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The Forum > Article Comments > Falling short of 'world’s best practice' > Comments

Falling short of 'world’s best practice' : Comments

By Kellie Tranter, published 22/7/2009

How many times and for how long are our governments going to keep rubber stamping 'development' proposals?

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Well done, Kellie.
No mine applications for coal mining have been refused in NSW, in living memory. The Chinese Miners and BHP are about to undermine the iconic Liverpool Plains as we speak.
Nobody in Government seems to really understand what is really happening in the Great Artesian Basin. How else can BHP take vast quantities of water - for free, mind you - for Olympic Dam Uranium Mine?
And when they made "savings" in the system, by capping bores, the NSW sells the "savings" off. What's the point?
Total lack of co-ordination and lack of direction.
Your article gives good pointers to where Governments ought be heading.
DJW
Posted by Denis Wilson, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 10:40:00 AM
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Kellie, I couldn’t agree more.

We just so desperately needed a major change of direction in our government’s approach to our future off the end of the shocking Howard years.

So what did we get? A government that is actually even more rampantly expansionist-at-all-costs!!

It beggars belief! Howard had set himself up to be viewed as the worst PM of all time by the future Australian people. In a couple of generations’ time when we’ve suffered the mighty crunch brought on by grossly unsustainable government actions and have all fully grasped the importance of living sustainably and in balance with our environment, we’ll look back and condemn those most responsible. Rudd has well and truly usurped Howard’s former claim as Australia’s most condemnable person!

Rudd had the perfect opportunity to steer this country away from the future-destroying path of continuous never-ending expansionism in population, resource exploitation, environmental alienation and all the rest of this sorry saga, and onto a path toward genuine sustainability, on which our progress would be based on improving efficiencies, developing new technologies and balancing the demand exerted on our resource base with the sustainable supply capability.

But he has just so profoundly muffed it!

All in the name of progress. But the meaning of the word ‘progress’ has been lost, to the point that the opposite is now true. It should be regress.....or destruction, disaster, devastation.....
Posted by Ludwig, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 10:56:31 AM
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Kelly are you really that naive about politics, or are you playing to a particular crowd? Surely no one believes that common sense trumps votes or the accumulation of power?

We now elect a party or group we hope stuffs up as little as possible and does mostly what they say they will. If you voted for Kevin Rudd thinking he was the opposite of PM Howard (MoS) then you fooled yourself as Kevin told the community again and again, he was the same but younger and cleverer (trickier?), and would wipe out one or two emotional things.

The ALP won the election 53 to 47%, anyone would think it was a landslide. The ALP are very aware they have no mandate to change much at all, particularly mining where a majority of their funding via the unions comes from.

Those who vote with their hearts against "evil", are always disappointed at the lack of witch hunts and show trials.

The wealth of Australia depends on mining and a little on agriculture as there is bugger all to be made from anything else, particularly the dreamy "new technologies to come out of climate change" or whatever is your favorite meme.
Posted by rpg, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 11:55:51 AM
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A politician's job is to get re-elected. Anything else is a sideshow to keep us distracted. The main event is getting voters to vote for them. Good policy only matters if it has votes attached.

When developers come forward with cash and say I will help you get re-elected at the next election they are much more convincing than Kellie Tranter, Ian Lowe, Mark O'Connor, Tim Flannery etc. None of them are bringing any cash and they are telling politicians to focus on the long term when the short term is where the votes are.

When voters start voting based on long term factors, politicians will start paying attention. We don't do that. We vote for the latest blip on the stock exchange as if that is related to good government. We listen to some con man tell us that the GDP grew by 0.5% in the September quarter like that made any difference to our lives. It rarely does and especially when it is at the expense of the environment and the livability of our cities.

We need to think about how our infrastructure is being maintained and developed, how the environment is being protected (not this week, for the next 40 years), how our education system is being developed to produce the people who will manage Australia in 40 years

But those issues are too complex and they are off the radar, so the media doesn't focus on them. The media needs an exciting story of murder and violence to get us to tur on the TV or read the paper, not some boring rubbish about maintaining infrastructure. It is politicians full time job to get re-elected and most are very good at it. The average citizen just doesn't have time to dig into all the issues with the same vigour that the politicians do. Lucklily we have On-Line opinion and other easy sources of information that help. I hope it won't be too late.
Posted by ericc, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 1:55:38 PM
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"How many times and for how long are our governments going to keep rubber stamping 'development' proposals?"

Answer: For as long as the poorly educated sheeple keep handing over their (collective) by power voting for them!

The assertion by rpg that "The ALP are very aware they have no mandate to change much at all, particularly mining where a majority of their funding via the unions comes from." is only partly correct: the well-rewarded lobbyists and executives who 'manage' (control) the huge foreign-owned mining and related corporations on behalf of their shareholders readily give as much to the L-A-B-O-R Party as to the Conservatives, knowing full well that there is little difference between them.

ericc's assertion that "The average citizen just doesn't have time to dig into all the issues with the same vigour that the politicians do." is also only partly correct. With so many issues and 'crises' to address, the majority of politicians (including unelected members who make vital decisions behind the closed doors of a Cabinet (so much for openess and transparency eh?), also do not have the time to dig into all the issues and remain reliant upon the 'without fear or favour' advice of equally well-rewarded 'executive' Public Managers (they ceased being Public Servants under the Whitlam regime!), at least some of whom, upon retirement at an early age, go onto the Boards of powerful private (ie, profit-driven) Corporations, with who they had 'commercial-in-confidence' dealings whilst serving 'the public interest'!

The very notion of 'World's Best Practice' is itself another tool employed by cynical executives and career politicians to con the sheeple into the belief that the affairs of goverment are being carried out in the intersts of ALL Australians. Yeah, right!
Posted by Sowat, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 2:57:34 PM
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Kellie,

Are you ready for the truth ? Or are you going to do mental gymnastics to deny it ?

Population stabilisation.....here.......we are growing by 1.2 million every THREE years......and world...an extra 3 BILLION.

Yes, it can be done. Two children maximum at around 30 years of age.

How ? Education..it is irresponsible to have more than 2 children and it is a lie to think that short showers and living in highrise, is the answer to the worlds' problems.

Financial..remove incentives for more than 2 children , reward small families for being environmentally/globally responsible.

Immigration...replace those who leave. That is if 80,000 leave each year; bring in 80,000.........zero net.

That way we can be strong financially (our massive debt of close to one trillion dollars.......670 billion private and 300 billion government), is caused by every person on average consuming more than they are producing......stabilisation will stabilise debt...........then we can say NO to unsuitable development.......rather than YES...because we are desperate for capital.

Oh, and we can stop wrecking the "homes" of all the other species that share the planet with us. No more ancient bushland clearing for houses or agriculture !
Cheers,

Ralph
Posted by Ralph Bennett, Thursday, 23 July 2009 3:44:19 PM
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Spare a thought for the comatose citizens of sunny Perth where The Swan Valley is home to the southern hemisphere’s largest brickworks at the Midland Bricks Company, as well as three other major plants at Caversham, Bellevue and Malaga and not to mention the new BGC brickworks on Airport land. Mogul, Len Buckeridge’s brickwork application for the Airport brickworks was refused by state planning Minister – a rare win for the citizens of Perth – or so one thought. Enter Yellow Cake Johnny who approved the application on Commonwealth land for Aunty Len, a good buddy to the Liberal Party.

Howard approved the Airport brickworks' construction despite the fact that the Caversham plant with comparable operational throughputs is not even required to have a pollution scrubber. The Cardup brickworks with a massive 200 000 tonne throughput is not even required to monitor any of its pollution despite the new Urban Pacific residential development within 500 metres of the site which will house thousands of new residents.

The lack of consistency between the new licences means that some brickworks can pollute a lot more than others. The pollution targets proposed are not enforceable and the timeframe for bringing in the only 3 pollution limits is overly generous.

The toxic plumes are dumping on the Swan Valley’s vineyards despite the protests from growers.

And how ironic that the new Swan Districts hospital will be built under the Bellevue Brickworks stack next to the Midland Redevelopment Authority. I guess that way people will not have to travel too far when they ‘cough up for industry’.

contd……
Posted by Protagoras, Saturday, 25 July 2009 12:54:11 PM
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contd……

Then we have the industrial chemist operating a hazardous waste plant in the suburb of Bellevue, where the poor chap couldn’t afford to clean up his act so the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) loaned him $100,000 of taxpayers’ funds.

The “clean-up” resulted in the largest chemical fire in Australian history; the loan was not repaid and the underground hazardous chemical plume has reached the Helena River which feeds into the Mundaring Weir and is a major tributary of the Swan.

Prior to Armageddon, up to three thousand 205 litre drums of chlorinated and halogenated solvents, thinners, acids, oils and unknown wastes were stacked four high and dozens deep on the site.

Banks of industrial nickel-cadmium batteries were stacked among the drums. Heavy metal compounds including numerous glass Winchester bottles of mercury were piled around the yard.

A pot distillery unit operating with superheated oil from an 'oil burner’ was at the centre of the open storage yard and was used to separate contaminants from used solvents. The treated solvents were then resold to local users. The sludge waste from the distilling unit was stored in drums on-site. “Waste Control Pty Ltd” had no capacity to treat heavy metals and many other wastes that made their way to the site.

Underground storage tanks also held thousands of litres of liquid solvent waste. In all, it is estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million litres of hazardous waste were stored on the site - no inventory kept.

Nevertheless, we are assured by the DEC that they will continue to "regulate" polluters under “Best Available Control Technology” (BACT.)

That’s reassuring particularly when under BACT, the seaside town of Esperance was poisoned by lead; 9,500 native birds dropped from the skies and the seabed samples contained lead readings of between 3600mg/kg and 29,000mg/kg.

Under Australian environmental guidelines lead levels are set between 50 mg/kg and 220 mg/kg. Elevated nickel levels of between 2200 mg/kg and 6600 mg/kg were also detected in the samples, well above guidelines of 21 mg/kg and 52 mg/kg.

A citizens' revolt? When?
Posted by Protagoras, Saturday, 25 July 2009 1:20:09 PM
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Good work! Nice to see that our Governments' inaction is actually being noticed. Next have a look at the farce which is EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment). The issue is the same. Lots of talk, wonderful reports and promises. Yet, at the end of the day, the project gets approval and the EIA is buried and forgotten. May as well not have been writen in the first place. Our collective Governments' are sending us down a road to disaster and none of the elected "representatives" (I use this term loosely) are doing anything to represent those who do the voting. Rather they are busy supporting the big polluters who line their campaign funds.
Posted by Darron C, Saturday, 25 July 2009 9:27:54 PM
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Touché Darron C

Did you see page 6 of yesterday’s West Australian?:

“Environment Minister Donna Faragher approved yesterday two iron ore mining proposals by Karara Mining, a $1.8 billion joint venture between WA’s Gindalbie Metals and China’s Ansteel group.

“The move overrode an Environmental Protection Authority recommendation that mining not be permitted in the area surrounding Mungada Ridge, part of the Blue Hills Range 225km east of Geraldton, because of its unique and vulnerable ecosystem.”

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuId=77&ContentID=157935

The thumb screws have been applied to the impotent Donna Faragher by Premier, Barney Rubble. He's on the loose for at least the next three years too but oh how the corporate cowboys rejoice - “Yabba dabba doo!"
Posted by Protagoras, Sunday, 26 July 2009 1:29:05 PM
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