State News - September 2006
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27/09/06 Escalation in forest protests in East Gippsland., Goongerah Environment Centre – East Gippsland, MEDIA RELEASE; East Gippsland and Goolengook
National 26/09/06 State 26/09/06 We're drying up fast, Danny Butler and Sarah Wotherspoon, Herald Sun
26/09/06 State set for one of its worst bushfire summers, Andra Jackson, The Age
18/09/06 Dingo Creek rainforest logging case won, Media Statement ;- From Tony Hastings our highlighting East Gippsland and Goolengook
17/09/06 The great green divide, Jason Dowling, The Age
17/09/06 Water deals leave farmers in the dry, - Carmel Egan, The Age - our highlighting
06/09/06 Fire threat grows : Herald-Sun Wimmera; Sept 06; Mallee
06/09/06 Logging trees while Victoria burns , The Age, Letters
01/09/06 Forestry row taken to the marginals, Ellen Whinnett, Article from: Herald-Sun
01/09/06 Why lug buckets if we continue to log our forests? The Age, Letters
Escalation in forest protests in East Gippsland.
MEDIA RELEASE
Forest protection actions have escalated for a third day in the old
growth forests of East Gippsland after four activists were arrested
in the treetops yesterday.
Forty activists have stopped logging in the old growth forests of
Little River, near Goongerah, stopping tree felling by sheer
weight of numbers and locking onto logging machinery.
Spokesperson for the activists Mark Tyler said " It is a matter of
weeks until the Victorian State election, in a year in which 15,000
people turned out on the streets of Melbourne on June 6, demanding
an end to old growth logging. The time has come for Steve Bracks to
show leadership and listen to the majority of the Victorian people
by protecting our remaining old growth forests.'
"Premier Bracks and Ted Baillieu cannot plead ignorance to the
mounting community pressure on this issue. At a time when
deforestation has been clearly linked to climate change and global
warming both major parties continue to sit on their hands and do
nothing, while our old growth forests are logged and woodchipped."
"The time has come for action from our parliamentarians to protect
our remaining old growth forests and end the woodchip driven
destruction. If those who are in positions of power are not
prepared to act to stop this, community actions such as this one
will have to continue" Mr Tyler concluded.
For media comment contact: On site at the Forest Rescue – trunk ph: 5133 7077 then wait for dial-tone then dial 838 4620.
Herald Sun Article - 26.09.06
We're drying up fast
Danny Butler and Sarah Wotherspoon
VICTORIA'S water crisis could worsen dramatically with Australia drying
out faster than most predictions, experts say.
Eminent water scientist Peter Cullen said the CSIRO's worst-case
scenario for 2050 may be already happening.
The CSIRO predictions include widespread drought, shrinking ski fields
and crop failure. A member of the Federal Government's National Water
Commission, Prof Cullen said urgent action was needed to sustain water
supplies.
"It appears to be happening much quicker than the climate change models
predicted. "All the models we have been working on suggested the sort
of dryness we are seeing now wouldn't be here until about 2050, so it
appears to be happening much quicker."
Prof Cullen said the dry weather could be caused by a dramatic climate
change acceleration or a drought worsening the effects of the expected
levels of climate change. Either way, he says, Melbourne needs to take
action on water security.
"When you look at Melbourne in particular, you have that (climate
change) stress and on top of that . . . you are looking at putting
another million people into Melbourne over the 30-40 year period," he
said. "It's not a great combination."
Prof Cullen said building new dams should not be ruled out in Victoria
despite the Bracks Government's policy of having no new dams. "If we
had a site and a new dam was a cost effective way of meeting our needs
then it should be there," he said.
Scientists are tipping Australia's annual average temperatures will
increase by up to 1.5C by 2030 and 5C by 2070. CSIRO climate modelling
predicts a warming of 2C and a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall will
make Mildura's food bowl region look more like the outback around
Broken Hill.
The news is the same for the food and cropping region of Shepparton.
Prof Cullen said constant drought will force some farmers to abandon
their land. "That's my belief – I think there are substantial parts of
Australia's marginal farming areas where farming has been bloody tough
for the last 20 years and it is going to get tougher," he said.
"We probably won't have so many people there and some of those who are
still there will be paid by the taxpayer to manage the land in an
appropriate way – a caretaker's cottage." CSIRO climate change impact
and risk group leader Dr Penny Whetton said while climate change could
have a positive impact on crops such as wheat, others including wine
grapes, stone fruit and dairying would suffer.
"One of the problems is some stone fruit needs a period of winter chill
to set the fruit," she said. Dr Whetton said climate change would
affect the whole of Victoria. "Almost all of the evidence points
towards a decrease in rainfall, particularly in the winter part of the
year," she said.
"There's also a likelihood of heavy downpours which will be more
intense and will lead to more erosion." Climate modelling also shows
Victoria's ski fields are likely to suffer. Snow is predicted to shrink
by almost 40 per cent in the next 24 years and by up to 85 per cent by
2050.
Andra Jackson, The Age
September 26, 2006
VICTORIA is facing one of its worst bushfire summers, with fire-fuelling conditions already exceeding those before the deadly 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires.
Kevin O'Loughlin, chief executive of the Bushfires Control Research Centre, said high temperatures and drought were already more pronounced than in the early 1980s, with the biggest factor being climate change.
"The suggestion is that temperatures are warmer now than at the early part of the 1980s," he said.
The extreme conditions and fires of 10 days ago are still unusual, but last month was an extremely dry month and one of the warmest on record, he said.
"The firefighting agencies are very concerned that this is a very early start to extreme fire conditions," Mr O'Loughlin said.
Graeme Davis, state director of the Department of Sustainability and Environment, one of the state's major firefighting agencies, said: "The seasonal conditions are running four to six weeks ahead of where they would be in an average year. We're gearing up for a season far more active than usual." The Country Fire Authority's deputy chief officer, Graham Fountain, said the authority believed there was "significant potential for a severe bushfire season ahead".
"We're encouraging the community to work with us by doing bushfire preparatory work — clearing and revising fire plans — much earlier," he said.
Environment Minister John Thwaites has announced measures to prepare for a potentially severe fire season, including employment of about 120 seasonal firefighters by next month.
The bureau's seasonal forecast rates Victoria's chance of average rainfall over the next three months at 35 to 50 per cent with higher minimum temperatures a 60 per cent certainty.
Meanwhile, almost 13,000 households will remain without power for another day after Sunday's bushfires in NSW. A rural fire chief said some of the blazes may have been deliberately lit.
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney also weighed in, vowing to re-establish a strike force if many of the fires were deliberate.
Dingo Creek rainforest logging case won
18th Sept 06 Media Statement
;- From Tony Hastings - Forest Campaigner to "Bush", - then eventually - the Supreme Court of Victoria "Lawyer " - all in a lifes work ! J( Detailed legal statement attached - by arrangement )
In David versus Goliath battle, conservationist Tony
Hastings and former timber worker Greg Tantram won their
case (on Monday 18th September) against the Department of
Sustainability and Environment. Taking over 5 years the
case went through the Magistrate's Courts, County Court
appeal and Supreme Court judicial review before being
remitted back to the County Court for final determination.
"We are relieved that the case is over, but disgusted that
the DSE's unlawful logging continues at Dingo Creek and in
other old-growth forests, while other protestors seeking to
uphold the law are again being dragged through the Courts,"
Mr Hastings said.
During the case, 3 botanists all testified that rainforest
had not been protected, contrary to Code of Forest Practice
requirements for the Rainforest Site of National
Significance. The case set a precedent in the Supreme
Court, who ruled that all rainforest is protected and the
Code of Forest Practice is part of the law that the DSE
must comply with.
The case ended when the DSE could not find any paragraph in
the attached "Statement" that they disagreed with, and
consented to Orders suggested by Mr Hastings. The final
orders were to the effect that all charges are dismissed
and all legal costs paid.
This amicable resolution meant that the Court never ruled
whether or not the logging operation was unlawful, however
the Supreme Court was satisfied after seeing the evidence
that it was possible to prove Code of Practice breaches.
After seeing the photographs, botanists report & reading
the transcript from the previous County Court Appeal, the
Supreme Court Judge referred to "careless stupidity,
resulting in (for example) large areas of rainforest being
included in a coupe and subsequently being logged"
(Hastings v Brennan & Anor; Tantram v Courtney & Anor (No.
3) [2005] VSC 228 at [20]).
For more information contact Tony Hastings 0427 534 548.
http://www.green.net.au/quoll
Jason Dowling, The Age
September 17, 2006
WATER, air quality, rivers, forests, power, global warming — matters environmental are front and centre in public debate just now. So politicians will be wondering what role they will play in the state election; whether environmental policies are as important to voters as those on the economy, education, health and public transport.
As November 25 draws closer, the environment is shaping as a key election issue as well as an area of rare policy divide between the major parties.
Environment Minister John Thwaites is well aware of its electoral pull: "For some voters the environment is the number one issue," he said during the week. His comments were echoed by the Liberals' environment spokesman, David Davis. "Many people are concerned to enhance their local environment as well as broader environmental issues," Davis said.
But that's where the similarity between the major parties on environmental issues ends.
On a range of policies, Labor and the Liberals are divided — and the Liberals have so far failed to win the support of environment groups, which could be costly at the election.
It is in the key marginal eastern suburbs seats that the environment vote is shaping up to have its biggest impact. With a swing of less than 3 per cent, the Liberals would win seven eastern suburbs seats stretching from Warburton to Bentleigh.
In 2002, an average of 9.5 per cent of voters in these seven seats gave their first preference vote to the Greens. This could be bad news for the Liberals if the rumblings among environment groups gather pace.
While the Greens' greatest chance of picking up a seat is centred on Melbourne's inner suburbs, around Carlton, Richmond and Brunswick, it is the environment vote out east that may have the greatest impact.
Davis pointed out that the environment vote and a vote for the Greens are not exactly the same. "Many people across all political parties care for the environment," he said. Still, the Liberals may be a little concerned by whisperings coming out of green groups just 69 days from the election.
Environment Victoria has expressed outrage at the Liberal position on a range of issues. The group's executive director, Marcus Godinho, told The Sunday Age that the Liberals were offering very little for voters concerned about the environment.
He said the group was particularly incensed at the Liberals' pledge to scrap the Victorian renewable energy target, which requires electricity retailers to buy 10 per cent of renewable energy by 2016.
"I would question what environmental credibility they have at all — they are going to scrap the Victorian renewable energy target and they are offering nothing on climate change," he said.
Godinho said the group was still waiting to see environment policies from the Liberals.
"There is not a lot of confidence that the environment will be better under a Liberal government; in fact, it will probably take us back decades," he said.
While Labor has run hard over the past few months with policies on renewable energy, carbon trading and a ban on new dams, the Liberals have kept their policies to restoring Melbourne's major rivers and stopping effluent flowing into the ocean.
The Liberals have also committed to examining options for new dams in Victoria and returning cattle to the high country. They will abolish the city's congestion levy and put a moratorium on all new wind farms, all of which have upset environment groups.
"We just hear these comments and we see no environmental policies," Godinho said.
Greenpeace's Mark Wakeham was likewise disappointed with what he has seen so far from the Liberals.
"There has been a complete absence of any policies (from the Liberals) on climate change or energy apart from unhelpful ones," he said.
Wakeham said voters would want to see substantial environment policies from the Liberals very soon.
But David Davis urged the environment groups to take a closer look at Labor's environmental stance.
"Across Labor's period in government, greenhouse gas emissions have risen massively," he said. "Their greenhouse 'achievement' is a thumping increase — what they have done hasn't worked."
While the Liberals are yet to release their major environment policy, Liberal leader Ted Baillieu has raised a few eyebrows with his stance on several environment issues.
As reported in today's Sunday Age, Baillieu said he could not be sure global warming was occurring, a comment met with disbelief by Thwaites.
"He is on the other side of the fence to the vast majority of scientists," Thwaites responded. "The science is incontrovertible."
But Davis said people's environmental concerns stretched beyond global warming.
"We think there are a whole range of environment issues, many of them impact on parks and rivers and creeks," he said.
The Liberals have already committed to cleaning up the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers and closing effluent outfalls into the ocean at Gunnamatta by 2015 and Victoria's 18 other sewage outfalls by 2025.
Despite these policies, other political parties are sensing an opportunity to snatch votes from the Liberals, using the environment as a lure. The new party on the block in Victorian politics, People Power, has committed to a range of environment policies which it says places it on a par with the Greens.
People Power has vowed to increase financial incentives for renewable energy, support a carbon tax and introduce mandatory energy efficiency standards for rental properties, among other policies.
Robyn Allcock, the party's environment spokeswoman and candidate in the eastern suburbs' marginal seat of Gembrook, said the environment could cost the Liberals votes.
"My view is that the Liberals have probably lost a significant number of potential voters in the past as a result of having a very poor outlook on environment issues," she said.
Family First candidates believe they, too, may be able to cash in on the environment vote in the east.
The party's leader and candidate for the Upper House region of Eastern Victoria, Cameron Eastman, said: "Families want to do the right thing and recognise they need to play their part in not just preserving, but improving, our environment for our kids."
The Greens' environment spokesman, Louis Delacretaz, expects the party to perform strongly in Melbourne's east.
"I think the environment is absolutely a key issue," he said.
"I think there are a lot of Liberal voters who are very concerned about water and the environment and those types of issues, and clearly they are going to be looking for real solutions."
But not all agree the environment will be a critical election issue.
Dr Nick Economou, a lecturer in politics at Monash University, said issues such as the economy and education would have much more hold in the electorate.
"The general axiomatic feeling is that the environment is an important middle-class issue and the assumption is the eastern suburbs are made up of middle-class voters," Economou said. But "voters tend to be influenced by the major economic issues — how is the state economy going, does the state government look like it is in some sort of control of the state economy — and they are more interested in the major service issues: health, education, transport."
He believes people often feel hopeless about issues such as global warming. "I think voters feel that global warming is clearly a problem but what can they do about it, what can the state government do, that's a national, or international issue," he said.
The Liberal Party may be hoping he is right.
- our highlighting
Carmel Egan, The Age
September 17, 2006
VICTORIAN water is being bought and hoarded by speculators and private investors with no intervention from governments and water authorities.
As Melburnians adapt their households to water restrictions, huge volumes of water are being traded and transferred away from districts that impose restrictions during droughts to areas where there are few, if any, controls.
A Victorian Government delay in introducing "water tagging" — which will force buyers to identify the source of their water and comply with restrictions imposed at the point of origin — has allowed the multimillion-dollar investment corporations to swoop on water as it is sold by desperate farmers.
But in the rush to buy water and permanently transfer it before the new laws come in on July 1 next year, the companies are estimated to have last year bought 85 per cent of water traded out of the state's largest authority, Goulburn-Murray Water.
Timbercorp, a publicly listed company controlled by Melbourne racing industry identities, bought the lion's share and has been accused of manipulating the water market and distorting prices with its aggressive acquisitions.
Established 10 years ago, Timbercorp is a multimillion-dollar Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) which entices investors by offering tax incentives against the management fees and establishment costs of large-scale agribusinesses such as hardwood plantations, almond and olive orchards.
The Federal Government
is reconsidering MIS tax concessions because of their potential to distort markets and impact on small farmers."The purpose of MIS is not to provide tax minimisation for individuals," said federal agriculture minister Peter McGauran.
"Investment that doesn't align to this purpose can distort markets due to increased competition for scarce resources such as water, land and market share."
About 1 million megalitres of water are drawn by irrigators along the the Murray River each year. It takes one megalitre — a million litres — to half-fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. Since water trading began in Victoria in 1994, just under 150,000 megalitres in annual rights have been permanently sold.
In its 2004-05 annual report Timbercorp's water rights were valued at more than $60 million, representing about 60,000 megalitres.
But Timbercorp's general manager of horticulture, Darren Lipton, denied the company was manipulating the market.
"We have a policy to buy water in advance of our needs so we will own permanent water right at the start," said Mr Lipton. "We are not going to buy more than we need ultimately, but we have more than we need at the moment."
He said Timbercorp was being outbid for water rights "at the moment". Mr McGauran's concerns are shared by rural industry activists who argue that MIS farm initiatives are a threat to the social stability of regional communities.
"They are rorting the system big time," said Sunraysia Irrigation Council chairman Danny Lee, who will contest the state election in November on water issues.
"The social dislocation caused by the water loss will outweigh the economic benefit they claim 1000-fold.
"They are transferring it into the Lower Murray as fast as they can. They don't need it yet. They don't have enough crops in the ground." Victorian water authorities allow a permanent annual trade away from their districts of 4 per cent of their total irrigation allocation. Most is being lost from the Goulburn-Murray system, which has banned irrigation in some areas and limited most irrigators to just 17 per cent of their licensed water right.
The big winner is the Lower Murray system, which this year is allowing irrigators to draw 85 per cent of their water allocation, but usually gives 100 per cent access.
Any water bought and transferred before July 1, 2007, will remain under the control of the private owner and water authority to which it was moved.
Water brokers estimate that up to 75 per cent of Goulburn-Murray water and up to 100 per cent of Lower Murray water sold this year has been bought by just three licensees — Timbercorp, SAI Teys McMahon and Macquarie Agribusiness. The companies are all MIS programs.
Fire threat grows
September 06, 2006 12:00am Herald-Sun
AUSTRALIA has recorded its driest August on record, increasing the chance of severe bushfires and giving little hope of an end to the crippling drought.
In Victoria, the Wimmera-Mallee is in particular trouble with the ninth year of the worst drought to strike the area since records were first kept.
Logging trees while Victoria burns
The Age Letters Sept 6 2006
Forestry row taken to the marginals
Ellen Whinnett, Article from: Herald-Sun
September 01, 2006 12:00am
ENVIRONMENT groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly.
They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground.
Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs.
The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election.
This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging.
He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs.
"It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne.
They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy.
But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs.
"Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard.
The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale.
"It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said.
"It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs.
"They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said.
September 1, 2006, The Age, Letters
ONCE again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Lee O'Mahoney, Diamond Creek