Galilee Basin Alliance demand the right to say 'NO' to mining

Galilee Basin Alliance	23:17 (8 hours ago)		Clip
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Media Release:  

Monday, 30 November 2015

GALILEE BASIN DEMANDS THE RIGHT TO SAY ‘NO’ TO MINING

Farmers and landholders in Central Western Queensland are calling on Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and state ministers to give them the right to say ‘no’ to mining at the next meeting of the COAG Energy Council on Friday 4^th December.

Minister Frydenberg said he'd put mining and land access on the agenda at the meeting.

Denice Campbell from the Galilee Basin Alliance said it was vital this meeting delivers tangible action and gives farmers, landholders and Traditional Owners the power to refuse mining companies access.

“While mining companies ultimately have the right to access someone else’s land and do to it what they will, usually without any consideration for the agricultural industry that is already in place, there will never be justice for ordinary people going about their businesses in this country. This applies equally to Traditional Owners.  It is wrong, ordinary people know it is wrong, politicians know it is wrong; they have said so in public forums.  Yet nothing continues to be done because the mining companies have powerful allies in all political arenas.  This corrupted process needs to end now or there will be huge costs to be faced in the future not unlike the stories and consequences of the “stolen generation”. 

“It is time for the buck-passing and bullying to end, and for our governments to legislate to give all landholders and communities a veto over mining that threatens our land, our water and way of life.

“Individuals and communities across Australia have experienced severe distress due to the laws being weighted so heavily in favor of multi-national mining corporations that they can legally force access to land without consent.

“All governments across Australia need to act now to end this special treatment for mining giants and to give us the basic right to a fair go and a real say over whether miners are allowed access”

“The bullying and harassment of landholders and Traditional Owners by mining corporations needs to end now. Governments need to prevent any further harm to rural and regional families“   Ms Campbell said.

We are asking that all governments:

• Reach an agreement at COAG to legislate the legal right for landholders and Traditional Owners to say ‘no’ to access by coal and unconventional gas mining companies.
• Provide state and territory governments six months to deliver legislative changes to that effect, and if they are not forthcoming, create national legislation using relevant powers.
• Immediately commission an inquiry by the ACCC, using powers it already has, to investigate whether the unconventional gas industry have engaged in unconscionable conduct in their dealings with landholders.

Inquiry on Landholders' Right to Refuse gas and coal Bill

The private senator’s bill proposed to make gas or coal mining activities undertaken without prior written authorisation from landholders unlawful and would ban constitutional corporations from engaging in hydraulic fracturing operations (fracking) for coal seam gas, shale gas and tight gas.

In addition to the 95 submissions listed below

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Gas_and_Coal/Submissions

the committee received by email approximately 350 short statements and form letters in support of the bill or that discussed matters beyond the scope of this inquiry. The committee decided not to publish on its website every email and form letter it received. An example of each type of form letter has been published.

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Scorecard: Planning bills not up to scratch

November 13, 2015

A new scorecard for Queensland reveals proposed new planning laws would be worse for the Queensland community and the environment than the planning laws in place under the Bligh government in 2012.

The scorecard, prepared by Environmental Defenders Office Qld (EDO Qld) and Queensland Conservation Council (QCC), comes after Deputy Premier and Minister for Planning Jackie Trad tabled the Government’s Planning Bill 2015and two related bills in Queensland Parliament late Thursday.

The LNP Opposition also has draft planning laws that will be up for consideration by parliament at the same time as the Government’s planning bills[1].

EDO Qld solicitor Revel Pointon said the scorecard was designed to help the community make sense of complex planning laws and revealed Queenslanders were not getting the first-class planning framework they deserved.

“We compared both the Government and the Opposition bills to see how they compared to planning laws in place under the Bligh and Newman governments.

“The QCC/EDO Qld scorecard assessed all the planning laws against four key indicators: protection of nature; support for community participation in planning; promotion of accountability and transparency; and whether they provide certainty to the community.

“The scorecard findings reveal the Opposition planning bills would be the worst outcome for Queensland, but disappointingly the current Government’s proposed laws are not much better.

“There are serious accountability and transparency shortfalls in both the Government’s and the Opposition’s proposed new planning and development assessment laws, mainly due to too much flexibility surrounding decision-making that tends to favour developers interests over the community.

“The current Government is clearly better on community involvement in planning and development assessment, in particular proposing to restore rules in the Planning and Environment Court that will protect the community from the threat of massive costs.

“However, the Government’s bills are only marginally ahead of the Opposition Bills on the other three measures.

“We are particularly concerned the government has decided to continue with its single assessment system – SARA – which weakens the role of specialist departments such Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

“If the Deputy Premier wants planning based on the best science, we need our specialist departments to have a strong decision making role in planning and assessment decisions.

“We need strong, clear planning legislation to protect the environment for the future and to protect the community’s right to have their say on development that affects the places that matter to them,” said QCC planning spokesperson Karen Robinson.

“However both sets of planning laws will further entrench the presumption of development approval by weakening controls on code assessable applications.

“They also reduce the community’s rights to oppose development that does not comply with local plans and planning schemes,” Ms Robinson said.

“We are already seeing rising discontent in the community, particularly in south-east Queensland, as people wake up to find 15 and 20 storey apartment buildings approved where plans allowed just 6 and 12 storey.

“At the same time, scarce parkland and important koala habitat is being removed from protected zones and made available for development.

“People tell us they believe the planning system is broken, yet if the community is hoping any of the proposed new planning laws will fix this they are going to be seriously disappointed.”

[1] The Planning and Development (Planning for Prosperity) Bill 2015 (and two associated bills) were tabled in June as Private Members Bills by Shadow Treasurer Tim Nichols.

151113 Joint Media Release_Bills tabled _FINAL

https://www.qldconservation.org.au/take-action/queenslandplanningbill/

more

 https://www.qldconservation.org.au/2015/11/scorecard-planning-bills-not-up-to-scratch/

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Queensland's four pillar economic policy and non-prescriptive requirements and processes

As I was writing my last post, Denis - a regular contributor and old friend of The Network - sent me this email.  Just so pertinent!  Governments of all colours and ethnicities like to let the corporate sector know that they are "open for business".  However, if Networkers read the main story of the previous post AND follow and read the links included in the post, the consequences of bending over for business takes on Luciferian proportions.  Nigeria was open for business ... and look what happened there.  Australia is declaring marine reserves on the Great Barrier Reef but what will this mean in reality and will it control whatever dreams international corporations want to make real?  Tony Abbott criticises roundly the marine reserves decision.  So here's Denis's email to me. For people who aren't familiar with Australian governments, Campbell Newman is the Liberal National (conservative) Premier of Queensland.  The LibNats have come to power only recently in Queensland after many years in opposition.

Picture from here

Hi Brigid

I sent this to my friend in Canada as he was quoting Mr Harper, and it all sounded very familiar.....

PLANNING FOR PROSPERITY TO UNLOCK POTENTIAL

The Newman Government today unveiled a new planning policy to unlock the full potential of the state's four pillar economic policy.

The Deputy Premier and the Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney said the new Planning for Prosperity policy was an important move to restoring Queensland's economic fortunes.

"Planning policies and regulation are key factors in future growth, development and economic prosperity," Mr Seeney said.

Mr Seeney said the Planning for Prosperity policy would provide a clear statement of the position of the Government on the importance of agriculture, construction, mining and tourism to Queensland and how they must be considered in the planning process.

"This is Queensland's first positive, enabling planning policy in recent times, which will ensure economic growth that is not adversely affected by planning processes," he said.

"In essence it will ensure that state agencies and councils must ensure that economic development considerations are a fundamental planning consideration in this state.

"Its aim is to speed - not impede - development.

"This policy position has not previously been made clear in the state planning system which, under the previous Government, was more about process than outcomes."

Mr Seeney said this will provide greater focus for councils to approve developments that will produce positive economic gains.

"The policy also reinforces the Newman Government's commitments to ensuring planning regulations do not add un-necessary costs to development, eliminate gold plating of infrastructure and encourages innovative solutions to facilitate development," he said.

"This is a simple policy not weighed down by processes or prescriptive requirements."

Temporary State Planning Policy will be gazetted and come into effect tomorrow.

This policy will be in effect for 12 months and form the basis for a new State Planning Policy which will be released for public comment in October and should be adopted early next year.

Mr Seeney said it will replace the current batch of policies that have been developed in an ad hoc manner over the past twenty years.

"This is a key stride in this government's determination to ensure that Queensland is again open for business - it will facilitate growth, development and economic activity," he said.

He has now come back with this comment:

Ah yes, the old "open for business" line. H used that one too. Ad nauseum, actually.

"Closed for decent living" is more like it.

Okay, so who copied whose policy, or did international big business get both to do it at the same time?

-Leo
Cheers

Denis.

Denis Wilson
If you're not pissed off with the World, you're just not paying attention.
(Kasey Chambers)

"The Nature of Robertson"
www.peonyden.blogspot.com.au

Related articles

• LNP officials smearing Newman: Seeney
• Threatening the environment with coal operations - Part 2
• Threatening the environment with coal operations: Abbot Point and Keela Valley; Alpha and Bimblebox
• Checking on the health of the Great Barrier Reef
• John McLean - ENSO drives sea surface temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef
• Paul B. Farrell: Ex-Im bank financing too risky for U.S. taxpayers

I HATE DOCKLANDS #poorplanning in #Melbourne

Tweet

Picture from here

I rarely if ever post on the subject of planning in relation to cities and development.  However, I am to-day because I am impressed by this quote from Professor Kim Dovey:

''I don't believe what planning ministers say any more about growth boundaries - 

every time developers come and camp in the minister's office they just buckle.''

The image that is created of real estate developers camping in the office of a Minister of the Crown is mind boggling - and the Minister buckling at the knees because of the presence of those who are, we hope, unwelcome guests.  But then there is that other image - of developers being very welcome guests as they bring money to party hacks for the coffers of corrupt political parties.  

Can I say quite loudly "I HATE DOCKLANDS!".  I don't even refer to it as Docklands  To me it is Beijing South - because it reminds of me of the cheek by jowl high rise development of Beijing.  Victoria is known as The Garden State.  Melbourne likes to promote its boulevards and leafy streets.  Where are these in Docklands.  Sure there is a very small portion of greenery here and there but I wonder how these spaces will be in the years to come because I think they will be deprived of sunshine and the necessary components for plants to thrive.  

And, Networkers, in case you think I am just another carping critic, I am not alone.  My appraisal is based on what I consider an offence to the human spirit.  A more intelligent, articulate, and knowledgable response is here

  

Under the LibNat Coalition, where is environmental sustainability going?

Almost eighteen months ago, this media release was issued to announce the appointment of Dr Kate Auty to the position of Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability.  Now the Baillieu Government has been sworn in, it is time to ask what is going to happen to this office.  I have gone over to the Liberal Party website to see what I could find – and, particularly, looking for the key words sustainability and environment.  That turned out to be an ‘interesting’ exercise – considering we are just concluding the last decade of the 21st century.

I can find a heading for Secure Water and a Healthy Environment.  I already had a copy of The Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Plan for Water. I have been over the Plan for Water with a fine tooth comb. Now sometimes I am blind as the proverbial bat – but I can’t see reference to the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability.  There is to be the establishment of a Living Victoria program…but all the references to that are about water and the Minister for Water (Nationals Deputy Leader and former Victorian Farmers Federation President) Peter Walsh will oversee the program.

There is a section on the website titled Recent Policy Announcements. and it contains a section called Agriculture & Environment. The headlines of the announcements are all rural, regional and agriculturally referenced.  Doesn’t look like a whole of Victoria policy at all.

So where are we.  I can understand – well, sort of – if the Liberal and the Nationals judged that the electorate might have been/be more concerned about other issues like cost of living; public transport; health; schools, etc.  Now the election is over and everyone is safely esconced in their democratic oversight positions, it would be nice to see heads turned to letting us know what they really plan to do on issues of environmental sustainability. 

All the above election issues are important. However, we are – first and foremost – human beings living in an endogenous context which is not faring too darn well.  Those election issues exist within that context too.  If we are not managing our living space well and sustainably we are not going to manage those election grabbers very well either. 

So, in the hope that someone who knows something about Liberal National Coalition Policies reads this, could you please post some enlightening comment below so we have an idea – if only a rough one – about how where we all live at the Victorian end of things is going to be managed.

Media release

From the Minister for Environment and Climate Change

Friday, 19 June, 2009

NEW COMMISSIONER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental scientist and former magistrate Dr Kate Auty has been appointed the new Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings said Dr Auty begins in the role today replacing Dr Ian McPhail who recently completed his five year term as Commissioner.

“With the appointment of Dr Auty to this important position, the Brumby Labor Government is taking action to ensure that the high quality environmental reporting of the Government’s activities continues for the benefit of all Victorians,” Mr Jennings said.

“The Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability has a significant role to play in environmental reporting and public education, so I am very pleased that we have someone with Dr Auty’s experience to take on the role.

“I look forward to working with Dr Auty in her new role to achieve the best results for Victoria’s environment. We’ve got a great platform for the Commissioner to build from but there is more to do.

“I’d also like to thank Dr McPhail for his dedication over the past five years as the inaugural Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability.”

Before accepting the role, Dr Auty distinguished herself as Chairperson of the Ministerial Reference Council on Climate Change Adaptation and as a member of the Premier of Victoria’s Reference Committee on Climate Change.

Dr Auty brings extensive legal and academic background including post-graduate qualifications in environmental science.

Dr Auty signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 1992, and was appointed a Victorian Magistrate in 1999. She established the first Victorian Koori Court and acted as inaugural Koori Court Magistrate.

From 2004–2009 Dr Auty was a Magistrate in Western Australia. She has undertaken a number of consultancies including a project on local government and climate change for the National Environmental Law Association.

Patrick Dodson: Aboriginal inclusion in constitutional & institutional frameworks

Picture from here

Patrick Dodson has posted an article in On Line Opinion to-day entitled Can Australia Afford Not To Be Reconciled?

Patrick's article is wide-ranging and covers:

• The proposed referendum
• The rights of indigenous peoples
• Dialogue
• The Intervention
• The assimilation push across Australia
• Reconciliation
• Global consequences and connections with domestic injustice
• Climate change
• Environmental destruction
• Incorporation of indigenous peoples into planning and decision-making
• The Place of Aboriginal people in Australia's constitutional and institutional frameworks

Related articles

• PM seeks legal recognition of indigenous Australians (theage.com.au)
• Call for indigenous inclusion (news.theage.com.au)
• Indigenous recognition in the Constitution is about respect (thepunch.com.au)
• Dodson gives intervention F on education (news.theage.com.au)

Dear Networkers,

Some items for your calendar.

Please join Archbishop Freier on Wednesday 30th of September, BMW Edge Theatre, Fed Square at 7:30am, as he discusses the increasing level of street violence in Melbourne with Chief Police Commissioner Simon Overland, and adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Greg.

Click to enlarge

This is an invitation to:

It’s Vegie Time!

Melbourne Multicultural Food Fair

Official Community Fundraiser for the Parliament of the World's Religions

27th September, 11am - 3pm,
St Kilda Town Hall
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda.

This event is organised by the Buddhist Council of Victoria for the purpose of raising awareness of the cultural diversity within the Buddhist community in Victoria.

The event aims to raise funds on behalf of the Victorian Buddhist community towards the organising costs of the upcoming Parliament of the World’s Religions (PWR) to be held in Melbourne, 3-9 December 2009, the world's largest interreligious gathering.

The event will feature tantalising food from the vegetarian cuisines of the diverse ethnic groups within the Buddhist community of Melbourne.

The Food Fair will also present introductory talks on Buddhism and Meditation and give participants the chance to experience the tea ceremonies of Japan and China.

This will be a ‘green event’ with all food served on biodegradable, reusable containers. Participants are urged to “keep the footprint low” by coming on public transport and bringing their own clean sealable containers to take food home to share with others.

Prices at the Food Fair are low with $5 and $2 coupons exchangeable for your individual choices.

Venerable Phuoc Tan from the Quang Minh Temple is a patron of the PWR and is assisting us in organizing this event.

For more information visit PWR Melbourne Events Website

Download the Official Poster 

Blue Wedges on watch - 1

Governments have a hard time weaniing their cities away from ports which have become more of a nuisance than a boon to their inhabitants. Botany Bay, the icon of white settlement, is polluted and ravished by a busy port. In Melbourne, we have the not-quite-landlocked Port Phillip Bay which many business people agree is not well situated. Blue Wedges soldiers on. When dredging was discussed for PPB that put up a valiant battle...but how can communities win against governments, even in a court of law.

So Blue Wedges continues to watch, to inform and to protest. Here is an update...

1. Not many ships, but plenty of dredges!

Bayside residents down south are getting mightily sick of the sight, noise and smell of two massive dredges and their support vessels grinding away day and night. The Bay is constantly buzzing with the jumbo-ised Queen of the Netherlands, the Cornelis Zanen and now a strange looking barge with crane has turned up, often being towed around by a Tug boat. Regular beach goers have noted they are now being subjected to lungs full of exhaust fumes, not fresh air on their morning walk on the beach – not surprising as the dredges are only two or three kilometres off shore.

It’s bad news for us 3 million people who live around the coastline of the Bay that recent overseas studies have shown that health risks of shipping pollution have been grossly underestimated. One study estimates that one giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50 million cars[1].

US academic research has shown that pollution from the world's 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330 billion per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases. Consequently, in April, the US government introduced a strict 230-mile buffer zone along the entire US coast. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates the buffer zone will save more than 8,000 lives a year with new air quality standards cutting sulphur in fuel by 98%, particulate matter by 85% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80%.

A new Danish study adds to this picture. It suggests that shipping emissions cost the Danish health service almost £5 billion a year, mainly treating cancers and heart problems. A previous study estimated that 1,000 Danish people die prematurely each year because of shipping pollution.

You’ve got to be worried what our exposure to shipping pollution is, given shipping lanes are very close to the coastline in both the south and north of the Bay. Having two dredges working 24 hours a day so close to our shoreline only adds to the alarming health risk already posed by the shipping industry.

There’s plenty of talk too about the noise from the dredges, especially at night when the eerie sounds of the dredges hydraulics have been likened to the loading bay of a space ship being lowered and raised at close range. Certainly not conducive to a good nights sleep! Indeed, we’ve heard of one person who has had to move her bed to the rear of the house and take sleeping pills to get to sleep above the noise of the dredges.

Anyway, the ceaseless movement, noise and pollution from the dredges is about the only shipping activity being seen on the Bay since the “global financial crisis” hit….. We were pretty sure that less and less container ships are coming and going, and our observations were confirmed in a recent Age article, reporting that in order to save their jobs, Port of Melbourne wharfies have agreed to take extended leave in the face of falling container throughput at the port. But hang on - It’s not that long since the PoMC was telling us all, including the wharfies, that it was channel deepening that would save everybody’s jobs! See: http://www.theage.com.au/national/wharfies-make-leave-agreement-to-save-jobs-20090806-ebi3.html

Now it seems channel deepening has become an unnecessary and bloody expensive side show. Surely there were more important things for government to spend $1billion on….A hospital or two? Schools? Improved public transport, preparing our coastline for climate change?

Amazing isn’t it that the PoMC and Mr. Brumby are getting away with talking rubbish with hardly a peep from the workers, or any of us for that matter? Maybe it’s all those $millions spent on advertising the “benefits” of channel deepening with the Brumby government’s favourite PR firm?

So….Mr. Brumby, what exactly was the great rush to do channel deepening?

2. Beaches on the slide

Because dredging has enlarged the Entrance, we now have more water flowing in and out of the Bay on every tide, and according to the PoMC, a 1 cm increase in tide heights. We guess PoMC is hoping the populace will think that 1 cm is nothing, and they have certainly been careful to avoid talking about the reality that 1 cm increase in water level means a lot more inundation on low lying land, where 1 cm increase in height can mean up to 1 metre inundation on flat land. (Bruun Rule). Along with mounting evidence that global warming is happening faster than predicted, there’s plenty of evidence that coastal erosion might be speeding up too …..and that it might have been sped up even more by the deliberate and swift increase in water levels inside the Bay imposed on us by Mr. Brumby’s channel deepening.

We have heard that since dredging the Entrance, the beacon at the surf break nearby took on a lean, and a couple of months back completely toppled over into the sea. And, beachgoers from Portsea to St. Kilda and around to Queenscliff are noticing significant changes in beach profiles, and what appears to be even more erosion than usual for this time of year

3. Dolphins in the Yarra and fish in the Bay?

The Age excitedly reported that dolphins had recently arrived in the Yarra to feast on bream. See: http://www.theage.com.au/national/yarras-unusual-visitors-cause-a-stir-20090629-d2jh.html

Contrary to what one dolphin researcher claims in the Age article, other dolphin experts have told us dolphins in the Yarra might be cause for concern- not elation. River systems aren’t a healthy option for dolphins, and the fact that dolphins ventured into the Yarra indicates they were searching for food that would normally have been abundant in the Bay, but no longer is we are told.

It’s of note that Bream, taken as part of the channel deepening project’s requirement to test for contamination, were significantly smaller than average and the mullet also targeted for sampling, were simply missing from the system despite employing the best fishermen to locate and catch these fish.

Whilst some pockets of Port Phillip are still producing good fishing, it is not true for the entire system, and we are told that some fishing charter operators are currently selling their operations due to the downturn in fish stocks in the areas reasonably available to them

Reports, released by DPI Fisheries Victoria show a definite decline in the biomass of snapper within the bay since the trial dredging program which was conducted early in the 2005/2006 spawning season. Other species which rely heavily on the seagrass areas for shelter and food for their early life are also showing a decline whilst some fish higher in the food chain are showing a slight increase. We also know that the Anchovy first year age class has gone missing. Anchovy are a vital food source for many Bay species, including penguins and many larger fish.

4. The toxic dump we had to have?

There’s no escaping the fact that the toxic dump in the Bay is something which could never have been built on land. It is unregulated and unlicensed – whereas any toxic facility on land is strictly regulated. Queries about the integrity of the toxic dump and its bund walls have been met with bland assurances from the PoMC, Mr. Garrett and Office of Environmental Monitor that all is well.

But - to have us believe that material excavated by backhoe, trundled for miles on an old barge, and then discharged through an open 15 metre water column would arrive on the seabed still in a compacted stable state beggars belief. Common sense would say that the material excavated by bucket is still substantially disturbed once it hits the seabed.

In the construction industry; mechanically compacted material is not considered suitable for load bearing, so foundations must always be taken through to natural ground…... And that’s on dry land. We are however expected to believe that mechanically relocated wet material, dumped from a great height through the water, is considered to be immediately stable and suitable to withstand any disturbance.

All these news items beg the question: Has it been worth the toxic dump we now have FOREVER in the Bay?

---

[1] The Guardian UK. Thursday 9 April 2009

Simplicity - it really works better than desalination

Wannon Water down Warrnambool way believes it has an Australian first. In a new housing development, it is taking water directly from rooves into the water system without it being diverted through drains, etc. How simple is that?

Of course, there is a question mark. Isn't there always? It decreases the amount of water going into the soil. Our soil - unconcreted, unpaved, unbuilt - is the best reservoir we have. We must always raise questions when water is diverted from it.

Now can we have that replicated and retrofitted everywhere so that we can postpone the need for desalination.

Expansion of Melbourne's Urban Growth Boundary - Rally to-morrow

Notice of a community rally...

...protesting over the impact of the expansion of Melbourne's urban growth boundary, about to be pushed out by up to 46,000 hectares, for residential development and a freeway/ring road.

The State Government is considering taking over planning powers of these new "growth areas".
The rally is being organised by Taxed Out Inc., Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. and the Green Wedges Coalition.

Community groups have been angered by the announcement that Planning Minister Madden will host a luncheon on 14 July 2009 to "brief" developers and business "on the vision for our growth areas and the need to fast track infrastructure investment to create jobs" - and to raise funds for the ALP. It seems that a privileged section of the community can buy the Minister's ear at the expense of other citizens.

Here are the details:

When: 11:30 am Tuesday 14 July 2009

Where:

Meet at the South-East Corner of

Collins & William Streets, Melbourne.

Why:

The proposed expansion of Melbourne's Urban Growth Boundary will involve rezoning up to 46,000 hectares for residential development, new roads and a freeway. This policy could see unprecedented destruction of green wedges; environmental damage plus loss of western grasslands;, destruction of wildlife including endangered species; increased greenhouse gas emissions; building of yet more freeways; loss of arable farm land; compulsory acquisition of land; increased tax burdens including the grossly unfair vendor tax a "Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution - GAIC"; and comes as a result of the go-for-growth-at any-cost Government philosophy. Also the erosion of our democracy will be on the cards if the elected State Government bypasses Parliament and local councils over planning and environment issues.

Transport:

Trams in Collins and William Streets, some meter parking in Haymarket Street.

Train to Flagstaff Station then tram down William Street. Spencer Street

then tram down Bourke or Collins to William Street

Bring to Rally:

Warm clothes, a cut lunch and something to sit on.

Plus a placard. (Some will be provided.)

Support Needed:

We would be very glad if you can send us a message on behalf of your organisation in support of the rally. This will help prove that your organisation is not city-centric or has "NIMBY" tendencies. Send to the above email address. I will read them out. Make sure to give the name of your group. (Messages of support have already been received from a few outer suburban and rural groups saying how much they appreciate city folks taking up these issues.) Plus we need people to attend even for a short time.

Contacts:

Julianne, Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc 0408022408 jbell5@bigpond.com;

Rosemary West, Green Wedges Coalition 0418 554 799;

John Holtham Taxed Out 04091363111.

Cry Me a River - on the road and on the river to Melbourne

Yesterday was the beginning of a very special and important project: Cry Me a River - a Journey on the Murray. In the picture above are:

• Liz McAloon (Victorian Women's Trust, Australian Water Network)
• Cam Walker (Friends of the Earth, Melbourne)
• Ellen Hogan (Plug the Pipe, Australian Water Network)
• Steve Posselt (Save the Mary, Australian Water Network)
• (and out of sight behind the camera is Miss Eagle - Australian Water Network, Friends of the Earth, GreenFaith Australia)

Steve is famous for his trip down the Darling and, from the Darling's junction with the Murray, across to the mouth of the Murray by kayak - a kayak with wheels for when the water runs out.

The trip is recorded in his book Cry Me a River.

We met at the Victorian Women's Trust to plan a trip on the Murray travelling upstream in the kayak with wheels from Echuca. He will conclude the trip by kayaking down the Yarra River to Melbourne. The trip will include major rallies and - if it is possible - talks to schools. Dates are not yet set in concrete but we are working around an early to mid-August start date. The journey will take approximately ten to fourteen days. We are looking for all sorts of skills from those who can accompany Steve on land for the journey; journey co-ordination; media facilitation; web facilitation; community facilitation - and then some.

You will hear more of this - but please mark your diaries.

Timmy Holding's Latest Water Plan - Version 4.2.1.

From the clever people at Watershed Victoria.

Hattip to Chris Heislers

Click to enlarge