Independents need to clearly identify where they are allocating their preferences to, and it should be to like minded Independents that have the State of Victoria at heart, not some party machine. Wake up Victoria. The big three parties (Labor, Liberal & Greens) are festering sucking machines of the first order and the prize is your tax dollars by the billions whilst you are driven to servitude.

There are many with their snout in the trough and although they may well smell the stench, their allegiance to the political cause is bought by inadvertent financial coercion, not undying loyalty, or trust. Quite simply, how many of you can open a bank passbook up and see the balance reflecting $1,000 let alone $10,000 of disposable cash for a rainy day? The answer is the vast majority of you and it is you guys who need and are capable of brining about change. You can easily be successful, for you are the huge majority. A majority that does not in any way have the trough in front of you.

Your vote this November in Victoria, as it will be in March 2007 in NSW, will be perhaps the most important act you as an individual will do for your future and your children's futures. Cast it with understanding and fore-thought.

The Age.

Snowy sale 'mischief' kept hidden

Jason Dowling October 15, 2006

The State Government is refusing to release documents showing it was preparing to sell Snowy Hydro Limited months before NSW and the Federal Government announced plans to sell their share - because it "may create mischief".

A freedom of information request by The Sunday Age seeking documents on the sale or potential sale of the Snowy Hydro up to October last year has been rejected, despite five documents within the Department of Treasury and Finance being identified.

NSW announced plans to sell its 58 per cent share on December 16 and the Federal Government announced it would sell its 13 per cent share on February 7.

A week later, on February 13, Premier Steve Bracks announced Victoria would sell its 29 per cent stake, "following the decision by NSW and the Commonwealth governments to sell their combined 71 per cent stake in Snowy Hydro".

The planned sale was scuttled in June when Prime Minister John Howard succumbed to public outrage against the sale and withdrew the Federal Government from the sell-off.

It now appears Victoria was investigating plans to sell its share months earlier, but the Bracks Government is refusing to release details.

A freedom of information officer with the Department of Treasury and Finance wrote: "The department has located five documents that are relevant to your request. Access is denied in full to all of the five documents."

She said all of the documents were "internal working documents".

"One document involved confidential communication between senior officers to the Treasurer, and there is potential that the document could be used out of context and may create mischief," she wrote.

She said two of the other documents were drafts and the last two were "emails created to capture officer-level discussion and exploration of periphery issues which did not reflect the final position".

Opposition scrutiny of government spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva said the letter reflected the State Government's poor attitude to freedom of information.

"Show me where the word 'mischief' is mentioned in the Freedom of Information Act," he said.

Government spokesman Ben Hart said the freedom of information process was independent and separate from the political process.

"The applicant has the option of appealing the decision but this is a decision made by an independent FoI officer acting at arm's length from the political process and that's the way it should be," he said.

The independent MP for Gippsland East and staunch opponent of the sale of Snowy Hydro, Craig Ingram, said he believed the Government was investigating the sale of the Snowy months before the public was made aware of the plans.

He said the Federal Government had approached him about the potential sale 12 months before it was announced.

Radical Greens Fight To Keep The People Starving

An unemployed Romanian miner who is flown across the globe to confront environmental activists is the unlikely star of a Michael Moore-style film, aimed at debunking the militant green movement.

Gheorghe Lucian, 23, is a plain-speaking resident of an impoverished village where an opencast gold mine is planned.

He is dismayed that the project, which would bring a £400 million investment and generate 600 jobs in an area where unemployment is 70 per cent, is being blocked by environmentalists.

Among them is the actress Vanessa Redgrave, who used a film festival awards ceremony in June to denounce the mine project in the Rosia Montana region of Romania. "Our planet is dying and we have no right to destroy an ecosystem," she said.

Phelim McAleer, the director of the film which was partly funded by Gabriel Resources, the Canadian mining company behind the project, said Miss Redgrave and other wealthy protesters from the West were the real enemies of the poor. "Our answer to her is Gheorghe," he said.

For the film, Mine Your Own Business, Mr Lucian was taken to other poor countries where mining projects are being blocked by environmentalists. In Madagascar, he could barely disguise his horror as an official of the World Wide Fund for Nature, showed off his £20,000 catamaran before arguing that the poor were just as happy as the rich.

The official admitted that residents of Fort Dauphin, where environmentalists are objecting to a mine, were "economically disadvantaged" and many had no jobs. But he insisted: "I could put you with a family and you count how many times in a day that family smiles, if you could measure stress. Then I put you with a family well off, or in New York or London, and you count how many times people smile and measure stress... Then you tell me who is rich and who is poor."

Using a style reminiscent of Michael Moore, whose film Fahrenheit 9/11 lampooned the Bush administration, Mr McAleer lured environmentalists into making statements that were false or patently ridiculous.

During the hour-long film, Françoise Heidebroek, a Belgian opponent of the Rosia Montana mine, says Romanian villagers prefer to use horses rather than cars, and to rely on "traditional cattle raising, small agriculture, wood processing" to live.

Locals retort that their land is too poor for farming, that they all want cars and that they are desperate for the investment the mine would bring. The film had its first screening last week at a conference of gold-mining companies in Denver, Colorado. Alan Hill, president of Gabriel Resources, which did not control the film's content, said: "Before, the environmentalists would lob mortars at us and we would keep our heads down. Now, there is a big push back."

Back home again, Mr Lucian is living with his parents and four siblings in a dilapidated one-bedroom flat. "Rosia Montana is very interesting for everybody like Greenpeace and NGOs," he said. "But these people do not ask what we need. People here have no food, no money."

THwiates On Target to Victorian Demolishion

This person, if not hiding behind political bunkers, would be in jail for what he is doing to this nation.

The gaul of standing for the next election reflect arrogance of magnitude only allowed by the party faithful.

You will not need to wait for the effects from this individual and his fellow party member to feel the benefit of his decisions on your behalf.

Keep him in office at your peril - it may already be too late to reclaim what this government has done to Victoria.

--------------------------------- STORY: Age Melbourne ...

Thwaites rejects catchment logging call

Victorian Water Minister John Thwaites today dismissed calls to halt logging in forest catchments, despite concerns tree loss will dry up desperately needed water supplies.

The appeal by a doctors' lobby group comes as much of Victoria experiences its driest decade ever, while a national audit on water management also has found the states have failed to properly tackle supply shortages with conservation measures.

But Mr Thwaites rejected a request by Doctors for Native Forests to protect the catchments, after a study they commissioned confirmed logging was damaging water supplies.

"The amount of logging that's done in the water catchments is very small," Mr Thwaites told ABC Radio.

Nevertheless, the water minister acknowledged felling trees would "cost" water supplies.

"It does cost some, although the amount is subject to a scientific research inquiry that we're doing now," he said.

"The logging that you do would not have any effect now on water.

"The possible effect is in the longer term. You're talking about 20 or 30 years hence before you'd get a significant effect on your water if you stop all logging."

'30 billion litres lost'

A report commissioned by the doctors' group found logging in six of Melbourne's catchments will result in a loss of 30 billion litres of water per year by 2050.

The amount is equivalent to the water used by 250,000 Melburnians each year.

Group spokesman Dr Suresh Pathy said the report findings came as Victoria faced critical shortages of water.

"It is a tragedy that this most vital resource is being damaged by the government rather than the government protecting our water catchments for the wellbeing of all Victorians," he said.

But Mr Thwaites said ending logging would actually result in less water available in the shorter term.

As Victoria heads into a potentially devastating bushfire season, the fires themselves could also damage catchments, Mr Thwaites said.

All logging in the Otways Ranges will end by 2008, while in the Strzelecki Ranges, the government will buy back around 80,000 hectares of high-value rainforest land.

Vic finally admits Big Cats may be out there

Congratulations to Peter Ryan, National Party Leader. State Member for South Gippsland has promised that overseas experts will be brought in to assist local farmers in what appears to be big cats killing of livestock. Mountain lions have been suspected to be multiplying in our forests. Local dogmen have asked for overseas expert help for many years to investigate animal kills uncharacteristic of wild dogs slaughter. Dogmen’s concerns have been thwarted by bureaucrats in the Departments of Primary Industry, Victoria, and have ordered dogmen not to mention big cats publicly, nor discuss this with other dogmen either. Problem solving by secrecy and denial! What are the impacts of these big cats on native wildlife possum, glider, birds, wallaby, lizards, frogs, quoll…….who knows what!

40 new MP's to be elected says Reg

A new group has been formed which involves many recreational interests including four wheel drivers, trail bike riders, prospectors and miners, sporting shooters, deer hunters, horse riders and fishing people and our objective is to ensure that the Greens do not win the balance of power in the upper house in the upcoming election in Victoria. There are 8 Upper House districts with 5 seats in each.

The Recreational Environment Group "REG" is looking for support. Most readers will be aware of the changes that were made to the way the Victorian Upper House of Parliament is constituted. In November these new changes will take effect and we will see 40 new MP's elected. Political forecasters are in agreement that there is a good chance that with the new look Upper House 'the Greens' will win the balance of power. The Greens have been outspoken against all kinds of recreation and it will, obviously, not be in the best interest of our respective members for them to gain any political power.

We are supporting two candidates to stand in the southern metropolitan seat of Melbourne. Rita Bentley is the President of the Prospectors & Miners Association, a director of the Australian Environment Foundation and the Secretary of the Bush Users Group. She has been campaigning for balanced public land access for almost 20 years and no doubt be known to some members. Rita is number one on REG's voting ticket. Geoff Taylor is a member of Gamecon, the President of the Gippsland Deer Stalkers and is number two on the ticket, he like Rita supports public land access for everyone.

We need your help. We desperately need someone to co-ordinate rosters for the polling booths. This can be one person or the work can be shared - it just involves co-ordinating people to man the booths and ensuring they are supplied with the material to do so effectively - it isn't rocket science! We are starting to get volunteers to man the booths, so this needs work from now.

We still need someone to be our campaign manager OR various people to take on roles such as co-ordinating the advertising campaign, co-ordinating the printing of material etc. Geoff and Rita are just the faces of this campaign - there is a team of public land users behind them and we need your support. In the other Victorian Upper House seats we will provide advice as to how our members should vote below the line by listing the first five preferences. We will be supporting the major parties and Country Voice throughout Victoria. Up to date information can be obtained by visiting the REG web site at www.reg.org.au or calling Rita on 0408 328 640 or Geoff on 0408 833 101. You can make a financial donation via the internet so we can buy press time and you can get the details from REG.

If the Greens win a fifth seat in the upper house consider the consequences not only for our recreation but for the proper government of our State. Talk about REG with your friends, consider our efforts to open our public land for everyone. The end result is in your hands.

We have a public launch scheduled for Sunday 29th October 2006 1.00pm at Jeff's shed.

Thanks four your help

Michael Coldham President Four Wheel Drive Victoria

Reports Reveal Brack Government Mismanagement

Hospitals in country Victoria are struggling under crippling debts, while the Bracks Government lords over a $3.9 billion budget surplus, according to The Nationals.

Nationals' Health Spokesman Hugh Delahunty said the hospital woes were highlighted in 2005-2006 annual reports, which were tabled in State Parliament yesterday.

"There were 58 country health service annual reports and 25 of them revealed deficits," Mr Delahunty said.

"Bendigo Health Care recorded the highest financial shortfall of $5.1 million."

Deficits in other struggling country hospitals include:

· South West Health Care: $2.1 million · Yarrawonga District Health Care: $1.7 million · Portland District Health: $1.4 million · Wimmera Health Care: $1.3 million · Ballarat Health Services: $1.1 million · East Grampians Health Services: $1.1 million

Mr Delahunty said that 34 of the 58 annual reports showed financial downturns.

"Country residents are concerned that in order to claw back their finances, local hospitals will have to slash more staff and services," Mr Delahunty said.

"All this despite the Auditor General's revelation the government is sitting on a surplus of $3.9 billion from massive GST returns, police fines, pokies taxes, stamp duty and land taxes."

Mr Delahunty said country hospitals needed greater government support at a time when demand on their services was great.

"With the government having changed the way hospitals are funded in Victoria, country hospitals will this year miss out on money that's been redirected to metropolitan hospitals.

"With mental health services in the country virtually nonexistent and failing the needs of our communities, what country hospitals need now is more support from government, not less.

"While the government wastes more than $160 million a year on advertising, some 40,000 Victorians are waiting for elective surgery and country areas are suffering chronic shortages of GPs, specialists, nurses and allied health care workers.

"The government can't manage money, and it can't manage country health."

So now you have the figures - ASK THE LIBS what they intend to do ?

ALP attacked over flood of last-minute reports

The Melbourne Age Newspaper - October 3, 2006

MORE than 300 annual reports will be tabled by government departments over the next three days, prompting claims that Labor is trying to avoid scrutiny before the election.

Premier Steve Bracks has asked the departments to table all annual reports this week, when Parliament sits for the last time before the November 25 poll.

He said the move was a measure of the Government's "accountability and transparency".

But the decision has outraged the State Opposition, which said it would be virtually impossible to scrutinise how government departments and public agencies were performing when such a large number of reports were being released at once.

"This is just another demonstration of deceptive behaviour by an arrogant government," said Opposition scrutiny of government spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva.

"I'm absolutely amazed and astounded that the Government, with less than two months to the election, is going to dump over 300 annual reports in the next couple of days.

"The financial year concludes on June 30 and there should be no reason whatsoever for these reports to have not been tabled over consecutive months leading up to this week."

Reports expected this week include the Auditor-General's report into Victoria's finances, the state Ombudsman's annual report, and annual reports from all Victorian public hospitals.

Parliamentary committee reports, such as the Law Reform Committee's review of County Court appeals, are also expected to be tabled this week.

FARRAH TOMAZIN