Politics is a dirty word

  Clearing important native vegetation alongside Bass River in West Gippsland is creating havoc for wildlife including Powerful Owls, Barking Owls, wedgetailed eagles, Lace Monitors,koalas, sugar gliders and mountain brushtail possums. Siltation, caused by the bulldozing is also impacting adjoining farmland and water quality in the river for species including blackfish and platypus. The riparian vegetation was part of the last remaining patch in Bass Valley. Bulldozers were sent in by concrete company, Barro Group, prior to starting sand extraction. Trashing habitat in the Bass Valley demonstrates the low priority given to ecological issues. Bass Coast Shire has failed to enforce permit conditions.If the Council was serious, it would cancel the Barro Group planning permit. The importance of the area has been recognised for years, including The 1970’s Westernport Environmental Study conducted by Professor Maurice Shapiro and the 1990’s Baseline Studies of Bass River conducted by F...

 US and politicians around the world are exhibiting double standards over their condemnation of the murder attempt on author Salman Rushtie. President Joe Biden praised Rushtie for his pursuit of truth. If he really belives that truth is important he would immediately drop charges against Julian Assange whose 'crime'/ has been to provide factual information to various news outlets about illegal activities by US military and intelligence officers. Australian politicians should demand that charges against Assange be dropped. Currently the US performance on press freedom and truth is no better than Russia, China, Myanmar or Australia.

 Is a referendum really necessary to provide aboriginal people with a separate taxpayer-funded lobby group? The Prime Minister has announced plans to hold a referendum to see what people think about a propose d new parliam e ntary body of separately elected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enshrined in the Australian Constitution. Surely all Australian citizens should have the same rights to say what we think to politicians?The Government needs to demonstrate how this body will differ from the Aborigibal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC which was disbanded  in 2005 over corruption and mismanagement problems. The experiment by the Hawke labor government was a dismal failure.

 There’s no shortage of entrepreneurs and celebrities trotting out ideas for ‘get-rich quick schemes. Promotion of cryptocurrecies such as Bitcoin is the latest in a long list. They often used to centre on pyramid selling, share market scams,negative gearing investments, options trading or margin lending. A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Technology is the bait in cryptocurrency scams which rely on greed, gullibility and people not fully understanding what they are getting into.

 Bass Coast Shire Mayor. Michael Whelan is trying to pretend that the Shire cares about environmental issues following the latest State of the Environment Report. But the Shire has spent years ignoring extensive local data alerting Shire officers to the issues here. In the last few weeks, the Shire has refused to enforce planning permit requirements on a proposed sand extraction site fronting Bass River in Grantville.Comments on video by Cr Whelan suggest that he understands the problem but Shire actions demonstrate a total lack of care!

  It’s been no secret that the health of Australia’s environment is poor and has deteriorated due to deliberate habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining, Now t he Government’s State of the environment report – compiledby scientists reveal s the extent of abrupt changes in some ecosystems over the past five years, with at least 19 now showing signs of collapse. The report fconfirmed that past Governments have not properly funded environmental issues. Local, State and Federal Governments have collectively failed to implement effective measures. They approved the destruction of native vegetation and wildlife habitat while wasting money on meaningless photo-opportunities. Currently, Bass Coast Shire has approved the destruction of hundreds of hectares of native vegetation.

 Police corruption has reached new heights in Victoria. A man who spent 22 years in jail for killing two police officers has been released after a retrial found he was not guilty because evidence had been fabricated to obtain the initial conviction.The conviction for the murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller was overturned because of the “reprehensible” conduct of investigating officers.