Tony Abbott’s plan to deal with climate change is very worrying. It gives incentives to burn native forests and will term this as ‘renewable energy’! Abbott is handing a slush fund to industry dressed up as climate action. To date no one has wanted to build a forest furnace to generate electricity because they are …
A new free-trade agreement being brokered may pose a threat to Australia’s sovereignty and environment, or secure an international win for endangered species. THIS WEEKEND AUSTRALIA will be hosting the next round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) trade negotiations with three days of talks due to begin on Saturday 25th October. Another boring and …
Australia is preparing to sign an agreement that would give international corporations the power to go over the government’s head on environmental issues. Here’s what you need to know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. STRETCHING WIDE, blue and deep, the St Lawrence River in Canada drains America’s Great Lakes to the sea. Along its shores, …
A contentious plan to cut down river red gums in the Barmah National Park, on the border of Victoria and NSW, has been scrapped by the Victorian government. The Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Parks Victoria and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage had planned to trial an “ecological thinning” of the forest, …
WHEN forestry workers lose their jobs it’s a crisis but when public servants lose theirs it’s an election promise. Richard Denniss asks why politicians are working harder to save some jobs than others. AS the world coal price continues to fall, politicians are asking themselves what the Australian economy will look like by the time …
Earlier this year the Leadbeater’s Possum Advisory Group (LPAG) delivered its reports to the state government. The group had been established by the government to make recommendations to support “the recovery of the Leadbeater’s Possum while maintaining a sustainable timber industry”. The group included no specialist expertise, being composed entirely of government employees and representatives …
EEG is suing the state government for a fourth time. Legal papers were filed and served on Monday 22nd Sept. Both VicForests and DEPI are being sued. Within the 170,000 hectares of forest that the Goongerah-Deddick summer fires burnt out, were 46 protected zones set aside for threatened owls. These areas would also have supported …
Environment East Gippsland is suing the state government for a fourth time! We lodged the legal papers on Monday 22nd Sept 2014. The summer fires destroyed thousands of hectares of critically important habitat for East Gippsland’s threatened wildlife. This region is the stronghold for large forest owls yet DEPI refuses to urgently review the protection …
So why isn’t the Government accepting recommendation 5 of the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry? Peter Ryan claims it’s just too difficult to get carbon monoxide monitoring equipment to a site within 24 hours. Yeah? How long does it take to drive a hand held CO monitoring device from Melbourne to Victoria’s far ends? 6-7 hours …
FOR three years the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission’s independent monitor Neil Comrie has strongly advised the Victorian Government to abandon one of the commission’s recommendations: the call to burn 390,000ha of public land annually for fuel reduction. Yet Environment Minister Ryan Smith is sticking to that target and, even more puzzling, DEPI plans to increase …
