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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

White Shark cull, Western Australia: Someone make a film about this please

Yeah, Sea Shepherd is in.

I wish I had something else intelligent to suggest here, to see if it comes true again.

About the surprise, there are very few woman that post in red user. You are welcome here Chelsea.
 
Just wanted to share this important address from Greens MP Adam Bandt, as it sums up the value the current governments of Australia place on environment quite nicely. I think future governments will likely legislate to restore and strengthen the various environmental protections we'll lose in the next couple of years, because it'll be identified as a key battle ground on which to fight coming elections once the issue of our "sovereign borders" disappears, but its a frightening prospect just how much damage can be done in a few short years when big business is given free reign to carve up the country any which way they think will make them a profit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yAJeT9zlsg
 
Their value in it, like pave it over and make profit from it. This is the problem being stuck between the extremists, we swing from being very constricted to axe wielding extremes by the other mob. Up here we were so tied up and undernourished by green politics that they want virtually nothing done off, or on, your property except to enshrine the present footprint unless they happen to want it, like a bat colony sets up in your back yard. They, in the back ground, in control, went unseen, while their public servants did what they wanted. Now it is swinging the other direction, those people may be progressively weeded out and replaced with long suffering "responsible" people, who will maybe swing everything too far in the other direction and so on. Consensus in the public service is just as important as in society and the government, to stop all this rot, and for people to become reasonable again. We won't even have a worthy environment at this rate. Anyway, my rage against the machine (pendulum) moment.
 
I wasn't going to be posting, but something strange is happening on "The Drum", not just some, but now all the remaining people on it suddenly are trying to be reasonable, or at least trying to appear to be reasonable, and the usual extremist think tanks are not there. I don't watch many ABC programs at the moment, has anybody noticed sudden shifts in other programs, like Q&A? There usually is a number of extreme (we'll prove things the way we want it to get our way types) right wing types on ABC 24 as experts. I could effectively counter argue most of these guys on the drum, but maybe it is because I actually give a .... about people.

I must admit, reporting is gradually hopeless these days and distorted. There was a report today, I forget the details, but in some place where there was strife that tourists normally come to but tourists aren't at the moment, the tourists aren't coming. My eyes rolled, just being melodramatic (maybe the reported hadn't slept come to think about it) not saying much and repeating what was just described. Give me plain simple straight forward concise news.

How is reporting on the shark cull in WA going now guys, is it well balanced weighing up of facts?
 
Wayne. Beyond Sea Shepherd having the state government in the District Court today, the outcome yet to be newsed, I am not up to date with other media treatment or events. I saw a CH10 crew sitting on the steps and CH7 further down Hay street setting their newscruiser link up. It might not even be the Sea Shepherd application they are reporting on.
 
An update. EPA ended up with 23000 public submissions calling for a review into the cull which is truly a massive and i think unprecedented number for this kind of thing, then declined to act stating that environmental impact assessments were not conducted based on public opinion. I don't really understand why they open these things up to public submission and directly ask for members to submit recommendations on whether to conduct an assessment if they are going to turn around after receiving an overwhelming response calling for action and say its got nothing to do with peoples opinions.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-12/epa-rules-out-shark-cull-assessment/5315032

In other news Tory Buswell, who was fisheries minister throughout this cull and one of its creators, has recently suffered a mental breakdown that required hospitalisation for 10 days before resigning from the cabinet. Currently there is a police investigation into allegations he crashed his car multiple times after driving home from a wedding after drinking heavily throughout the day. The opposition calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the incident and whether the Premier Collin Barnett had knowledge of and deliberately tried to cover up criminality in waiting 2 weeks before revealing to the public what had happened. Its really quite a spectacular melt down of a government that hopefully they can't recover from.

http://www.news.com.au/national/wes...nounced-tomorrow/story-fnii5thn-1226853733529
 
I just saw a news report on the ballot draw for listing on the senate voting paper, and the Pirate Party got 1st spot by the look of it (Lol). ;)
 
Troy Buswell's being in a bad place is nothing new. - He also seems to have taken Gareth Evans' lead (Cheryl Kernot - Australian Democrats leader who defected to Labor) and reverse honeytrapped the Greens member for Fremantle Adele Carles, effectively neutralising the Greens' representational credibilty here for a while.

It would seem that in dismantling the minority parties, the two majors whilst agreeing to disagree, are joined by the hip at the power brokerage level. I am surprised the Greens have endured as long as they have. They surely must have been infiltrated by now.

There is no pleasure to be taken in Buswell's latest tumble. It will be a hard and bitter swallow for him and family members. A person who suffers from the illness of substance addiction is the last to be aware until the final big scare. If one extrapolates the joining of the dots puzzle, it seems apparent that this time, he may have a problem and is living through his big scare which forces confrontational self-examination. Sometimes people make the changes, sometimes not.

We might be all the better off for it if he is rehabilitated physically, spiritually and politically. Then again, most of us have experienced the destructive energy of a reformed zealot so the two edges of the sword remain potentially sharp.
 
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Robert Hart said:
I am surprised the Greens have endured as long as they have. They surely must have been infiltrated by now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the extreme left of the labor party. :)

Boy that was fun, after spending an hour trying to put a suggestion into wikipedia for an article on activated vitamins, and the night looking for lists information on them.
 
That Pirate Party thing might be wrong. I've been noticing out if the corner of my eye news reports of wiki leaks being selected as first on a ballot paper, but didn't catch which. I don't know what that "1" next to the pirate party was about.

Anyway, you guys in the little states have so much fun with politic parties. ;)
 
Here is something a bit interesting. The prospect of a $25,000 fine ( in other words longterm debt to be paid for me who is impecunious) is a fairly powerful disincentive for me to have a morning dip at Cott and haul a drum line back to the beach as a swim aid. - My guess is there may be two limbs of legal defence for the protesters, that the drum line must be proven as the property of the fishermen and in actual use at the time; that the Supreme Court action may declare the shark cull, therefore the associated fishing activities illegal, therefore no offence of interfence committed.

Chuck in the usual protections for public servants related to acts or omissions associated with their work performed in good faith. By implication the alleged intent to interfere with the lines might be deemed illegal. - If found not guilty, they might then be gone after for creating a false belief that an offence has been committed. Being a fly on the courtroom wall on the day could be interesting.

I cannot post links anymore so if there is a mistake in the link it is because it as been entered manually and because text from my computer will only enter to this site at about two characters per second or slower.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/22016046/hefty-fine-flagged-for-shark-protest/
 
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Boy, I'd be worried by the hooks.
 
You know this thread has over 29 thousand views. I would have thought there would be more.

How is the project going Trevor?
 
Wayne. So far as I know, an insider from the shark protest was shooting footage intended for a documentary, BBC Natural History Unit are examining it as part of a broader project and there has more recently surfaced, an indie who is doing a documentary, specific to the W.A. shark cull. I am very short on relevent details. They all know there is some digital cinema camera footage of the cull protests at Cott and Parliament House. There was a lot of diverse coverage on all manner of cameras, DSLR and picture phones.
 
So a few things happening. that could be collaborated on.
 
Glad to hear there are people out there doing something about telling this story. I can't believe this thread has had over 30k views and climbing, a solid indication of the level of interest in the subject and species that i find very encouraging.

This thread went dormant for awhile but it might be useful to update those who have not been following of a few interesting outcomes. The cull ended up having zero impact on Great White Sharks or GWS attacks as it failed to attract a single one. Which was a happy result. But it did have a large impact on Tiger sharks which I think most people didn't even realise were out there in such numbers.

172 Sharks caught on drumlines total
163 of those Tigers
3 to 1 ratio of female to male Tigers caught
4 to 1 ratio female to male of Tigers over 3m
45 Tigers over 3m destroyed
117 Smaller Tigers released, many of which presumed for various reasons not to have survived

Good summary here:

http://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2014/05/26/what-we-learned-wa-shark-cull

The cull ended April 30th, on the 1st of May by some delightful coincidence we had our first 2 GWS sightings of the year. The first was a large shark following a young whale that appeared to be travelling solo and under duress.

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-beaches-close-as-shark-pursues-whale-20140501-zr2j1.html

And another beautiful 4m shark dropped in to say hello to some fishermen.

http://media.watoday.com.au/news/wa-news/great-white-spotted-off-dawesville-5395951.html

Its now Autumn/Winter here which means Humpback whale migration up the coast and the GWS have arrived to follow them and feast on the carcasses of those who don't make it. An important natural process which thankfully they can undertake in peace.

On the political front the government who approved the cull has absolutely been on fire, non stop controversy on an almost daily basis. Its been breathtaking stuff, right wing conservative nutters everywhere one cares to point a finger ensuring no shortage of baddies to take to task should one want to explore that side of the story.

Moving forward, future culls are the stated desire of the Western Australian state authorities but that is subject to some sort of environmental assessment and subsequent rubber stamping from the federal government before it can be extended for the next 3 summers. Most likely when summer rolls in toward the end of the year this will become front page news again. Until then, we wait.
 
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