Newswire

We're one of the forgotten minority groups actually: the wealthiest 1%. Even the gays are at 4%. It's lucky my good mates Joel Fitzgibbon and Tony Abbott are sticking up for us. And Simon Crean I guess, but recently he's a bit of a liability. Poor bloke.

Tasmania, that small island state of Australia that protrudes into the Southern Ocean, has recorded it's hottest March on record in over 100 years of temperature record keeping.

The mean March temperature across the state was 15.7C, breaking the 1974 record by 0.3 degrees and 2.2 °C above normal. The Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement "The state average maximum temperature was a March record of 21.0 (2.9 °C above normal and 0.9 °C above the previous record from 1974), and minimum temperatures were the 3rd-warmest for March at 10.3 °C (1.6 °C above normal)."

Courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/cuts-to-single-parent-payments-lead-to-hardshi...
Gerry Georgatos - There are 630,000 Australian lone parent families with dependents – 84 per cent are single mothers and 16 per cent are single fathers. 54 per cent of these single parents have a youngest child less than nine years of age. Of the parents with a child less than 9 years of age 59 per cent were in some form of employment end of June 2011 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011).

Did you see Four Corners last night? We’ve known for a long time that coal seam gas poses unacceptable risks to our water, food, farmers, and climate – but this was a new low.

http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/67428/74810/87731/?url=h...

North Korea, Cyprus, Australia, Mars - satirical review

David Feldman, Clarke Dawe, Now Show samples, Cruel Alibis by Mustered Courage, sounds by Banda Black Miss Cheryl, Herbie Hanckock, Djavan, Wayne Shorter

29:00 min stereo 28 MB

Did you know that during 2011 sea level rise went into reverse and lost 5mm from the global oceans? No? How about that since then, much to the chagrin of climate deniers, sea level rise has accelerated from 3.18mm per year - the rate from 1993 to 2010 - to increase to 10mm per year over the last two years. This acceleration more than makes up for the pothole. The primary cause of this sea level 'speed bump' was the back to back La Nina which moved a phenomenal amount of water from the global oceans to the land. The water has since been making its way back into the world's oceans.

The question arises, does this explain the 10mm per year increase in sea level rise over the last 2 years? Is ocean thermal expansion or ice sheet melting perhaps contributing more? This may also be the start to an exponential sea level rise which NASA climatologist James Hansen has argued is a possibility. Rob Painting on Skeptical Science says that there is no evidence yet to suggest that ice loss from Greenland or Antarctica has added to the speed bump in any significant manner. We will have to wait and see what the impact of future El Nino or La Nina (ENSO) will be on sea level rise, and keep watching the rate of mass loss from the ice sheets.

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/australias-pathway-to-poverty-bridging-visas/#... Photo - courtesy of The UN, Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya
The Australian Government’s hard on refugees policy is creating an underclass of people – many condemned to an itinerant lifestyle and many condemned to living on the streets.

According to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship since November 25, 2011, 12,765 people have been released from the detention centres and into community on bridging visas.

Newsletter date: 31 March 2013

Contents:

* burn magazine: Jagath Dheerasekara: Manuwangku, Under the Nuclear Cloud
* Canberra opening of 'Manuwangku - Under the Nuclear Cloud': Sun 7 April 2013
* Background to the proposed Muckaty nuclear waste dump

* Helen Musa, Canberra CityNews: Exhibition honours true believer
* Canberra opening of 'I Do Have a Belief' - Kevin Gilbert (1933-1993) Art Retrospective: Sat 6 April 2013
* Sovereign Union: The Murrawarri Republic declaration
* NITV News: Aboriginal activists meet Black Power founders