Labor’s performance in the ACT has been positive according to Senator Kate Lundy.

Both Fraser and Canberra have returned Labor candidates despite swings to the Greens while Senator Lundy has held onto her seat in the Senate.

“It’s terrific news. It looks like we’re all elected,” Senator Lundy said.

The other ACT Senate seat looks to be a battle between incumbent Liberals Senator Gary Humphries and Greens candidate Lin Hatfield-Dodds – with Humphries marginally ahead after 5 per cent of the vote had been counted.

Senator Lundy says nationally the government had been a victim of the Global Financial Crisis, and was unsure if Labor would be returned for a second term.

“I think it’s going to go down to the wire. I’m sitting here feeling pretty nervous.”

Recent AEC projections predict a 3.9% swing to Roy, giving the LNP 52%
of the two party preferred result in

Roy’s preselection was initially controversial, but he managed to win
over his party collegues.

Liberal Leader Tony Abbott recently hit back at suggestions Roy was
too young for public office.

“I think he has ample capacity to be an effective local member and
make a significant contribution to the national polity,” he said.

The seat was lost by Howard Government Minister Mal Brough in the 2007
election, following his controversial term as Indigionous Affairs
Minister.

With both the Liberals and the Greens commanding around 20 per cent of the primary vote, Mr Wilkie will claim Denison should he finish second.

Labor candidate Jonathan Jackson currently leads the primary vote count.

The seat of Bennelong in northern Sydney has been claimed by the Liberals.

Sitting member Maxine McKew has suffered a swing against her of between 9 and 10 per cent.

With 48 per cent of the voted counted, Liberal candidate John Alexander has claimed almost 50 per cent of the primary vote.

Ms McKew was a one term member in Bennelong after defeating former prime minister John Howard in the 2007 election.

This is evident tonight in the Tally Room, with the nation’s votes being counted and displayed by invisible hands on an imposing back wall. Heads are constantly turned in its direction to see which party has the latest leg-up on its opposition, sometimes with audible cries of protest accompanying the updates.

130 journalists from major print, broadcast and online news services are working frantically in the roped-off press area. Rows of tables are littered with computers, cameras, radio equipment, and nearly everyone has their mobile phone pressed against their ear at all times. The six major broadcast stations are set up on platforms for all to see, with politicians and political experts filing in and out after quick interviews, and onto their next press commitment.

Interviews are being staged anywhere and everywhere as everyone is pressed for time and trying to get stories to-air or published as quickly as possible. Journalists are interviewing students, students are interviewing politicians, political authors are interviewing members of the public – anything goes.

Indeed, the frenetic activity here at the National Tally Room shows no sign of slowing down. With many surprise swings against traditionally safe candidates already, the next few hours will no doubt be interesting to watch as history is made following one of the most tumultuous terms of government in Australia’s history.

The circus’s recent performance at Queanbeyan showground attracted criticism over the use of exotic animals such as lions and monkeys.

But Stardust Circus owner Jan Lennon said the experience of a traditional circus is what attracted people.

“It ended up being very successful, we can’t complain,” she said. “Obviously people wanted to see the circus with the animals as it turns out.”

Exotic circus animals are banned in the ACT, but Mrs Lennon said the majority of patrons had come from across the border.

“I drove around every night and had a look and the majority of number plates were ACT….ACT outweighed the NSW” Mrs Lennon said.

Animal Liberation ACT staged a protest against the circus to highlight the ill treatment of circus animals. “Circuses with these exotic species are banned from performing in the ACT, just over the border, because it is considered to be cruel,” Jo Morgan, the president of Animal Liberation ACT, said.

Mrs Morgan says the animals are forced to live in temporary cages and enclosures that are small and dull.

“The animals are prevented from carrying out their natural behaviour that evolved over millions of years,” Mrs Morgan said. “They are forced to perform whether they want to or not.”

But Mrs Lennon said the animals were very well looked after calling the accusations “rubbish”.

“We have lions and they are very lazy animals,” she said. “They sleep about 20 hours a day they don’t have to hunt for food it’s laid on them. There is no problem there. The five minutes they do on the show is their exercise…. They are not particularly over worked”

Across Australia 40 local councils have banned circuses with exotic animals and Mrs Morgan hopes Queanbeyan Council will ban the circus.

“The council definitely has a role to play in animal welfare and that would be to help get these poor animals out of the circus,” she said.

Queanbeyan Council general manager Gary Chapman said that there had been no complaints from residents and would not ban the circus while the community continued to enjoy it.

The surveyor, who did not want to be named, said the rain had not caused any delay. The site preparation is complete and the first blasting of rock is scheduled to start this week.

Construction was running on schedule.

The rains had proven that the environmental safety measures were adequate and no pollution from the site had entered the water.

“The rains were good because it showed us that the runoff systems worked and also identified a couple of places that needed adjusting for future falls,” he said.

Blasting is to begin this week to remove rock from the abutment where the new dam wall will be constructed.

An Actew spokesperson said that a 700 metre exclusion zone will be set up for the blasts and that local traffic may be disrupted with some roads being closed for up to 20 minutes per blast.

“Signs around the construction site will show the date and time of the next blast, and traffic controllers will ensure that the blast area is free of vehicles when the blasts occur,” he said.

Dr Gary Bickford, who was Actew’s Program Director for Water Security during the planning of the dam, said the enlargement was only part of the plan to secure Canberra’s water supply for the future.

“The Cotter Dam Enlargement is a part of a wider plan to ensure Canberra’s water supply is secure for the future,” he said. “The Murrumbidgee to Googong transfer pipe as well as buying irrigation water licences from NSW farmers completes the current plan to increase the amount of water Canberra is able to use.”

When complete at the end of 2011, the dam’s capacity will increase from 4 gigalitres to 78 gigalitres, making it Canberra’s second largest of storage behind Googong and increasing Canberra’s overall water capacity by 35 percent.

One million tonnes of concrete will be needed. Aggregate will be coming from the debris from the blasting of rock.

Actew’s website says the rock will be transported to the specifically built rock crushing shed on the site for processing and eventually end up in the concrete for the dam wall.

Students at the University of Canberra are being fined for parking illegally, despite the new overflow parking spaces provided.

“Some people just don’t know we’re here,” the SNP Security Officer assigned to the south end of the campus, Ahmed Sarfraz, said. “They can see it from a distance but don’t know how to get here.”

Access to the overflow parking is via the gated UC Innovation Centre car park, so a security officer must open the gate and direct students to the grassy parking lot. The grass area can accommodate up to 142 cars but has never been full since it opened.

The UC website shows the location of the overflow car park and states that it will be available during the first two weeks of semester. This has clearly been extended, as it is still in use now, storing 105 cars on Thursday of Week 3 (25 February 2010), indicating that despite diminishing demand, students are still in need of the additional car spaces.

“I think they need more parking,” Sarfraz said. “The students are wasting their time. From what they’ve told me, they drive around for 20 to 30 minutes looking for a park.”

Unable to find suitable parking, students are parking illegally on the verges of designated parking lots and on raised traffic islands.

When security officers find illegally parked cars, they have to notify their superior, who in turn contacts the traffic inspectors who will issue the parking fines (see picture).

Sarfraz believes that students park illegally because there is insufficient signage to direct them to the overflow parking.

One small sign on the corner of Kirinari St and University Drive South states “Overflow Parking” with an arrow, while another sign at the entrance to the parking lot, modified with masking tape and a pen, states “Parking Overflow”.

Rate Your Uni, a website based on student ratings, rates the availability of car parking at the UC at 3.48 out of a possible 5 stars, eleventh highest on the website. In comparison, the ANU rates a meagre 2.36, the third worst in Australia.

Australia sends around five million live animals overseas each year to be slaughtered. They are sent by truck and by boat, many of them becoming ill or injured during the journey and thousands dying of starvation or infections before they reach their destination. The ones that die at sea are considered the lucky ones. The ones that survive the journey are taken and slaughtered in the most horrific way.

RSPCA Australia hopes to stop Australia’s live animal exports. The CEO of RSPCA ACT, Michael Linke, says the treatment of the animals sent overseas needs to improve.

“It simply has to stop if we are to meet the basic principles of humane treatment of animals,” he said.

RSPCA Australia is a strong supporter of the Handle With Care campaign (HWC) aimed at educating the Australian public of the conditions Australian animals face when they reach their overseas destination. HWC is primarily concerned with ending the export of live animals for slaughter – especially sheep to the Middle East. The live sheep trade has developed in Australia simply because the returns from the exports outweigh the costs. While RSPCA Australia and HWC understand there are incentives for continuing exports (the creation of jobs etc), they strongly condemn the conditions the animals face once they are overseas.

Adding to the confusion are numerous myths that surround the industry, such as the reason behind Australia sending live animals is because importing countries demands them for religious purposes, the cessation of live exports will cost Australian jobs, as well as Australia continuing their live stock export scheme only so they have leverage over other countries and can influence them into introducing animal cruelty laws.

In tackling the first myth, religious purposes are no longer a justification. The only requirement is that the animals are slaughtered Halal and Australia already employs this technique. In 2007, Australia stopped exporting live stock to Egypt after an outcry from the public at the brutal treatment Australian cattle received there.

The vice president of RSPCA Australia, Sue Gage, believes exporting animals to be slaughtered in another country contradicts Australia’s animal cruelty prevention laws.

“The live export of animals for slaughter is unnecessary and can no longer be justified on religious grounds”, she said. As a result, Egypt just increased its imports of frozen and chilled meat, which drastically reduced animal suffering in the country, and boosted the Australian meat market.

This boost in the Australian meat market did not mean Australians lost jobs – it actually created more. If live animal exports ceased, increasing the exports of chilled and frozen meat would boost the economy and create more business for Australian abattoirs and meat-processing industries. The Australian meat industry creates about $6 billion a year, while live stock exports create just under $1 billion, according to an ACIL Tasman report. An increase in the meat industry means even more revenue and the ability to employ more Australian people and boost the Australian economy.

Australian animals are not protected by Australian laws once they reach their destination. Sadly, most countries in the Middle East do not employ any animal cruelty laws and Australia cannot enforce its standards on other countries.

Mr Linke believes Australia is helpless once the animals have left Australian borders.

“We can do nothing to prevent the fate which these animals face once they reach their destination,” he said. “I am not talking about presumptions of emotional responses. Tthese are the facts.” A report commissioned by RSPCA Australia in 2008 concluded that there is still a reason live animal exports continue but found that there would be no long term effects to Australian farmers or the economy at all, if live animal exports of Australian sheep to the Middle East were stopped. The ACIL Tasman report looked at the steps needed to phase out exports in Western Australia, which has the highest number of Australian animals being sent overseas. It advised a quota system which would help Australian farmers reduce the number of sheep being sent overseas without crippling their businesses. The report also details how farmers can sell their quotas to other farmers who are most affected to help ease any financial strain. Furthermore, due to seasonal conditions, most sheep farmers in Western Australia are already restructuring their farms and adjusting to certain conditions. The findings from the report can eventually be used to phase out live stock exports in all Australian States and Territories.

RSPCA Australia believes that the Australian Government needs to gather up all its ‘political courage’ and take the first step to end live stock exports.

“The Government should focus on increasing Australia’s meat processing and exporting capacity and put an end to the cruel live export trade,” Ms Gage said.

RSPCA Australia, the Handle With Care campaign and many other organisations are attempting to address animal cruelty in the Australian meat industry in a realistic sense. Protecting the economic value of the meat industry must be balanced alongside ensuring Australian animals do not suffer unnecessarily.

Visit www.handlewithcare.org.au for more information.