Greens MLC Mark Parnell has called for the standard release of all public submissions online when the Government asks for public input into decision making.

The call comes as the public submissions to Seeking a Balance, the review into mining in the Arkaroola ranges, remain unpublished despite the consultation period closing last month.

“It’s pretty simple really - all submissions to any Government public consultation process should automatically be published online,” said Greens MLC Mark Parnell.

“At the moment, the public spends hours and hours giving their feedback where it effectively ends up in a great big black hole.  They never get a response to the issues they’ve raised, or any sense of whether what they have said has had any impact,” he said. (more…)

Food Labelling Review Secretariat
Department of Health and Ageing
MDP 150
GPO Box 9848
Canberra ACT 2601

Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission on this important issue.

If this review of food labelling law and policy is genuine about considering options to (1) reduce the regulatory burden in food labelling (2) without compromising public health and safety, the Braidwood Greens believe that full and accurate labelling is essential.

In the same way that people have a right to choose whether or not they eat food containing any animal products, so should they have a right to choose whether or not they eat food containing GM organisms, or irradiated or novel foods. (more…)

Peru is the world centre of origin for potatoes - a gene pool of potato biodiversity too precious to jeopardise. Read on and if you think developing GE potatoes for Peru is a bad idea, send your group’s endorsement of the following open letter (more…)

(letter to the NSW Premier)

URGENT

Dear Premier,

Apparently logging has just commenced in the above-mentioned compartment.  On behalf of Braidwood Greens, I write to strongly object to this and urge you to ensure that this compartment is immediately removed from the NSW State Forests logging schedule.

The Bodalla State Forest logging and its impact on Gulaga also prompts me to write to you in relation to the continued woodchipping of our native forests.  In 1995 Bob Carr promised to end woodchipping by 2000.  Instead, this practice has expanded, with the industry recently “celebrating” an annual total of a million tonnes of chips. (more…)

Thankyou for the opportunity to make a submission. On behalf of the Braidwood Greens, I wish to make the following short submission on the proposed foray into nuclear power in Australia.

For all the reasons which have been outlined on countless occasions by environment groups, and reinforced by prominent figures like Mikhail Gorbachev, the Braidwood Greens are strongly opposed to any expansion of the uranium industry. (more…)

Dear Premier,

The Braidwood Greens are deeply concerned at your government’s push to rush through new legislation that will critically damage our rivers and wetlands by taking yet more water away from them.
The health of our rivers and wetlands is in decline. (more…)

Thankyou for the opportunity to make a submission on the LEP template. This is only a brief submission, given the closing date is today.

The LEP template is an important step in streamlining the NSW planning system. However, we believe that a major flaw in the template that it has been designed as a “one size fits all” document, and this is entirely inappropriate given the diversity of circumstances in metropolitan and rural areas. With that in mind, we would advocate separate templates, because if this does not happen, we believe that there may be an adverse impact on both metropolitan and rural areas. (more…)

The Braidwood Greens make this submission in support of the above Bill, recognising that it is essential that voters themselves are able to determine where their preferences are going in the event that they want to avoid having to fill out a large number of squares through the process of below-the-line voting.

Under the current system and with the public’s knowledge about the electoral process in general so poor, voters are often unaware of the process of preference distribution for above-the-line votes and many are appalled to learn, after an election and when it is too late, that their vote has flowed onto and perhaps elected a party or candidate whom they would not have supported otherwise. (more…)

Braidwood Greens are deeply concerned that, now that a decision has been made on the new reserves, the moratorium will be lifted on those areas of State forest that were not protected, and that Forests NSW will amend the Plan of Operations for the Southern area. If this happens, significant diverse forest containing old growth and important as carbon store are at risk. One such example is Tallaganda Forest, on the doorstep of Braidwood - an isolated ecosystem, largely separated from the rest of the forest estate, unique due to its high altitude and not represented anywhere else in the Southern reserve system. (more…)

June 6, 2004

The Greens are very concerned about a number of aspects of the draft Budget and Management Plan, which has gone on exhibition and which is to be finalised on June 22, four days before the Eastern Capital City Regional Council (ECCRC) elections. (more…)