Tuesday night’s Budget was a slap in the face for all those Australians who voted for the Labor Party at the last election in the belief that a new government would be willing and able to make Australia a true global climate leader. From the day he took leadership of the Labor Party, Kevin Rudd …
We would love to have a reason to praise our governments occasionally. But while the corporate pillagers pull their strings, it won’t happen. The first Rudd/Swan Budget of 2008 didn’t go anywhere to meet the urgent challenge of climate change. Rudd is spending $44 on defence for every $1 spent to tackle climate change. He’s …
that the state has solved the problem of isolating populations of species like the endangered Leadbeaters Possum – by stringing up ropes across the fire breaks for them to cross on. For how many hundred kilometres? I hope the government will also be providing air raid shelters along those ropes so the little tackers can …
In mid 2008, a positive move by the Brumby government could see plantation companies have to pay for the water their thirsty trees soak up which would otherwise flow into streams and rivers. The idea is worrying plantation growers across the state, from the Strzelekis to south west Victoria. Charging for the rain that is …
State government projects to secure the basic stuff of life – water – include an estimated $3.1 billion Wonthaggi Desalination Project, a $1 billion Food Bowl Modernisation program and the $625 million north-south pipeline, which will take water from the Eildon Reservoir to Melbourne (plus the recent Federal plans to have a plan). As we …
There are 1,000 jobs vacancies on offer in logging that are secure, well paid and conflict free. Labourers, fallers, truckies, admin. staff, logistics, mechanics, engineers and supply staff are all needed to get the plantation industry running in Western Victoria. Trees are now mature and screaming to be processed but there is a shortage of …
You might have seen the government telling us they protected 20,000 ha of South Gippsland’s long-suffering forests. There are only tiny remnants left of this once vast expanse of tall wet forest that supported the tallest trees on earth. Conservationists down that way mapped out what they call the Cores and Links in 2001 – …
Governments and big polluters are claiming to be able to “solve” the global warming problem by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and burying it in a big hole a mile underground, hoping it will stay there forever. The plan is called CCS, short for “carbon capture and storage”.This would be the largest hazardous waste disposal project …
By May 2004, the Victorian Government had funded the clearfelling of forests burnt in the 2003 fires to the tune of $6.9 million. Another $4 million was given to help the woodchip industry continue its access the following year. Then in 2007 we taxpayers gave at least $868,000 to help the industry clearfell the 2006 …
In early February 2008, tree grower Great Southern Plantations announced an export deal to Asia of 400,000 tonnes of eucalypt woodchips. This means it will send almost half a million tonnes a year for five years to Hokuetsu Paper Mills in Japan, starting in 2009. Using estimates from the BRS 2007 hardwood plantation chiplog supply, …
