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.

Interrogate your purchases : find out where they come from

BUY, BUY AMERICAN PIE

A long, long time ago
we used to get our food home grown
and toothpaste used to make you smile

It used to be you'd shop with ease
never eating antifreeze
You'd plan to keep on living quite awhile

But now our goods are all delivered
from somewhere on the Yangtze River
No none knows the source there
so you might find some horse hair

But if corporations make a buck
they don't give a flying... Peking duck
And with this system we get stuck
today it makes you sigh

Now when you buy, buy an American pie
your grandma didn't bake it
it was made in Shanghai
where they engineered the apples to be juicy not dry

But the crust is made of cardboard and lye
don't feed it to your dog
he might die

Now did you eat a Tasty Cake
and did it make your stomach ache?
I could have said "I told you so"

And the reason you are looking wan
is some guy took bribes in Sichuan
so you just bit into little Debbie's toe

And now the toys you bought from Fisher Price
have toxins deemed unsafe for mice
and Elmo tends to wheeze
cus he's laced with PCBs

But of all my problems seen so far
when I see my cheap new DVR
I'll even brush my teeth with tar

And you will see that I'll
buy, buy from some young guy
I drive a Chevy and it's heavy
but the price is too high

Soon twenty bucks will buy a car from Shanghai
and honey that'll be the day we all die

~ written & performed by the Capitol Steps

From here


~~~~~~~~~
Related reading:



Food Security for the Faint of Heart

Gardening For the Faint of Heart

Further reading:

Permaculture research institute of Austraslia

China considers buying land overseas to secure food supply - report

Melamine in foods from China

Ban Chinese food imports

Chinese food giant to explore NSW

China takes steps to enforce food safety standards

China foods on the rise

THE SAGA OF SYDNEY FERRIES: WILL VEOLIA OR TRANSDEVTSL TAKE THEM AWAY FROM THE PUBLIC OF NSW

Picture from here

Co-blogger and Networker, Denis Wilson has potted one into my court:

Hi Miss Eagle.

And another of your friendly multinationals is in the running to take over Sydney Ferries.

Jack Mundey is on the case, which is the best news I have heard in years! I know Veolia, but not TransDev, but it is also said to be a French consortium. No doubt you will reveal all.

Of course, NSW has a checkered history with Ferries, as the charming Minister Tripodi is in charge (if that's the right word). ALP Far right at its very best!

That's why I am delighted to hear Jack Mundey has reappeared.

Cheers

Denis

Miss Eagle is happy to take on the challenge drom Denis, if only to stand beside Working Class Hero, Jack Mundey. Every time I walk around The Rocks in Sydney, I offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for Jack Mundey and wonder what might have been if Jack and his friends in the BLF hadn't fought off the developers.

VEOLIA

Veolia is becoming widely known in this country through Public Private Partnerships (P3s) of one sort or another as well as for Veolia Environmental Services (or Veolia Environnement SA, giving its French version) and that spin-off's ubiquitous presence across a fair bit of Australia picking up everyone's rubbish. Veolia traces its origins back to Napoleonic times,like its compatriot company Suez. Their wealth, expertise, and technology owe much to the fact that while English speaking countries and most of Europe treated water and its related industry, sanitation, as public goods, the French privatised what we would call public utilities. Veolia is the second oldest water business in the world and the biggest in the wastewater industry. In this new age of privatising public goods, Veolia and Suez have been making inter-continental financial killings and chalking up dubious records on human rights along the way.

Veolia, these days, also incorporates transport services. They are still running Connex trains in Melbourne but have lost the contract to continue due to long and lasting public outcries on poor service. Veolia was also the major player in an unsuccessful bidding consortium (Suez won) to build the Victorian Desalination Plant at Wonthaggi.

Veolia is not new to public transportation in New South Wales (NSW). Veolia Transport has operated buses within the Sydney metropolitan area since purchasing Southtrans Bus Co in 1999. Since then, Veolia Transport has acquired several other bus companies. Services are operated out of five depots located at Taren Point, Menai, Revesby, Bankstown and Villawood.

Veolia Transport NSW is a fully owned subsidary of Veolia Transport Australia. Veolia Transport consideres itself a world leader in private transportation with a diverse portfolio of bus, train, tram and ferry networks around the globe. In addition, Veolia Transport operates Sydney's Metro Monorail and Light Rail system.

TRANSDEV

TransDev is familiar to Sydney-siders. People living on the North Shore will recall, as Miss Eagle does, the take over of Shorelink buses. What is interesting is that, in Australia, TransDev has partnered with Transfield Services. Transfield is an Australian company best known to most Australians for its historic role in mining and major infrastructure development and and, in recent times, provision of public services such as P3 tollways. However, it has teamed up with TransDev to become TransDevTSL and it runs Yarra Trams (that should be past tense soon) and Brisbane Ferries.

And all this lies in the portfolio of one Joe Tripodi who - as Denis said - is quite a charmer.

Now, far be it from me to impugn the Minister or private companies and consortiums bidding to take over Sydney Ferries, but the chances of Sydney Ferries remaining in public hands would seem to me to be pretty slim.

Regular Networkers know where this blog stands on political donations, cronyism and - for that matter - any sort of money changing in any sort of hands in relation to public and private benefit. So Networkers who think like Miss Eagle will undoubtedly be on the look out for any of these aforesaid transactions and interactions and will advise accordingly.

Beggary and privilege: the lobbyists, their special pleaders and the humble citizen taxpayer

Dear Networkers, I feel that we - the ordinary citizen taxpayers of Australia - are like the people above. We are beggars, mendicants seeking the crumbs from government tables as the lobbyists and developers and large corporations stream on in to privilege.

Have a read of Paul Austin's and David Rood's story to-day with its revelations of the lobbyists involved in the bidding for the Wonthaggi desalination plant.

I am not trying to be party political on this. However, I do wish to single out Hawker Britton because I want you, dear Networkers, to be aware of them. Another time, another place and another brand of government and I would be talking about Jackson Wells Morris.

Because we have Labor Governments in every state but Western Australia, for now the focus is on Hawker Britton. Hawker Britton are a class act. In fact, there are occasions that - for the Federal Government - I think they have become Clayton's government spokespeople. The government spokesmen (and they are men) you have when you don't have a government spokesman or woman. Bruce Hawker is usually the one you see on television: the public face of Hawker Britton and it is surprising where The Moustache turns up sometimes.

Mr Hawker and Mr Britton came to prominence in the days when Bob Carr was the Premier of New South Wales. In short, they were public sector employees who spun their contacts and expertise into one of the most significant and prominent lobbying businesses in Australia.

Want to cosy up to a Labor politician? Call Hawker Britton. But you had better have the readies. They won't come cheap.

And your a Labor politician contemplating a post-political career? You may well be considering a conversation on the opportunities at Hawker Britton. Just like former Victorian minister, David White.

So you have an issue you want to put before the Government, dear Networker? Well, this is where beggary comes in.

You front up to your local member of parliament who may or may not be a member of the government of the day. If your local member is a minister in the government of the day it is unlikely that you will get to see him or her at all. You will get to see a staffer - high, low or medium level. You are then likely to get the mirror response: "I'll look into it." And you take your chances, dear Networker.

If you have a good, intelligent, active member of parliament with equally good, intelligent, active staffers, you will stand a chance. However, all members of parliament and their staffers are not equal: not equally good, intelligent and active.

And that's where the political lobbyists and political donations come in. Greasing a palm or three has never gone out of fashion, it would seem. As well as getting you access to the relevant minister for a fee, the political lobbyists can advise you on the greasing of palms. Or to be polite, how and where to place your political donation.

So how about it, Networkers. Let's get ourselves thoroughly aware and get our act together. Let's work together to take back our parliaments, our bureaucracies, our politicians from the palm-greasers and special pleaders of privilege.

Let's not just stop corporate and trade union political donations, as Malcolm Turnbull suggests, let's take the necessary step of banning ALL political donations large or small and publicly fund no-frills parliamentary elections.

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

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