Gippsland saw the Greens increase their vote by just over 1% to 6.06%. Though in the end, National Party senator, Peter McGauran (“Chops”) romped back in with hardly a chink in his support base (the Liberals never stand in Gippsland’s Federal elections). In Victoria the Greens should be close to or just above 10% in …
Don’t pin all your hopes on having just ousted Howard. Rudd and his henchmen could prove to have the very same corporate mates. East Gippsland is losing its forests as fast as Tasmania, relative to its size. Tassie has had a huge public profile for years, but is still unable to get rid of the …
It’s not workers vs the elite anymore; it’s environment vs business greed. What with temperatures rising, taps running dry, food becoming a valuable commodity – all coupled with peak oil – the economy, the environment and the voters are about to cop a serious body blow. It could be too late for changing governments’ priorities …
A report card on the Brumby Government’s progress of its environmental promises was released in early December 2007. It shows they can put a lot more effort into their work. Half of the Victorian Government’s environmental promises before the 2006 election have been broken or are at risk of being broken. The analysis is backed …
The umbrella group that lobbies on behalf of all Australian (and overseas) logging interests were officially invited along by Kevin Rudd to be part of the Australian delegation to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December. We hear that the CFMEU was there as well. The National Association of Forest Industries’ …
The push by farmers to have poison baits dropped from planes to kill wild dogs and dingoes has been successful. A three-stage government trial is currently going on and so far it has only shown that planes can drop baits accurately. But ‘can’ does not mean ‘will’. A senior scientist at the Arthur Rylah Research …
The new Victorian Association of Forest Industries’ head is Philip Dalidakis. He’s not a Trish Caswell style environmentalist turned logging lobbyist, but was senior advisor to State Minister for Major Projects, Industry and Trade, Theo Theophanos, until taking this position in November. Interesting to keep in mind that Theophanos is a huge fan of burning …
Can you believe this?! Victoria is the most ecologically damaged state in Australia but the Brumby Government recently reduced protection for remnant native vegetation on railway reserves. It’s our railway reserves that are chocka-block with the rare vegetation types from pre settlement days. They haven’t been grazed or ploughed. They get the odd burn, which …
Mr Brumby has dusted down the old Industry Transition Taskforce to go about chatting with the logging industry about how to protect 41,000ha (as promised last State election) while not reducing the net log resource or losing any jobs in East Gippsland. Hmmm. (they don’t want to talk to environmentalists by the way) The force …
John Brumby bowed to pressure from big agribusiness bully, Monsanto, in late November and overturned bans on GM food crops in Victoria. He did not consult caucus. New South Wales also lifted its bans on the same day. Brumby refused to release Victorian Chief Scientist Sir Gustav Nossal’s report on the impact of lifting the …
