The Mad Monk: Just how mendacious is he?

[watt price tully]

Of all the cockamamie & confounded things this f*ckwit that is the Mad Misogynist Miners Monk has been doing this one takes the cake. (If it wasn't so serious this would be laughable):

Changes to environmental laws that aim to stop green groups taking legal action against resource projects. If anything has got up my nose & is so perverse this one is it. Now he & his spruikers have been caught out lying.

Abbott government war on green 'saboteurs' is Laurel and Hardy slapstick

When an environment group successfully uses 16 year-old national environmental laws to delay a project, the Abbott government tries to change the law to prevent them from ever doing it again.

But if an anti-windfarm group can�t find a way to use existing laws and regulations to stop or delay a project, the Abbott government tries to change laws and processes to make it easier for them to succeed.

The first is called green �vigilantism� and �sabotage� and the second is, according to environment minister Greg Hunt, a reasonable response because �many people have a sense of deep anxiety, and they have a right to complain.�


http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/18/abbott-government-war-on-green-saboteurs-is-laurel-and-hardy-slapstick

Farm groups furious at Coalition move to restrict environmental challenges

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/19/farm-groups-fear-coalition-move-to-restrict-environment-challenges

Adani mine a $20b project creating 10,000 jobs? The Abbott government's myths busted

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/adani-mine-a-20b-project-creating-10000-jobs-the-abbott-governments-myths-busted-20150819-gj2u2o.html

[watt price tully]

This covers it: First Dog On the Moon

Lawyer up! Greenies are here to vigilante your coal mine into oblivion!

A hemp-flavoured coalition of lawyers, activists and seabirds has successfully seen off Adani�s humongous coal mine on a minor technicality called �the law�

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/aug/19/lawyer-up-greenies-are-here-to-vigilante-your-coal-mine-into-oblivion

[Tannin]

Total number of major projects approved under the existing law, as brought in by Howard: 806.

Total number of projects not approved under the existing law: 18.

And Abbott reckons this is a crisis? Well, actually, it is. It an environmental crisis. We are about to lose the Black-tailed Finch for starters. Way too many seriously damaging projects are getting approval from the feds. The government needs to tighten up the EPBC process and stop approving palpably bad projects, such as the Adani shocker.

Mind you, Hunt's approval for Adani is meaningless anyway as it's an economic basket case.

• India has already announced that it plans to phase out coal imports completely inside 5 years - i.e., before Adani sips a shingle shovelful.
  
• The market price of steaming coal is way too low for Adani's mine to be economic. The price would have to double before they could look at break-even, never mind a profit.
  
• Adanu depends utterly on huge government subsidies for its rail and port facilities. Without those - and Queensland certainly can't afford them - it's sunk.
  
• Adani hasn't got anywhere near enough money to build the mine, and the big investment banks are falling over themselves to run away from it. they have looked at the cost projections and the bleak future of the world coal market and just don't see how Adani could ever repay the massive loans it needs.
  

[partypie]

Even former attorney general Phillip Ruddock says changing the law is a bad idea. It amazes me that Greg Hunt has escaped criticism, it was his failure to do the paperwork properly that has resulted in the delay.

[Tannin]

Bit more than that, Partypie. He failed to do his job properly. The law requires him to consider the impact of developments on endangered species. He did not. He doesn't have to pay heed to it, or abide by it in any sensible or reasonable way, or even understand it, he can simply say "I read it and I'm going to ignore it", but he does have to consider it.

Now in reality, you and I know perfectly well that a low-grade Liberal Party stooge like Hunt was never, ever going to stand up for conservation or do anything to hold up a coal mine, not if he could help it. All that evidence about the harm this mine was set to do was irrelevant to him: he was going to approve it before he even heard of it. And we know that he wasn't even going to read the paperwork - Hunt reads Wikipedia for his information, as we know from past farkups of his. But he had to be able to pretend that he'd read the briefs from his department before ignoring them, which was why his failure even to make sure they'd crossed his desk was such a shocker. He failed even to abide by the trivially mild provisions of the Howard Government law, and the court found out about it.

Worst Environment Minister in the history of Australia.

[pietillidie]

Unfortunately, the wrong reptiles are under threat of extinction here.

This is a much more serious matter than those conducting undergraduate-level wars with pot-smoking Greens, comprehend. I felt sick to the stomach and depressed about it this morning.

[watt price tully]

[watt price tully]

Abbott losing the plot : Interesting article by the rational Waleed Aly:

"...from 5500 projects, the laws have been used 33 times. Successfully, twice. That's a success rate of 0.04 per cent. Rounded up.

Now, consider the government's language. It talks of "vigilante litigation", "endless legal sabotage", "bullies in the green movement" and an environmentalist "war against economic development". It is, of course gigantically hyperbolic. In the case of "vigilante litigation" it is literally nonsensical � like "gluttonous starvation" or "rapid-fire sluggishness". But it's also visceral in a way that is instructive"...

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/abbott-is-losing-the-plot-in-its-war-on-environmentalists-20150819-gj3a1p.html

[watt price tully]

The unbiased shadow attorney general says it all really:

If George Brandis won't stand up for the rule of law, why is he attorney general?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/28/if-george-brandis-wont-stand-up-for-the-rule-of-law-why-is-he-attorney-general

[watt price tully]

Clarke & Dawe:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-27/clarke-and-dawe-greg-hunt-minister-for-the/6730644