We are best at Spin, Lies & Deceit, but TRUST US

Election promises to be publicly 'costed'
October 17, 2006
THE New South Wales Government is following the Commonwealth's lead
and introducing a system that will tell voters the cost of election
promises made by the major parties.
Premier Morris Iemma today said NSW would set up its own charter of
budget honesty along the lines of the one introduced by the Federal
Government in 1997.

He said under legislation introduced to Parliament today, the charter
would provide costings of election promises made by the Government
and Opposition.

"In the lead-up to an election, voters have a right to clear, concise
and accurate information about the commitments that are being made
and their impact on the budget,'' Mr Iemma said.

"This bill (to set up the charter) will mean voters will have a level
playing field with each side playing by the same rules.''

Under the charter, the Government and Opposition will be able to ask
NSW Treasury to cost their election promises.

Policies will be able to be submitted by Labor and the coalition 60
days before the election, with Treasury to provide costings two weeks
before polling day.

Treasury will release the final consolidated policy costings on the
Monday before election day.
[8:01:04 AM] The Editor - Mal Davies says: Drought needs government
commitment to water savings!

With minimal snow falls and snow melt this winter, the Snowy
Mountains catchments are depleted with two of the major dams below
25% of capacity and significantly lower than this time last year,
according to Twelve Rivers' spokesperson Acacia Rose.

"The drought has deepened across NSW, Victoria and South Australia
however we have not accrued essential water savings through lining
the irrigation channels," Ms Rose said.

Ms Rose believes that it is important to carefully consider how we
use what water we have in the system and not waste a drop.

'The community fought to protect the Snowy Scheme and to conserve the
water. The next step is for the NSW, Victorian and Commonwealth
Governments to fix the leaking irrigation channels.

'These governments have set funds aside to stop water losses and that
means to prevent further seepage or evaporation from the system.

'If they haven't got enough money to complete that job then they need
to dip deeper into the public purse to make sure we don't lose water
we can't afford to waste,' Ms Rose said.

Ms Rose is concerned the depletion of Snowy Scheme water so early in
the summer is a mistake and a knee-jerk reaction when governments
have so far failed to make sufficient water savings.

'We don't want to lose farmers and we need the Federal Government to
make the right decisions including spending to line the irrigation
channels and more careful water allocations for farming and
environmental flows,' Ms Rose said.

Northern Australian Neighbours Watching NSW

Debnam takes aim at government over sliding economy
Malaysia Sun
Tuesday 17th October, 2006

New South Wales Leader of the Opposition Peter Debnam says the Iemma
Labor Government must admit the state's economy is sliding toward
recession, and implement a rescue plan immediately.

"After 12 years of the Iemma Labor Government, the state is in
deficit, the economy is sliding towards recession and the jobs and
investment are fleeing interstate," Debnam said.

"Country New South Wales has been hit particularly hard by the
high-cost, high-tax high regulation regime of Bob Carr and Morris
Iemma coming on top of the drought," he said.

"A decade ago, NSW was the premier state, but under Morris Iemma and
Bob Carr, we've become an also-ran."

"NSW was the once economic powerhouse of Australia. After 12 years of
Labor, we now collect the economic wooden spoon," he added.

Debnam has promised to reduce payroll tax, and increase the first
homebuyers grant to stimulate the economy if ellected at next year's
state election.

He also plans to cut stamp duty on investments.

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."

So just where are the Greens

Dear Mal,

The Upper Nepean Community Reference Group (UNCRG) Report is a public
document agreed to by me as the NSW Farmers Association
representative on UNCRG along with all other members of the committee.
The need for the NSW government to now act to put in place a
moratorium on the Upper Nepean Ground-water Proposal to allow and
enable the further testing and examination of the critical areas and
issues identified and recommended in the UNCRG Report;

The need, in the public interest, for UNCRG to remain as an active
Community Reference Group with extended Ministerial Terms of
Reference so that it can monitor the further testing and examination
of the critical areas and issues identified and recommended in the
UNCRG Report;
NPWS has refused to state their position to UNCRG with respect to the
ground-water proposal despite being formally and repeatedly requested
by UNCRG to do so.
NPWS is joint manager along with SCA of the Sydney Water Catchment
Reserve and has offered no reason for this omission;

As a political statement, it is fair comment to publicly note that
missing in action on the Upper Nepean Ground-water debate are the
Greens and the likes of ALP MPs Peter Garret MLA and Matt Brown MLA
whom, one would have thought, should be very vocal about the
ground-water proposal ~ what are their views? ~ why are they
reluctant to put themselves on the record? ~ have they been gagged?

Jonathon Bell

38 million wasted on Yanga Time to quit

The Sydney Morning Herald.
Debus tipped to retire
Andrew Clennell
October 5, 2006

THE NSW Attorney-General, Bob Debus, is tipped to retire at the next
election, and party sources say his electoral activities in his Blue
Mountains seat have been much more low key than before previous elections.

Labor sources say the party is preparing for an exit by Mr Debus,
despite his public commitment that he will recontest the seat in March.

The party's state secretary, Mark Arbib, said: "Bob Debus is the
preselected candidate for the seat of Blue Mountains and he's told me
he's running."

The loss of Mr Debus, 63, would be a big blow to the Government, and
it is understood that the Premier, Morris Iemma, has been keen to
have him stay on in the job. His profile in the mountains is
considered important to retaining the seat, which Labor holds by 14
per cent but is concerned about losing.

Mr Debus's office continued its denials yesterday that he was
considering leaving Parliament, and suggested that people keen on
succeeding him might be spreading rumours.

A spokesman for Mr Debus said the minister did not respond to
unsubstantiated rumours.

Mr Debus's spokesman, Alex Cramb, said: "He's the [endorsed]
candidate; he's committed to the Blue Mountains."

Local party sources said Mr Debus had yet to set up a campaign office
or send the sort of literature candidates in potentially marginal
seats sent at this time. He was also attending fewer functions and
branch meetings.

Mr Cramb said Mr Debus was still attending functions in the seat,
despite his many commitments as attorney-general and environment minister.