Is the Canberra Press Gallery scared of “Independent Australia” ?
Way way down this page, an article about how the Canberra Press Gallery is a closed shop
I found this article particularly interesting, because of the reasons given by David Speers Press Gallery Committee, for shutting out Independent Australia. In brief – because IA’s journalist Callum Davidson is “not established”, and because IA is “opinion-based rather than a news site”
This raised several questions in my mind. Davidson is a freelance journalist, has an Advanced Diploma in Journalism, (and lives near Parliament House). Well, in this climate of journalists being retrenched all over the place – pretty hard to get “established” . Do we, the public, have to wait until all the old Established journalists die off, or something?
Which brings me to an even more important question. Despite IA having broken some really big stories, Speers considers that it is not a news site. It’s an opinion-based site.
As if all the Murdoch media, and even the Fairfax are NOT opinion -based. This pretense of impartiality is one of the big weaknesses of the weak Australian mainstream media.
My guess is that they are scared of Independent Australia, crikey.com, New Matilda, Inymedia, Green Left and even little websites like this one. This one is called Antinuclear – no pretense of impartiality here. And if the mainstream media had any guts, its business sites would be headed “Pro Corporations” – and particularly “Pro-Nuclear” – Christina Macpherson
May 6: antidote to uranium lobby’s lies about benefits to Aborigines
AUSTRALIA’S URANIUM EXPORT REVENUE IN PERSPECTIVE YELLOWCAKE FEVER Exposing the Uranium Industry’s Economic Myths , Australian Conservation Foundation“……..The Australian Uranium Association supports a profits-based, rather than production-linked, royalty system in the NT although such a system fails to provide a certain, secure and assured revenue platform for Indigenous communities. During the first 5 -10 years of a uranium mining operation, there is a high likelihood that little or no income would be generated under a profit-based royalty scheme, even though there would be direct environmental and social impacts from any such operations.. ” http://www.acfonline.org.au/sites/default/files/resources/ACF_Yellowcake_Fever.pdf
Australian government does USA’s bidding on uranium sales to India
Selling uranium is concerning Border Mail, MRS CHRIS SOBEY, Albury, May 6, 2013 THE recent news Australia will sell uranium to India is of enormous concern.
An extract from journalist Paul Cleary’s book Minefield: The Dark Side of Australia’s Resources Rush explains the “extensive lists of conditions make for impressive press releases .. yet mining companies don’t complain … because they know governments do not have the capacity to enforce them”. The Great Artesian Basin, Australia’s inland sea, is of enormous importance to us, yet BHP uses at least 30 million litres of water from this source every day, and at no cost.
But worse than that pillaging, I believe, is the state and federal governments’ recent approval of the expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, which is destined to become the world’s biggest man-made crater. The waste, in its 44-square kilometre storage facility, will remain active for 10,000 years, while the entire operation will leach up to 8 million litres of contaminated waste water into groundwater each day.
Australia joins USA and Canada in helping India’s arms race, through sale of uranium
Uranium sales to India fuel nuclear arms fears 6 MAY 2013, KAREN ASHFORD, SBS Critics of planned Australian uranium exports to India warn the deal will accelerate India’s nuclear arms race against Pakistan. Transcript from World News Australia Radio) “……The Gillard government is going down the same route as the US and Canada, circumventing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty y instead striking a bilateral agreement containing safeguards guaranteeing how Australian uranium will be used……
He says the world uranium price has gone from 140 U-S dollars a pound in 1997 to 40 U-S dollars a pound today, and some 150 nuclear stations in Europe are scheduled for closure… and that with nuclear in retreat worldwide, the industry is pursuing India.
The world uranium sector is in huge trouble at the moment so I think the Australian government at the behest of the mining industry who obviously are the loudest voices at the table are looking for any markets at all, because the sector is in such trouble. So they see India as an industrialising nation with a growing power sector, they see the dollar signs but they quite clearly don’t seem to be interested in the risks.”
Senator Ludlam says India has a history of nuclear accidents, near misses and misadventure, and it’s only a matter of time until a serious incident occurs – something he thinks Australia’s shouldn’t want to be implicated in.
But even more troubling he says is the escalating tension between India and its neighbour Pakistan.
“India is a nuclear weapons state and they’re on the record saying they’re trying to buy foreign sources of uranium so they can lock up their domestic reserves for a nuclear arms race with Pakistan. So it’s a very volatile and dangerous security situation into which to be selling uranium.”….. The negotiations for the export of Australian uranium to India are expected to take two years; Scott Ludlam says he’ll be using that time to push for an inquiry and stop the deal. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1763258/Uranium-sales-to-India-fuel-nuclear-arms-fears
Australia to supply uranium to an unsafe nuclear industry in India
Aust could fuel India ‘nuclear accident’ SBS WORLD NEWS, 21 MAR 2013, A nuclear disarmament group says an accident like Fukushima could happen in India with uranium sold from Australia.Anti-nuclear campaigners have raised concerns Australian uranium could fuel a nuclear accident in India similar to the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters.
Negotiations are under way in New Delhi to establish nuclear safeguards before Australia begins selling uranium to India.
Last year India’s auditor-general warned that lax safety standards could lead to a nuclear disaster. It is a concern backed up by the Indian-based Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP). “A major catastrophic accident like Fukushima could happen in any of our 20 reactors,” CNDP spokesman Praful Bidwai told ABC television.
Workers in the reactors said they could not be relied upon to raise the alarm on an impending disaster because they were not kept informed by management.”We can be out there all day in the reactor and we wouldn’t know if we’ve been exposed to danger or not,” said Gulab Singh who works in a Rajasthan reactor.
Anti-nuclear activist Imran Khan said workers were bullied into working in the dangerous conditions. “They know that if they don’t do the job they won’t have work, so they accept all levels of radiation and keep on working,” he said……HTTP://WWW.SBS.COM.AU/NEWS/ARTICLE/1748734/AUST-COULD-FUEL-INDIA–NUCLEAR-ACCIDENT-
Junk science from James Hansen cloaks the truth about nuclear radiation
the Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation of the US National Academy of Sciences states that “the risk of cancer proceeds in a linear fashion at lower doses without a threshold and … the smallest dose has the potential to cause a small increase in risk to humans.”
James Hansen’s nuclear junk science http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53989 May 4, 2013 By Jim Green Hansen has continued with his nuclear power advocacy, indeed he has become more strident.
James Hansen resigned from his position as director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in April to devote more time to campaigning to cut global carbon emissions.
In addition to his scientific research on climate change, Hansen has been arrested several times in recent years at protests against coal mining and tar sands mining.
Bravo James Hansen — precious few scientists and academics live and breathe their politics as he does.
But when it comes to proposing solutions, Hansen is on less solid ground. A loose parallel can be drawn with Tim Flannery, described by Clive Hamilton as a “talented science populariser” but a “policy flake”. Continue reading
Support evacuation of children. Do not visit Fukushima: do not eat Fukushima’s food products
” If you visit Fukushima, you are supporting the Japanese government’s misleading safety campaign that helps to establish that Fukushima is a safe place to live, hence, the children of Fukushima will not be evacuated out of Fukushima.
Current allowable amount of ionizing radiation in food in Japan is 100Bq/Kg (for cesium). Most of Japanese people including farmers think 100Bq/kg is a safe limit. However Japanese rice before the Fukushima disaster only used to contain 0.01-0.1Bq/kg of cesium. In other words it is 1000 times more radioactively contaminated. “
Iitate 飯舘村 _Fukushima Hot spot 4 May 2013 http://nuclear-news.net/2013/05/05/do-not-come-to-fukushima-and-do-not-eat-the-food-products-support-evacuation-instead/
http://www.yonaoshi311.com
Iitate radioactive Hot spot / 飯舘村 / We are on a road approximately 40km north-west of Fukushima Dai Ichi power plant near Iitate. The village is now a famous Hot spot with high levels of radioactivity.
It has been nearly completely evacuated. It looks like a ghost town with deserted homes everywhere. But here and there on the side of the road, among abandoned fields, one can see some farmers still growing vegetables. While we were filming this, an old man came to me and started talking…..
(Translation by Mia June)
Mr. Shigenobu Inamura’s speech, bravely using his real name at an anti-nuclear rally in front of METI (Government building) on 29/3/2013
Mr. Inamura has been living in Tokyo for 30 years. He was born to a family who used to run the Geisha house in the Hot Spring area in Nihonmatsu-City which is in Fukushima Prefecture.
This is what he had to say; Continue reading
UK govt blocking new aluminium fuel cell?
[includes video] An Aluminium Fuel Cell – Why Is UK government Blocking It? http://nuclear-news.net/2013/05/03/an-aluminium-fuel-cell-why-is-uk-government-blocking-it/
Update: at the end of the video where the video audio becomes mysteriously corrupted as the converstaion turned to the advice from the business advisor’s that he went to see.
The statement that he got from these financiers was that the UK government will only support “electrically rechargeable” batteries. Meaning, “only that can be charged with nuclear power” imo
h/t ; http://www.ukcolumn.org/article/aluminium-fuel-cell-why-government-blocking-it
Ex-Navy Nuclear Engineer Trevor Jackson has developed a highly energy dense aluminium fuel cell. Why will the government not support bringing it to market?
Today UK Column Live interviews Trevor Jackson, owner of Metalectrique, which has developed an aluminium fuel cell which has many applications from cars to homes, and also with many applications in the third world.
Despite ticking all the boxes of the government’s environmental policy, Metalectrique is apparently receiving no support.
Australia’s Opposition Party and the sound-bite media
UKIP’s dangerous precedent for Australian conservatives, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 6 May 2013″………modern media has trained their readers to consumer news and politics in uncomplicated sound-bites, and now want their policy platforms to be delivered in the same way. It’s worked marvellously for Tony Abbott. The Australian Opposition leader popularity is based around three-word homilies such as “Stop the boats” and “axe the tax”. Never mind the detail – these policies bear little scrutiny and are impossible or impractical to implement: In sound-bite politics, no-one cares.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that Abbott was delivered to the top job in the Coalition – and a likely prime ministership – by a highly conservative rump of the Coalition that ended bipartisan support on climate change policies. It was led by senior politicians, such as Nick Minchin, who didn’t and don’t accept climate change science. Many still remain in the party.
Even more dangerously, bipartisan support is now fracturing around renewables, despite the fact that theAustralian Energy Market Operator has found that 100 per cent renewables is emminently achievable, and not so costly, and that other studies such as Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that wind, and soon solar, are cheaper to build than new coal and gas fired generation – all of which needs to be replaced in the coming decades.
Despite this, all the state-based coalition governments remain married to the policy altar that deems that renewables are costly and useless, and don’t reduce emissions, and they want the renewable energy target killed or neutered.
Many of its new recruits – such Nahan, the Nationals’ Angry Anderson, the Liberals Angus Taylor and Zed Seselja, and the Canberra based would fit comfortably within the UKIP platform. As would many of the incumbents – Joyce, Corey Bernardi, Eric Abetz, Andrew Robb, Simon Birmingham, Michaelia Cash, Alby Shultz, Bill Heffernan, Ian Macdonald, and a host of others.
John Howard had just as many arch-conservatives in his own party, but he had the strength of leadership to keep the factions under control. The importance of this should not be underestimated. Even Labor’s right factions would have fought hard against progressive climate change and energy policies if they hadn’t been effectively neutered by the coalition with the Greens and the country independents.
The question is whether Abbott has the authority to keep these Tea Party and UKIP style politics under control, or even if he wants to. He owes a debt to those who thrust him into power in the first place, and has never convincingly laid his “climate change is crap” remark to rest. He may just gladly go along with those that want to extend those policies to curb renewables. Has anyone heard a Coalition politician say they shouldn’t? http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/ukips-dangerous-precedent-for-australian-conservatives-13428
University of New South Wales makes solar cell efficiency breakthrough
Solar Cell Efficiency Breakthrough At UNSW http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3721 6 May 13 Those clever folks at the University of New South Wales have done it again – this time with a solar breakthrough that wasn’t expected for another decade. Continue reading
Centre for Policy Development recommends to Australia – go for rooftop solar
The CPD report reaches five major conclusions about the benefits of rooftop solar:
- It lowers wholesale electricity prices for all consumers – as long as retailers pass these savings on. It estimates these savings at $300 to $670 million a year in wholesale electricity costs, based on prices in 2009 – 2010.1
- It gives consumers real choice about their electricity supply and control over their bills, noting that competition between electricity retailers is meant to lower costs, but ends up adding to bills.
- It can reduce summer peak demand, which may lead to more productive use of existing network infrastructure that consumers have already paid so much for. And in some places, it may also defer or avoid network investment.
- It creates a base of consumers actively engaged in managing their energy demand. This will be critical to avoid expensive network investment if climate change increases peak demand from air conditioning
- It helps insure Australia against future electricity price shocks from gas price volatility and drought. Prices for gas-fired electricity are now linked to volatile international oil prices. Drought can reduce electricity supply from water- cooled coal-fired power plants, raising wholesale electricity prices. It says prices could spike by up to A$250 per year, similar to the amount network charges have added to the average annual household bill since 2007.
Rooftop solar – natural hedge against dirty energy system REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 30 April 2013 A new report from the Centre for Policy Development recommends that Australia fully embraces solar energy as a hedge against volatile gas prices, and future electricity price shocks that could be caused by drought. Continue reading
Energy efficiency and renewable energy the solutions to Australia’s rising gas prices
there is a solution to all this – a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The significant rise in gas prices is starting to impact householders who rely on it for heating and cooking, as well as manufacturers and other major energy users who are already struggling due to the high Aussie dollar. It’s also making the power sector think seriously about the affordability of using gas to generate electricity.
The average gas bill in NSW is set to go up by just under 9 per cent next year. And it is likely to keep moving higher, according to the report released by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART). Couple that with a prediction that gas prices could triple on Australia’s east coast within the next 10 years, as gas companies sell increasing volumes overseas, and you’ve got an expensive scenario for Australian businesses and households already battling with their energy bills. Continue reading
Uranium Paydirt Conference Only 35 turned up to hear the gloomy news
Uranium sales to India fuel nuclear arms fears 6 MAY 2013 KAREN ASHFORD, SBS Negotiations to launch Australian uranium exports to India have begun, a move welcomed by the industry at its annual conference in Adelaide…..
……The Gillard government is going down the same route as the US and Canada, circumventing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty y instead striking a bilateral agreement containing safeguards guaranteeing how Australian uranium will be used.
Delegates were scarce too – just 35 peppered the venue, the empty chairs reflective of the post-Fukushima doldrums that have gripped the sector.
A significant number of existing and planned reactors worldwide have been shut down or delayed in response to the disaster as nations reconsider their use of atomic energy, leading to depressed uranium prices and a general industry slowdown……http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1763258/Uranium-sales-to-India-fuel-nuclear-arms-fears
The Canberra Mainstream Media Press Gallery – a Closed Shop
How the Canberra Press Gallery shut out Independent Australia, Independent Australia, 29 April, 2013 The Canberra Press Gallery Committee has knocked back Independent Australia and its nominee from gaining representation. Callum Davidson explains what happened. by Callum Davidson A few months back, myself and David Donovan, managing editor ofIndependent Australia, agreed it was high time that the vocal and growing online community of Australian political blogs deserved a voice in the Press Gallery of Parliament House.As it turns out this is a difficult task to accomplish.”…..I hold an Advanced Diploma in Journalism and have been working freelance for a while now; but infinitely more importantly, I live a stone’s throw from Parliament House in Canberra……The press gallery is a bizarre and fascinating beast. Most of the Australian public still digest their political discourse from those guardians of information tethered to the cramped dorms on Capital Hill. All major mainstream news outlets, both television and print, have long had reporters stationed directly within our political elite. From Fairfax to News Limited to ABC, journalists mix with Federal politicians and their staffers, conversing with media opposition and rapaciously competing when necessary. But with the aspirational digital age and the declining fortunes of traditional media, would they let an outsider in?
[ David Speers Press Gallery Committee says ] “The Committee has decided to decline your request.
Generally new entrants to the Press Gallery will only be approved if they are established journalists working as such.
Your website appears to be opinion-based rather than a news site……”.
All news outlets are opinion based to some degree (some significantly more so than others) where does one draw the line? CertainlyIndependent Australia has developed a huge following not through opinion pieces, but through its original investigative reporting – that is, “new” news – such as the Jacksonvilleand Ashbygate investigations and the outstanding environmental exposés of Sandi Keane amongst many others.
The real question is, did Speers’ committee really take a close look at Independent Australia without any preconceived notions, or did they simply see it as just another “blog” and dismiss it out of hand? Is this another example of old media snobbery?……
Malcolm Turnbull recently made a rather hip appearance at the Woodford Folk Festival lamenting the current state of political media coverage.
He said:
“Broadcasters, or politicians or writers…who think that they are respecting ‘struggle street’, the battlers, … by dumbing things down into one-line soundbites are not respecting them — they are treating them with contempt.”
He urged bloggers et al to scrutinise politics and policy in the manner he believed necessary for a functional democracy. The question here is whether or not this is possible without complete ‘access’.
There are a number of brilliant online publications (with Independent Australia being right up there of course!) that do a fantastic job of sifting through the endless political data to provide material for palatable consumption to inform the public.
But, is this enough?
(For more information about how Canberra Press Gallery accreditation is awarded, please read this February 2013 Crikey article.) http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/media-2/how-the-canberra-press-gallery-shut-out-ia/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IA+Newsletter%3A+Our+Samizdat+Years&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=Read+the+story+on+IA
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