Cereal crop contaminated

by Genetically Modified Canola

More than half of a WA cereal farmer’s crop has lost its organic certification due to contamination from a neighbouring GM canola crop.

An organic cereal farmer in Western Australia may consider suing for compensation after receiving confirmation his crops have been contaminated by genetically modified (GM) canola.

Steve Marsh, who farms at Kojonup in WA’s Great Southern region, received state government test results on Friday confirming the contamination, believed to be the first of its type in Australia.

More than half his land has lost its organic certification because of the contamination, meaning he loses premium prices for organic harvests.

Mr Marsh said he was disappointed but was waiting for investigations to be finalised by the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) before deciding what to do.

He said about 63 per cent of his property was affected so far which meant he would have to sell the oats, wheat and rye grown there at conventional prices and lose his premiums.

‘‘Our debate here is all about co-existence, we were told that the GM industry could co-exist with the non-GM industry. Co-existence is not when you have a technology imposed on you, whether you want it or not,’’ Mr Marsh said.

‘‘For co-existence to exist, the GM industry must control and contain its technology so we can go on producing a GM-free product and having that choice.‘‘A lot of my clients want to buy a non-GM product.’’

Mr Marsh may be forced to seek compensation through the courts for cancelled organic certification and lost income.

‘‘I am prepared to defend my livelihood and my choice, and the choice of many other non-GM farmers to produce a non-GM product.’’

The GM giant Monsanto has said it would support the neighbouring canola farmer whose crop is believed to have contaminated Mr Marsh’s crops.

It has said that canola farmer had complied with his obligation to keep a five-metre buffer between his GM crop and the next farm.

In a letter to Mr Marsh, WA Agriculture Minister Terry Redman urged him to persuade NASAA to drop its zero per cent threshold for accidental GM contamination of organic crops.

He noted that the European Union recently adopted a 0.9 per cent threshold for unintentional presence of GM material.

‘‘This decision acknowledges that zero per cent thresholds are unrealistic in biological systems,’’ Mr Redman wrote.

Bob Phelps, the director of the anti-GM group Gene Ethics, said GM contamination of non-GM growers was inevitable so Mr Redman should introduce farmer protection laws as soon as possible.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

BACON PIG MEAT PROCESSED BY ROBOTS

No-The guy below is a mobile butcher not a robot.

More of the series of pig kill photos I took will be published at a later date

Dec 14 – Japan’s robotics industry is looking to revolutionize the field of meat processing with an automated robot that can slice and de-bone 500 hams per hour. Mayekawa Electric aims to take the machine world-wide.

Rob Muir reports.

View video here

Robot brings home the bacon (1:27)

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Swan backs small banks ahead of reforms

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has put his money where his mouth is on the big four banks – opening an account with a credit union.

Mr Swan says the big four need to understand Australians will shop around for better deals, and demonstrated his point at a credit union at Toombul, in his electorate in Brisbane’s north.

He told reporters his banking competition reforms, due any day now, were no silver bullet – but would provide the building blocks for a more competitive system.

‘‘This package will be methodical. It will put in place the building blocks of a more competitive system but I will make the point there is no silver bullet,’’ Mr Swan said. ‘‘There is no magic solution that can change things dramatically overnight.’’

He said Australians should shop around and not stick with a major bank if they are unhappy with what they’re getting.

Mr Swan said he hopes to encourage this by reopening an account with Credit Union Australia.

‘‘I want to say credit unions generally, our regional banks generally and our building societies generally are safe and they are competitive,’’ he said. ‘‘There are alternatives in our system and if you’re not happy with your financial institution then shop around.

‘‘Our four major banks need to understand Australians will shop around if they feel they can get a better deal.’’

Sourced & published by Henry SAPIECHA

Update The Reserve Bank has left interest rates unchanged,

providing relief for borrowers and retailers in the crucial shopping weeks before Christmas.

The central bank kept rates at 4.75 per cent – the level it raised them to last month – amid signs of weakness in parts of the economy not benefiting from the rekindled mining boom.

Home loan guide: borrowing calculators
Chronology of interest rate moves since 1990
Glenn Stevens’ statement: why the RBA stayed put

“Christmas is the ‘grand final’ of retail trade with some stores taking in up to 40 per cent of their yearly turnover from mid-November to Christmas Eve, so there would be relief that rates are on hold at this important time of year,” ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said.

RBA governor Glenn Stevens said Australia was enjoying the best trade conditions since the early 1950s, “and national income is growing strongly as a result”.

Mr Stevens noted lending rates were “a little above average”, following last month’s interest rate rises. While inflation is likely to be steady for now, “it is likely to increase somewhat over the medium term if the economy grows as expected”, he said in a statement.

Today’s decision matched the expectations of economists and investors, unlike the last two monthly meetings when the RBA surprised pundits with rates decisions in defiance of the consensus among analysts.

The Australian dollar fell on the RBA comments, dropping to as low as 98.9 US cents from about 99.1 US cents just before the announcement, before bouncing back. Investors raised their bets that interest rates are likely to remain on hold for some months.

Patchy growth

The central bank opted to keep rates steady after a string of weaker economic figures in recent weeks, including data showing the economy expanded by a disappointing 0.2 per cent in the third quarter. Excluding the farming sector, the overall economy actually shrank during the period.

More recently, data for October showed retail sales dropped 1.1 per cent for the month even before the RBA lifted its key interest rate by 25 basis points in November.

The rates move prompted all the major banks to tack on additional rate rises of their own, sparking public anger and prompting the government to propose reforms to increase competition among banks. Treasurer Wayne Swan may release details of those changes as soon as tomorrow.

“An increase in residential mortgage rates above the Reserve Bank’s 25-basis point cash rate increase in November has allowed the central bank to put off its tightening,” said Moody’s Economy.com analyst Matthew Circosta.

“Nevertheless, the red-hot labour market is sure to lift wages and accelerate both consumer demand and inflation in the coming quarters,” Mr Circosta said.

The strength of the jobs market has been a key concern of the RBA, with analysts tipping the unemployment rate will drop to 5.2 per cent from 5.4 per cent when the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases labour force figures for November on Thursday.

“Employment growth has been very strong over the past year, though some leading indicators suggest a more moderate pace of expansion in the period ahead,” said Mr Stevens. “After the significant decline last year, growth in wages has picked up somewhat, as had been expected. Some further increase is likely over the coming year.”

Rate rise ahead?

Before today’s decision, investors were betting the official interest rate would be at 5 per cent in a year’s time. That view was little changed after today’s announcement.

The RBA board does not meet in January – except in exceptional circumstances when an extraordinary meeting can be called – so any move on official rates is unlikely to come before February.

JP Morgan economist Ben Jarman expects another RBA interest rate rise at the beginning of next year.”[The RBA] keeps putting the terms-of-trade boost front and centre,” he said.”So that tells you what they think of the medium term inflation outlook.”

The Australian dollar’s value and retail banks’ independent rate moves will be the deciding factor for rate rises through the rest of next year, Mr Jarman said.

$A, China, India

The dollar’s gain this year – 12.5 per cent in the past five months against the US dollar – has probably helped the RBA avoid even more rate rises. It also matched its record high against the euro, at 74.5 euro cents, first reached yesteday.

The central bank lifted rates in March, April, May and last month. Added to the three rate rises in 2009, the RBA’s 175 basis-point increase since it began tightening monetary policy is largest among developed economies.

Then again, Australia’s economy was one of the few to continue growing through the global financial crisis – with the exception of one quarter of contraction – a relatively strong performance that’s not been lost on international investors who have flocked to the dollar.

“The exchange rate has risen significantly this year, reflecting the high level of commodity prices and the respective outlooks for monetary policy in Australia and the major countries,” Mr Stevens said. “This will assist, at the margin, in containing pressure on inflation over the period ahead.”

While Australia’s latest growth numbers were soft, the economy is about to receive a wave of investment and export revenues as the mining boom accelerates.

“[R]ecent data suggest that the Chinese and Indian economies have continued to grow strongly and price pressures, particularly for food, have picked up in China as well as a number of other economies in Asia,” Mr Stevens said.

Today’s comments prompted some analysts, such as Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank, to push back their expectations of the next RBA rate rise.

“They are fairly comfortable with where things are and where the economy is heading, suggesting no great need to rush in with another rate rise,” Mr Blythe said.

“We have February pencilled in at the moment (for the next rate hike), but that sounds a little soon and we may have to push that back a bit. Sometime in the first half of next year,” he said.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Gillard to appear on Oprah show

As Oprah Winfrey’s audience members touched down in Sydney this morning, it was revealed that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will also appear on the show.

About 300 of Winfrey’s biggest fans will be in Sydney for their promised Ultimate Australian Adventure.

The talk show queen is wrapping up her 25th and final season with a trip to Australia, where she will film two episodes at the Sydney ‘Oprah’ House.

Sydney-bound … Oprah Winfrey Photo: AP

Oprah will be arriving by private jet, but there is speculation that she will not arrive until tomorrow.

A host of Australian celebrites are expected to appear on the shows, to be taped next week.

Ms Gillard was expected to appear in either a pre-recorded or live segment.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will appear on the Oprah Show

Oprah’s audience members, aged 18 to 75, will be given a full tour, visiting all eight states and territories.

Australia will also be the focus of a third episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which will involve Oprah’s audience members cataloguing their travel experiences.

One of the audience members who touched down in Sydney this morning, Ransford, from Jamaica, said he was excited to be in Australia.

‘‘First time experiencing such a long flight, but it was good,’’ he said, after a trip that took him from Jamaica to Miami and onto Los Angeles before boarding the flight to Sydney.

There were audience members from other countries including Canada.

‘‘I don’t know anything about what they have planned for us, but whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it,’’ Ransford said.

A passenger on the same flight, Jason Gilkison, 44, who was not in Sydney for the Oprah show, said he encountered a ‘‘pretty mad’’ scene at LAX.

Oprah audience members had transformed the leaving gate into ‘‘this big Australian thing with lamingtons, meat pies and Tim Tams. It was pretty full-on, like a party.’’

Qantas crew member, Rachel, 25, from Melbourne, said: ‘‘Everyone was very excited. They had no idea what they were going to be doing or where it was going to take them. It was a good flight.’’

Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson has again lauded the decision to choose Australia for Ms Winfrey’s big finale, in which 12,000 Australians will get to watch filming live.

“Oprah is a household name, not just in the United States but in the 145 countries where the show is broadcast,” he said in a statement.

“That Oprah has chosen Australia as her Ultimate Adventure destination sends a powerful message to her millions of fans around the world.

“Most importantly, it shows that a holiday Down Under is not just do-able, but very desirable.”

The show was also a reminder to Australians to embrace domestic travel, Mr Ferguson said.

He extended a warm welcome to Ms Winfrey’s audience and her cast and crew.

The episodes are due to air in both the United States and Australia in January.

- with Hamish Boland-Rudder and AAP

Sourced & published y Henry Sapiecha

Woolworths joins forces

with developer

WOOLWORTHS has taken the unusual step of forming a joint venture with a property developer to build a shopping centre and specialist shops in Western Australia, as it moves to safeguard its expansion plans in the face of the banks’ tighter lending for property deals.

Woolworths will take an 80 per cent stake in the planned shopping centre in Geraldton, after forming a joint venture with local businessman Barry Humfrey and his company, Humfrey Land Developments & Real Estate.

The partners will build a shopping centre that will include a 3200-square-metre supermarket and 1800 square metres of speciality shops and community facilities.

Mr Humfrey has been involved in the development of a range of commercial properties in Geraldton and Exmouth, including tourist resorts.

Woolworths and Mr Humfrey have created a company called Fabsky to build the shopping centre, BusinessDay has learnt, with Woolworths finance director Tom Pockett and company secretary and general counsel Peter Horton named in ASIC documents as directors. Mr Humfrey is named as the third director.

Woolworths’ stake in the partnership is held through Fabcot, the retailer’s development arm. The joint venture was formalised last month.

Woolworths has used several methods to protect and accelerate its new-store developments, buying up parcels of land in its own right on which to develop supermarkets or forming deals with property developers.

The joint-venture model, as forged with Mr Humfrey, is more unusual.

Woolworths has also used its massive cash flows to save distressed property developments from bank foreclosure, although there is no suggestion the site in Geraldton was facing financial problems.

Following the global financial crisis, it was feared that skittish banks and other lenders would refuse to lend large sums of money to property developers or would demand much greater equity from developers before credit was provided.

This could have capped the expansion plans of Woolworths, as well as those of rivals such as Coles.

Many development deals have fallen over since the financial crisis, with developers reporting much stricter lending conditions from the banks.

Woolworths has been engaged in an aggressive supermarket development program, as well as a plan to build more than 150 big-box hardware stores over the next five years.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

The opal hunters Kato excavator sinks in stormwater mud at Quilpie Qld

On 6/12/2010 2:42 PM, The Opal Hunter wrote:

Hi guys. Here is the photo of the old kato taking a mud bath. It took three days to dig it out it was submerged in storm water. We dug a pit levelled the machine spent many hours getting the mud off by hand knee deep in mud .Drained the oil and water out of the engine put in fresh oil  replaced  the batteries, started it up. Dug an incline and drove it out . It will need some pannel beating but hope_ fully it will still go on to dig more opal she is a good old girl and I would hate to have to scrap her. I have been told that I am now a fully initiated Opal Miner.

We all can relate to this situation with his bogged machine

TELL US & SHARE YOUR STORY

Henry Sapiecha

Labor has left it to the very last minute to pull together the taskforce which will decide which rural and regional students – including local students – will get financial help to go to university following changes to Youth Allowance eligibility criteria.

Local Federal Member Paul Neville said the Rural Tertiary Hardship Fund taskforce now had a little over nine weeks to get organised thanks to Labor’s careless attitude.

“Labor’s belated announcement on Wednesday about the makeup of its Rural Tertiary Hardship Fund taskforce means its members now have less than three months to get organised so they can advise the Government on eligibility criteria and how the fund should actually function.

“The Fund will come into operation on January 1, but the legislation which allowed for the creation of the taskforce was actually passed by the Parliament in March.

“The government has been dragging its feet, and it has taken until now to get any movement at all from the Minister, leaving thousands of potentially eligible students in limbo.

“It’s also a strange coincidence that Labor has announced the taskforce membership this week, just before the Minister and Department have to answer questions about it in Senate Estimates Committee on Education.”

Mr Neville also pointed out that the $20 million allocated to the Fund was not new money, and may not be sufficient to give proper support to rural and regional students.

“Given Queensland is generally entitled to about a seventh of national funds, it is possible only $3.5 million would be shared amongst students from our state over the life of the Fund’s existence, which is due to wrap up on June 30, 2013.

“What’s more, we still have no idea of the criteria that these students will need to fulfil to be able to access this assistance.

“Plain and simple, regional students deserve better.”

AUSTRALIAN ENTIRE COASTLINE MARINE PROTECTED LOCATIONS

SEE HERE.. MarineProtectedAreas-2010