Well individual, interesting you should say all that.

In my electorate, there were a string of about five independents and the usual National Party idiot that can’t lose.

One of the independents was proudly advocating thorium reactors.

Then the debate turned to an old Government proposal to build a nuclear reactor in the electorate.

Up jumps the idiot representing the forwards thinking not National Party, and began proudly beating his chest in defiance of the proposal. NIMBY MAN was elected of course.
I don’t vote, can you see why?

Seems the locals are happy with the largest prison in NSW though. Maybe that’s a reflection on it also owning the home town boy with the most insidious mass killer title for NZ Muslim slaughter.

Re: ocean sewer outfalls up and down the East coast. Since local government is full to its stinking brim with realtors and land developers, this is a situation which most suits neat and tidy land development with an endless supply of easy profit; dump sewer into the ocean.

Until there is an industry built on kelp harvest, the current status will not be challenged.
Profits from land development V Profits from primary industry. The local trawler industry attempted with no luck here, to buck them but failed dismally.

Kelp beds in my area have been decimated since one was installed at the river entrance five years ago. It’s “tell someone who cares” on that subject.

Dan.

An inland shipping canal could use tidal flood gates to move water in and out of lake Eyre. and not only keep it permanently full but routinely flushed to maintain water quality, saline levels etc.

Putting MSR thorium reactors alongside to power new towns and electric transport systems makes perfect sense, along with energy dependent, automated high tech manufacturing.

What killed car manufacturing in Oz was the cost of the energy component at 30%+ not wages that averaged 16%. Instead of subsidized energy! Why not produce the world lowest costing, then let the chips fall where they may!

We were once the third wealthiest nation on the planet and when the then visionary government was in the business of being in business. The snowy mountains hydro being the most obvioius, then a telco, a bank, all power generation/reticulation, a couple of airlines and insurance companies.

All of who contributed annual billions to the budget bottom line! Except where incompetent clueless governments gutted the operating capital and wondered then why they weren't making a quid!

Now it's hiving off government responsibilities and selling anything not nailed down, with more and more of our income leaving these shores as tax avoidance and price gouged profit repatriation.

Currently, most of our energy provision is foreign owned or controlled, that that isn't, used by asinine governments as their personal ATM or sold interstate to make good the incompetent use of the taxpayer dollar or to support corruption or both?

As visionless governments borrow like it's going out of style.

Gone are the days of living inside the budget and volunteer, unpaid boards and councils! Or reasonable salary entitlements! Now it's half a mill here and there and an NDIS managers salary of five mill? That's a lot of disabled help poured down the toilet! TBC.
Alan B.

We also need to dredge rivers and use the alluvium as the new levy banks that protect against floods. This material could go first through gravity recovery to remove heavy minerals, gold, platinum, uranium and thorium. The subsequent sales helping to offset construction costs? My dedges would be nucear powered with MSR thorium to manage fuel costs for at least a century. These reactors would also supply auxillary power for regular maintenance

These waterways/channels could serve other small levied channels to the left and right to carry water perhaps miles from the waterways and in turn serve smaller channels to their left and right that do the same thing. To support myriad food and fibre production.

Clumping bamboo, given bamboo has the strength of tenstile steel and many potential uses as a building material. Weeping willows should feature as their root systems would hold the levy banks in place like no other during flood events. And add to the graze for herded goats,
herded goats the best way to get rid of feral weeds like blackberry etc.

We also need to get back to selectively harvesting our native forests to half logging and double the jobs that industry supports. The logging roads natural fire breaks and the loggers, millers, drivers, many more eyes looking for telltale smoke. And the new manmade wetlands manmade firebreaks. What we need at the helm is more can-do and less no-can-do naysayers!
Alan B.

Alan B,
When the no-can-do's prevent projects we, the voters & Taxpayers & revenue makers need to say no-can-do to their salary demands !

Agree Indy! Simply put, the remediation programs I've suggested would cost less than all the (penny wise, pound foolish) fix it up jobs after and indeed the insurance premiums that follow. We need to get folk off of flood plains and up onto high ground.

We need rules that force folk who want to build in the bush, to build with materials that don't burn. Have a colourbond fence around their domicile, a sprinkler system on their roofs, popup sprinklers in the yard. And roll-a-doors that are rolled down around the entire circumference of the building. to protect against ember attacks. They need a fireproof shelter as a last resort survival measure. Finally they need water sureity.

Hanging a bigger bucket out to catch rainfall worth SFA if it don't rain! And means government need to supply water, even if that means massive desal projects and an affordable energy source to make them viable, i.e., MSR thorium.

Cyclone areas need a building code based around reinforce concrete and or boam homes. The Kiwis and the Japanese have mastered earthquake proof highrise towers, and we need to follow their building code example! Prevention is cheaper than the cure!
Alan B.

Alan B,
Quite a few years ago I suggested to the Qld Govt Housing outfit (to no avail) that all new homes in drought prone area should be built upon a water storage that doubles as the foundation either below or above ground. Instead of wasting money on steel posts that invariably rust, why not build a core-filled Besser Block water reservoir upon which the home gets built ?. It'd solve quite a few flooding issues plus it'd provide several hundred thousand litres of water.
Alternatively, at less cost, build on poles & have large Poly tanks under the house for better protection of the tanks.
Wind generators & Solar panels can provide power 24/7 & the yard area saved by having water storage under the house can be used for gardening.
This would be particularly suitable for island communities.