The call to action hasn’t yet been picked up by MSM, but at least it’s taken a top position on wordpress. See below.
In case you have not read this post yet:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/20/urgent-a-call-to-action-for-the-wuwt-community/
It is about what can happen when you do everything you can, play by the rules, then have a capricious and arbitrary government organization change the rules on you after the fact.
All because of a “sniff test” with no scientific basis, only an emotional one, this family is likely to lose their farm and be evicted.
Meanwhile, their own town stands by while the blogosphere and readers from around the world come to help. So far, readers have donated about $28,000USD to keep a roof over the head of the children while the NAB arrives to start foreclosure. More here and at Jo Nova.
There is some good news, thanks to this WUWT reader
goldie says:Sorry to have missed this earlier. If its not too late, I may be able to help arbitrate this issue as I have a long track record in odour assessment in WA and a good working relationship with DEC. Let me know if I can help – would be happy to look over the issues and meet with DEC gratis.
It may be too late, but we can hope.
The MSM will never pick it up they do not like Kulaks,,,
[REPLY – OUCH! ~ Evan]
Matt Thompson responded to my prior post related to the Town’s comments in the DEC waste management and landfills report on JoNova’s blog:
John,
The local government authority which is the Shire (like a county) has supported us and appealed our license on our behalf on numerous occassions. Individuals have appealed on our behalf and signed petetions in large numbers. DEC does not consider positive comments or submissions. People in town have offered us their homes, their cars, and brought us food. Walking through the streets of town people have handed me fifty dollar notes and told me to keep fighting.
We do have our opponents locally but they are a very small group, and we have many many friends who have bent over backwards to help us in our time of distress.
This is a setback for the green control objectives. How can banks lend money to agriculture when the farms are one regulation away from shut down?
This bank can’t sell the farm and feed lot.
GREAT !!!
I hope it will make a difference for them !!!!
Hope goldie can help!
Ecotretas
For local government to have such capricious power over individuals is the stuff of nightmare. What is happening to the Thompsons today may very well happen to us all tomorrow. This appalling situation needs to be fought and fought hard.
I hope the Thompsons win out in the end. To have their hard work and livelihood destroyed by legalised malice is beyond the pale.
There seems to me that there are some important missing information. What percentage of the original loan is still outstanding ? What are the monthly payments ? Can another loan be arranged with another bank ? It seems likely that the bank has another buyer just waiting to make a killing on a foreclosure sale. This is not meant to detract from the serious problem of a government agency being able to retroactively change the rules, having a small minority being able to create havoc for individuals they have chosen to dislike. Big government thinks they are above the law and can do whatever they choose. The problem is not confine to WA, but is a huge problem in the USA.
There are more important things for the MSM to report,
Massive solar flare ‘could paralyse Earth in 2013’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1313858/Solar-flare-paralyse-Earth-2013.html#ixzz10BI1I8wD
This is rampant abuse of authority and the spineless politicians should act now to suspend all the officials involved and launch a full scale judicial review of the activities of this organisation – but they won’t. The Greens in Oz are a group all the politicians are running scared from because, like green ‘pressure’ groups everywhere, they are one step away from being terrorists.
I have emailed the PM and the relevant Ministers in the WA government, letting them know that the eyes of the world are on them, suggest others do too, tyrants tend not to want publicity, and democratic tyrants don’t want to lose votes. Here’s my note, with the addressees, keep it short and be polite.
Dear Prime Minister and Ministers,
You may, or may not, be aware that the appalling treatment of the Thompsons by the WA DEC, is now worldwide news on the blogosphere, and will eventually leak into the mainstream media. It appears that the WA government has retrospectively changed the rules under which they set up their business and is now hounding them out of the home into almost certain penury. Shame on all of you, shame on WA, and shame on Australia for allowing such clear injustices to be meted out on people who don’t share your environmental views.
The good news is that people from across the globe are trying to help these poor people, while the AW government stands by, seemingly unconcerned that they are destroying the lives of a man, his wife and their three children.
Shame.
‘Minister.Faragher@dpc.wa.gov.au’; ‘Minister.Redman@dpc.wa.gov.au’; ‘Minister.Grylls@dpc.wa.gov.au’; ‘wa-government@dpc.wa.gov.au’
!UPDATE! Things are desperate.
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/09/a-waterway-no-fish-will-swim-in/#more-10364
Matt Thompson has just advised me [JoNova] that NAB (National Australia Bank, Ltd) showed up today and have appointed administrators [and served papers]. Behind the scenes a few key people are trying to convince the NAB to rescind the administrator and give the Thompsons 90 days.
Now is the time to email politicians and media.
Can someone email Tim Blair?
========
John from CA:
I wonder why AP, Fox, Bloomberg, CNBC haven’t picked this up. Even at the level, think we’ve got it bad, take a look at what the Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) is doing to agri-business in WA, its headline news.
Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/07/tyranny-how-to-destroy-a-business-with-environmental-red-tape/
“Did you know in Australia it’s possible to ruin a business if you don’t like the way it smells? This is a heartbreaking story — that a government could effectively ruin a family by slowly strangling them in red tape, and that they would have apparently no protection from the courts or the ombudsman. It eats away at our sense of justice. Can we speak freely? Are we all treated equally under the law, or are some laws only enforced according to a capricious whim?”
“This is the price we pay for vague laws where business people can run ventures, do everything to the letter of the law, with best-practice procedures, winning customers and contracts, yet go broke despite all that because of onerous, impossible-to-meet conditions, that are unmeasurable, and change suddenly, with the added bonus of inordinately long delays. At the moment, Janet and Matts farm, Narrogin Beef Producers, lies empty, unstocked, while debts accrue by the minute.”
“This is also a story of sovereign risk. Investors in Australian industry beware.”
Smell that evidence [NOT]
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/07/smell-that-evidence/
4 days notice! The Thompsons are served notice of eviction.
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/09/4-days-notice-the-thompsons-are-served-notice-of-eviction/
“Don’t bring your investment dollars to Western Australia — not while the Department of the Environment effectively controls the state.”
“I am ashamed of what our government has done. If the media won’t cover this, shame on them too.”
Thompsons part 4: Every slope is a watercourse
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/09/a-waterway-no-fish-will-swim-in/
“The ostensible point of protecting watercourses from runoff is presumably to stop manure or residue flowing into rivers where it could create an algal bloom. And that’s all well and good. But the definition of a watercourse means that virtually anyplace in WA can be declared a watercourse, even if there is no chance that run-off will cross paths with a fish.”
“We could make a fuss about the definition of a “waterway” — but in the end, when the Thompsons spoke to the Appeals Convenor, he said that even if they won the right to be a Category 68 unlicensed property, DEC would just change the rules and make all feedlots — regardless of size or watercourses — subject to licensing.”
“The real problem here is that DEC are kingmakers who divide and conquer, detail by detail.”
“The minutae bore the pants off the average citizen, and by splitting up each industry group into smaller and smaller divisions, DEC can make key rulings without triggering a revolt from any serious combined opponent. Why can’t the rules be simpler and apply to all cattle farms? Isn’t a cow a cow? Not if you are a bureaucrat who decides which businesses rise and fall — you can play them off each other, rely on them being busy, and slip in numbing complex clauses until almost no one can predict in advance whether they are meeting the rules to the letter.”
“Rule by law has effectively been replaced with rule by bureaucrat. Such situations generally lead to corruption eventually (power corrupts…).”
“Something as simple as knowing if they were going to require licensing ought to have been obvious to an entrepeneur searching for sites from the other side of the world. Yet here are the Thompsons, nine years after they bought the property, and there is still a debate.”
Well that’s me off the Australian government’s Christmas card list.
I wish the Thompsons all the best of luck. I feel sure things will go well for them in the end. And well done to Jo Nova for lighting the blue touch paper.
Dusty
about $28,000USD
Wow! OMG!
Both of us have contributed, gladly. I hope this family enjoys a high public profile so that attention can be drawn to the appalling state of Green facism in this country. I have been knocking on doors, sending emails etc. Andrew Bolt MUST take this one up.
The only way to solve the problem of government interference with the personal freedom is to get rid of the current Western world shamocracy.
History proves that, in the long-term, governments can only rule with the consent of the people. Civil disobedience by a large proportion of the population of each country is the first step needed to restore the power of the electorate. Organisations like the Tea Party in the US can provide the focus to make this happen. Politicians know that we are many, while they are few.
Maybe you want to call the NAB and let them know your interest in banking with them in the future (not).
Main telephone numbers All times AEST/AEDTPersonal banking and all general enquiries
If you’re overseas and registered for
speech security: +61 13 66 22
Other calls from overseas: +61 3 8641 9083 13 22 65
Mon-Fri 7am-9pm
Sat-Sun 8am-6pm
Business banking and Agribusiness banking 13 10 12
Website here:
http://www.nab.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/nab/nab/home/About_Us/3/
Mon-Fri 8am-8pm
Irony – the google ad for this post is for OZ viewers as follows:
“More give, less take. NAB
Working harder to deliver better banking. Want to see the results?
nab.com.au/moregive”
Not sure the Thompsons are really appreciating the “give” from NAB at the moment!!
The Gray Monk says:
September 21, 2010 at 9:37 am
They are less than a step away IMHO
DaveE.
Can someone find out if the donations to date are enough to ‘buy a month or 3″ or if we need to press the button again?
I’d like to know if the big number is big enough of if we need to double it. I know I could whack the button again, but don’t know if I need to do so….
It’s great that WordPress is highlighting the Thompson’s plight. If you published anything on You Tube, perhaps give us the caption and we can combine efforts to click on and get it up the viewing ladder there.
There are two you tube videos:
Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgFPDcPr5yA&feature=player_embedded#!
Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgUJLSbDIM&feature=related
You can see the farm, and the family, and some of what they fight against. I think Part II is the most evocative. If anyone could edit them down into a gutsy short version it would be a big hit and a gift for Matt and Janet.
I’m another who has contributed and would like to know whether we have raised enough or whether I should squeeze out a little more to help.
Okay so just keep on doing great dartmoor.