Week 2 of the Senate pre-selection campaign saw the candidates’ forum. Members can receive a copy of the DVD of this by emailing qfecc@qld.greens.org.au. Last week you should have received a personal letter in the post from me. We are now in the last week of the pre-selection campaign and most members of the Queensland Greens should have received their copy of the candidates’ newsletter in today’s (Monday) post. There are two more official email communications: 1. An email from each of the candidates following up on the 4 September candidates’ forum. 2. A final email from each of the candidates. The ballot papers will be sent out on Monday of next week (21 September) and members then have until Monday 5 October to return their ballots to the Returning Officer.

I note with interest the failure of Queensland Nationals to stand up for rural Queensland farming and conservation interests against the takeover of land by coal mining companies.

Queensland Nationals Senator, Ron Boswell, today voted against a Senate motion calling for the protection of prime agricultural land and rural nature refuges from coal mining.

The full motion, tabled by Greens Senate leader, Bob Brown stated:

That the Senate:

1.      Supports protection of farming and conservation areas from coal
exploration and mining and its effects in the Galilee Basin in
Queensland.

2.      Does not support the massive increase in coal exports flowing
from the Galilee Basin out through Abbot Point and Hay Point because of
the climate change ramifications of burning more coal.

3.      Expresses its concern about the potential impact of the
industrialisation of Abbot Point on the Caley Valley Wetlands and the
endangered and vulnerable bird species that depend on it.

Senator Boswell voted against the motion as did his fellow Nationals, Senators Nash and Williams. Queensland Nationals Senator, Barnaby Joyce, was not in the chamber for the vote.

This is just another example of the Nationals refusing to stand up for the real interests of the farming sector.

Other beautiful, productive farmlands like Felton and Haystack on the Darling Downs are likewise endangered by coal mining and the Nationals have turned their backs on these Queenslanders.

The following media release was issued by Australian Greens deputy-leader, Senator Christine Milne, today. It reveals the shallowness of all the other parties when it comes to support for renewable energy.

The Government and Opposition closed ranks again today against the interests of Australia’s solar power industry.

Labor, the Liberals, the Nationals and Steve Fielding all voted against a Greens motion to underpin the flawed Solar Flagships program with vital loan guarantees, a feed-in tariff and grid connection support, even though there is clear global evidence that this will be necessary for the solar industry to flourish in Australia.

“Rudd Labor is being exposed as more interested in photo ops with solar panels than in actually creating jobs and reducing emissions with a flourishing Australian solar industry,” Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

“The Rudd Government’s Solar Flagships program is increasingly being seen by industry as a classic ‘Hollow Men’ idea without any policy backing. It has been delayed for 18 months and is attracting criticism for being unworkable from the very companies it is supposed to support.

“It is no wonder that Australian solar technicians and entrepreneurs are still going overseas at a great rate, taking advantage of feed-in tariffs and supportive governments in Europe, Asia and North America.

“It is worth noting that the Nationals Senators voted against their own party’s new policy of supporting a feed-in tariff.”

This video was made in the  Antwerp , Belgium Central (Train) Station on March 23, 2009, with no warning to the passengers passing through the station. 

At 8:00 am a recording of Julie Andrews singing ‘Do, Re, Mi’ begins to play on the public address system.

As the bemused passengers watch in amazement, some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances.

They created this amazing stunt with just two rehearsals!

This has got to be one of the nicest videos on the planet!

A major phosphate mine, north-east of Mount Isa, will have to submit a low level Environmental Management Plan rather than a much more comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment despite the fact that it meets all four major criteria for such an EIA.

The mine, owned by entrepreneur Joe Gutnick, has been promised a fast-track environmental approval after meeting with Premier Anna Bligh and local ALP member for Mount Isa Betty Kiernan.

Mr Gutnick reportedly donated $12,000 to Ms Kiernan’s campaign before the last state election.

The mine site borders a creek in the catchment of the Gregory River. This catchment comes under the Wild Rivers Act and this should be one of the factors that triggers an EIA. The Gregory River flows to Lake Eyre.  Local landowners are still upset about these impacts on their properties.

This area was also badly flooded during the heavy rains earlier this year. These floods caused major, ongoing pollution events downstream from the nearby Lady Annie, Ernest Henry and Mount Oxide mines. Any approval for this proposed phosphate mine should require an EIA that estimates the extent of risk from another such flood.

Why would the State Government give a fast track environmental approval to such a large mine with such potentially devastating impacts in such an area?

A mine owner has a meeting with the Premier and, all of a sudden, the four key triggers for requiring an EIS for his project just fade from view despite the fact that this mine site qualifies on all four counts.

The Queensland mining industry has a long history of poor environmental management and lack of rehabilitation of old sites. The environmental regulators in the State Government and the two major political parties in this state also have a long history - of being captured lock, stock and barrel by the mining industry.

It should also be remembered that disgraced former Labor minister, Gordon Nuttall, has been convicted of taking bribes from an executive officer of a major mining company.

It is time for a Royal Commission into all aspects of the relationship between political parties and development interests - especially mining and property development.

The Greens have joined a rapidly growing alliance of indigenous people, local and regional community groups and organizations are calling on the State Government to end sand mining on the island. 

This devastation could be stopped tomorrow by the State Government as mining is occurring on expired mining leases, most of them granted originally by the anti-environment Bjelke-Petersen government.

I join with these groups to call on the Bligh government to protect the island’s fragile sand environment by declining to renew these leases and cancel unexpired leases. 

Finally, then, Stradbroke Island could have the same sort of protection as those other great sand islands - Moreton and Fraser.

With the population of the Greater Brisbane area doubling since 1990 it is essentail to maximise green space and national parks. This should be the future for North Stradbroke Island with tourism as its major industry.

A story in today’s Sunday Mail reports on the state government’s revised plans for North Bank [Riverside Facelift, 23.08.09].  It is gratifying to note that the improvements include many of the issues raised in the Greens’ submission opposing the original disastrous plans for high rise buildings on platforms over the river and southeast freeway.

That submission is still available on the Greens public website:

http://qld.greens.org.au/media-releases/greens-submission-on-north-bank-development-proposal

Some of the points that I made as part of that process were the need to separate pedestrians and cyclists, to improve safety, especially night time security for commuters and CityCat ferry terminals, to reduce the number of car parks and to provide better pedestrian linkages to the CBD.  

Over the weekend members of the Cairns Action for Sustainable Transport (CAST), CAFNEC and the Greens organised a section of the Cairns Festival calling for sustainable transport for one of Queensland’s fastest growing cities.  Well done to those campaigners!

For too long transport planners have forced regional city commuters to depend on outmoded and competely inadequate (usually privately-operated) public transport or else use their cars.

Cities like Cairns (and Townville, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast) are ideal for the sort of light rail project that is finally coming to the Gold Coast.

The Cairns campaigners also called for the State Government to reject any notions of privatising any areas of public transport.

Today’s article in the Courier-Mail (see above) demonstrates the wisdom in the Greens’ support for the Wild Rivers legislation in the recent state election.  In fact, we wanted the concept extended to include such east coast waterways as the upper Noosa River and Baffle Creek.

Now, it is obvious where the opposition to Wild Rivers is coming from - Rio Tinto and its supporters who want to extract massive amounts of water from the Wenlock River on Cape York as part of their bauxite strip mining plans for the area.

The Wild Rivers Act allows for sustainable economic activity in catchments like the Wenlock for Aboriginal communities but not strip mining and not more than 1 per cent extraction of the flows.

The Wild Rivers Act is no threat to Indigenous communities or for sustainable economic activity on Cape York.  It is a threat to corporations like Rio Tinto.