Sustainability Street, Blackburn 1: Springvale Road Rail relocation project; Blackburn & District Environment Protection Fund

Dear Networkers, I don't know if you are familiar with the Sustainability Street concept - but it has the support of many local governments across Australia. Like Networker John, I live in the City of Whitehorse in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Whitehorse is a progressive council and is very active within its local communities. So here is a catch up on what is happening so that, if you live out this way, please join in. If you don't live nearby, enquire of your local council about whether they are operating the Sustainability Street program. If they are, join in one near you. If not, ask your council to get cracking.

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Dear Blackburn Susty Streeters,

What an amazing meeting it was on Wednesday - Thank you to Neco for hosting the evening! We had three feature topics last night, where there are many numerous ways in how you can get involved to protect and enhance the natural environment in Whitehorse.

1. The Blackburn & District Environment Protection Fund

David Morrison presented the new Blackburn & District Environment Protection Fund (BDEPF), which has been set up to recognise the importance of Bushland parks to the community in Whitehorse. David talked about how CoW contains some of the highest quality bushland areas in metro Melbourne and the significance of corridors in joining these areas. Many community members expressed how they could contribute towards achieving connectivity, maintenance and enhancement of these areas – Therefore, the BDEPF as the outcome.

The objectives of the Fund is to:

· Build community support to promote and improve the valuable heritage of bushland in CoW.

· Encourage retention of exiting native trees, shrubs and flowers that support native wildlife.

· Support and fund community groups working with Council to protect and enhance bushland.

The Fund will:

· Create extension of bushland parks and ‘green’ links through strategic land purchases.

· Planting, mulching, weed control and wildlife surveys undertaken by voluntary groups.

· Education programs that increase community awareness of bushland environment and natural heritage values within the CoW.

So, how can you get involved?

Visit: home.vicnet.net.au/~badepf/

Donate: http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/whitehorsegives/donate/appeal_details.form?appealId=1775

Contact: David Morrison on 9894 2531 or email badef@gmail.com

A brainstorming exercise was conducted to explore ways in how we could communicate and promote this – And what a detailed response.

2. Neco Tour

Julian, CEO of Neco provided a Tour of the Neco store. For those who have not yet visited – A must for the variety and knowledge of products and staff members!

3. The Melbourne 2030 - Nunawading Major Activity Centre: "Nunawading Emissions Offset Pilot Project"

As you may know, the Springvale Road project has commenced to move the Nunawading Station underground and onto the other side of Springvale Road. There are a number of Community Amenities in the vicinity including Silver Grove and Nunawading Community Centre. Recently, last year amendments have been made to allow up to 6 story high buildings to be built in the close proximity in that particular zone. Just now, ARUP have been awarded the contract to develop the road/rail project next to the Nunawading Major Activity Centre, a project that will have environmental and social impacts on the neighbouring environment including Blackburn Lake and the connecting Valley Heathy Forest.

So, what kind of development is going to be built and what kind of Environmental Sustainable Design (ESD)is going into this you ask? We the short answer is – This hasn’t been decided. AND now is the time to act as a community (an important stakeholder of this project) to provide input into what kind of development will eventuate. A way to ensure ESD is incorporated is to use this as a pilot ("Nunawading Emissions Offset Pilot Project") and obtain Federal and State support to create a Hub that features ESD and resource efficient technology. What an opportunity for sustainable leadership in comparison to something that could effectively harm the biodiversity, deplete our resources and increase our carbon footprint.

So, how can you get involved?

Visit: http://www.bleep.org.au/

Contact: John Bergin on 9893 6775 or email BLEEPNOW@optusnet.com.au

Further details will be provided on the developments of this cause through the website and Susty Street News and we encourage your support and feedback.

An fruitful night full of discussion and most definitely a realisation that together collectively, we can provide the most valuable input as residents in how we see our community and natural environment connect and interact.

Hope to all see you at a next Susty Street event.

With sincere regards,

Miho Kagawa

Sustainability Officer

Engineering & Environmental Services

City of Whitehorse

Phone: (03) 9262 6433

Fax: (03) 9262 6589

Email: miho.kagawa@whitehorse.vic.gov.au

Web: www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au

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If you would like Council to keep in touch with you via email about other key sustainability events and projects happening in the Whitehorse community, please copy and paste the following into a reply email: Yes, please keep in touch with me about key Whitehorse sustainability events.

Further reading:

Blackburn Lake Sanctuary

Melbourne 2030 - Nunawading Emissions Offset Pilot Project.pdf

Blackburn and District Environment Protection Fund - Pamphlet.pdf

Wonthaggi desalinatin plant locks taxpayers into high impact water futures

Cam Walker (pictured above), that wonderful and experienced campaigner from Friends of the Earth Melbourne, has placed a statement on the FoE Melbourne website titled Desal plant locks us into high impact water futures. Please read.

Among other things Cam says:

There are many lower impact options available. The plant is deeply unpopular on the south Gippsland coast. The desal plant and North South pipeline project will undermine the imperative to implement longer term, sustainable options such as better recycling and re-use of water, capture of stormwater, roll out of water tanks and ensuring better water efficiency in all buildings

Due Diligence - 1: government negligence comes home to roost

Are Australians too optimistic, too casual, too laid back, or too lazy? Too [whatever] to undertake the task of methodical and forensic due diligence.

Following hard on the heels of the Victorian Government's announcement that it has given the contract for the desalination plant at Wonthaggi to Suez Environment whose parent company GDF Suez has been fined for wiping out rainforests in the Amazon, we have come to separate situations - one Victorian and the other Federal - where public entities seem to have failed the Due Diligence hurdle.

1. How Firepower ripped off Austrade and how Austrade warned one of its diplomats he was being investigated on child sex charges and how the person under investigation left Austrade and went to work for Firepower. (090804: Austrade qualification here)
2. Then there is this episode which involves Deakin University in Geelong, the Victorian Government and the Indian IT company, Mahindra Satyam. What was to become a massive IT centre in Geelong - which would provide employment as the motor industry on which Geelong is heavily dependent declined - has collapsed in absolute disaster because of fraud.
3. It is interesting that Tim Holding has seminal involvement in both the desalination contract and the IT development. Theo Theophanous was involved in the IT development and I have my wonders about that, wouldn't you, dear Networker?
4. Another public entity asleep at the wheel, is the Reserve Bank of Australia. My guess is that somewhere in the RBA the culture is that right hand must not know what left hand is doing. Not good enough. Not ethical. And chickens do come home to roost as they are now busily doing.

Satyam Computer Services chairman B. Ramalinga Raju.

From here

So what is going on? We know that Ministers and Members of Parliament like to grovel for a buck and this is why Anna Bligh is leading the charge to restore standards to government and governance. It seems to me though that bureaucrats are just as involved in all of this by commission or by omission; by seeking high flying projects or by omitting to do the hard yards required of due diligence.

Queensland and New South Wales have anti-corruption bodies. They are not perfect - and, certainly, the Queensland body acted, along with significant members of the legal profession in Queensland, disgracefully in the matter involving Chief Magistrate Diane Fingleton.

However, for all the faults of the systems in NSW and Queensland, the absence of such a system in the Commonwealth Government and the remaining states is quite marked. One doesn't have to be intimate with political gossip to query the backscratching that goes on in the public sector - politicians, police unions, the rotation of bureaucrats through Federal and State systems according to political preference, and so on.

However, I have one special request for Due Diligence and that is the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. Many Victorians watch on in amazement as their government pays higher and ever higher subsidies to the Grand Prix. I find it amazing how much Ron Walker, a significant member of the Liberal Party, benefits personally from the patronage of the Australian Labor Party, the incumbent government of Victoria.

In this respect I am very much reminded of this quote and the phrase that refers to knowledge of where corpses are interred. Could these figures of speech relate, dear Networker, to the relationship of the good Lib, Ron, and the ALP in Spring Street?

Further reading:

Calls to ditch or revamp Grand Prix

Major sporting events bill 2009 - The Greens

Barb Shaw and her spirited intervention - 2

Marisol has sent around the following information which has come to me via Networker Cheryl:

From: Marisol Salinas <marisol1173@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 5:56 PM
Subject: Solidarity Rally 10:00am Tuesday August 4, Federal Court Melbourne
To: mel-anti-intervention-communication@googlegroups.com

Dear Friends,

Please spread widely

Yesterday in court, lawyers for town camp resident and prominent
anti-intervention campaigner Barb Shaw obtained a temporary 'stay of
execution'. Shaw is seeking an injunction against the minister compulsorily
acquiring the town camps, or signing any agreement with Tangentyere because
the actual tenants of the town camps have never been properly notified that
their rights are about to be extinguished.

The Federal Court will reconvene on Tuesday to continue hearing the case.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective is calling to a solidarity rally on
Tuesday August 4, from 10:00am until 12:00 noon outside the Federal
Court, corner of William and Latrobe Streets, Melbourne.

Bring banners, and musical instruments.

Marisol Salinas
On behalf of Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Macklin's town camp takeover derailed by Tangentyere letter
http://www.nit.com.au/story.aspx?id=18313

Further reading:

Court stays Macklin's deal on camps

Barb Shaw and her spirited intervention

Barb Shaw with Alice Springs in the background

Photo from National Indigenous Times

I love this photo of Barb. In fact, I think it is brilliant. Her image overlays, hovers over a birds-eye view of Alice Springs like a spirit hovering over and embracing the land. And, in fact, this is what the spirited Barb Shaw is doing right now.

Barb has been a vocal critic of the Northern Territory Emergency Response commonly referred to as The Intervention. Barb lives in rented housing at Mount Nancy Town Camp on the northern outskirts of Alice Springs. Now she has become a central figure in a legal challenge to Jenny Macklin's take-over of the town camps of Alice Springs.

When the Rudd Government came to power in 2007 and was sworn into government in 2008, it made an apology to the stolen generations which had never been forthcoming from an Australian Government. We, the Australian people, were beguiled by this. We were relieved that what had been longed for for so long had now happened. It was as if we breathed out, relaxed. A new government, in its honeymoon period, had put first things first and apologised. But we were beguiled and optimistic. We let the Rudd Government off the hook.

You see, while the apology was the first thing that should have been done and was done, there was a next thing to be done. The next thing to be done was to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act which the Howard Government had suspended so it could could carry out its military intervention in the Northern Territory.

My view is that those of us who welcomed an Australian Labor Party Government could not have imagined that a social democratic government could continue - with little deviation - the 21st century assimilation policies forced on Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory by John Howard's Liberal-National Party coalition government

Twenty months after Kevin Rudd came to power, we are looking at a huge mess in the Northern Territory. Reports are that not one new house has been built in the NT and, as early as this week, the Northern Territory Government could fall if Alison Anderson crosses the floor.

The Rudd Government has been continually urged, to the point of embarrassment, to re-introduce the Racial Discrimination Act. It now intends to do this in October. Leading up to this process is a series of flawed consultations with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory which have led to anger from the communities on one hand and failed attendance because of poor notification or lack thereof.

Does this, dear Networker,

sound like a political and social debacle to you.

It sure does to me.

As someone who has been a Macklin watcher

and thought she was rather good at public policy,

I am aghast.

But back to Barb and her spirit made restless by living under the draconian Intervention. For the details of legal intervention taken by Barb, please see National Indigenous times reports here and here.

A reminder to Macklin.

Northern Territory Aboriginal people

are not myalls just in from the bush.

They are Australian citizens wanting

a secure and peaceful life

with the same rights and entitlements

as other citizens.

And they have friends.

Steve Posselt kayaks 4 earth on Cry Me A River Journey along the Murray and the Goulburn - 1

CRY ME A RIVER JOURNEY

BEGINS AT ECHUCA

YESTERDAY

Steve is ready and reariing to go...

....supporters in the background...

....making their feelings known

Don't know where Steve is at right this moment

but Shepparton please get ready for a rally on Wednesday.

Tune in to Plug the Pipe and your local media.

Suez Environment and the Victorian Government: damning due diligence and disgust

My biggest gripe about the Wonthaggi desalination contract here in Victoria under John Brumby's Government has been decision-making and its lack of transparency.

Many of us have done our best on the internet to research the consortia - AquaSure and BassWater - involved in the final bidding process but most of us are enthusiastic and slightly knowledgable amateurs without the resources to put into extensive legal searching let alone being able to do anything approaching due diligence requirements.

I did uncover early in the piece Veolia's human rights breaches in providing a light rail system to illegal settlements in Jerusalem and passed the information to interested parties. Now - and why only now? - it comes to light that Suez Environment's parent company, GDF Suez has been fined for illegally logging the Amazon rainforest. Clearly, the $75,000 fine is a mere tap on the knuckles for GDF Suez. There is no mention of what happend to the timber or its value but my guess it would have had a value in excess of $75,000.

Staggering news to say the least.

So let's start nailing the Brumby Government

on its due diligence.

Firstly, what is due diligence?

Go here for a basic all purpose description.

If you go here, dear Networker, you will get more detail on what is involved. In fact, here is a checklist:

Due Diligence Checklist: Table of Contents

1. General Company Data
2. Financial Information
3. Corporate Agreements
4. Legal Documents
5. Intellectual Property Rights and Product Information
6. Insurance Coverage
7. Litigation History and Documents
8. Employees & Human Resources (HR)
9. Environmental Matters
10. Tax Filings and Documents
11. Marketing and Customer Information
12. Internal Controls & Information Systems
13. Sales Operational Information
14. Support Services & Product Pricing

Please note there are three headings relevant to the matter under discussion"

• General company data: everything about Suez Environment needs to be known - who owns it, its antecedents, its structure, its operations and where they are situated. Everything needs to be known. If something comes up that has not been discovered in the usual due diligence process, then the due diligence carried out has failed. Successful due diligence leaves no surprises.
• Litigation history and documents: it could be argued that because Suez Environment is a separate legal entity from GDF Suez that litigation and fines against GDF Suez could not be expected to be discovered and were irrelevant to the Victoria contract. That argument does not wash. Due diligence is about discovering everything - even the dirty washing of the relatives that can reflect on the entity under review.
• Environmental matters: the old dictum that the apple does not fall far from the tree holds true in most cases. Environmental vandalism by the parent company means that there is an almost iron-clad guarantee that a similar culture will be engendered in derivative companies. Transmission of corporate culture is virtually guaranteed.

Further Reading:

GDF Suez Brazilian hydro project facing uphill battle

Brazil fines consortium that destroys rainforest

Amazon rainforest

Amazon Destruction: Why is the rainforest being destroyed in Brazil?

Rainforest facts

Top name brands implicated in Amazon destruction

Castlemaine Permablitz

Click to enlarge

Greetings!

There's been a lot of discussions about community gardening and how we all can be sustainable within our own communities - with that in mind, i write to invite you to the very exciting forming of Castlemaine Permablitz!

Driven by Hamish MacCallum, of Meridian Land Designs, the group aims to intergrate a diverse amount of people from Castlemaine's amazing community - by way of sharing knowledge and skills about edible, sustainable organic food gardens and coming together as a community to bring food gardening to people's doorsteps.

The following is a direct quote from Permablitz Melbourne :

Permablitz Defined

Permablitz (noun): An informal gathering involving a day on which a group of at least two people come together to achieve the following:
create or add to edible gardens where someone lives
share skills related to permaculture and sustainable living
build community networks
have fun
Permablitzes are free events, open to the public, where you learn a lot, share food, get some exercise and have a wonderful time."

The idea is that anyone who comes along and adds their assistance, in whatever capacity, for 3 permablitzes is eligible to put their hand up for a permablitz in their own backyard :o)

there'll also be on the spot tutorials on the day:
- how to construct a bushpost fence,
- using swales in vegie gardens,
- pruning fruit trees
- planting out an orchard,
and many more.

The first Permablitz here in Castlemaine will be at 101 Duke St, Castlemaine (2 doors from Wesley Hill Bakery) onSunday 2 August from 10am to 5pm

All welcome, vegetarian and vegan food provided.

Castlemaine Permablitz

many thanks and blessings to you,
Jika Mills.
0431 283 052
jika@theblessingtree.net

Water Literacy is needed to save us from water idiocy

Click to enlarge

This seems to say it all. John Brumby and his water-boy Tim Holding have wasted the political capital they had to institute some real alternatives. The people of Melbourne are very favourable disposed to tanks and, in my view, Brumby could have mandated tanks for all new residential builds as well as mandating the retro-fitting of tanks. John Brumby's first resort to desalination is a failure of sound governance and does a disservice both to the environment and to the consumers of this state.

With regard to consumers, I am not only talking about the price and the availability of the desalinated water. I am talking about water literacy.

Decisions such as the Brumby Governments which resort to the quick, easy, expensive technical fixes for solutions encourage the disconnect between citizens and what they consume and what they dispose of or waste. In short, citizens, by the desalination decision, are encouraged to sit back in an aura of false security and forget about any problems there are with water. No need to worry, say Brumby and Holding!

We need a concerted water literacy campaign

such as undertaken in India.

We have the information ready to go, ready to be packaged into a full resource kit. However, we need this information to penetrate the whole community from top (especially the top) to bottom, across the country. Then we might be saved from having listen to the ignorance of Brumby and Holding as they seek to save us all from "rainfall dependence".

""The truth is that we do need a non-rainfall dependence source of water if we're to have water security for Victoria and that's why this project's so important," Mr Holding said.

Clearly, the water-boy and his master

have never heard of the hydrological cycle.

They will certainly need remedial lessons.

We need water literacy taught in schools, in community education, in TAFEs, in Universities. It should penetrate all levels of education just as English as a first language does. We need a water-literate constituency to ensure that we remove the idiocy from water policy. We need to be able to talk back to governments to the government and the water industry employed scientists/experts. We need to take back control of our own precious resource.

So where to start?

FIRSTLY

Watermark Australia is a project of the Victorian Women's Trust and is this best community consultation process I have ever seen or of which I have know. There are groups and resources listed at the Watermark site but first get a copy of our water mark. You can download it in pdf format or order a hard copy from the VWT - but hard copies are going quickly. 27,000 copies were published and it's distributed free of charge. Copies may soon become collectors' items.

SECONDLY

Learn what Permaculture has to say and learn about what Peter Andrews and his friends in the Natural Sequence Association are doing. In all this we must never forget that classic of Australian water literature, Yeoman's Keyline design. For those of us in Victoria, to get an understanding of water policy in Victoria, a must read is Joe Powell's wonderful book, Watering the garden state: water, land, and community in Victoria, 1834-1988.

THIRDLY

Could Networkers reading this please forward suggestions for resources for the water literacy program? Perhaps we can begin to do things for ourselves and then begin to lobby governments: language teachers do it, music teachers do it, maths and science teachers do it. Let's put water ahead of all that and ask for more water teachers in schools, more water education from pre-school to university and beyond to the University of the Third Age.