Tim Dunlop on ABC News: Truth and decency were casualties of the Iraq war

Please share/reblog this as we prepare for our first real Parliamentary debates on our troops in Afghanistan ( via the Greens deal with Labor )

btw… The Iraq war mentioned is the post 9/11 invasion, not “Desert Storm” which I covered for McQuarie Radio & NZ1B….tony

Truth and decency were casualties of the Iraq war
No issue in my lifetime has done more to undermine trust in government and the media than the “selling” of the Iraq war.

I would go so far as to argue that the hyperpartisan, hectoring tone that dominates the way we do politics today was normalised during the national debate over Iraq.George W. B…

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Conservation Council of Western Australia : Golden Gecko Awards a public relations exercise for environmental disasters

See also story below on Government land theft

Golden Gecko Awards a public relations exercise for environmental disasters

Western Australia’s peak environment group today questioned the credibility of the Golden Gecko awards for environmental management in the mining and petroleum industry. The awards were announced last night by the Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Hon. Norman Moore.

Conservation Council Director Piers Verstegen said “Three of the projects that have received Golden Gecko awards are operating in areas that should be off-limits to the mining industry and instead protected. (Barrow Island nature reserve, Irvine Island in the Kimberley, and Jack Hills mine in the ecologically unique Banded Ironstone Ranges)

“Two of these projects were rejected by the EPA as environmentally unacceptable. (Chevron Barrow Island LNG plant and Pluton resources mining on Irvine Island)

“The EPA ruled against Chevron’s massive LNG development on Barrow Island, only to have their advice overturned by Government. Since then the project has had an appalling environmental record including numerous quarantine breaches, killing endangered turtles, and most recently the sinking of a service vessel carrying hundreds of liters of diesel.”

“Irvine Island in the Kimberley is another area where mining should not even be considered.”

After the Conservation Council appealed this project, the EPA stated in formal advice to the Appeals Convenor:

“Given the very high conservation values on and surrounding the island, and the currently near-pristine condition of the area, mining is seen as inappropriate”

“The idea that these projects should be given environmental awards suggests that the Golden Gecko awards are little more than a public relations exercise.”

“In a previous year the Esperance Port Authority received a Golden Gecko award for dust management before they went on to contaminate the town of Esperance with lead dust.”

“Perhaps these awards should be re-named the Golden Gecko Awards for environmental incompetence in the minerals industry” concluded Mr. Verstegen.

Piers Verstegen

	(08) 9420 7266
	(08) 9420 7273

http://www.conservationwa.asn.au/

Meanwhile the owners of land in the Kimberly accuse the Barnett Government of theft. Read ABC story here

Let’s pinch the Swan!