Sandi Keane

www.independentaustralia.net — John Howard's latest lies about the Iraq War remind us of his deep dishonesty and give the Government a new avenue to attack the Opposition, writes deputy editor Sandi Keane. TONY ABBOTT is channelling his mentor, John Howard, in declaring the coming election to be about " trust ". But how sound is this for a campaign strategy? Howard and trust parted company when we found out Australia had invaded Iraq on the basis of a lie. Back in 2004, the "who can you trust" slogan was effective. It won Howard the election. Such was George W.

www.independentaustralia.net — Deputy editor Sandi Keane was not surprised by the National's dumping of star recruit, Richard Torbay - only that it took them so long to discover the Eddie Obeid connection. THE SURPRISING thing about Richard Torbay 's dumping shock was that it took the Nationals so long wake up to his connection to Labor factional warlord, Eddie Obeid. About a month ago, I thought I'd take a closer look at the man who thought he could knock off popular independent MP, Tony Windsor . I was intrigued by Torbay's meteoric rise to power.

www.independentaustralia.net — The revolving door culture of self-interest on both sides of NSW politics, means it is difficult to distinguish between government, lobbyists and the CSG industry. Another eye-opening Sandi Keane investigation. I DON'T KNOW about Denmark, but there's certainly something rotten in the state of New South Wales. With NSW Labor reeling from corruption charges leveled at former Labor king-maker, Eddie Obeid, today, the O'Farrell government copped similar accusations by Canberra king-maker, Independent MP for New England, Tony Windsor. Windsor told ABC AM this morning he'd "had enough" of governments seen by the public to be in the pockets of miners who trampled over community sensibilities.

www.independentaustralia.net — RISING GAS PRICES, the pitched battle over CSG between farmers and miners, the US threat to LNG's $13.2 billion export bonanza - are all set to spill over into the Federal election campaign. The Greens and Bob Katter are looking to capitalise. The CSG industry's hope of rivalling Qatar as the world's biggest exporter of LNG could be snookered on a couple of fronts - the twin threat to Australia's competitiveness in the face of a glut of natural gas from the US and the failure to overcome bitter resistance from farmers in key CSG tenements.

www.independentaustralia.net — Baillieu's 'let er rip' approach to the environment could spell R.I.P. for his beleaguered Government, writes environment editor Sandi Keane. ON FRIDAY, Victoria's Baillieu Government lost its appeal in the Federal Court to overturn a ban on cattle in the heritage-listed Alpine National Park. Justice Susan Kenny's decision amounted to a smackdown when she dismissed all four grounds for seeking a judicial review. The State Government, via Victorian taxpayers, may be liable for costs. Four hundred cattle were re-introduced to the park in 2011 as part of the Victorian Government's controversial six-year trial, 'Investigation of fuel and bushfire risk management using strategic cattle grazing'.

www.independentaustralia.net — Bloggers stealing their stories from the mainstream media? If Sandi Keane experiences are any guide, the opposite is more likely to be true. MAINSTREAM MEDIA constantly spin the line that online journalists are plagiarists, who - while they wear out "boot-leather" chasing stories - simply re-shovel their hard-earned efforts. Well, in my experience, the boot is quite often on the other foot. I'm an online journalist who likes to break stories? My view is ? why bother to write if you aren't the first or don't have an original angle? And I break stories regularly ? through hard, painstaking, detailed, time-consuming - often quite expensive - investigative reporting.

www.independentaustralia.net — Energy giant Santos' quest to win the hearts and minds of NSW farming communities about coal seam gas has backfired after one of its TV ads has been exposed as a con, writes environment editor Sandi Keane. NOTE: Santos appears to have now pulled the conjob ad as a resut of Sandi's exposé! See UPDATES at the end of this piece. DON HUBBARD is a fourth generation farmer, and grows canola, sorghum, durum wheat, cotton and sunflowers. He has two properties at Spring Ridge, Cooininee and Tavetare, at the foot of Mt Coolanbilla.

www.independentaustralia.net — Tony Abbott has been caught out telling more porkie pies, this time over the United States' approach to limiting carbon emissions. Environment editor Sandi Keane reports. Tony Abbot made such an ass of himself trying to put one over us with a pensioner's electricity bill, he's been on the naughty mat ever since. Thankfully, we appear to have been spared the daily litany of carbon tax misdemeanours, lest we remember his. But if Mitt Romney wins the U.S. Presidential election in a fortnight's time, Abbott may well be tempted to make an ass of himself again on this subject.

www.independentaustralia.net — We must also embrace Real Waubra, rescue it from the scaremongers and buy more than a chicken roll from its annual Community Festival, writes Graham Jackson. 'Human kind cannot bear very much reality' TS Eliot famously wrote - and those of us at Waubra on Saturday might have agreed. The day was a shocker ? cold, wet and windy; a good day for ducks, wind farms, and people who wish Waubra no good. All those at the Waubra Festival, on the other hand, wished the community very well indeed.

www.independentaustralia.net — The Victorian town of Waubra is trying to reclaim its name from a phony front for powerful vested interests ? the Waubra Foundation. Environment editor Sandi Keane sheds light on this astroturf organisation's links, as well as its decidedly underhanded tactics. IT'S SPRING in the quiet sheep farming hamlet of Waubra, an hour's drive northwest of Ballarat in Victoria. With the shearing done and the crops in, local farmers have turned to a bit of Springtime mending. Not fences, but the town's image. After three years saddled with the negative legacy of the "Foundation" that stole their name, local farmer Karen Molloy says the community is fighting back with a bumper festival.

www.independentaustralia.net — Sandi Keane forensically dissects The Australian newspaper's calculating, concerted and misleading campaign against the Federal Government's extremely successful 'Building the Education Revolution' programme. IN 2010, Anthony Klan was shortlisted for the prestigious Graham Perkin award[1]. Klan writes for The Australian. According to the Melbourne Press Club's media release on 2 April 2010, Klan's nomination resulted from "more than 80 articles exposing the flaws in the Federal government's 'Building the Education Revolution' scheme".[2] Klan's profile in The Australian befits a Perkin award nominee. His "forensic reporting with a financial focus" has won him a Walkley Award and News Limited's top honour, the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism.

www.independentaustralia.net — Ethical Australian timber company Simmonds Lumber is using scientific innovation to helping stamp out illegal logging. Environment editor Sandi Keane reports. Australian timber company, Simmonds Lumber Group, has taken the lead in helping stamp out the $30 billion illegal logging industry using the ultimate weapon against wrong-doers - DNA. The company's announcement came this week as the Federal Government's Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011 passed the House of Representatives. The bill bans the importation and sale of any wooden products that contain illegally logged timber. Simmonds Lumber now uses innovative DNA technology developed by the University of Adelaide and Singapore-based DoubleHelix Tracking Technologies.

www.independentaustralia.net — Last week, in a milestone announcement that went largely unreported in Australia, the US Court of Appeals upheld the EPA's right to regulate greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act. Today is the 4th July and Independent Australia believes this decision is cause to celebrate. Environment editor Sandi Keane reports. IS AUSTRALIA a leader or a laggard in the climate action stakes? Both the government and the Coalition have committed to a 5 per cent reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2020. But the United States has pledged a much more responsible cut of 17 per cent by 2020, in spite of Obama being forced by the Republicans to shelve his 'cap and trade' scheme.

www.independentaustralia.net — Last week, in a milestone announcement that went largely unreported in Australia, the US Court of Appeals upheld the EPA's right to regulate greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act. Today is the 4th July and Independent Australia believes this decision is cause to celebrate. Environment editor Sandi Keane reports. IS AUSTRALIA a leader or a laggard in the climate action stakes? Both the government and the Coalition have committed to a 5 per cent reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2020. But the United States has pledged a much more responsible cut of 17 per cent by 2020, in spite of Obama being forced by the Republicans to shelve his 'cap and trade' scheme.

www.independentaustralia.net — Anti-renewables campaigners now allege there are over 100 scientifically unproven "symptoms" of what they call "Wind Turbine Syndrome". Environment editor Sandi Keane says there are likely to be as many apocryphal complaints about "Carbon Tax Syndrome" in the very near future. KIDS off the wall? Dog planning a coup? Whales migrating? Astonishingly, these are some of the less bizarre claims against wind farms collected by Australia's very own Lord High Executioner of Flim Flammery and Master Debunker of Arrant Nonsense, Prof Simon Chapman. The Prof has compiled a record of diseases, symptoms and aberrant behaviour which leads to so-called "Wind Turbine Syndrome" or "WTS".

www.independentaustralia.net — Anti-renewables campaigners now allege there are over 100 scientifically unproven "symptoms" of what they call "Wind Turbine Syndrome". Environment editor Sandi Keane says there are likely to be as many apocryphal complaints about "Carbon Tax Syndrome" in the very near future. KIDS off the wall? Dog planning a coup? Whales migrating? Astonishingly, these are some of the less bizarre claims against wind farms collected by Australia's very own Lord High Executioner of Flim Flammery and Master Debunker of Arrant Nonsense, Prof Simon Chapman. The Prof has compiled a record of diseases, symptoms and aberrant behaviour which leads to so-called "Wind Turbine Syndrome" or "WTS".

www.independentaustralia.net — Why did Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu ignore EPA advice to build a bypass for an inner-city Melbourne street traversed by 500 trucks an hour, in favour of one that sees just 60? Environment editor Sandi Keane reports from what may be Australia's most polluted residential street - and which just happens to lie in a safe Labor electorate. A long-awaited, 'shovel-ready' solution to reduce truck traffic in Melbourne's inner-west was again left on the table in this week's Victorian State Budget. The former Brumby government's Truck Action Plan proposed to take a million trucks off residential streets by constructing new ramps connecting West Gate Freeway and Hyde Street at Yarraville.

www.independentaustralia.net — Legal loopholes mean you could be, and probably are, inadvertently buying meat coming from animals that were fully conscious when they were slaughtered. Environment editor Sandi Keane reports. Loopholes in the law mean that Australian consumers are unknowingly buying meat from animals that have been slaughtered without being stunned first, as required by law. Exemptions from the requirement to stun animals are granted to a small ritual market - but cuts of the meat not suitable for the kosher market then end up on the supermarket shelf or at the butcher, without special labelling.

www.independentaustralia.net — The ABC's approach to reporting on climate change is motivated more by politics than science, says environment editor Sandi Keane - who compares its coverage to that of the BBC. In recent years, the gulf between Coalition and Labor voters on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has widened. Annual surveys by Australia's peak science body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) show a dramatic shift since politics overtook science in determining conservative attitudes on climate science. When did the right relinquish its stewardship of the natural world to cast doubt on environmental problems? According to Sharon Beder, the answer lies in environmental regulations.

www.independentaustralia.net — Environment correspondent Sandi Keane brilliantly exposes the Tea Party style practices and behaviour of anti-windfarm campaigners and their links to powerful vested interests. Do you have Wind Turbine Syndrome? Have you been suffering from stress lately? Feeling exhausted, irritable? Losing sleep? Kids declared a jihad on school? It could be you're suffering Wind Turbine Syndrome, according to the Waubra Foundation. Symptoms claimed include sleep problems, headaches, dizziness, nausea, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, irritability, depression, tinnitus, concentration problems - and a new one - children refusing to go to school! The Foundation's "medical director", Sarah Laurie - a non-practicing, unregistered doctor - claims 'infrasound' from wind turbines is the culprit.