(printed in March 2 edition of the Canberra Times)

Since your January 26 story “Koalas face big logging threat”, nothing much has changed except that, despite numerous representations to Ministers and further attempts to highlight the issue in the media and elsewhere, logging may begin as soon as Monday March 1. The support given by current and past governments to the ongoing, taxpayer-subsidised woodchipping of native forests and these governments’ blatant disregard for the protection of forests for biodiversity, water quality, habitat, climate change mitigation and tourist attraction reasons is hard to comprehend. How does continued logging of native forests in this way, without even value-adding in Australia, contribute to the nation’s financial or environmental well-being? (more…)

Commenting on the clause in the M2 motorway contract that could result in compensation being paid to operator, Transurban, Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said the northwest rail line is an essential piece of infrastructure that should be fast tracked not held up because of a poor decision by the Coalition when they were in government.

“The former Coalition government in the early 1990s should never have agreed to the clause in the M2 contract that allows the motorway operators to claim compensation if their profits are impacted by a nearby public transport project,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“If the NSW government has to pay compensation because of a poor motorway decision by a previous Coalition government that should not be used as a reason to prevent construction of the northwest rail project. (more…)

Australia Day. What does it mean?

For the First Australians, it represents the take-over of their land with the arrival of the first governor and the subsequent events which led to dispossession, disease, genocide and prejudice, not to mention mismanagement and destruction of the land and water systems that had provided for them for so long.

It re-emphasises the failure to acknowledge that Indigenous people were here for tens of thousands of years before the British flag was planted on the soil of what was conveniently called “Terra Nullius” - land belonging to no-one.

This in turn is further emphasised by the flying, draping, parading and wearing of the Australian flag, featuring the colonisers’ Union Jack in the left hand corner. And if that wasn’t enough, the notion of Terra Nullius is rammed home even more by the singing of the National Anthem with its first lines - “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free.”

What’s to celebrate? (more…)

(letter to the editor, published in the CT January 28)

Let’s be honest. Every day more light is shed on why there is no hope for humanity and all those species whose survival depends on our making the right decisions, and your report “Koalas face big logging threat” (January 26) is yet another example. We ought to be doing everything we can to protect biodiversity by retaining habitat, in this case for the last known koala colony on the far south coast. Forest protection has many benefits. As well as providing habitat, forests help to soak up the massive amounts of CO2 we are pumping out, improve catchment and regulate the water table. But no, we prefer to turn our forests into woodchips to meet the demands of insatiable overseas markets, not just in Japan but also China, whose demand for woodchips currently and frighteningly outweighs the huge amounts we already are producing. As with climate change, it is easier to pretend the problem does not exist, or at least, that humans have nothing to do with it, because recognising that our voracious consumption is jeopardising our very existence would mean that we had to do something about it. Australians all let us rejoice? I don’t think so.

Catherine Moore, Charleys Forest

Greens MP and south east NSW spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has called on Premier Kristina Kenneally to step in to save a koala population underthreat from logging in the Mumbulla State Forest.“The NSW Premier should hang her head in shame if she allows the last known koala habitat on the far south coast to be destroyed on her watch,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Forests NSW has indicated that logging in Mumbulla State Forest will start early in March 2010.

“Right now the NSW government is prioritising the interests of the logging industry over the ongoing survival of this much loved native animal. (more…)

The Greens are calling on the NSW Water Minister Phil Costa to explain when the $1.9 billion Kurnell desalination plant will be operated.

Commenting on a story in today’s Australian (’Desal plant should only be used when dams fall below 15pc, says academic’), Dr Kaye said: “A decision to run the plant before it is needed will add at least $45 million each year to Sydney household water bills.

“The government should not heap yet more misery onto the pain of paying back the $1.9 billion construction costs. Former Premier Morris Iemma’s panicked decision committed Sydney households to a plant that is not needed now and was not justified then. (more…)

The Labor Government’s announcement overnight that it would in effect sell significant Sydney Harbour properties by leasing them for 99 years to private owners will frustrate any ability to strategically plan for Sydney Cove, The Rocks and Darling Harbour, says The Greens NSW.

“Auctioning off publicly owned assets on 99 year leases conditions the public to forget that the land and buildings around our harbour were ever owned by the people of NSW,” said Sylvia Hale MLC, Greens spokesperson for Planning and Lands.

“It also frustrates any attempt to use these places in the public interest in years to come. (more…)

The Greens are calling on Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard to reform funding for private schools after revelations that the Exclusive Brethren has received a taxpayer-funded windfall of over $1 million, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Responding to a report in today’s Australian newspaper (’Exclusive Brethren enjoying $1 million taxpayer windfall’), Dr Kaye said: “Minister Gillard’s embrace of John Howard’s education agenda is seeing millions of dollars of taxpayers funds being spent inappropriately on extremist groups like the Exclusive Brethren and wealthy private schools.

“Minister Gillard is using Howard government policies to provide large sums of cash to the Exclusive Brethren.

“By setting up its Meadowbank Education Trust as a multi-campus school the extremist group has been able to make the most of Howard era rules that locked in generous funding for private schools. (more…)

NSW taxpayers are facing a $380 million a year financial loss to fund windfall profits for the state’s aluminium industry under the Rudd government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, thanks to fixed price electricity supply contracts put in place by the Wran government, according to Greens MP John Kaye.

The Keneally government’s electricity privatisation plans are in trouble. The state’s generators will have to foot the carbon costs for the smelters,
taking away almost one quarter of Macquarie Generation’s annual revenues.

Commenting on a story in today’s Sydney Morning Herald (’Carbon plan may break us: generator’, Business page 3, http://tinyurl.com/smh100116), Dr
Kaye said: “The NSW government has been less than open about the impacts of these contracts on their electricity privatisation plans.

“Former Ministers Michael Costa and Joe Tripodi avoided the issue, hoping no one would notice. Now that the cat is out of the bag, Treasurer Roozendaal must tell the people of NSW who will pay for Wran’s legacy and how. (more…)

The NSW solar feed in tariff scheme will have a miniscule impact on household power bills compared to the Keneally government’s plans to lumber the state with coal powered wires and poles for decades to come, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Responding to a story in today’s Daily Telegraph (’Power to rich as poor pay for solar power in flawed plan’), Dr Kaye said: “The NSW solar feed in tariff scheme will cost households on average just eight cents a day, or 58 cents per week.

“The real problem with the NSW solar feed in tariff is not the small cost to households, but the seven-year time limit. This will drive the solar power installation industry into a boom, followed by a bust. (more…)