Steve Possel; the Food Bowl Modernisation Project; the North South Pipeline and Taking Water from Communities for Melbourne

For more than a year, voices in rural Victoria have been campaigning against the North South Pipleine which the Victorian Government is building to deliver 75 gl of water to Melbourne.  There has been only minimal interest from the people of Melbourne who, in general, only see the pipeline as a good thing that will bring water from them.  As this video shows, the pipeline issue is starting to be noticed in Melbourne and Steve Posselt, as you will see, has played a crucial role in bringing the issue to the forefront with a very simple message.

Further reading:

North-South Pipe laid, but nothing to flow for it.

Bill Weller of Ban Jumps  Racing S.A. has been networking with The Network.  Here's what he says:

Hi I we ( my family ) are involved in the Ban Jumps racing coalition in SA. Interesting that the SA Greens have little interest in our issue and would rather play consevative blue-green politics than remembering their true green/animal liberation roots.

below is our unoficial page 

http://BanjumpsracingSA.yolasite.com

Clearly an active lot over there and some great photos on site.

Epistemic justice: Power & the Ethics of Knowing by Miranda Fricker

Epistemic justice: 

Power & the Ethics of Knowing

Excerpts from this book are published on Google Books.

Dear Networkers,

Do you ever get enraged when you feel your views and those of your organisation are sidelined in favour of the views of the bureaucracy, certain "experts", lobbyists and their clients, political donors.  Local views, community wisdom are overlooked as though of no account, as though grassroots experience is of no consequence, eyewitness accounts count for nothing against libraries of books and ivory towers of academics.

Well, thanks to an academic I have come across a term for all this.....epistemic injustice.

To-day I was listening to Alan Saunders on The Philosopher's Zone on ABC's Radio National.  Alan was speaking to Dr Miranda Fricker who has put it all together and published a book explaining it all called Epistemic Injustice.  If you go here, you can listen to the conversation or read the transcript.  Dr Fricker has been in Australia to deliver the Simone Weil Lectures on Human Value at the Australian Catholic University. Her lectures were titled Knowledge and Prejudice.  Dr Fricker's premise stems from a famous murder case in the UK which lead to major and overdue changes in policing.

However, as I listened to Dr Fricker I became entranced with the concept and its application to governance and community.  I have been concerned at what I have seen in Victoria on water issues.  Energetic, well-resourced and intelligent community campaigns have been harshly over-ridden by government.  I ask how can this continue?  How can such lack of consultation and over-riding of sound local knowledge continue to be ignored?  In this area of grave climate impact, there will be more government-community stand-offs unless the government's way of doing things changes markedly.

I have been working along, like a voice crying in the wilderness, on the path of environmental and communal human rights and the development of mediation skills.  Then into my life comes the voice of Miranda Fricker across the air waves.  She says what I have long held - it is all about who is considered by the powers-that-be to know.  In the murder case, police - including black police - ignored the only non-involved (in a manner of speaking) eye witness.  They ignored his knowledge because of his race and ethnicity; because of behaviour which was thoughtlessly misinterpreted.  He wasn't considered to be someone capable of knowing.

How often do we see this is our society.

Consider the case of Peter Andrews.  His theories went against the conventional wisdom indoctrinating farmers.  However, many farmers ignored the conventional non-acceptance of Peter Andrews recognising the value of his knowledge.  Now Peter does not necessarily fit the bill as a conventional holder of knowledge.  While I have not met him, the stories I hear on Australian Story subtly indicate a man who can be problematic at times.  But his message persists.  And what helps his case greatly these days is that he now has a powerful patron in Gerry Harvey. No one argues about Gerry: he has money; runs a major corporation; loves racing and a bet on the gee gees; and owns some beautiful country.  So no one is going to gainsay Gerry Harvey as someone who might "know".

This is what governments and powerful corporations are doing to local communities across the nation: Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory; well-heeled landed gentry on the Liverpool Plains in New South Wales; irrigation farmers in the Goulburn Valley; and surfies on the Bass Coast in Victoria.

And who has the knowledge?  A Magic Circle.  It is quite circuitious.

If you want to be some sort of "water expert", what do you do?  You go to university.  The departments that are relevant are funded by industry, funded by government.  When people graduate as "water experts" where do they get employed? In industry, in government.  Then there are the industry associations which attract membership from...industry, government.  And there are study tours which attract people from...industry, government with some form of industry sponsorship.

But if you are a self-educated "water expert" with a wealth of on-the-ground experience, who are you?  You are discriminated against in the same way that the murder eyewitness was discriminated against.  You are completed ignored.  You are treated as an irrelevance.  How on earth, why on earth should you know anything that matters?

So I'm thinking of writing to Dr Fricker to ask for her thoughts of applying her premise of epistemic injustice on a social level.  You see, I think she is on to something of great value.

Networkers, I would like to know your thoughts, and your experiences with relevance to epistemic injustice.  If we put our heads together, we may well be able to put our joint knowledge to use to overcome the prejudice of governments against community knowledge and wisdom.

Further reading:
Simone Weil
American Weil Society
Books by Simone Weil

ANIMALS AUSTRALIA ASKS US TO HELP END THE DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER IN JAPAN : OUTCOME

WE DID IT, NETWORKERS

Have just received this from

Glenys Oogjes of Animals Australia:

Victory!

Broome Severs Ties with Taiji!

Thanks to you and thousands of others who wrote to the Broome Shire Council urging them to sever ties with the dolphin-slaughtering town of Taiji, dolphins are now one step closer to protection from Japan's mass annual slaughter.

Dear Miss Eagle,

I have wonderful news to share with you! After being inundated with emails from Animals Australia supporters and mounting international pressure, the Shire of Broome held an emergency meeting and decided to suspend its sister-city relationship with the Japanese dolphin killing town Taiji.

The move by Broome sends a strong message to Japan that the international community strongly opposes the slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in Japan each year.

Please join me in writing a short email to Broome Shire Council, thanking them for making this important decision:shire@broome.wa.gov.au

Whilst Broome's decision adds significant international pressure on Japan to end the slaughter, unfortunately it does not mean that Japan will immediately cease the dolphin kill. The fight to save these dolphins is not over yet. If you can spare two minutes today, please click here for a few more key ways you can help us to end the senseless slaughter of these gentle and intelligent animals.

On behalf of dolphins and all animals, thank you.

Glenys Oogjes
Executive Director, Animals Australia

Listen here to Dianne Stokes telling the story of Muckaty,

Kalumpurla north of Tennant Creek, Northern Territory

Another time and another blog I wrote about the nuclear dump situation and the fact that Muckaty near Tennant Creek was one of the possibities. That was in 2007 and over two years have gone by. Still no decision has been made. One is left to presume that this is one for the too hard basket. And why? The Rudd Government certainly has a lot on its Aboriginal plate:

• Navigating the road to the re-introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act - in spite of the fact it wants to carry out policies and activities which breach it.
• A visit from Professor James Anaya, United Nations Human Rights rapporteur.
• Failed Aboriginal Housing Policy under the SIHIP program
• Rebellion from significant Aboriginal members of the Northern Territory ALP, both in and out of Parliament, leaving the NT Government on a knife edge.

The Rudd Government said this week it will announce its decision prior to the next Federal election (...even if it's an early one?) and, it appears, it is quite prepared to over-ride any decision that the NT Government might be inclined to make to halt a nuclear waste dump being placed in the NY.

PROFESSOR JAMES ANAYA, UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS RAPPORTEUR IN MPARRENTWE ALICE SPRINGS

U.N. takes a look at the human rights of Australian Aboriginal people. from caama on Vimeo.

HANG YOUR HEAD AUSTRALIA IN SHAME: OUR FAILED PUBLIC POLICY ON HOUSING - #6

I hope the ABC doesn't mind but I am posting it directly so that there is no misunderstanding or misconstruction:

Macklin backs out of UN envoy visit

Posted Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:30am AEST

Professor Anaya is in Australia on a 10-day visit. (ABC TV)

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has cancelled a visit to a remote Northern Territory community with the United Nations rapporteur on indigenous rights.

Professor James Anaya is holding discussions about the rights of Indigenous people across Australia as part of a 10-day visit.

Today he is expected to meet with representatives from the Northern Land Council and the Laynhapuy Homelands Association in Yirrkala.

Ms Macklin was expected to join the visit this afternoon and take Professor Anaya to Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

It is one of the only places where construction has begun on the controversial Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program.

A spokeswoman says Ms Macklin has pulled out of the visit for personal reasons.

Professor Anaya will present a report to the UN Human Rights Council on the situation with Indigenous people in Australia next week.

Bob Gosford from Yuendemu: birds and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands bird knowledge

Picture from here

Co-blogger and Networker, Denis, has sent me this information. He is being rather social to-day, he said when I asked him to post and write about it. After all, virtually every bit of knowledge I have (and I don't have much) about birds comes from Denis and his extent of knowledge and research which he demonstrates on his blog, The Nature of Robertson. In fact, if I may make so bold, TNOR is one of THE top nature blogs in Australia. And if you want to find the others, then check his sidebar.

Bob Gosford is known to a lot of us through his reporting on Aboriginal and political issues at Crikey. However, it turns out that birds are Bob's thing - and he is off on a marvellous and unique project. Can you help, dear Networkers?

From: bob gosford

To: COG list

Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 11:01 PM

Subject: [canberrabirds] Update - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Bird Knowledge project

Dear COGgers,

Apologies for the lengthy post...

A quick note by way of an update on the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island bird knowledge project I've been working on for - well, years now.

My initial interest in this topic was prompted by spending time with Aboriginal people soon after I moved to the Top End of the NT in the mid-eighties - it was soon apparent to me that Aboriginal people had a wealth of knowledge about the birds that they hunted and ate and celebrated in dance, song and art and that forms a rich thread running through their mythology, traditions and culture.

Fifteen years and a law degree and a temporary move to the south coast of NSW later I finally got to attend the post-grad certificate course at Charles Sturt University at the Thurgoona campus at Albury. There I asked lecturer, course coordinator and general all-round great guy Dr Dave Watson if he might have some thoughts about what to do about the apparent lack of appreciation of the knowledge and appreciation of Aboriginal bird knowledge by 'mainstream' (for want of a better term) birdwatchers and ornithologists.

Dave's answer was short and sweet - "Well Bob, if no-one else has done it you'd better do it yourself!". Little did I know what lay in store by my simple response that I'd do my best!

A telling fact that drove my interest in the early nineties was that the most substantial single source of Aboriginal bird knowledge in the mainstream ornithological literature was John Gould's "Handbook to The Birds of Australia", published in 1865. I've not been able to find a replacement candidate as the primary source - and much of the information contained therein was collected by one of Gould's collectors, John Gilbert, who was taken from us too soon in 1845 while on a cross-country expedition with Ludwig Leichhardt.

Anyway, eight years on from Dave's wise words I'm getting closer to producing my attempt at an overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander bird knowledge in a single volume. CSIRO Publishing will publish the book (with a tentative and somewhat boring working title of "Australian Aboriginal Bird Knowledge") in mid to late 2010 - dependent upon when I get the finished work to them.

One thing I do note is that it will not, indeed cannot, be a complete compendium of such knowledge - that would take more time and many more volumes than I have time for. But what I do hope is that it will start a broader interest and enquiry about local bird knowledge among the many distinct language groups and cultural blocs around the country - particularly in light of the growing importance of Aboriginal land management in many part of Australia.

I've spent a large part of the last five years (at least) collecting the literature - mainly from many hours in dusty (and not so dusty) libraries across Australia and across the globe (I've found some great works in libraries in Cambridge, Cape Town, Arkansas and New Orleans, to name a few), and have a stack - literally - of secondary research material.

What has occupied a large part of my time this year is organising and doing what I think will be the most important part of the book - travelling around the country talking to any Aboriginal person or group with an interest in taking part in my project. So far I've done a few trips up and down the NT - into the southern fringes of Arnhem Land - where I lived for a while in the eighties and nineties, around and to the west of Katherine and up and down the Stuart Highway.

I've also been into the east Kimberleys, South Australia (twice) and have just returned home here to Yuendumu (300 kilometres n-w of Alice Springs) from my latest trip that took me through eastern South Australia, coastal Victoria, southern and north-western NSW and central and western Queensland - a total of about 10,000 km.

In a week or so I'll take off up the Tanami Track via Balgo and surrounds, then back into the eastern Kimberley, across to Broome and then down to the Pilbara - then back along that same route - that should take me the best part of a month.

After a week or so at home I'm planning a route that will take me up the Stuart Highway to just south of Katherine, where I'll take the Central Arnhem Road via Wugularr, Bulman, Gapuwiyak to the heartlands of Yolngu culture around n-e Arnhem land. Then I hope to travel across through to Raminging and Maningrida in central Arnhem Land then back through Kakadu to Oenpelli and Jabiru. Depending on time and inclination I'll either swing towards Darwin or south via katherine and the Barkly, eventually ending up here at Yuendumu for a few days.

By then it should be sometime in early November and I'll turn my wheels eastward - if I'm lucky with time and weather I'd like to travel back into Queensland via the Plenty Highway - so much shorter, but rougher - than travelling via Tennant Creek and the Barkly) to Boulia - then back through s-w Queensland towards n-w NSW - eventually ending up in Walgett where I hope to spend some time again with the Dhariwaa Elders Group.

Then to the Australasian Ornithological Conference in Armidale in late November and early December. Then back through coastal northern NSW, up the coast to (about) Townsville then back across the NT and home.

That will be just about all of the field trips for this year - I have a couple of trips - by air - to Tasmania via Melbourne (to catch up on the excellent resources in the several libraries there) and then in mid- January hopefully to be in the Torres Strait islands about the same time that Dr Rohan Clarke from Monash Uni will be doing some field work there. And I may have a short road trip down to western South Australia and another up to the Gulf country.

And then - sitting down for a couple of months and putting it all together into some sort of shape that people - will want to read - and hopefully and more importantly - buy.

Finally, I've learned a lot about methodology for ethnobiology over the past that I hope to apply in a more specific PhD project looking at the application of local bird knowledge to local conservation and land management efforts here in the Tanami. And I'll be talking about methodology at AOC 2009 in Armidale and at the back-to-back conferences of the International Society of Ethnobiology and Society for Ethnobiology which will be held on the magnificent Vancouver island in British Columbia in May next year.

And by the way - if you are interested in having a look at a great set of posters in for central Australian languages have a look at the set of posters that my friend and colleague Myfany Turpin, of the University of Queensland and the Charles Darwin University School for Policy and Social Research has produced. The series of posters are of bird knowledge in the Arrernte, Anmatyerr, Alyawarr and Kaytetye languages spoken throughout central Australia.

Individually they portray 25 or so birds found in the areas in which each language is spoken. As a set they reveal the depth of knowledge that Aboriginal people have of the birds that they hunt, share campsites and townships with and which are spiritually important or are involved in or related to traditional ceremonies and beliefs.

If you want any further information about my project please send an email tobirdknowledge@gmail.com and I'll be happy to send an Information Sheet or answer - as best I can - your queries. And please feel free to pass this email on to anyone you think might be interested in this project.

Cheers and I may see you on the road over the next few months.

Bob Gosford
Yuendumu, NT

Ban Political Donations: start with liquor and gambling

Here is an interesting debate on political donations.*

However, it is not just the panel

who makes interesting comments.

Listen for statements/questions from

John Cane, former Victorian Premier

and

Peter Kavanagh,

the lone DLP member of Parliament in Australia.

Miss Eagle's view is that

those who are influenced

and

those who can and hope to influence

live in denial

or, more bluntly,

cloud-cuckoo land.

Disclosure is not enough.

Perhaps if names went on billboards

in relation to what is being influenced.

Otherwise, no.

Money for influence is not new.

Money for influence has not gone away.

John Cane fingers the liquor and gambling interests.

So, citizens, want safety on Melbourne's streets?

Get liquor and gambling interests

off the political donors & lobbyists roll.

* Thanks to Denis for drawing my attention to this

even though he had to wake me from a Sunday nap

For all posts "Ban Political Donations":

Go here.

Oil Spill in the Timor Sea

OIL SPILL OFF THE W.A. COAST

This report is extracted from several ABC News stories.

There are some interesting things to note about these reports (of course). Denis Wilson offers to guide you through these murky waters.

Oil Spill Emergency off WA Coast

(Updated Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:19pm AEST)

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/21/2663062.htm

In a statement this afternoon, a spokesman for the owner of the unit, PTTEP Australasia, said the leak is continuing, however, the scale of the leak remains unknown.

"PTTEP has notified authorities as part of its emergency response," spokesman Mike Groves said.

"The Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC) is mobilising aircraft and dispersant to be in Darwin tonight and on-site in the Timor Sea tomorrow to begin aerial spraying of the spill.

"The size of the spill is not known.

"Approximately 40 barrels of oil were discharged from the wellhead in the initial incident - some of it into the sea.

"Since then, condensate has been discharged at pressure dispersed in the gas stream.

"It is not known how much condensate is in the gas."

It is still not clear whether the spill will impact on the Ashmore Reef or the Kimberley coastline.

The Australian Marine Oil Centre, based in Victoria, is flying truckloads of chemicals to the spill site to help break up the oil.

(Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/21/2663062.htm )

WA oil rig: Worker expects huge spill

Updated 3 hours 11 minutes ago (as of 1:00pm 22 August)

An employee on the rig that is spewing oil into seas off the coast of Western Australia says the spill may cover eight kilometres of ocean. ......

Crude oil began spilling from the rig about 4:00am (AEST) yesterday.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA) says it is investigating the incident and is unsure of how extensive the problem is. .....

Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins says a search and rescue plane with an environmental specialist on board is assessing the size of the spill and the environmental situation.

She says a Hercules aircraft on loan from Singapore is expected to arrive in Darwin this morning, which will be used to spray chemicals to disperse the oil. ......

"Obviously we're concerned about the oil spill and about any onshore oil, so that's why we're getting the dispersements ready and hopefully that will affect the situation."

Mining company PTTEP Australasia said last night that there were no injuries among those evacuated.

PTTEP says the spill is likely to be carried away from the Australian coast by south-westerly winds.

Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre general manager Ivan Skibinski said aerial spraying will start at the site this morning.

"Oil in the water disperses naturally. With a bit of wind and choppy water the oil breaks up into smaller globules and droplets," he said.

"Chemical dispersant just aids that activity. You spray it on the oil and it helps pull the oil apart into smaller globules."

DENIS'S COMMENTS.

Did you get all that?

1. Its OK for the oil to disperse by itself in the water. Ask the Whale Sharks (a "protected species" under the EPBC Act). Ask the Trepang which the Indonesian Macassan fishermen have been fishing for hundreds of years - the first recorded trade with Aboriginal peoples.
   
2. As long as the oil doesn't come onto the shore - the Australian shore, that is - presumably because the media would take photos
3. If it gets carried north-west (as it will) it becomes Indonesia's problem.
4. Australia's oil-spill response unit is based in Victoria - a very long way from the north-west shelf and the Timor Sea.
5. We have to hire planes and equipment from Singapore. How long have we been drilling oil in the Timor Sea? Isn't it time we were better prepared for accidents like this?
6. What does Peter Garrett think? That would be interesting to know, especially in view of the recent fiasco in China when Martin Ferguson signed up a 20 year deal for gas production off the North-west Shelf, without Garrett having yet approved the deal to go ahead off Barrow Island. Check out Martin's "What's New" page - it is blank! What a "goose" that man is!
7. PTTEP is a company based in Thailand. If you investigate their chain of companies, the very first one Andaman Transportation has its office in the Cayman Islands. That's encouraging - a "Tax Haven".
   
8. Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC)

• The establishment in 1991 of the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC) in Geelong, Victoria, at a cost of ten million dollars represents a major commitment by the Australian oil industry to safeguard the Australian coastline in the event of a major oil spill. The Centre is financed by nine participating oil companies and other subcriber companies. These companies carry out the vast majority of the oil and gas production, offshore pipeline, terminal operations and tanker movements around the Australian coast.

Aren't you glad that everything is under control?

UPDATE:
The ABC news at 2:00pm AEST has just carried a report that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority is now investigating this incident. That is a delay of more than 36 hours since the incident occurred. But don't worry they have lots of "plans" you can read on their website.

HANG YOUR HEAD AUSTRALIA IN SHAME: OUR FAILED PUBLIC POLICY ON HOUSING - #5

Jenny Macklin tries to talk her way out of the failed public policy that is Aboriginal housing. What she says here was re-iterated in the Australian Parliament this week in Question Time.

That's why we don't eat animals

Website here. Review here,

"This is a powerful and important book. Farm animals have emotions similar to our pets and this is conveyed in Roth’s enchanting illustrations. It will make children - and their parents – think. But it will not lead to nightmares, rather respect and compassion for the creatures whose wellbeing is in our hands."
-Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

Moral courage: even if its legal is it ethical?

Businessman Geoffrey Cousins delivers the second annual Vincent Fairfax Oration, organised by the St James Ethics Centre.

Geoffrey Cousins is a businessman and community leader. In his diverse career he has been the CEO of advertising agency George Patterson and Optus, served on the boards of Telstra and PBL, as well as founding chair of the Starlight Foundation and Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art. He was also heavily involved in opposing the Gunns Pulp Mill in Tamar Valley, Tasmania. In 2007 he published a novel entitled "The Butcher Bird."