Updated on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 02:24PM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 05:16AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 01:38PM by stevem

YEARS back I had to go to San Francisco to learn that the famous sea lions in the bay smell worse than week-old sardines and that the Australian lungfish is about as exciting as Kevin Rudd. A murky tank at the California Academy of Sciences has been home to Methuselah the lungfish since 1938 and I presume he is still going strong, although I am yet to receive confirmation from the Ichthyology Department. But if he’s still on duty, I hope they treat him with the respect due to a creature that can demolish a $1.2 billion dam.

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Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:03AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:34AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:04AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:15AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 09:00AM by stevem

A Split has opened in the state government over whether a desalination plant would be built and operating at Marcoola by 2017. Queensland premier Anna Bligh responded to the federal government’s axing of the Traveston dam last week by declaring that sites at Marcoola and Lytton, on Brisbane’s bayside, would “be needed for desalination to be operational in 2017. This will mean more expensive water as a result of the federal decision this afternoon”. However, the department of natural resources, in response to several questions asked by the Sunshine Coast Daily, has cast serious doubt on those time lines.

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The Traveston dam decision has bolstered Kevin Rudd’s “green” credentials ahead of a federal election likely to be dominated by environmental issues. But things aren’t looking so rosy for Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 12:45PM by stevem

A LABOR branch in Premier Anna Bligh’s own electorate has accused her of arrogance over privatisation and declared it no longer has confidence in her. The South Brisbane branch, which earlier this year called for the Premier to be expelled from the party over the issue, said it wanted an election to have a say at the ballot box. It called on all elements of the ALP to “act urgently to restore integrity and real Labor policies into the administration of Queensland”. A motion carried by the left-wing branch cited privatisation, overspending on water infrastructure, price rises in public transport, the waste of money on the Gold Coast motor racing event and the controversial anti-bikie legislation as key areas of failure for the Government.

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Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:10AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:15AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:48AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 01:48PM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 03:35PM by stevem

FLEETING it may have been, but anti-Traveston dam protesters believe their meet and greet with Kevin Rudd yesterday can still have a lasting effect. Every time the Prime Minister sips his morning coffee from the ‘I Love Mary’ mug he was presented with yesterday, he just may be reminded of the controversy surrounding the proposed Traveston dam. He may also think long and hard about the effects Queensland Labor Government plans may have on the south-east corner of his home state when he picks up his new ‘No Dam’ pen. And his memories of swimming in the Mary River may even be jogged every time he glances at his new Mary River book. That would please protesters anyway, who gathered outside Hervey Bay Hospital yesterday morning to hand over the presents to the prime minister during what was a very brisk stop. As Mr Rudd climbed out of his car to a pack of media he by-passed the hospital entrance to introduce himself to a group of anti-Traveston dam campaigners wearing their signature yellow t-shirts and holding their bright ‘Don’t Murray Our Mary’ placards.

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Voter confidence in Premier Anna Bligh has plummeted to new lows, according to a Sunday Mail poll taken in the past few days. The launch of a $1.9 million campaign last week to promote the Queensland Government’s controversial sale of state assets has done nothing to quell public anger towards her and the Labor Party. The Galaxy Poll for the Sunday Mail, conducted on October 29-30, shows voter satisfaction with Ms Bligh’s performance as premier is in free fall, reaching a new low of 30 per cent only six months after she became Australia’s first female premier to win an election. Ms Bligh’s abysmal approval rating is now even worse than it was immediately after the corruption and cronyism controversy sparked by Tony Fitzgerald’s stinging criticism in July.

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Updated on Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 08:10AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 08:43AM by stevem

Southeast Queensland’s celebrated koala colony is doomed unless human population growth is reined in, former sustainability minister Andrew McNamara warned yesterday. Mr McNamara, who will address a Queensland Conservation Council meeting on population growth today, said there was no question that loss of habitat caused by development was the key cause of a crash in koala numbers over the past decade. “They are on the road to extinction in this part of the world as long as their habitat keeps being cleared,” he said. “The more of us there are, the fewer of everything else there is.” And the former member for the state seat of Hervey Bay believes his successor as Sustainability Minister, Kate Jones, has little chance of being able to stem the species decline if the human population continues to expand. Mr McNamara said when he was minister he had struggled to get population growth on to the public agenda or into policy, despite it being the root cause of planning problems at state and federal level. “We don’t talk about it in government,” he said. “It’s a massive blind spot.”

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Updated on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 08:27AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 08:36AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 08:38AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 11:01AM by stevem

Deputy Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg yesterday seized on the poll, labelling Ms Bligh a “political dead duck” who would not last until the next election. “She is a compulsive bare-faced liar,” Mr Springborg said. “And once people think you are a liar and see evidence to back it up, then they will always think you are a liar.

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Updated on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 10:56AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 11:04AM by stevem

Deb McLeish will contest the charge of obstruction laid against her by Melbourne water. Deb was arrested on her own property “Silverdene”. This case and its ramifications are extremely important to all landowners.

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Updated on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 11:31AM by stevem

The middle of last week Anna Bligh coughed the swine flu off the front page when she announced her government’s plan to snatch the 8 cents per litre fuel subsidy we have enjoyed for many years in the Sunshine state. Health on the back burner because this new petroldemic was going to hit us in the pocket from July 1. Unlike swine flu, there was no guess work on whether as an individual we were going to catch it. Here was an actual date for another disaster. Anna’s timing was interesting, the day before Origin one. She stated one of the reasons for taking it away was because southerners have abused the system when visiting the great state of QLD. Talk about motivation. The Maroon forwards looked like they were really ticked off with the Blues taking our 8 cents per litre. Well done Anna. It seems to me the state and federal mobs have worked a beautiful ruse- the big boys giving out tax cuts and stimulus handouts while Anna relieves us of it via higher petrol which experts say will be about $350 year to the average motorist. And there’s more. Not steak knives, but transport companies will pass on their extra costs on food, beer and anything else that gets carted, taxis will put their prices up and so will public transport. Probably the rest of Kev’s handout will be sucked up that way.

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