Australia’s public liars being exposed
IPA falsifiers fear fact checking fad Independent Australia 19 November, 2012 Serial deceivers, the Institute of Public Affairs, appear decidedly nervous about the prospect of fact checking coming to Australia, reports Alan Austin.
WATCHING the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) become appalled at the threat of fact checking coming to Australia has been one of this year’s more entertaining media experiences. Writing on The Drum online last week, IPA research fellow and (according to his bio on The Drum*) editor of the IPA Review, Chris Berg claimed fact checking – that is, ensuring what is written is actually true – is
‘…appealing in principle. It is disappointing – even futile – in practice.’
Well, of course it is ― to the IPA. Its Review almost rivals The Australian for distortions and falsehoods. Almost. Its writers almost match Andrew Bolt for fabrications. Well, no, not really………
Even pro-Republican Fox News called Romney and Ryan out on their multiple fabrications.
Steve Benen’s influential website meticulously documented Romney’s porkies throughout the 2012 presidential campaign. He ended up with a total of 917 by election day ― a tally that would make even Australia’s “Lying Rodent” blush.
Most commentators assess this to have been a factor in the huge win for President Obama. How significant it was, of course, impossible to measure.
More urgently for Australia’s IPA, recent focus on the lies of their pal, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, has coincided with a dramatic fall in his approval rate to new record lows. Just coincidence? Again, hard to be certain. But the IPA is nervous……
Fact checkers are required primarily for calling out lies — deliberate statements of falsehood, made knowingly by politicians, the media and public commentators.
Australia, the USA and Britain today are rife with fabricators.
Journalists lie about public figures, about climate change and about Aboriginal people.
The IPA routinely fabricates and distorts in its advocacy on behalf of its undisclosed clients on tobacco marketing, internet privacy, climate change, controls over shonky charities and many other matters.
These are profound challenges facing Australia, the USA and Britain. Fact checkers can help us deal with them. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/ipa-falsifiers-fear-fact-checking-fad/
Is the Australian government manipulating Aboriginal Northern Land Council on nuclear waste dump plans?
Government got it wrong on Muckaty, commission needed to reach radioactive waste solution 07 Nov 2012 | Scott Ludlam The Greens have called on the Federal Government to come clean on whether it is behind moves by the Northern Land Council to nominate a new site on Muckaty station for a Radioactive Waste Dump.
“The Government is clearly terrified it may lose a Federal Court action launched by Traditional Owners of the area. Remarkably, just when the Commonwealth’s desperate proposal finally comes apart at the seams, NT Chief Minister Terry Mills has surrendered and now claims to support the dump. Chief Minister Mills has met with Minister Martin Ferguson – cutting a deal in Canberra to the exclusion of the local community.
“In March 2012 the Greens moved amendments for an independent commission on radioactive waste but hit a wall of opposition from the Labor Party and the Coalition.
“This Commission would apply world’s best practice to responsibly deal with Australia’s radioactive waste inventory, which may have to involve a more sophisticated management regime than dumping the waste containers in a shed on a cattle station.
“This latest move for an alternate site replicates the same tactics that sparked the Muckaty debacle in the first place. It is time to change the strategy. We need an approach that is democratic, fair, and scientifically sound.”
Don Argus, like Martin Ferguson, adds more lies about nuclear energy
Uranium ‘cheapest’ alternative fuel October 23, 2012 Tony 
Moore brisbanetimes.com.au senior reporter Uranium remained the cheapest of the alternative fuels, one of Australia’s leading business figures, Don Argus, said today.
However restrictions on shipping and transport of uranium in several Australian states, including Queensland and Western Australia, remain.
Mr Argus, the former BHP Billiton chief executive, cautiously welcomed Queensland’s possible re-entry to uranium mining.
Mr Argus however decried governments’ lack of focus on Australia’s natural gas reserves.
“Uranium is still the cheapest of the so-called alternative energy sources,” Mr Argus said. “But I am surprised that governments haven’t adjusted to the gas option as distinct from what appears to be, in
some cases, inefficient renewable energy in the form of wind farms.” http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/uranium-cheapest-alternative-fuel-20121023-2838o.html#ixzz2AWguXGhW
Aw gee shucks when I say “No” to nuclear, I mean “Yes” – Martin Ferguson
Ferguson says no to nuclear power THE AUSTRALIAN AAP October 24 The Australian government remains opposed to nuclear power, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says. RESOURCES Minister Martin Ferguson has ruled out Australia pursuing nuclear energy as an increasing number of states open the door to uranium mining.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman on Monday reneged on an election commitment to uphold a 30-year ban on uranium mining in his state, saying Mr Ferguson’s urging and the federal government’s moves to sell uranium to India prompted his decision.
Mr Ferguson told the National Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) Conference in Perth on Tuesday that a wide range of clean energy technologies including CCS would be part of the nation’s future, but not nuclear power, which was expected to fall in cost.
“The Australian government has basically said we are committed to all potential forms of clean energy from an innovative point of view, other than nuclear, which is a proven clean energy technology,” he told reporters…..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/ferguson-says-no-to-nuclear-power/story-fn3dxiwe-1226501691026
Queensland’s scandalous uranium history: a bad idea to start it again
Queensland Forgets Its Uranium History http://newmatilda.com/2012/10/24/queensland-forgets-its-uranium-history Jim Green, New Matilda, 24 Oct 2012 The Queensland Government is unwise to reverse the ban against uranium mining and there is no stronger reason than the industry’s sordid track record in the state.
French company Minatome undertook trial mining at Ben Lomond, near Townsville, in the early 1980s. Federal MP Bob Katter spoke at length about Ben Lomond in Parliament on 1 November 2005. He noted that Minatome initially denied reports of a radioactive spill, but then changed its story and claimed that the spill posed no risk and did not reach the water system from which 210,000 people drank.
Bob Katter’s version of the story is on Hansard: “For the next two or three weeks they held out with that story. Further evidence was produced in which they admitted that it had been a dangerous level. Yes, it was about 10,000 times higher than what the health agencies in Australia regarded as an acceptable level. After six weeks, we got rid of lie number two. I think it was at about week 8 or week 12 when, as a state member of parliament, I insisted upon going up to the site. Just before I went up to the site, the company admitted — remember, it was not just the company but also the agency set up by the government to protect us who were telling lies — that the spill had reached the creek which ran into the Burdekin River, which provided the drinking water for 210,000 people. We had been told three sets of lies over a period of three months.”
Queensland’s other misadventure with uranium was the Mary Kathleen mine in western Queensland. In the mid-1970s, a whistleblower from Mary Kathleen Uranium Mining leaked documents which revealed the existence of a global uranium cartel leading to protracted international scandals and fines totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.
The leaked documents also revealed evidence of shoddy environmental practices at Mary Kathleen; close surveillance of environmental organisations; the close relationship between then-ACTU President Bob Hawke and the chairman of uranium miner Conzinc Riotinto Australia; and advice from government officials about how companies could circumvent non-proliferation treaties in order to sell uranium to countries that had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
One million litres of radioactive liquid were released in February 1984 from Mary Kathleen’s evaporation ponds during a wet spell. Even now, 30 years after the mine’s closure, there is ongoing seepage of saline, metal and radionuclide-rich waters from tailings, as well as low-level uptake of heavy metals and radionuclides into vegetation.
Bob Katter’s son, state MP Rob Katter, claims that uranium mining represents a potential $20 billion export industry for Queensland which could generate 2600 jobs. The simple facts are that uranium accounts for just 0.2 per cent of Australia’s export revenue ($610 million in 2010-11) and less than 0.02 per cent of Australian jobs (1760 jobs including mining, exploration and regulation). Queensland is home to just 3 per cent of Australia’s uranium resources.
Rob Katter claims that Queenslanders support uranium mining but he provides no evidence. The latest poll reported in the Courier Mail in November 2008, found that 47 per cent of Queenslanders oppose uranium mining compared to 45 per cent in support. Two-thirds of Queenslanders oppose uranium sales to nuclear weapons states. A majority of Australians believe that the “safeguards” system, which aims to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, is ineffective.
Before the last state election, the Queensland Liberal National Party said it had no intention of reversing the ban against uranium mining. Campbell Newman’s LNP Government ought to take its new position to the next state election. Better still, a referendum could be held on the question of uranium mining when Queenslanders next go to the polls.
The uranium industry has no capacity to deliver serious economic benefits to Queensland but, if given the chance, it will create more long-term environmental and public health hazards such as Ben Lomond and Mary Kathleen.
Dr Adi Paterson of Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation upset at being called a lying shit
Nuclear agency boss emotional as whistleblower taunts http://www.cootamundraherald.com.au/story/405017/nuclear-agency-boss-emotional-as-whistleblower-taunts/?cs=12 By Bianca Hall THE head of Australia’s nuclear agency briefly broke down at a dramatic Senate estimates hearing yesterday, after an angry whistleblower accused him of covering up a serious incident in which workers were splashed with radioactive material.
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chief executive Adrian Paterson was comforted by Senators and staff, and refused to leave the room until the man had left the building.
Listening to Mr Paterson give evidence was former ANSTO worker and whistleblower David Reid, who worked at the facility for almost 30 years, including years as his colleagues’ occupational health and safety representative.”You’re a liar,” Mr Reid growled when Mr Paterson finished telling the inquiry he did not believe the incident had occurred.
”You’ve fabricated the findings, covered up safety incidents … you guys covered it over. You’re a lying piece of shit.”
Mr Reid later told The Age he had been sacked after bringing claims of the incident to management. ”It’s trashed my life; I’ve just been obsessed with it. My marriage fell apart, and I lost my house and I’m living in a caravan. But I can’t let it go.”
KPMG conducted the most recent investigation into the incident, reporting in June that many current and former ANSTO employees had ”imprecise at best” recollections of the incident. But it found the regulator – the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency – failed to properly investigate the matter and neither its interim, nor final inspection reports, ”sufficiently examined allegations that a contamination incident … occurred”.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam called for ANSTO to apologise to Mr Reid. ”I think what has to happen from here, Mr Reid is clearly owed an apology, but the regulator is going to have to step up.”
Australia’s Institute of Public Affairs campaigning to deny climate change
IPA goes up the greasy Delingpole for cash http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/environment/ipa-goes-up-the-delingpole-for-cash/ 14 September, 2012 The IPA are grubbing for donations to fund their tireless campaign to stymie action on climate change — and are happy to fly out even the most obnoxious deniers from the UK to assist. Graham Readfearn reports.JAMES DELINGPOLE is a UK columnist waging a long personal jihad against wind farms, environmentalists and climate science.
A resident blogger and columnist at London’s Daily Telegraph, Delingpole is probably best known for being among the first mainstream columnists to declare – wrongly, of course – that emails illegally hacked from an influential climate research unit showed scientists were trying to con the public.
So he is the perfect person to be appealing for people to donate their cash to the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs, a free market think tank which has been working for about 20 years on a campaign to mislead the public about climate science and the impact of carbon pricing.
In the appeal, Delingpole lauds the IPA’s campaign against climate science and action on climate change. Readers of the appeal might be forgiven for thinking the IPA is struggling for cash. Says Delingpole:
James Delingpole
‘Their budget is always stretched. If you don’t give them money they’ll go broke.’
Yet the IPA’s most recent financial returns to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission suggest that, rather than scrambling around for spare change, the think-tank is, in fact, in rude financial health.
For the year ending June 2011, the ASIC documents show the IPA declared a before-tax profit of $217,000 with an income of $2.42 million. In 2010, the IPA’s income was $1.72 million, with before-tax profit of $203,000.
The IPA’s executive director John Roskam refuses to declare where the IPA’s money comes from……
Professor Bob Carter, the IPA’s science policy advisor, is also an advisor to the GWPF (as well as at least seven other climate sceptic groups), alongside fellow Australian “sceptic” Professor Ian Plimer, who has also made personal appeals for people to hand over cash to the IPA.
As I revealed in a story for The Guardian in March, the only known funder of the GWPF is Michael Hintze, an Australian-born, UK-based, hedge fund manager, donor to the UK Tory Party, and a man with a personal fortune of $1.4 billion, according to Forbes.
The IPA also has close ties to the billionaire set in the form of Gina Rinehart, the coal and iron ore mining magnate and world’s richest woman. In an address to “IPA members and friends”, Rinehart recently declared her concern that Australia was becoming too expensive, given that “Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day”. The comments prompted a Ugandan television personality to declare Rinehart was “removed from reality“.
The IPA is currently working in partnership with Rinehart’s lobby group Australians for Northern Development & Economic Vision, which wants a separate low-tax economic zone for the north of Australia to make it cheaper to run major mining projects.
Lies and coverups about radiation, from Maralinga to Fukushima
In 1953, Lallie Lennon was engulfed by a bomb fallout cloud. She became ill. She still suffers painful scars, though they have improved. From 1952 she began asking for a diagnosis. She asked throughout the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s. Not until the 1980s did she get an answer.
And then, the Young Doctors ignored radiation as a factor. They brushed aside her mention of the fallout which caused her health to decline and which caused her suffering. She is not the only one.
Nuclear sector seeks to regain trust after Fukushima< Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, Sep 13, 2012
“……..Over the last year and a half I have watched world nuclear authorities act increasingly in the same manner as the British nuclear authorities acted in Australia. They lied about the amount and impact of fallout. They lied about the extent of contamination residue on land and in water and food.
They lied about casualities, they lied about and with held diagnosis for decades, they with held hospital records, they claim to have lost ALL of the Maraling nuclear test health records.
They claim radiation affected no nuclear veteran, even at the same time as they admit that nuclear veterans suffer 23% higher risk of disease. They are perplexed, in public about this. Even today, the land which British authorities claimed was perfectly clean,remains, forever, banned from permanent human use. Yet Aboriginal people, whose land it is, know very well that the game they catch up there may well British radionuclides in its flesh…… Continue reading
Australia colluded with USA against Iran
WikiLeaks cables show how Australia works with the US to get Iran , September 5, 2012 Green Left By Linda Pearson WikiLeaks cables show Australian officials have colluded with the US to get the IAEA to declare Iran in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Barely 10 years after false claims about weapons of mass destruction were used to justify the invasion of Iraq, a similar narrative is being used by politicians in the US and Israel to push the case for war with Iran. You might not know it from mainstream media reports, but Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT ), has an inalienable right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
It’s thought that Israel has up to 400 active warheads but, unlike NPT signatories, the country has never agreed to open up its nuclear program to inspection. The US has about 2000 active warheads and is arguably in violation of the NPT itself for its failure to meet the disarmament requirement enshrined in Article VI of the treaty .
US President Barack Obama’s “Global Zero” initiative to rid the world of nuclear weapons has amounted to little more than rhetoric . A 2011 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the US spends more money on nuclear weapons than the rest of the world combined.
In effect, two countries with a combined nuclear arsenal probably greater than any other are threatening war with another country because it may have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in the future. This would be yet another illegal war of aggression, the “supreme international crime” as defined at Nuremberg.
WikiLeaks has given us unprecedented access to information with which to challenge the self-conferred moral authority of the US and its allies to decide which states can and cannot have nuclear weapons. Diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Canberra published by WikiLeaks suggest Australia’s role in US relations with Iran is shaped by its slavish support for the US alliance and Israel, and its position as the world’s second biggest seller of uranium. Continue reading
Australia’s radiation protection agency is far too cosy with ANSTO and the nuclear industry
A Homegrown Fukushima, New Matilda, By Jim Green, 23 Aug 2012 “…..In Australia as in Japan, there are patterns of inadequate safety practices stretching back for decades. In Australia as in Japan, whistleblowers have provided a great deal of information about nuclear accidents and safety problems.
If nuclear regulation has been found to be substandard in Japan, it is clearly substandard in Australia. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has been compromised from the start. The CEO of ANSTO was allowed to sit on the panel which interviewed applicants for the ARPANSA CEO job when the organisation was created in the late 1990s. ANSTO’s communications manager/spin doctor John Mulcair could only say, “There are two views about that. There’s my view and 
then there’s the official ANSTO view.”
There is a revolving door between ANSTO and ARPANSA, further undermining regulatory independence. At times ARPANSA has employed as many as six ex-ANSTO employees, perhaps more. Recent controversies have been complicated by a relationship between an ANSTO employee and an ARPANSA employee.
ARPANSA’s handling of the “clean up” of the Maralinga nuclear test site was its first test and it was a failure. ARPANSA’s handling of ANSTO’s applications to build and operate a new research reactor was problematic in many respect Continue reading
Revealed: Assange ‘rape’ accuser linked to notorious CIA operative
RS By David Edwards , December 6, 2010 One of the women accusing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sex crimes appears to have worked with a group that has connections to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
James D. Catlin, a lawyer who recently represented Assange, said the sex assault investigation into the WikiLeaks founder is based on claims he didn’t use condoms during sex with two Swedish women.
Swedish prosecutors told AOL News last week that Assange was not wanted for rape as has been reported, but for something called “sex by surprise” or “unexpected sex.” One accuser, Anna Ardin, may have “ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups,” according to Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett, writing for CounterPunch.
While in Cuba, Ardin worked with the Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White), a feminist anti-Castro group.
Professor Michael Seltzer pointed out that the group is led by Carlos Alberto Montaner who is reportedly connected to the CIA………
In August, Assange told Al-Jazeera that the accusations were “clearly a smear campaign.”
“We have been warned that, for example, the Pentagon is planning on using dirty tricks to destroy our work,” Assange told the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet.
The WikiLeaks founder said he was told to be careful of “sex traps.” Had Assange fallen for one of those traps? “Maybe. Maybe not,” he said.
Catlin observed that both Ardin and Sofia Wilén, the second accuser, sent SMS messages and tweets boasting of their conquests following the alleged “rapes.”….
“The exact content of Wilén’s mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Niether Wilén’s nor Ardin’s texts complain of rape,” Catlin said.
Ardin has also published a seven step guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends. … http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/06/assange-rape-accuser-cia-ties/#.UDEM4yk0cbk.twitter
USA out to get Assange, with the tacit support of Australian government
US in pursuit of Assange, cables reveal,The Age, August 18, 2012, Philip Dorling AUSTRALIAN diplomats have no doubt the United States is still gunning for Julian Assange, according to Foreign Affairs Department documents obtained by The Saturday Age. The Australian embassy in Washington has been tracking a US espionage investigation targeting the WikiLeaks publisher for more than 18 months.
The declassified diplomatic cables, released under freedom of information laws, show Australia’s diplomatic service takes seriously the likelihood that Assange will eventually be extradited to the US on charges arising from WikiLeaks obtaining leaked US military and diplomatic documents.
This view is at odds with Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s repeated dismissal of such a prospect.
Australia’s ambassador to the US, former Labor leader Kim Beazley, has made high-level representations to the American government, asking for warning of any moves to prosecute Assange. However, briefings for Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Carr suggest the Australian Government has no in-principle objection to Assange’s extradition.
On Thursday, Ecuador granted Assange political asylum at its London embassy on the grounds that if extradited to Sweden to be questioned about sexual assault allegations. He will be at risk of further extradition to the US to face espionage
or conspiracy charges. Continue reading
Auxstralian Foreign Minister Bob Carr gets the prize for hypocrisy about Julian Assange
Yes indeed – or is it just stupidity? – I don’t think so. It’s the public who are stupid, thinks Carr.
In today’s Age, Bob Carr is quoted: “I’d just say again – if America were interested in Julian Assange they could have sought his extradition from the UK at any time in the last two years.”
So Carr is continuing the Australian Government’s disgraceful line ‘ WE DON’T KNOW NUFFINK ABOUT USA PLANNING ESPIONAGE CHARGES AGAINST JULIAN ASSANGE’
Carr surely knows full well that it is a relatively easy matter for the USA to get Assange extradited from Sweden, but it would be a difficult and embarassing matter for USA to try to extradite him from Britain.
If the Justice Department were actually to issue charges against Mr. Assange while he was still in Britain there could be potentially a decision for the UK government whether to extradite him to Sweden or to the United States, and that could get to be a complicated clash between the two different requests which would put the UK government in a difficult position. – John B. Bellinger III on Fox News
Sweden has not opposed extradition to the US since 2000, SvD, 22 December 2011 . in Assange’s case, he will be put in detention indefinitely upon arrival. Having Assange in custody since 7 December 2010 in the UK (house arrest) and then in Sweden facilitates the extradition procedure once it is put in motion by the United States (although there are suggestions that a sealed indictment has already been issued).
Hackers attack Australian spy agency website August 10, 2012 (CNN) — Australia’s national intelligence agency acknowledged Friday that its public website may have encountered problems after hackers said they had subjected it to a sustained campaign of cyber attacks.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization “is aware that there may have been some technical issues with its public website,” a spokesman for the organization said…. The hackers, who appeared to have links to the loose collective Anonymous, said they had been launching attacks on the ASIO site and those of other Australian government agencies over the past few days, according to Twitter accounts under the namesAnonymous Australia and OperationAustralia.
In recent years, Anonymous has been involved in some of the most high-profile cyberattacks on the Web — hobbling the websites of governments and businesses, hacking into sites to reveal private data and, along the way, getting dubbed cyberterrorists by the authorities in the United States and elsewhere.
The network’s motto is “We are Legion,” and it describes itself as “a decentralized network of individuals focused on promoting access to information, free speech, and transparency.” http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/australia-hacking/index.html
Australian government’s secret study on nuclear war between USA and Societ Union
Nuclear study unveiled ( Why did The Age remove this story from the Internet?)
The Australian government finally declassifies its most secret study of the potential impact on Australia of a nuclear war between the US and the former Soviet Union.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/nuclear-study-unveiled-20120803-23l9y.html
Nuclear study unveiled http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/169021/nuclear-study-unveiled/?cs=8 By Philip Dorling Aug. 4, 2012 More than three decades after it was written, the Australian government last week finally declassified its most secret study of the potential impact on Australia of a nuclear war between the US and the former Soviet Union.
Australia’s peak intelligence agency largely dismissed any danger to Australia from global radioactive fall-out or stratospheric distribution of smoke from burning cities.
In the top secret intelligence assessment released by the National Archives of Australia, the Office of National Assessments also questioned whether Australian cities would be targets for Soviet missiles, suggesting the US’ southern hemisphere ally would be a ”low priority” in a global nuclear exchange. But it acknowledged that direct attacks were a possibility.
1 This month
17 October, Free Public Talk on Nuclear Issues in South Australia
David Noonan will speak on public interest concerns over the new Roxby Downs Indenture Act 2026 on BHP copper-uranium mining and ore processing in SA, and on how AUKUS may face SA with a High-Level nuclear waste agenda.
Dr Jim Green will discuss international developments in the field of nuclear power including ‘small modular reactors’ and Generation 4 ‘advanced’ nuclear reactor concepts.
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
