Author: Neville

here:HomeNational TimesPolitical NewsArticle

Search smh:

Search in:
National Times

.
.

Labor will reinstall Rudd, says Turnbull

Date February 15, 2013 – 11:51AM 591 reading now

Comments 119
Vote
Read later

Jonathan Swan

Breaking News Reporter

View more articles from Jonathan Swan

Follow Jonathan on TwitterEmail Jonathan

inShare.
Pin It
submit to reddit
Email article
Print
Reprints & permissions

.

.

Rudd icy on challenge

Former PM Kevin Rudd has waved away opposition taunts that he’s making a prime ministerial comeback. Mark Kenny assesses Labor’s troubled start to the election year.
Autoplay OnOff
Video feedback
Video settings

Labor will switch back to Kevin Rudd before the September election, according to former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull.

”I think it is likely they will put him back,” Mr Turnbull, the opposition’s communications spokesman told ABC Television on Thursday.

”The Gillard government goes from one catastrophe to another.”

Malcolm Turnbull … says Labor will turn to Kevin Rudd. Photo: Supplied

But Mr Rudd has ridiculed the suggestion, saying Mr Turnbull should ”jump in the ice bath”.

Advertisement

”I said a week or so ago everyone should take a long cold shower,” Mr Rudd told Channel Seven on Friday morning. ”What I’d say to Malcolm and you Joe (Hockey) is it’s time to jump in the ice bath”.

On the speculation by Mr Turnbull – ”who has no leadership aspirations himself” – which was forming the basis for a discussion on whether he would challenge again for the leadership, Mr Rudd responded ”give me a break”.

Kevin Rudd … tipped to reclaim top job. Photo: AFR

Mr Turnbull was an opposition leader during Mr Rudd’s tenure as prime minister. He was removed by the Coalition and Tony Abbott elected to replace him.

Labor’s standing in the electorate fell in the most recent Newspoll, with the Coalition having a 12-point buffer in the two-party-preferred vote.

Mr Turnbull has consistently been nominated by voters as the preferred opposition leader over Mr Abbott while polls have shown that Mr Rudd is preferred as PM over Ms Gillard.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull refused to comment when asked about the chances of Mr Turnbull reclaiming the Liberal leadership given the poll results.

Most recently, independent MP Tony Windsor said the Coalition would definitely win the election if Mr Turnbull was leader, but was circumspect when asked if Labor could win if it replaced Prime Minster Julia Gillard with Mr Rudd.

VIDEO: Kevin Rudd for Pope?

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said having Mr Turnbull offer commentary on the Labor Party was like asking rival sports teams to have inside information on each other.

”I’m sure there is a lot of Carlton cheer squad members who have got their ear to the ground about what Collingwood is doing, but I do take it with a grain of salt,” he told the Nine Network.

”Australians this year want to see a competition of ideas, not just personalities.”

Mr Shorten said he was certain Ms Gillard would lead Labor to the next election.

Mr Turnbull also commented on the mining tax, saying the government had made a mess of it.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan was criticised in parliament this week for his handling of the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT).

The tax’s revenue was $126 million for the six months to December, short of the $2 billion forecast for this financial year.

”The fate of the mining tax is colossal,” Mr Turnbull said.

The Labor government switched to Ms Gillard as leader in June 2010, and she subsequently defeated Mr Rudd in a leadership challenge in February 2012.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/labor-will-reinstall-rudd-says-turnbull-20130215-2egn0.html#ixzz2KvfPS91K

$450,000 in sham loans to throw ICAC off the scent

Amy Dale and Vanda Carson
The Daily Telegraph
February 15, 201312:00AM

Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size
Print
Email
Share

0

Out to lunch »

AutoplayOn
Off

Watch

Out to lunch

Forced to answer humiliating questions about prostitutes, former Labor Minister Ian Macdonald admits he was ‘out to lunch’, while working f…

.

.

.

Play

0:00 / 1:46

Scrubber

mute

Share

Fullscreen.

Disgraced … Ian Macdonald at ICAC / Pic: Ross Schultz Source: The Daily Telegraph

IAN Macdonald and his business partner created “sham” backdated loans as a cover-up for payments made to the former minister ahead of his windfall from an Obeid-linked coal deal, a corruption inquiry was told yesterday.

The scheme, dubbed an “ICAC loan”, was concocted after the corruption watchdog demanded financial records from John Gerathy, who paid Mr Macdonald $450,000 in less than two years.

Commissioner David Ipp said “we have a saying here that an ICAC loan is a transaction which is a gift but is really described as a loan and which has the security documents put in to create a sham, a disguise.”

The comments were made after Mr Gerathy’s barrister suggested the payments made to Mr Macdonald were to do with Chinese business ventures involving the pair and not the ICAC allegation that the money was “bank rolling” the former resources minister until he received a cut from a proposed $486 million coal deal linked to the Obeid family.

Recommended Coverage

.

The cash kept rolling in for Macca»

IAN Macdonald received $450K to keep him “rolling along” until a million-dollar windfall from a coal deal came through, ICAC heard.
.

.

High cost of an expensive lifestyle»

HOW much was enough?
.

.

Macdonald ‘doesn’t think’ he got $30k»

IAN Macdonald “doesn’t think” he received $30,000 in cash and gifts but admits he received “presents” from the millionaire mining investor.
.

.

ICAC to Macdonald: you’re a crook»

AFTER almost 40 jabs it was time for the ICAC to try a knock-out line as it stared down Ian Macdonald with its hardest accusation yet.
.

.

Cleaning up to good old cleaning»

PERHAPS the most puzzling evidence yesterday was Ian Macdonald’s claim: “I do cleaning and work associated with a shop and I’m pretty busy.”
.

.

But it sure was not a lie»

IAN Macdonald was not lying when he said he found Mt Penny in an atlas. You just need a microscope to find it.
.

.

A few words in mate’s ear»

IAN Macdonald’s former chief of staff was paid $740,000 by miners to lobby his close friend and admitted yesterday he might have urged his former boss to reopen the tender process on behalf of mining company White Energy.
.

.

Smile could well become a grimace»

HE entered and left with the grin of a Cheshire Cat. But after years to prepare himself for his answer to the reason he put a mining tenement on former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid’s farm, the best Ian Macdonald could offer was that he spotted the coal tenement on an atlas in his office – an atlas which he no longer had.
.

.

Macdonald denies lying about Obeid land»

DISGRACED former minister Ian Macdonald has denied he created a coal mining tenement in the Bylong Valley of NSW to benefit the Obeid family.
.

.

Minister’s ex-aide lobbied for mine firms»

IAN Macdonald has started a fiery stint in the ICAC witness box, telling the inquiry he cannot explain how a new mining tenement was created “smack bang on top of the Obeid family farm.”
.

.

Wiping smiles off their faces»

IAN Macdonald forged determinedly through the media scrum outside the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s HQ this week.
.

.

Macdonald ‘side swiped’ by Obeids »

EX-Minister felt “swiped from the side” when Obeids went on to earn millions from coal deal after he provided a list of mining company names to them.
..

The state’s most important corruption inquiry yesterday finished with its most important witness – Mr Macdonald stepped down at 4pm after a tense three days in the witness box where he was grilled over his role in allegedly providing inside information to the Obeids which saw them receive millions from a coal mining venture.

Mr Macdonald, who yesterday confirmed he received his parliamentary super as a lump sum payment in June 2010, told the hearing that by August 2011 his overseas business dreams, including a possible coal deal with Paul Obeid in Indonesia, had ground to a halt – and with it, his plans to use that cash to repay the loan to Mr Gerathy.

It is understood his parliamentary payout could have been as high as $1.3 million.

Mr Macdonald was asked about the $805 restaurant bill he racked up while he was at the Obeids’ Perisher chalet in July 2008, shortly after providing a list of 12 coal companies that were to bid for the Bylong Valley exploration licence to Moses Obeid.

“Is there any other place to eat (at Perisher)?” Mr Hale asked.

“A small kitchen,” he said, adding he used the ski trip to “meet with chalet owners”.

Mr Macdonald also defended himself from accusations he was a “Sir Lunchalot”, which crippled the latter part of his political career.

He said he used his one-hour lunch break each day to “meet with stakeholders” rather than “have a few sandwiches in the office”.

Mr Ipp said he would hand down his findings on four probes into alleged corruption in July.

The four inquiries include the sensational 2011 inquiry involving Mr Macdonald and the prostitute Tiffanie as well as the inquiry dubbed “Honda-gate” about a discount car given to former roads minister Eric Roozendaal, the current inquiry and Operation Acacia inquiry into the Yarrawa tenement which begins next month.

Mr Ipp said the upcoming committal hearing for businessman Ron Medich for the murder of Michael McGurk meant the corruption inquiry’s findings needed to be completed swiftly.

The counsel assisting ICAC alleged Mr Macdonald received a “therapeutic massage” from Tiffanie in a Sydney hotel for arranging for Mr Medich to meet energy bosses.

The current hearing will resume on March 5 to hear from ICAC investigators and the Obeid family accountant, Sid Sassine.

Hard road for Roozendaals after wife fined driving car caught up in corruption inquiry

Date February 15, 2013 202 reading now

Read later

Leesha McKenny

inShare.
Pin It
submit to reddit
Email article
Print
Reprints & permissions

.

THE DIARY

Eric Roozendaal … his wife was fined for using a mobile while driving. Photo: Kate Geraghty

The best value car in Sydney just got a little bit more expensive.

Amanda Roozendaal, wife of the Labor MP Eric, was on Thursday stopped and fined driving her black Honda CR-V, the marvellous economy of which was highlighted in a corruption inquiry last year.

On Mrs Roozendaal’s account, she was driving along Old South Head Road when police pulled her into a bus lane after spotting her taking a call on loudspeaker.

”I was booked for being on the mobile and it was on my lap, that’s all,” she said.

Advertisement

Ms Roozendaal doesn’t plan to contest this latest wrongdoing connected with the car – as her husband was at pains to do when hauled before ICAC last year.

He then told the inquiry that a $10,800 ”saving” on the Honda was not in exchange for favours for Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

But Old South Head Road has also proven a painful path for the Roozendaals.

The MP was forced to apologise in 2006, when as newly-minted Roads Minister he was photographed as a passenger in his ministerial car, travelling in a bus lane.

”People should be aware to stay out of bus lanes,” he told the media. ”I was unaware at the time it was happening.”

Mr Roozendaal told last year’s inquiry he also ”wasn’t au fait” with how to register the Honda in 2007, which was in the name of a relative of the Obeids’ business partner, when Mrs Roozendaal had a minor scrape with another car.

Seeds for its latest brush with the law were sown in November, back when Mr Roozendaal was suspended from the Labor Party for filing false registration papers.

New laws about holding phones in cars – and the $298 fine and three-demerit-point penalty – came into force on November 1.

GOT A TIP?

Contact diary@smh.com.au or 92822372

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/hard-road-for-roozendaals-after-wife-fined-driving-car-caught-up-in-corruption-inquiry-20130215-2egu9.html#ixzz2KvORfz6s

RE: Study: Predicted 6ºC Rise by 2100 Should End “Business as Usual”‏

[Mark this message as unread] [Delete this message]
[Keep this message at the top of your inbox]
11:44 AM

Reply ▼

Andrew Glikson

To ‘NEVILLE GILLMORE’, ‘John James’

Hi Neville

“Business as usual” would end long before 4 degrees C, let alone 6 degrees C.

Many people expect “accurate” predictions of climate states, temperatures and sea level rise. Most scientists will not issue such predictions as the atmosphere/ocean/biosphere system is far too complex and transient reversals are more than likely (such as transient cooling of the North Atlantic due to Greenland ice melt water).

It is the extent of the feedbacks (from fires, methane, ice/water albedo effect) that will determine the temperatures at any particular point.

I find it bizarre that so many pin their forecasts on the end-21st century – as if there is not expectation/hope our grandchildren and their children will live beyond this point !

It is sufficient to say the trends are extremely worrying.

Andrew

13-11-12

Arctic Ocean Is On Thin Ice: European Satellite Confirms Numbers

Feb. 13, 2013 — The September 2012 record low in Arctic sea-ice extent was big news, but a missing piece of the puzzle was lurking below the ocean’s surface. What volume of ice floats on Arctic waters? And how does that compare to previous summers? These are difficult but important questions, because how much ice actually remains suggests how vulnerable the ice pack will be to more warming.

——————————————————————————–

Share This:

19

Related Ads:
•Climate Change
•Global Warming
•Ice Melt
•Weather Data

See Also:

Earth & Climate
•Global Warming
•Climate
•Ice Ages
•Oceanography
•Geography
•Weather

Reference
•Ice shelf
•Antarctic ice sheet
•Greenland ice sheet
•Ice sheet

New satellite observations confirm a University of Washington analysis that for the past three years has produced widely quoted estimates of Arctic sea-ice volume. Findings based on observations from a European Space Agency satellite, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, show that the Arctic has lost more than a third of summer sea-ice volume since a decade ago, when a U.S. satellite collected similar data.

Combining the UW model and the new satellite observations suggests the summer minimum in Arctic sea ice is one-fifth of what it was in 1980, when the model begins.

“Other people had argued that 75 to 80 percent ice volume loss was too aggressive,” said co-author Axel Schweiger, a polar scientist in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory. “What this new paper shows is that our ice loss estimates may have been too conservative, and that the recent decline is possibly more rapid.”

The system developed at the UW provides a 34-year monthly picture of what’s happening to the total volume of Arctic sea ice. The Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System, or PIOMAS, combines weather records, sea-surface temperature and satellite pictures of ice coverage to compute ice volume. It then verifies the results with actual thickness measurements from individual moorings or submarines that cruise below the ice.

“Because the ice is so variable, you don’t get a full picture of it from any of those observations,” Schweiger said. “So this model is the only way to reconstruct a time series that spans multiple decades.”

The UW system also checks its results against five years of precise ice thickness measurements collected by a specialized satellite launched by NASA in 2003. The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, measured ice thickness across the Arctic to within 37 centimeters (15 inches) until spring of 2008.

The U.K.’s CryoSat-2 satellite resumed complete ice thickness measurements in 2010; this is the first scientific paper to share its findings about the recent years of record-low sea ice.

Between 2008 and now, the widely cited UW figures have generated some controversy because of the substantial ice loss they showed.

“The reanalysis relies on a model, so some people have, justifiably, questioned it,” Schweiger said. “These data essentially confirm that in the last few years, for which we haven’t really had data, the observations are very close to what we see in the model. So that increases our confidence for the overall time series from 1979 to the present.”

Arctic sea ice is shrinking and thinning at the same time, Schweiger explained, so it’s normal for the summer ice volume to drop faster than the area covered, which today is about half of what it was in 1980.

Schweiger cautioned that past trends may not necessarily continue at the same rate, and predicting when the Arctic might be largely ice-free in summer is a different question. But creating a reliable record of the past helps to understand changes in the Arctic and ultimately helps to better predict the future.

“One question we now need to ask, and can ask, is what are the processes that are driving these changes in the ice? To what degree is it ocean processes, to what degree is this in the atmosphere?” Schweiger said. “I don’t think we have a good handle on that yet.”

The UW system was created by co-author Jinlun Zhang, an oceanographer at the Applied Physics Laboratory. The UW portion of the research was funded by NASA and the Office of Naval Research.

Other co-authors are first author Seymour Laxon, Katharine Giles, Andy Ridout, Duncan Wingham and Rosemary Willatt at University College London; Robert Cullen and Malcolm Davidson at the European Space Agency; Ron Kwok at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Christian Haas at York University in Canada; Stefan Hendricks at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany; Richard Krishfield at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Sinead Farrell at the University of Maryland; and Nathan Kurtz at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

War Without End, With Earth’s Carbon Cycle Held in the Balance

Feb. 13, 2013 — The greatest battle in Earth’s history has been going on for hundreds of millions of years — it isn’t over yet — and until now no one knew it existed, scientists reported Feb. 13 in the journal Nature.

——————————————————————————–

Share This:

56

Related Ads:
•Air Quality
•Global Warming
•Climate Change
•Earth Science

See Also:

Plants & Animals
•Virology
•Microbes and More
•Nature

Earth & Climate
•Geochemistry
•Global Warming
•Air Quality

Reference
•Carbon cycle
•Ocean acidification
•Microorganism
•Natural killer cell

In one corner is SAR11, a bacterium that’s the most abundant organism in the oceans, survives where most other cells would die and plays a major role in the planet’s carbon cycle. It had been theorized that SAR11 was so small and widespread that it must be invulnerable to attack.

In the other corner, and so strange-looking that scientists previously didn’t even recognize what they were, are “Pelagiphages,” viruses now known to infect SAR11 and routinely kill millions of these cells every second. And how this fight turns out is of more than casual interest, because SAR11 has a huge effect on the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere, and the overall biology of the oceans.

“There’s a war going on in our oceans, a huge war, and we never even saw it,” said Stephen Giovannoni, a professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. “This is an important piece of the puzzle in how carbon is stored or released in the sea.”

Researchers from OSU, the University of Arizona and other institutions have just outlined the discovery of this ongoing conflict, and its implications for the biology and function of ocean processes. The findings disprove the theory that SAR11 cells are immune to viral predation, researchers said.

“In general, every living cell is vulnerable to viral infection,” said Giovannoni, who first discovered SAR11 in 1990. “What has been so puzzling about SAR11 was its sheer abundance; there was simply so much of it that some scientists believed it must not get attacked by viruses.”

What the new research shows, Giovannoni said, is that SAR11 is competitive, good at scavenging organic carbon, and effective at changing to avoid infection. Because of that, it thrives and persists in abundance even though it’s constantly being killed by the new viruses that have been discovered.

The discovery of the Pelagiphage viral families was made by Yanlin Zhao, Michael Schwalbach and Ben Temperton, OSU postdoctoral researchers working with Giovannoni. They used traditional research methods, growing cells and viruses from nature in a laboratory, instead of sequencing DNA from nature. The new viruses were so unique that computers could not recognize the virus DNA.

“The viruses themselves, of course, appear to be just as abundant as SAR11,” Giovannoni said. “Our colleagues at the University of Arizona demonstrated this with new technologies they developed for measuring viral diversity.”

SAR11 has several unique characteristics, including the smallest known genetic structure of any independent cell. Through sheer numbers, this microbe has a huge role in consuming organic carbon, which it uses to generate energy while producing carbon dioxide and water in the process. SAR11 recycles organic matter, providing the nutrients needed by algae to produce about half of the oxygen that enters Earth’s atmosphere every day.

This carbon cycle ultimately affects all plant and animal life on Earth.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google: