The mineral scramble that led to some rare alliances

Ian MacKinnon December 30, 2010

SOUTH KOREA has struck a deal with Burma to develop its natural resources in the latest bid by industrialised nations to secure new sources of rare earth metals to beat China's near-monopoly.
The minerals are vital for numerous high-tech products, including smartphones, hybrid car batteries, computer discs and guided missiles.
Most countries have had supplies squeezed as China, the producer of 97 per cent of the world's rare earth elements, restricted exports this year.
China said this week it would cut exports by a further 11 per cent in the first few months of next year.
That South Korea should be doing business with a pariah state such as Burma is a measure of the panic export restrictions have created among big producers of electronic goods. In September Beijing halted supplies to Japan, which takes 60 per cent of its rare earth exports, after a diplomatic spat over the arrest of a fishing boat captain in disputed Japanese waters.
Concern that stockpiles of rare earth minerals could run out by March prompted Tokyo to explore a deal with Vietnam to mine the metals. Beijing denied any official ban on exports to Japan, but figures show it cut export quotas by 72 per cent in the second half of the year. Prices increased sharply.
This spurred the US to reopen rare earth mines. A Californian mine, closed in 2002 due to environmental concerns and low prices, has recently reopened but will take two years to reach full production.
Chen Jiazuo, a metals research analyst at Beijing Antaike Information Development Company, said the export cuts were ''in line with government officials' comments that we need to protect the environment and resources. Controlling domestic production capacity, output and exports will continue to be the theme.''
Curbing exports may further exacerbate tensions with the US, which last week said it may file a complaint at the World Trade Organisation over restraints on supplies of the minerals.
Rare earth minerals are 17 chemically similar elements, including neodymium, cerium and lanthanum. Neodymium oxide, used in BlackBerrys, costs $US88.50 a kilogram - more than four times its price in 2009. Telegraph, London

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-mineral-scramble-that-led-to-some-rare-alliances-20101229-19a8k.html

Fury in China over online death photo

Xiyun Yang and Edward Wong December 30, 2010
BEIJING: The photograph is so graphic that it appears cartoonish at first glance. A man lies on a road with his eyes closed, blood streaming from his half-open mouth, his torso completely crushed under the large tyre of a red truck. One arm reaches out from beneath the tyre. His shoulder is a bloody pile of flesh. His head is no longer attached to the flattened spinal cord.
The man in the photograph, Qian Yunhui, 53, has become the latest internet sensation in China, as thousands of people viewing the image online since the weekend have accused government officials of killing Mr Qian to silence his six-year campaign to protect fellow villagers in a land dispute. Illegal land seizures by officials are common in China, but the horrific photographs of Mr Qian's death on Saturday ignited widespread fury.
It is the latest in a string of cases in which anger against the government has been fanned by the lightning-fast spread of information online. Officials in the city of Yueqing, which supervises Mr Qian's home village, insist that the photographs show an unfortunate traffic accident. Mr Qian's family, some Chinese reporters and residents of Zhaiqiao Village cite the photographs as proof of foul play and a sloppy cover-up.
It is unclear who took the photographs, but they first appeared on Sunday afternoon on Tianya, a popular online forum.
Chinese internet users were drawn to the fact that the land dispute involving Mr Qian is a common narrative in China.
In 2004 the city government approved the construction of a power plant in Zhaiqiao Village. The company building the plant got virtually all the arable land in the village, and the villagers received no compensation, according to a blog post that was written four months ago under Mr Qian's name.
Mr Qian travelled to Beijing to file a petition with the central authorities. City officials said Mr Qian had been arrested, found guilty of criminal conduct and imprisoned at least twice. Mr Qian continued his crusade after being released from prison. The New York Times

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/fury-in-china-over-online-death-photo-20101229-19a95.html

More on NSW Energy

Keneally retreats on power inquiry

Sean Nicholls STATE POLITICAL EDITOR January 1, 2011

KRISTINA KENEALLY has bowed to criticism of her repeated claim that an inquiry into the controversial $5.3 billion power sale is illegal and will try to expedite the legal advice her department is seeking from the Crown Solicitor.
Two days after declaring she ''cannot direct the Crown Solicitor [Ian Knight] as to when he will be providing the advice,'' the Premier suddenly reversed her position.
''I understand the Crown Solicitor is on leave until the 10th of January. However, we're seeking to see if we can get his advice any earlier than that,'' she told a news conference.
Ms Keneally had previously insisted she would have to wait for Mr Knight to return from leave, meaning his advice would be delivered within a week of the inquiry's starting date of January 17.
Since she prorogued, or shut, Parliament on December 22, the Premier has relied on advice that Mr Knight provided in 1994 to claim the inquiry was illegal because it was set up after the closure.
But the Herald revealed yesterday that on the day Ms Keneally first called the inquiry illegal, December 23, her department was so unsure of the claim that it wrote to Mr Knight seeking ''urgent advice''. Despite not having received that advice, Ms Keneally has continued to claim the inquiry is illegal.
She has said it cannot call witnesses and that they would not be covered by parliamentary privilege, potentially exposing them to legal action if they were to disclose information that is commercial-in-confidence.
But these are the matters about which the Department of Premier and Cabinet is seeking Mr Knight's advice.
The Premier's claim has prompted the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, to accuse her of trying to intimidate witnesses, who would include the eight directors of state-owned power companies who resigned in protest on the night of the sale. At the news conference yesterday, Ms Keneally said the department had asked for the updated advice on December 23 ''because journalists had further questions'' about her claim.
The parliamentary inquiry is set down for January 17 and 18 and to report by January 31, less than two months before the election on March 26.
Ms Keneally is under growing pressure, including from within her party, over the government's handling of the power sale, which the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, rushed through just before midnight on December 14.
At the last minute Mr Roozendaal was forced to appoint members of his own sales team to the boards of the state-owned power companies involved in the sale, Delta Electricity and Eraring Energy, after the directors resigned.
Ms Keneally is accused of proroguing Parliament two months early to try to dodge the inquiry, an accusation she strongly denies.
Mr O'Farrell said yesterday that Ms Keneally was ''running out of excuses'' for blocking the inquiry.
''Ms Keneally has an opportunity to stop trying to hide the truth, and she should finally admit today that the only alternative she now has is to allow the parliamentary power inquiry to do its job,'' he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/keneally-retreats-on-power-inquiry-20101231-19bzp.html

Public kept in dark as banker joins power board at last minute

Public kept in dark as banker joins power board at last minute
Sean Nicholls December 30, 2010
THE Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, quietly appointed a former senior executive at Macquarie Bank, Michael Lilley, to the board of the state-owned power company Delta Electricity within hours of the infamous ''midnight sale'' of NSW power assets.
But Mr Roozendaal has made no mention of appointing Mr Lilley, despite announcing the names of two other directors he was forced to hurriedly appoint late at night to the Delta board after four directors quit in protest at the sale.
Mr Lilley, whose expertise is in public private partnerships, worked for Macquarie as its head of government business. This involved persuading governments to include Macquarie in deals such as the privatisation of public assets. It is understood he left about six months ago.
A spokesman for Mr Roozendaal confirmed that Mr Lilley was appointed on the afternoon of December 15, the day after the $5.3 billion sale was forced through just before midnight. But it was not mentioned, the spokesman said, because ''the appointment process was not complete'' by the time the Treasurer held his 9.30am press conference at which he announced the new directors.
He said Mr Lilley had no role in the sale and the appointment was ''part of the normal process of filling board vacancies''. However, two board vacancies on the other state-owned power company involved in the sale, Eraring Energy, remain unfilled after the resignation of four of its directors on the same evening the Delta directors did so.
The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, said Mr Lilley's ''sec- ret appointment'' illustrated the need for greater scrutiny of the power sale. ''The fact [the Premier] Kristina Keneally and Eric Roozendaal have kept this secret appointment from the public for nearly a fortnight only adds to the public's concerns that this sell-off is bad for NSW,'' he said.
''The failure of the Keneally Labor government to declare this appointment only increases the need for the parliamentary power inquiry to proceed and report back to the people of NSW before the election.'' Ms Keneally argued that advice from the Crown Solicitor from 1994 showed an inquiry into the power sale, planned for January 17 and 18, would be illegal because it was established after she prorogued Parliament last week.
Following criticism by the Greens MP David Shoebridge that the advice was outdated, Ms Keneally yesterday revealed her department has written to the Crown Solicitor, Ian Knight, seeking confirmation that it remained his view.
Mr Knight is on leave until January 10, but the Department of Premier and Cabinet had requested he report ''as soon as practically possible'', she said. She could not say if that would be before the inquiry began. The Premier also revealed that the NSW Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, had begun ''inquiries to Treasury'' into the power sale. But she could not say if the inquiries were for a special report on the sale.


http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/public-kept-in-dark-as-banker-joins-power-board-at-last-minute-20101229-19a9n.html

The ‘Anti-Fascists’ Of ‘Antifa Australia’ Fail To Stop The Sydney Forum:
It Is A Serious Political Defeat For Those Who Deny Free Speech

The ‘Antifa Australia’ group has failed to stop the Ninth Sydney Forum held on September 18-19. After threatening to demonstrate against the Forum’s Sunday session and to generally expose and oppose ‘fascism’ (sic) – they simply failed to show.

Or rather, three ‘spies’ did. One was arrested by some police for an offence (weapon? drugs?). Another slunk away with a few snapshots of a small group of police detailed to ‘watch’ the event and the last one took a few photos at a safe distance from the Forum across the busy Princes Highway at Tempe. What startling intelligence did he get? Simply a few pikkies of the Australia First building where the Sunday session was held!

For Antifa, it was a bad knock, a serious miscalculation, a political defeat. Not to make good on their promise to demonstrate even when sympathetic journalists at the ABC or SBS could have given them a camera opportunity, has shown even a lack of enterprise.

On Sunday, when they should have been demonstrating against the Forum to prove whatever anti free speech credentials they have, Antifa opted to hold a ‘rally’ at the Hub Theatre in Newtown, with some forty or fifty persons in attendance. They later tried to occupy Newtown Square with banners and bongos and they threw a few insults at duty police.

There was still the opportunity to march from Newtown to Tempe, but there was no attempt to encourage others to join them, nothing at all. After adjourning from their rally, the Antifa wandered off to a few hotels and others perhaps - to some private homes to enjoy their recreational drugs.

Acting as the ‘fascists’ they would proclaim the Forum to be, they still failed to stifle freedom of speech.

In recent months, Australia First has noted increasingly strident rhetoric from Antifa to deny freedom of speech and assembly to those who they deem to be ‘fascists’. In the past they have damaged property and tried to assault people. They did not confront the Forum. Why?

Last year Antifa demonstrated (with property damage) in inner city Chippendale, protesting against a group they called ‘extreme right’ or ‘fascist’. In July, they joined with others to protest a small group of persons in Newtown who objected to Islamic migration. However, Australia First and Sydney Forum have been reserved for special abuse and occasional violent rhetoric.

Antifa is a group fuelled by anarchists and inner city ‘lifestyle’ dregs (same sex marriage couples, perverts of various sorts, drug abusers, refugee ‘advocates’ and what not). They do not represent the Australian people although they might be considered ‘chic’ in parts of inner-suburbs Sydney. They proclaim themselves arbiters of freedom. Yet, this group does not see (if it cares at all) that its slogans (No borders! ; No nations! Refugee rights!) are the very slogans of the corrupt, globalist, Australian political establishment. Australia First has often decried the ‘rabble above and the rabble below’, that funny working coalition of the rich in expensive suits and the greenhairs in dirty drag, who together share a common globalist perspective - and via the media can mobilise against patriotic Australians. At best, this curious Antifa street gang serves in practise those very elites they criticise elsewhere as the uncaring rich. The irony is absolute and the deception complete. Ultimately, it may be that the Antifa have simply recognized the fact that we cannot be deterred and that it is easier to abuse the long suffering average cop.

The Sydney Forum was a success and reports that have reached us say that the 2011 Forum will be the largest. Next year marks the tenth anniversary of the Forum’s foundation and in fact – its tenth presentation. Freedom of speech and genuine democracy is not dead in Australia. Australia First Party will continue to proudly support the Sydney Forum and we look forward to reading its full report for 2010.

The Gillard Palace Coup: What It Tells Us About The (Concealed) Nature Of Australian Politics.

The appointment of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister has nothing to do with a government losing its way or bad opinion polls. It was not a cosmetic exercise, but one born in the belly of the system.

Basically, the putting aside of KRudd by the Labor Party shows anyone with an inquiring mind how politics works in Australia. It is about the exercise of power and it shows that power does not reside in parliaments but with the wealthy elite and the foreign states with ‘shares’ in the safe and efficient running of Australia Inc.

The Mining Tax

The multinationals which operate in Australia pay no company tax. Fact. Via the 50 year old dual tax agreement, they pay no direct taxes. Many mining companies here are branches of the multinationals. However, KRudd set out to tax ‘Australian’ mining giants. Call it a blunder or simply a desire to balance his budget, but like the whitless Gough Whitlam who wanted to know what went on inside the American base at Pine Gap, there are some things that Australian prime ministers cannot do and are not permitted to think about.

One section of Australian capital considered that it was being asked to shoulder too much of the burden of upholding their own appointees in government . They rebelled. The billionaire mining oligarchs refused the supertax levy.

So, a government changes and Gillard ‘backs down’ to the oligarchy.

It was almost automatic.

Chinese Imperialism Had A Hand In Government Change?

It is well known that KRudd was - and is - an enthusiast for all things Chinese. The Chinese Vice President was in Canberra just at the time of the palace coup. His concern? Mining contracts. Anything that delays or frustrates the supply of cheap Australian minerals to the Chinese moloch is a threat to the increasing power of China in Australia. Chinese imperialism demands security for its investments as all imperialisms have done in history.

Australia is a resources pawn in a globalised market. Australia is competed over as foreigners stake out their claims and draw out the national wealth. The mining oligarchs, particularly the repulsive Clive Palmer, all kowtow to China which purchases ‘their’ minerals, to their profit. They targeted KRudd. Gillard now looks forward to the continuance of the boom and welcomes the increasing interest of China in Australia

It was almost automatic.

Then, It’s Israel Again

It is publicly known that Julia Gillard’s live in lover Tim Mathieson works in property development and that he is employed by the Ubertas Group. This company is the creature of Albert Dadon, founder of the Australia Israel Forum. It was this Forum that sponsored Gillard to Israel last year where she sang the Zionist line on Middle Eastern politics.

As for KRudd, he had recently committed another ‘mistake’. He had criticized Israel (an entity he really loves as the false ‘Christian’ Zionist he is) over the Gaza blockade and the Israeli state murder of Turkish civilians on vessels serving in a Gaza relief mission. Again, too much public criticism of Israel cannot be tolerated – even from a fair weather toady.

Mr Dadon is close to prominent pro-Israel Labor MP Michael Danby, who was influential in the palace coup that installed Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. The Zionist fraction of Australian Jewry looked to Danby to ensure the Australian state lines up with Israel in its terror against the Palestinians and for its position on Iran. How the Zionist worm turns in Australian politics!

The Gillard government will stay the killing course in Afghanistan. It will support Israel. It will not seek the nuclear disarmament of Israel, but it will threaten war with Iran over a peaceful nuclear energy program.

It was almost automatic.

The Population Issue Explodes

Then KRudd became a little too open in his scheme for a “big Australia” – 36 millions, 50 millions, millions. It was bad to be too free with the truth when the voters get nervous.

So, crash, bang, out goes KRudd and in comes concerned Julia who even appoints a “Sustainable Population” minister to handle immigration.

A neat package. The public is to go back to sleep.

It was almost automatic.

When We Sum It All Up….

When we put it all together Australia has no real independence and Australian politicians are creatures of whomsoever – pays! It is a rich man’s government that bens over to the foreign interest.

That there was a palace coup suggests that Australian politics will become increasingly unstable and dictatorial. We learn where power truly lies.

The Australian people’s movement for national independence must address these issues. Not just the oligarchs of the mining industry, but all the czars of money must be put aside that democracy can grow in Australia!

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott ‘Tough’ On Immigration / Refugees?

Bullshit Me Once Shame On You ; Bullshit Me Twice, Shame On Me!

A game is being played. It has been on foot since the emergence of Tony Abbott as ‘Opposition Leader’. The Liberal Party has pretended to be a critic of the “border security” policies of the Labor government and has further argued for a “sustainable immigration program”. Yeah. Yeah. At no point have the Liberals demanded an end with immigration, nor have they said a firm ‘No’ to refugee intakes. And we would have expected nothing less from them. Under John Howard, the Liberals boomed immigration to dizzying numbers. The Liberals know that the ‘end’ of the policy – is to affect a change in Australia’s demographics. The question for the Liberals has been to stymie community fears over such a monstrous thing dispossessing the Australian People in their own country. Will we Australians become a minority in our own country within 50 years? Is the attack upon our national identity (in education, media, politics, cultural institutions) part of this change in our status? When do we become “part of Asia”?

The significant new development is that Labor has joined the Liberals in this game! In words at least, Labor has expressed concerns (sic) at the direction of the immigration program at its size, at the effects on urban infrastructure and so forth.

The Gillard Putsch Signals Fear Of The People.

The new Julia Gillard government has responded to mass voters’ worries stated during a recent State by-election in New South Wales. Liberal and Labor activists reported the mood of the community on immigration and population policy, on border security and refugees - was poisonous to the LABER-AL machine. It could produce maverick behaviour at the polls (not just in outer suburban Sydney either) and in the community – precisely the intention of the Australian people’s party – Australia First!

The Labor government now seeks a “sustainable” population level for Australia and is not necessarily in favour of the “big Australia” that KRudd talked about. Yeah. Yeah.

So now, both sets of liars are immigration critics!

The Sydney Morning Herald editorialised on June 30:

“Julia Gillard’s foray into population policy has a touch of John Howard about it. The former Prime Minister was adept at subtly using the public’s fears of uncontrolled immigration – talking and acting tough about a small number of boat people while simultaneously arranging a large immigration intake. It was an effective tactic to sidestep the xenophobia among sections of his supporters, although many will demur at its cynicism. Gillard, by implying criticism of the Rudd governments supposedly arbitrary population targets of up to 40 million people, and adding the word ‘sustainable’ to the title of Tony Burke’s population portfolio, is playing a similar game? Let us hope a game is all it amounts to.”

Was this a case of honest journalism from an Establishment paper?

We say that it is a ruthless and cynical game. But can LABER-AL pull this off? Gillard gives her new line and Abbott says it’s not hard enough and is just dreamed up policy spin. Why believe Julia? Then vote for Tony – he said it all first. Yeah. Yeah. A double game!

The Sydney Morning Herald does tell us a couple of things. People are worried. People may react. The game is being played. The paper is worried the game might get out of hand. And it can! All the lies in the world do not necessarily mean that the voters, the people, can be absolutely fooled this time. Have people realised: bullshit me once, shame on me; bullshit me twice, shame on me?? It’s a bit late for a John Howard ‘children overboard’ Tampa crisis. So it’s cooked up in a new way, with sober pollies reacting to what voters say about the population crisis.

However, population is only part of the story. It’s not just about people – but what people. Both faces of the LABER-AL machine are dedicated to the Asian Destiny for Australia, the ultimate breaking open of borders for labour and capital to move freely. We are warned. We are in peril. That the liars in Canberra would go down their new population-sceptical road suggests they are concerned the people may not be fooled.

Let’s prove that to them! Build Australia First Party, electorally and in the community as the party of the Australian People! No more bullshit!