Are the people of Victoria interested in safe food with regulatory responsibility? The Lib Nats are not...

Australian Food News reports that the Victorian Parliament is to review meat and dairy regulations. Now, Networkers, I am most suspicious about this.  The Baillieu Government in Victoria has allowed grazing by cattle in significant national parks.  It is bending over backwards, it seems to me, to satisfy its conservative and corporate constituency.  

The chair of the Rural and Regional Committee, Mr Paul Weller (MP for Rodney) said the enquiry needed to investigate the cost competitiveness of food safety laws on regulated businesses.

To my wary mind, Networkers, the word of Mr Weller are code for advantaging corporates, farmers, and small business with regard to cost while cutting regulation to the bone. 


Check out the language used in the Terms of Reference below: 
cost competitiveness, regulatory burden, support businesses, promote business continuity, non-regulatory methods, costs of implementation for business and government, and the facilitation of market access and exports.


Please note that there is no mention of something such as regulatory responsibility to protect the interests of the consuming public.  Ah no.  This is an Inquiry to advantage and empathise not with the public but with corporations, businesses and farmers.

Submissions close on Monday 3 September 2012

The website for further details on the Inquiry Into The Impact of Food Safety Regulation On Farms And Other Business is here.

Terms of Reference

That, under s33 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, an inquiry into the impact of food safety regulation on farm and other businesses regulated under the Dairy Act 2000, the Meat Industry Act 1993, and the Seafood Act 2003 be referred to the Rural and Regional Committee for consideration and report no later than 30 March 2013, and the Committee is asked to:

(1) explore the cost competitiveness to regulated businesses of food safety laws administered by PrimeSafe and Dairy Food Safety Victoria (DFSV);

(2)  have a particular focus on small business;

(3) investigate and assess:

(a) the extent and appropriateness of regulatory burden impact of national primary production and processing standards on regulated businesses in Victoria;

(b) the comparison of alternative methods to assess compliance with required standards and food safety outcomes;

(c) incentives for improved performance to reduce regulatory burden such as ‘earned recognition’ systems;

(d) how regulators can support businesses to understand and achieve compliance with regulations;

(e) how regulators can promote business continuity and improved compliance where non-compliance with regulations is identified;

(f)   non-regulatory methods for achieving required food safety outcomes;

(g) the comparison of requirements under legislation administered by PrimeSafe and DFSV with existing regulatory requirements under theFood Act 1984 for businesses with equivalent food safety risks;

(h) the comparison of requirements under legislation administered by PrimeSafe and DFSV with regulatory requirements administered by the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service for exports;

(i)   the application of food safety regulations to farm-gate sales of unprocessed and on-farm processed produce, given the desire for some agricultural producers to innovate and value-add on farm;

(4) consider the findings of other relevant reviews and evidence from other systems implemented either in Australia or internationally; and

(5) have regard to public health outcomes, the costs of implementation for business and government, and the facilitation of market access and exports.

Coal and Energy Conference speaks only to its own players : those protecting farms, food, country are outsiders.

More from Denis of The Nature of Robertson (see previous post on coal):

Look what they are able to do - with obscene amounts of money - hold a posh conference 800Km away from the area being talked about.

Presumably a new form of "consultation".

Its an insult.

For info.

Denis

Miss Eagle''s thoughts are about social licence at every level of Australian society and power.

Politicians, Bureaucrats, Corporations

and every community facility, business and organisation

have to say NO.

Have to say - 

You don't have our permission -  

You don't have our social licence.

Add to this protest

by demonstrating that you won't vote for your usual party preference.

If you can't see your way clear to vote for another party,

then put the ballot in the box blank.

Sufficient informal votes should make political parties aware

of the votes that are up for grabs - IF they do the right thing by country and community.

~~~~~~~~~~

Picture here and below from A Black Cockatoo
This site is a fount of information.

Protest the Gunnedah Coal and Energy Conference

•     8:30am, Monday 25th June.
•     Crowne Plaza Hotel, Newcastle.

Come along and voice your opposition to the destruction of the Gunnedah Basin's food, forests, and water.

The Gunnedah Coal and Energy Conference will take place over two days at the exclusive Crowne Plaza Hotel Newcastle, next week. It costs more than $3000 to attend, ensuring that only representatives from the coal and gas industries, and government, will be in attendance. Conference attendees will be discussing ways to increase coal and gas mining in the Gunnedah region, and bypass community attempts to stop them. Included on the agenda is a session exploring ways to bypass landowners who “lock the gate” on coal and gas exploration to protect their land and water. Another session will discuss plans to double Newcastle coal exports to “200 million tonnes and beyond”.

Opening up the Gunnedah Basin to massive coal and gas mining is being met with broad opposition from farmers, community groups, and environmentalists. If the conference attendees get their way, vast swathes of agricultural land and precious ecosystems will be decimated by the forward march of coal and gas mines. Communities will be torn apart as massive new mining projects land at their doorstep. Aquifers, rivers, and wetlands will be polluted and destroyed.

Let's show the conference attendees what we think about their plans to open up the Gunnedah region to massive new coal and gas projects. Join us to protest the conference on Monday morning, and give them a resounding “No!” to more and coal and gas.

See you there 

at 8:30am next Monday 25th June, 

at the Crowne Plaza, 

corner ofMerewether Street and Wharf Road, Newcastle. 

Bring placards, banners, and props 

that demonstrate our message to put food, forests, and clean water 

before coal and gas in the Gunnedah Basin!

New ways of getting polluting coal to the surface

Have received this email from my good friend, environmentalist,  and Networker Denis Wilson who blogs magnificently at The Nature of Robertson

~~~

It has long been understood that there are vast coal reserves in the Murray Darling Basin, (at least as far out as Mildura).

Thing is, those coal reserves have never been regarded as "viable" for mining.

Now someone is floating the idea of developing a 2nd generation Methane exploration system, based upon techniques seemingly proven in the USA.

This is NOT good news for these regions (if anything like the disruption which has occurred in QLD and northern NSW is any guide).

Be prepared to read into the fuller report (linked), to find out what it might mean for you - South Australia, Victoria (Gippsland, Otway as well as Murray Regions) and southern NSW.

Picture above is from here

'Second Generation' methane exploration - based on biologically-generated gas in relatively shallow, low-rank coals, and prompted by the phenomenal production from the Powder River Basin of the USA - is barely a year old in Australia. Within this timeframe, however, such exploration is already showing encouraging signs for commercial success, and ACM is at the forefront of this work following recent discoveries in NSW.

Tertiary coals of southeastern Australia, especially in the populous states of New South Wales and Victoria, constitute particularly attractive, shallow gas targets. Hosting enormous coal resources, these areas are only just beginning to receive attention.

Outside of the Gippsland Basin, the greatest potential for onshore early Tertiary coal in Australia probably lies in the Murray Basin of NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The Murray is a very large basin of about 300,000 km² (compared with some 74,000 km² for the Powder River Basin), comprising Tertiary and Cainozoic sediments. The eastern Murray Basin of NSW and northern Victoria with its extensive Tertiary coal development constitutes an important but until recently untested Powder River Basin analogue. Early work by ACM and an associated company has already defined a large area of gas-charged early Tertiary sediments in this basin, where the companies have more than 50,000 km² of contiguous tenure. 

Demonstrating that biogenic gas is not confined to younger coals, ACM has also discovered substantial volumes of biogenic methane from shallow Permian coal seam aquifers in its Gunnedah Basin tenure of northern NSW.

http://www.pesa.com.au/publications/pesa_news/oct_01/nsw_supp/acm.htm

Coincidentally, Somerton Energy has claimed various leases along the Victorian "Otway" coast and offshore regions, and in South Australia.
http://www.somertonenergy.com.au/index.htm

Can hardly say "cheers" can I?

The Proposed Basin Plan documents and fact sheets. Enough here to make your eyes glaze over!

An ordinary mortal in coming to grips with the material put forward by the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) in regard to the Proposed Basin Plan is quite a hurdle. I have been remiss in the timeliness of getting these documents to you on line, Networkers.  So.. I hope you have been over at the website.  I have been battling all manner of ill health this past month and this week has been taken up with all manner of medical and allied medical visitations ... and there is a biggy next week.  I am having yet another mammogram but expect this one to enable me to celebrate ten years free of breast cancer!

~~~~~

There is a mountain of material on the MDBA website.  There are the comments from Minister Tony Burke and the Chairman of the Authority, Craig Knowles.  There's a decision to be made about whether one can get to any of the listed consultations.   The consultations appear to be less numerous and widespread than those held by the Authority when the Guide to the Draft Plan last year.  However, I am advised that the current list is only for consultations prior to Christmas.  In the New Year, a new list will appear with more extensive consultations, including Melbourne, on the list. I was able to attend the consultations in Shepparton and in Melbourne last time....but, while the spirit is very willing, the body has got somewhat weaker in the ensuing year.

I did this week attend The Low Down held at Environment Victoria this week.  Lead speaker was the marvellous Juliet Le Feuvre.  She was ably followed by the more than capable Domenica Settle.

These two women are the Rivers Campaigners/Experts for Environment Victoria.

~~~~~~

However, I will begin at the beginning.  The material below is available from the the Authority website.  I download it here, because for some it is more accessible and may prove easier to locate in the longer term.  

I do commend the authority on the document regarding the individual catchments of the Murray Darling Basin.  The individual maps provided are valuable and, I have to wonder, whether teachers might take a good look at the document for classroom use.  In addition, I wonder if localised tourism could be enhanced by marketing catchment tours so people can learn about their rivers, the environment, agriculture, and irrigation.  I have lived in a number of these catchments and have travelled in a number of others.  But what better way to get to know your country than by getting to know the Murray-Darling Basin - people could be encouraged to gather a clutch of catchments in an interlinked regional tourism push.

Basin Plan implementation pathway process

Proposed Basin Plan


Knowledge behind the Plan


The draft Basin Plan: catchment by catchment


The proposed "environmentally sustainable level of take"
for surface water of the Murray-Darling Basin: method and outcomes


Climate change and the Basin Plan


FACT SHEET:
The proposed 'environmentally sustainable level of take'
for surface water of the Murray-Darling Basin


Flooding and the Basin Plan


Hydrological modelling


Managing Australia's water resources


Sustainable diversion limit compliance


Transitional and interim water resource plans


Water Quality and Salinity Management Plan


Communication products for draft Basin Plan release

Delivering a healthy working Basin

Questions answered

Now if you aren't worn out, asleep, or thoroughly bored witless
I won't download any more docs.
HOWEVER,
please go to these linked documents
Supporting Documents
Environmental Watering Plan - What's in it and how will it work?

If it were 1 June, I would suggest gathering the family around the fire for a reading session and you could each take a doc and read snippets to each other over a succession of nights.  This should only take about three months so that on 31 August you can quiz each other and see who passes the comprehension test.  On the first day of Spring collapse in a heap and then hibernate until Christmas.  

Instead it's December. It's hot. Some catchments have had floods already this season and some are keeping an eye on their rivers for more of the same.  The documents have been out for just under a fortnight and there's just over a fortnight until Christmas.  Oh, well. Forget the Christmas Cards.  Give everyone in the family a store gift card.   Who has time to shop?  Merry Christmas and we'll see if we can get this sorted in the New Year.

ACF socioeconomic report indicates comments that the Basin plan will cost jobs are a beat-up

Reality check needed on impact on regional jobs from MDB Plan

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) today released an analysis of the socioeconomic studies underpinning the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan which reveals that a healthy river system will have little impact on jobs.

According to Simon O’Connor, economic adviser at ACF, the analysis – Separating the wheat from the chaff: an assessment of the socioeconomics of the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan – indicates that jobs will, in fact, increase in the short term. In the longer term, small decreases in jobs (around 200 per year) will be offset by the much greater increase in new jobs created (13,000 per year).

“The alarmist comments that the Basin Plan will devastate jobs across the basin are grossly misleading,” he said.

The plan cites 23 socioeconomic reports that consistently conclude with just one message – the impact of reform of the river system will have a small and manageable economic impact on communities of the basin.

“To be clear, no credible evidence has yet been presented that contradicts this conclusion,” he said.   

According to the MDBA, “Overall, economic modelling of the impacts of the proposed Basin Plan revealed that at an aggregate level, the Basin-wide economic costs will be small —smaller, proportionally, than the corresponding reductions in water diversions.”

There is however a major gap in the draft plan, Mr O’Connor said. 

“We are currently seeing only one side of the balance sheet of water reform on the Murray- Darling – the costs – and simply ignoring the economic benefits to rural and regional communities of a healthy river system,” he said.