Kelvin Thomson
Video: Kelvin Thomson MP: Today Tonight Interview on Population Reform 18/09/09
Some good clips in this, including one with Demographer Peter McDonald implying that excessive population growth in Australia is inevitable and that most of it is a natural response from workers looking for jobs. We don't have a population problem, he claims. Well, he would. Dr David Tribe pretends it's all just a matter of providing food, as if it was just fine for our lives to be reduced to that of beasts in feedlots - which is rotten for the animals we raise in our industrialised mass production society.
Such hilarious disingenuousness abounds on this matter.
Take a look and leave a comment to encourage Kelvin.
Also, check out the Scanlon Report on this site.
Edgars Creek: Kelvin Thomson defends public land, biodiverse CO2 sink
Photograph of Edgar Creek Site 15 Edgars Creek Waterfall & Geological Structure in Coburg below a newly sited Kodak development. Source: Merri Creek Management Committee: http://www.mcmc.org.au/content/view/164/261/
Once again, Northern Suburbs Federal Labor MP, Kelvin Thomson, has come through to represent the public against the falsely positive coasian economics of Victoria's grubby and despotic government!
He has written to Victorian Environmental Assessment Council's inquiry into metropolitan Crown land asking for the land to be given to the Council gratis as long as it is kept as public parkland. Thomson's arguments impressively cogent, demonstrating far better grasp of biology than the average Melbourne parliamentarian, and serious students of climate change would benefit from reading them. Moreland Council has also asked for the land to be kept public and undeveloped.
Note that illustrations, most emphases, and some headings have been inserted by Candobetter. The original document is accessible to the public at http://www.kelvinthomson.com.au/public_documentsdocs/090219%20EdgarsCreekSubac.pdf
"The extent to which parklands, trees, shrubs and wall gardens can cool places has been
greatly underestimated. Estimates by the Co-operative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures are that they can lower temperatures by 2-8 degrees because increases in evapotranspiration reduce building energy use by 7-47%. Average electricity saving per tree due to lower air-conditioning use ranges from 70-90 kilowatt hours a year, with savings
greater at peak times reducing overall energy demand by 10%" (Fisher 2009).
Kelvin Thomson MP, Federal Member for Wills
Submission to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council Metropolitan Melbourne Crown Land Inquiry
Edgars Creek Parkland; the lungs of the Coburg Community
February 2009
1. Overview
I make this submission to the Victorian Assessment Council, which is investigating the use of Crown owned land across 29 of Melbourne’s municipalities. I make this submission with regard to the Edgars and Merri Creek Parkland, located in my electorate of Wills in Coburg.
This land should be retained as public open space. It was originally acquired by VicRoads with the intention of running a freeway into the City along the Merri Creek. Fortunately the freeway reservation was deleted and it is now time to protect this fine open space forever.
The Victorian Government instructed the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council to investigate the use of Crown Land across 29 Melbourne Municipalities. This inquiry’s terms of reference include investigating the use of Crown owned land in Moreland. The areas to be investigated include parks- but not parks that are freehold land owned by councils- small
slivers of land, areas used for community purposes, VicTrack and VicRoads land set aside for future infrastructure or land owned by a public authority such as Melbourne Water (Fyffe 2009).
The purposes of the investigation are to:
(a) Systematically identify and assess the uses, resources, condition, values and management of Crown land, and public authority land in metropolitan Melbourne;
(b) assess values of Crown land, and public authority land for areas not committed to a specific use, and report on appropriate future uses relevant to Melbourne's liveability and natural values; and (c) report on the contribution of Crown land, and public authority land to Melbourne's liveability and opportunities for enhancement of this contribution.
The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council will prepare a discussion paper during 2009 and a final report by May 2010 (VEAC 2009).
A Victorian Parliamentary inquiry last year found that important open space and Crown Land- such as areas set aside for roads, rail lines and water authorities, is often sold off to developers for the highest price, with little consideration to the long term community and environmental ramifications (Fyffe 2009).
The sale of the Edgars Creek Parkland is being negotiated between a number of government agencies. VicRoads has had a number of meetings with Moreland Council’s CEO to explore options for the land that would be suitable for all parties. The role of the Government land monitor is to provide Government with an assurance of accountability and integrity in land transactions. State Government policy has been that surplus land is to be sold at market value as assessed by the Valuer-General Victoria. As the City of Moreland expressed interest in obtaining the land for a public purpose, the land was offered to Council on this basis (Madden 2008).
The Edgars Creek Parkland site is an extremely important piece of public parkland to the Coburg and surrounding communities. The parkland has been maintained free-of-charge by the Moreland City Council (2008:2), its predecessors and local voluntary community groups such as the Merri and Edgars Creek Parkland Group (2009) over the last 25 years.
The true value of this site cannot be placed in monetary terms. Its environmental, ecological and recreational importance to the community of Coburg far outweigh any short term profit the State Government may be able to derive from its sale.
My submission will outline the ecological, environmental and social reasons for securing the future of this site. I will also set out the pressures that the growing population is having on the local community in terms of public open space.
2. Executive Summary
VicRoads owned land in the vicinity of Edgars Creek should be retained as public open space.
This land was originally acquired by VicRoads with the intention of running a freeway into the city along the Merri Creek. Fortunately the freeway reservation which hung over this land was deleted. It is now time to move forward and protect this fine area of open space forever.
Increasing population is putting even greater pressure on our living space, and parks like this one are not simply important now; they are destined to become even more valuable in future.
Coburg needs all the open space it can get. It is largely built up and has been now for many years, and the new Pentridge Village and Kodak developments will add new pressures. This parkland is one of the largest areas of open space in Coburg, and should not be lost to housing or other developments.
The land readily links in with the existing open space and wildlife corridors along the Merri and Edgars Creeks. The State Government, Moreland Council and the local community have worked in partnership now for over 25 years in restoring the Merri and Edgars Creek Valleys and they are a major asset. Their value will be enhanced if the Vic Roads land is added in.
The Victorian Budget has been well managed and is in a state of healthy surplus.
The need
for real estate dollars from the sale of public land is much less than the need of the Coburg and Newlands community for room to live and breathe.
The land is the largest open space in Coburg and acts as lungs, pumping the oxygen throughout the veins of our community. On the basis that Moreland Council and the local community is willing to maintain the land as public open space, the land should be handed over to them by VicRoads.
3. History of the Edgars Creek Parkland
The Edgars Creek flows along a 17km course from its headwater in Wollert through the highly urbanised suburbs of Epping, Thomastown and Reservoir, finally joining the Merri Creek in Coburg in the electorate of Wills (FoEC 2009).
Edgars Creek, along with many of the water bodies of Melbourne's north, is of spiritual and cultural significance to the Wurundjeri People, its indigenous Aboriginal People. Several sites of cultural and spiritual significance to the people of the Wurundjeri-willam have been recorded along Edgars Creek. At the old Kodak plant site, and further north in Wollert &
Epping, numerous scatters from the making of stone axe and spear heads have been sighted (Freshwater 2006).
Some historians believe that the signing of the Batman Treaty may have taken place along Edgars Creek. Edgars Creek, like many other Melbourne creeks and rivers, provided a vital source of food and water to the local Aboriginal community. Family groups consisting of somewhere between ten and twenty or more people would make up a single clan, or tribe
(Freshwater 2006.
The Wurundjeri People had, and continues to have, an intimate physical and deeply spiritual connection to the land. There are many descendents of the original Wurundjeri People who still live in and around Melbourne (Freshwater 2006).
The Edgars Creek Parkland, located at the junction of the Merri Creek, is Coburg’s largest parkland and public open space, approximately 10ha in size (O’Connell 2008). Edgars Creek passes through the boundaries of the Cities of Whittlesea, Darebin and Moreland, through rural, industrial and residential areas. It is a seasonal creek, susceptible to drying out during
the hot seasons, particularly in its northern most regions, and is likewise prone to flooding (Freshwater 2006).
Though a considerable part of the creek is in an artificial state, through much of Epping to Reservoir, over half of the creek remains in a semi-natural state, particularly in its upper and lower sections. Further downstream Edgars Creek feeds the picturesque Leamington St Wetlands Reserve and Edwardes Lake Park in Reservoir, which is home to many bird
species (Freshwater 2006).
Edgars Creek departs the lake via a weir wall at the southwest end, continuing from Livingstone St through to the City of Moreland, where there are lovely walking areas on both escarpments (Freshwater 2006).
The reserve is a significant piece of parkland not just because of its size, but because of its ecological, environmental and social role in making the Coburg community a better community.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment 2006 Atlas of Victorian Wildlife records 48 fauna species within 1.5km of the Kodak Bridge over Edgars Creek. Approximately 280 trees already exist on the site, and included in the parkland are areas of remnant vegetation. The land has high intrinsic value due to its position at the meeting point of two linear open space and wildlife corridors (Merri & Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2009).
VicRoads acquired numerous parcels of land in the 1970s for the proposed F2 Freeway and associated East-West Links. The Edgars Creek Parkland was part of the planned route for a freeway along the Merri Creek Corridor into inner Melbourne. Following strong opposition from the local community, the proposal was abandoned (Moreland City Council 2008:2), and it is now time to protect this fine open space.
Following the freeway reservation being removed, VicRoads still owns the land. The original asking price by VicRoads was around $10 million, with developers having expressed interest. There have been ongoing discussions between VicRoads and Moreland City Council for the land to be gifted to Council on the proviso that it remain as public open space
(O’Connell 2008).
Moreland City Council (2008:2) and its predecessors have developed and maintained the land as public open space over the last thirty years at no charge to VicRoads. Thousands of trees have been planted, pathways constructed, weeds managed and fire risks reduced. A significant amount of time and money has been invested into the parkland by the local
community.
This inquiry provides the Victorian Government with the opportunity to write the final chapter in the history of the parkland through securing the Edgars Creek Parkland as public open space forever.
4. Moreland City Council and Community maintenance and protection of theParkland
A considerable effort has been made to restore indigenous vegetation within both the Darebin and Moreland boundaries by both councils in conjunction with the Merri Creek Management Committee and other local community groups (Freshwater 2006).
The public have paid many times over for this land in rates and voluntary labour
Moreland property owners have contributed millions of dollars to the Parks Charge which has been included on their water, sewerage and drainage bills since 1958. They receive no direct benefit as there are no Parks Victoria regional parks in Moreland (Moreland City Council 2008:3).
Over the last thirty years that Moreland City Council (2008:2) and its predecessors have maintained the land, thousands of voluntary hours have been invested by local residents at the park in undertaking tree planting, weeding and general maintenance activities. In 2007 alone, over 400 volunteer hours were dedicated to the creek restoration and
enhancement projects by the local community as part of the Friends of Edgars Creek Activities (Merri & Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2006:3).
The Friends of Merri Creek has been making a significant contribution to the local community through its environmental protection and enhancement projects for the last twenty years. It has accumulated 400 members, planted thousands of trees and has undertaken weeding, water quality monitoring, tours, information stalls and removing litter
from the Creek (Gencturk 2008).
The Edgars Creek Parkland should be gifted to Moreland Council in its entirety on the proviso that it is maintained as public open space in its entirety.
The sell off of certain sections or parcels would compromise the parkland’s ecological integrity (Craig 2009).
To keep this land in public ownership also represents a return for the Melbourne Water Parkland fee paid annually by local ratepayers.
To date precious little of the $3 million in funds collected each year by the State Government in the form of an annual Melbourne Water Parkland fee has been used for parkland maintenance in the City of Moreland (Merri & Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2009). All parkland maintenance has been undertaken by volunteers throughout the community and at the expense of ratepayers through Moreland City Council activities.
5. The Social, Recreational and Health benefits of the Parkland to the local Community
The Edgars Creek Parkland is used as public open space for a wide range of activities by residents of Coburg North and surrounding suburbs. The land is used by walkers, golfers, runners, Coburg Harriers Athletics Club and dog walkers. The parkland is a place for gathering and meeting and fosters social interaction and community connectedness (Merri
and Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2007).
Nearly one in three Australians, 29%, play sport or exercise twice a week or more. The most popular sport or physical recreation activities amongst Australians include walking (25%), aerobics (13%), swimming (9%) and cycling (6%) (ABS 2006).
Nearly half of the Australian population, some 10 million people, exercise or play sport at least once a month, with more than half (54%) reporting ‘health and fitness’ as their main reason for exercising. This was followed by enjoyment (22%), well-being (7%) and social or family reasons (7%) (ABS 2006).
Walking is the most commonly reported sport and physical recreation activity amongst Australians, with a participation rate of 25%. People aged 55-64 years reported the highest participation rates for walking (35%), followed by those aged 45-54 (31%) and those aged 65 years and over (29%) (ABS 2006:10).
Coburg and the area in the immediate vicinity of the Edgars Creek Parkland have a somewhat aged population compared with the rest of Moreland. Residents aged between 55-64 years make up 8.2% of the Moreland population and those of 65 and over make up 16.6% (ABS 2007).
The North Coburg area has 9% of the population aged between 55-64 years old and 19.1% aged over 65 (ABS 2007A).
Walking is the most popular exercising activity undertaken by seniors across Australia. It is therefore important that seniors have adequate access to suitable parkland and walkways to continue undertaking this activity.
According to the ABS (2006:7) there were over 1.0 million (6%) people aged 15 years and over who had been cycling between 2005-06, with more than twice as many males reporting to have cycled than females.
There were 875,500 or 6% of Australians aged 15 years and over who participated in golf between 2005-06, with Victoria recording the highest number of participants along with New South Wales (236,900 and 277,000 respectively) (ABS 2006:7-8).
Running, which is another popular activity undertaken through the Edgars Creek Parkland, has a high volume of participation according to the ABS (2006:8). There were an estimated 681,300 Australians who participated in running between 2005-06, with Victoria recording the second highest participation rate (171,000).
The Edgars Creek Parkland has been enabling local residents to undertake physical and recreational activities for many years now. Its sale for commercial, residential or other development would deal the Coburg community a severe blow in its aspiration to stay fit and healthy.
Providing local communities with the resources and parkland to take part in physical activity has become ever more important, especially with the ever increasing frequency of media reports and concern that Australia is in the midst of an ‘obesity epidemic’ (Biggs 2006), with child obesity in Australia being at an all time high (Houghton 2007).
Statistics show strong and consistent increases in the rates of combined overweight and obese children over the past 20 years, such that these now affect one in every four school children. Obesity affects 6%-8% of Australian schoolchildren. This equates to 260,000 school aged children. This figure has increased by 1.8% in the last five years, which is an additional 65,000 children (Gill & Baur et al 2008).
Childhood and adolescent obesity is associated with a wide range of immediate health concerns, as well as increasing the risk of disease in adulthood. Some weight-related health problems are also found in overweight children (Gill & Baur et al 2008).
If healthy dietary and physical activity environments and behavioural patterns can be established for young children it may help prevent the onset of overweight or obesity in adolescence and adulthood (Victorian Government 2006A). The State Government should be working to reduce obesity rates amongst the community, particularly young people, through the provision of adequate open space and recreational sporting infrastructure.
Keeping the Edgars Creek Parkland as public parkland will ensure the Coburg community has the space to live and breathe so they can continue undertaking popular recreational activities such as walking and cycling.
6. Edgars Creek Parkland; ‘The lungs of the Coburg Community’
The Edgars Creek Parkland is a significant piece of parkland not just because of its size, but because of its ecological and environmental role in making the Coburg community a healthier and environmentally friendly community. The parkland acts as the lungs of the Coburg community, allowing residents to live and breathe; providing essential open space with a variety of flora and fauna in our otherwise urbanised and developed area.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment 2006 Atlas of Victorian Wildlife records 48 fauna species within 1.5km of the Kodak Bridge over Edgar’s Creek. Approximately 280 trees already exist on the site and included in the parkland are areas of remnant vegetation.
The land has high intrinsic value due to its position at the meeting point of two linear open space and wildlife corridors (Merri & Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2009).
I regard climate change as the issue of our time, the issue which will define our success or otherwise as policymakers.
Each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet (Obama 2009).
The phrase ‘think global, act local’ has never been timelier. Removing the parkland would certainly add greenhouse gases in the Coburg community (Parliamentary Library 2009:4).
We can help play our part in the broader solution of reducing carbon emissions by retaining the Edgars Creek Parkland.
Governments are overlooking what city trees and parklands can do to reduce water use and fight climate change. For some years Australia has experienced a staggering growth in the installation of air-conditioners, with sales surging by around 10% each year, and some houses having more than one (Fisher 2009).
These air-conditioning units are ravenous electricity users, imposing heavy demands on peak-load generating capacity, especially older less efficient models. The more airconditioners to fight the climbing temperatures, the more black balloons and carbon emissions, the more the planet heats up. Adding to their workload is the explosion in hard surfaces, patios, pebble gardens, car parks, walls, roads and buildings that retain heat, causing an urban heat island effect (Fisher 2009).
The extent to which parklands, trees, shrubs and wall gardens can cool places has been greatly underestimated. Estimates by the Co-operative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures are that they can lower temperatures by 2-8 degrees because increases in evapotranspiration reduce building energy use by 7-47%. Average electricity saving per tree due to lower air-conditioning use ranges from 70-90 kilowatt hours a year, with savings greater at peak times reducing overall energy demand by 10% (Fisher 2009).
Melbourne has a rich assortment of trees, shrubs and grassed areas, a resource known as the urban forest (Fisher 2009), with the Edgars Creek Parkland being a prime example.
A study of two forested urban parklands in Chicago found total carbon stocks of 230-260 tC ha-1 and annual carbon uptake of 3-5 tC ha-1yr-1 (Jo & McPherson 1995:109-133). They found that 80-90% of the carbon was stored in the soils. In contrast, a study of green space in three Korean cities found storage ranging from 26 to 60 tC ha-1 and annual carbon uptake of 1.6 to 3.9 tC ha-1 yr-1 (Jo 2002: 115-126). The continuing carbon sequestration by the parklands offset carbon emissions of the cities by 0.5-2.2%. Another US study found that urban forests across the country store an average of 25tC ha-1, or about half the storage density in natural forests (Nowak & Crane 2002:381-389/ Nowak 1993: 207-217).
Vegetation represents a carbon store. All plants perform photosynthesis in the presence of light. This process absorbs carbon dioxide gas from the air. When plant material decomposes or is eaten or cleared, the carbon is converted back to CO2 and returns to the atmosphere (Parliamentary Library 2009:2).
The Edgars Creek Parkland’s role in storing carbon should be valued. If part or all of the land is sold and developed, it would result in carbon which it has captured over the last thirty or so years being re-released back into the atmosphere.
A further factor that I urge this inquiry to consider is that the land is vital in maintaining a green buffer between the Newlands Industrial Precinct and surrounding residential areas. This buffer mitigates emissions and manages noise pollution and other impacts emitting from the around the clock industrial operations (Merri and Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2007).
It should also be noted that the Edgars Creek Parkland is subject to inundation. This status is unlikely to change as the frequency of flash floods, related to global warming, increases (Hodge 2008).
7. Demographic and population demand for open space
Increasing population is putting even greater pressure on our living space. Parks like this one are not simply important now; they are destined to become even more valuable in future.
Victoria’s population is forecast to increase from the current 4.8 million to over 6.2 million by 2031 (Victorian Government 2006:11). As of June 30th 2006, Melbourne’s population was 3,744,982 people, and has been growing at an annual average rate of 1.5% annually for the last five years. Over the previous five years there were no local government areas in
Melbourne that declined in population. Moreland has grown by 0.9% (Victorian Government 2007).
Between 2001 and 2006 the population of Moreland grew by just over 5000, from 130,531 in 2001 (ABS 2001A) to 135,764 in 2006 (ABS 2007). This growth is placing extra pressure on local services, schools and infrastructure, including open spaces. This pressure is forecast to grow particulary in the North Coburg area where the Pentridge and Kodak residential
developments will result in a major influx of new residents.
There are long term requirements for open space in the area resulting from high to medium residential developments in the Pentridge Village and Kodak sites. [Ed. See photo at top of article.] The City of Moreland already has one of the lowest percentages of open space allocations in metropolitan Melbourne. Retention of this land as public open space is fully supported by Melbourne 2030 Policy 5.6; to ensure long term protection of public open space (Merri & Edgars Creek Parkland Group 2009).
The Melbourne 2030 plan supports the position of the Merri and Edgars Creek Parkland Group, who are in favour of retaining the parkland as public open space. The recent Audit Expert Group Report on Melbourne 2030 notes that the provision of neighbouring amenities, including parks, open space, facilities and services, is an essential component of maintaining
neighbourhood liveability. Further it recommends improving open space provision and services in line with population increases (Hodge 2008).
The Audit Expert Group on Melbourne 2030 also notes the reduction of tree canopy and loss of open space are two of the most easily felt and resented potential outcomes of urban consolidation.
The allocation of surplus government land for open space is an area that should be taken into consideration (Hodge 2008).
We get told that population growth is inevitable and that it is desirable. Population growth has traditionally come at the expense of open space. Future public policy must take into consideration the threat which population growth poses to our existing public open spaces. Managing population growth so that it does not threaten the liveability of our city ought to be
a priority of this State Government and Governments to come.
The Edgars Creek parkland must be protected not just for ours but for future generations. Its value cannot be placed in monetary terms. Its ecological, environmental and social value far outweigh any short term profits the State Government may be able to derive from its sale.
8. Recommendations
Recommendation 1: VicRoads owned land in the vicinity of Edgars Creek should be retained as public open space.
Recommendation 2: VicRoads should hand over the land to Moreland City Council free-of charge on the proviso that it will be maintained as public open space.
9. References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (2007) 2006 Census QuickStats: Moreland (LGA). Released 25/10/07 [Online] www.abs.gov.au [Accessed 13/02/2009]
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (2007A) 2006 Census Quick Stats: Coburg North (State Suburb). Released 25/10/07 [Online] www.abs.gov.au [Accessed 13/02/2009]
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) 4177.0 Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation Australia 2005-06 [Online] http://abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/ProductsbyCatalogue/9FD67668EE42A738
CA2568A9001393AC?OpenDocument [Accessed 12/02/2009]
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001) 2001 Census Quickstats: Coburg North (State Suburb). Released 9/03/06 [Online] www.abs.gov.au [Accessed 13/02/2009]
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001A) 2001 Census Quickstats: Moreland (LGA) . [Online] www.abs.gov.au [Accessed 13/02/2009]
- Biggs, M. (2006) Overweight and obesity in Australia E-brief. Published by the Parliamentary Library [Online] http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/SP/obesity.htm [Accessed 12/02/2009]
- Craig, S. (2009) ‘Save the site bid’. Article published in the Moreland Leader Newspaper on 12/01/2009.
- Fisher, P., Dr. (2009) ‘It’s time literally to go green’. Article published in The Age on the 23/01/2009 [Online] http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/its-time-literally-to-gogreen-20090122-7nv5.html [Accessed 23/01/2009]
- Friends of Edgars Creek (2009) Melbourne’s Freshwater Systems Community Natural History [Online] http://www.freshwater.net.au/community/foec.htm [Accessed 3/02/2009]
- Freshwater.Net.Au (2006) Melbourne’s Fresh Water Systems; Edgars Creek [Online] http://www.freshwater.net.au/nature/about_edgars_creek.htm [Accessed 11/02/09]
- Fyfe, M. (2009) ‘Review, and you, to bring order to open-space race’. Published in
The Sunday Age 4/1/09, Page 7.
- Gill, P., T., & Baur, A., L., et al (2008) Childhood obesity in Australia remains a
widespread health concern that warrants population-wide prevention programs.
Published on the Medical Journal of Australia [Online]
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/190_03_020209/gil10817_fm.html [Accessed
12/02/2009]
Kelvin Thomson on Overpopulation in Australia and the World: Full Parliamentary Speech 17-08-09
Kelvin Thomson on Overpopulation in Australia and the World: Parliamentary Speech 17/08/09
POPULATION
We all know that the world has plenty of problems. Let me run out some that come to mind without much effort – global warming, food crisis, water shortages, housing affordability, overcrowded cities, transport congestion, fisheries collapse, species extinctions, increasing prices, waste, terrorism. We scratch our heads and try to come up with solutions.
It staggers me that so often we ignore the elephant in the room – increasing population. Each of these problems is either caused by, or exacerbated by, the global population explosion. In the first two million years of human existence, the global human population was only a few million. Up to 1950, it had managed to climb to 2 billion. In the fifty-odd years since, it has trebled to 6 billion people. The population is projected to double again.
The consequences of the present population pressure are dramatic. In my opinion it is not plausible that the world’s population could double without the consequences becoming catastrophic. And yet when it is suggested that the world’s population is a problem, there is zero interest from policy makers. In my view it isn’t so much a problem as the problem. Let me return to that list of problems, and describe the impact of population on them.
1.
GLOBAL WARMING
Population plays a critical role in global warming. We have one earth, one atmosphere, and every carbon dioxide molecule we release into it contributes to global warming. The more of us there are, the more carbon dioxide is released. Simple, undeniable. Al Gore identifies population growth as one of the big three drivers of the rapid spurt of greenhouse gases during the past 50 years. People who believe we can meet serious carbon targets without curbing population growth are kidding themselves, they are delusional.
There is no reasonable prospect that Australia will reduce its total level of greenhouse emissions, while our population grows by 1 million every four years, as is presently the case. Population stabilisation must be part of the plan to contain greenhouse emissions, not merely for Australia, but for the rest of the world as well.
2.
FOOD CRISIS
The combination of declining arable land and continued population growth has caused the world’s per capita food production to go into decline. We are now in a situation where there is a global shortage of food which is set to get worse. In future, more people will starve, not fewer.
Figures released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation show that the number of people suffering from chronic hunger is rising, not falling. In June last year the Australian Government’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation said that world agriculture is experiencing a growing crisis, and its first named demand side factor was increasing global population.
3.
WATER SHORTAGES
As with agricultural decline, population growth is fuelling water shortages, both indirectly through climate change and directly through extraction and pollution. Around the world one in three people is suffering from water shortage. Assuming modest rates of population growth, we will use 70% of the world’s accessible fresh water by 2025. Already 400 million children worldwide are drinking dangerously unclean water, and one child dies from a waterborne disease every 15 seconds. According to Melbourne Water, water scarcity in and around Melbourne is being driven by both climate change and population growth.
4.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Housing affordability in Australia has undergone a period of dramatic decline. John Edwards, an economist with HSBC has noted that Australia’s high level of migration – the highest level in our history – is going to keep upward pressure on house prices. The same goes for rent. The General Manager of Australian Property Monitors, Michael McNamara, said the shortage of rental properties would continue to worsen because of rising migration.
5.
OVERCROWDED CITIES
Our cities are too large. They dwarf people. The sheer scale of them is overwhelming for some, who lose the plot and fall victim to mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse. And for the rest of us the madding crowd swells every year, giving us that little bit less room. Every square metre of space is fought over.
In Africa and Asia, the accumulated urban growth during the whole span of history, is in the process of being doubled between the year 2000 and 2030. A United Nations Population Fund report released in June 2007 says that as a result a billion people – one sixth of the world’s population – live in slums.
The overcrowding of cities is not merely a Third World phenomenon, either. In my home city of Melbourne, a lot of people of goodwill have supported high rise as preferable to urban sprawl. What they don’t realise is that it isn’t halting any urban sprawl at all. Suburbs continue to march out onto the horizon. Property developers are having their cake and eating it, too. We’re growing upwards and outwards. Melbourne is becoming an obese, hardened-artery parody of its former self.
There is something intangible but important about the personal space of a backyard. I believe the children who grow up in concrete jungle suburbs are subject to more bullying and harassment, and are more vulnerable to traps like crime and drugs.
6.
TRAFFIC CONGESTION
More people equals more cars. And the more cars there are out on the roads, the longer it takes us to get anywhere. . The time motorists spend on the roads in and out of Brisbane for example – to the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, and Ipswich – is truly appalling.
And each suburb we build out of the city fringes means more traffic coming through the inner suburbs, more congestion, more pollution, more noise. It does nothing for our calm, our quality of life, our sanity. We think we have no choice but to grin and bear it. It’s not true.
7.
SPECIES EXTINCTIONS
The USA based National Academy of Sciences has reported that human activities are leading to a wave of extinctions over 100 times greater than natural rates. Over 12,000 varieties of animal, plant and water life are critically endangered. Thirty percent of Australia’s 760 bird species are under threat.
The world has entered the twenty-first century with little more than 10% of its original forest cover intact. According to anthropologists Richard Leakey and Roger Lewis all the forest cover will be largely gone by 2050.
Sometimes I think we have declared war on everything else. The more there are of us, the less there is of everything else. I consider it a grotesque piece of arrogance on our part as a species that we think that we have a right to destroy everything else on our way to affluence.
8.
FISHERIES COLLAPSE
One of our favourite old sayings was “There are plenty more fish in the sea”. Not any more. 90% of the large fish in the ocean are gone.
Australia is in the same boat as everyone else. Our annual catch has steadily gone down and a Bureau of Rural Sciences Fisheries Status Report says that two thirds of Australia’s fisheries are either “overfished” or “uncertain”.
9.
INCREASING PRICES
Increasing population consumes resources and makes them scarcer, leading to price rises . The rising price of petrol is a clear function of scarcity fuelled by population growth. And the increased cost of basic resources like water and petrol feeds into everything they contribute to – food costs, transport costs, insurance, housing etc.
Some economists argue that increasing population will create economies of scale and put downward pressure on prices. In reality, this downward pressure on prices is sighted less frequently than Elvis Presley.
10.
WASTE
A vast area of the Central Pacific Ocean has become smothered in plastic. It’s referred to as the great Pacific Garbage Patch. The area affected is larger than Texas and to a depth of at least 30 metres. What a disgrace!
11.
TERRORISM AND WAR
Analysts spend a great deal of time assessing the political and religious factors leading to the scourge of terrorism and war in the modern world. They spend less time noting the underlying cause – conflict over scarce resources – scarce land, scarce water, scarce oil – brought about by increasing population.
A Pentagon Report in 2007 detailed a range of scenarios in which population displacement caused by global warming and triggered by extreme weather events would lead to border tensions and armed conflict.
An Oxford University study has estimated that 26 million Bangladeshis, 73 million Chinese and 20 million Indians are at risk of displacement from rising sea levels.
CONCLUSION
In short, it is time for governments and policy makers around the world to come to their senses and take steps to stabilize the world’s population. It needs to happen in every country, including here in Australia. Especially here in dry, arid Australia.
And it is time people and communities stood up and demanded better of their policy makers than the “she’ll be right” growth fetish which is making an utter mockery of our obligation to give to our children a world in as good a condition as the one our parents gave to us.
Kelvin Thomson
MHR for Wills
ALP Kelvin Thomson MP says Five Million is too many; Melbourne should control population growth
Full text of this submission may be downloaded here in a pdf file 293.43kb.
Kelvin Thompson, ALP, Federal Member for Wills, (a House of Representatives seat.) Wills is located in the north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, comprising Coburg, Coburg North, Gowanbrae, Hadfield, Oak Park, Pascoe Vale, and Strathmore, extending as far north as Fawkner, Glenroy and the Western Ring Road and south to include most of Brunswick and Brunswick East and containing parts of the State electorates of Pascoe Vale, Brunswick, Broadmeadows, Thomastown and Essendon. At a local Government level it shares most of its borders with Moreland, but includes Strathmore from the municipality of Moonee Valley and the Essendon Airport.)
It is indeed cheering to hear a member of the Federal Government criticise the policies of the Growth Lobbyists in Australia. The speech quoted at length below was in Labor MP attacks Melbourne's expansion plan ( July 20 2009) misreported in the Age where it was conflated with statements from the Committee of Melbourne. This conflation misled me and others to believe that Kelvin Thompson was against expansion into the Green Wedges, but was calling for open slather along the main arteries of Melbourne. If you read his submission or the quotes below, you will see that he is actually stating that more population growth in Melbourne is environmentally and socially unsustainable. He is critical of arguments for expansion or infilling. He also exposes the related hypocrisy and nonsensicality of the Government's climate change policies in the light of continuous population growth. He even exposes the fact that the Victorian State Government advertises for high immigration, a fact that they constantly avoid making clear to the long-suffering public.
I have to say: Bravo Kelvin Thompson! You show leadership in a government apparently composed mostly of cowards and ignoramuses who take orders from big business against the interests of their electorates. The only thing you have left out is the role that the Federal Government plays in granting the states the numbers they so vociferously demand of it.
Headings are by the candobetter editor:
Kelvin writes:
"Our city is forecast to have 4 million people living in it by the end of this year, with annual population growth rates reaching 2% (Colebatch 2009). The outer fringe of Melbourne is currently taking 61% of our population growth (Buckley 2009). This is placing pressure on the existing Urban Growth Boundary.
Climate change is the biggest moral issue of our time
Climate change is the biggest moral issue of our time and addressing it must be at the forefront of our public policy planning. Compared to other major cities throughout the developed world, Melbourne has one of the highest rates of carbon emissions per capita. Our city’s cars, trucks, motorcycles and public transport services were recently recorded to generate 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, compared with just 8.5 million tonnes in London. This equates to 3.1 tonnes of carbon per person in Melbourne compared with 1.2 tonnes per person in Greater London. One of the key reasons for our significantly higher rate of emissions per person is because of Melbourne’s larger geographic area, which means journeys tend to be longer and heavily reliant on cars (Lucas & Millar 2008).
Twice the number of people in Melbourne will mean twice the amount of carbon emissions, congestion and pollution.
Existing Government policies are encouraging an expansion of up to 75,000 people a year. If we continue down this public policy path we will need to accommodate another 1 million people before 2025 (Buckley 2009). By 2036 Melbourne is predicted to have a further 1.8 million people, nearly twice the number forecast in Melbourne 2030 (Moncrief 2008). Twice the number of people in Melbourne will mean twice the amount of carbon emissions, congestion and pollution.
Submission to the Urban Growth Boundary Review
1. Executive Summary
Our city has reached the point where we need to change direction or risk our social and environmental future.
Melbourne is at a fork in the road. For a long time our city, its way of life and the opportunities it offers to all who come here has been the envy of cities around the world. To maintain this desirable situation we must act decisively to address the issues that threaten Melbourne with becoming another crowded, over populated, congested and polluted metropolis. Our city has reached the point where we need to change direction or risk our social and environmental future.
The Urban Growth Boundary Melbourne@ 5 million review provides the opportunity to investigate the issues currently facing our city and the options we still have to address them. This submission will identify the ecological issues associated with expanding the northern, western and southern Urban Growth Boundaries and discuss the long term consequences for Melbourne of the proposed expansion. I am making recommendations which will protect Melbourne’s social and economic
growth, local amenity, transport system and reduce our carbon footprint. I have put forward an alternative plan to that of an ever expanding urban fringe.
Melbourne is one of the world’s most liveable cities. This year it was ranked third out of 140 cities as being the most liveable city. Our lifestyle, employment opportunities, health system, education system, infrastructure and environment are all aspects of a community that is the envy of many around the world (The Age 2009).
Melbourne is now the fastest growing city in Australia, with thousands flocking to live here on a never before seen scale. Melbourne’s population is growing on a scale not seen in Australia before, swelling by almost 150,000 people in two years (Colebatch 2009). The 2001 Census recorded Melbourne’s population at 3.3 million people (ABS 2001). In 2006 our population reached 3.6 million (ABS 2006). It has continued to grow faster than that of any other city in the country.
Melbourne’s population grew by 74,713 in the year to last June and by 74, 791 during the previous year. Melbourne’s population is growing by more than 200 people a day, or almost 1500 per week. Melbourne’s population growth last year far outpaced all other major Australian cities. Sydney grew by 55,047 (1.35%), Brisbane by 43,404 (2.3%) and Perth by 43,381 (2.8%) (Colebatch 2009).
In response to revised population projections showing that Melbourne will reach five million people faster than anticipated, the Victorian Government announced its intention to review the Urban Growth Boundary in December 2008 (DoPCD 2009:i). The Urban Growth Boundary was introduced in 2002 as part of Melbourne 2030 (DoPCD 2009A). The boundary was expressly put in place to contain urban sprawl. It was expressly designed to prevent ongoing urban expansion into rural land surrounding metropolitan Melbourne and its fringe (DoSE 2005). It set out to place a clear limit to metropolitan Melbourne’s development. It sought to concentrate urban expansion into growth areas that are served by high capacity public transport (DoSE 2005A).
The most recent review of Melbourne @ 5 million forecasts an additional 600,000 new dwellings in Melbourne with 284,000 of these needing to be located in growth areas. Most of this future growth will be in the north and west of Melbourne (DoPCD 2009:i).
The State Government is investigating changes to the Urban Growth Boundary in response to updated population forecasts and revised longer term growth issues (DoPCD:6). Areas under consideration for urban expansion include 20,448
hectares in Melbourne’s west around Caroline Springs, Melton and Werribee; 25,385 hectares around Sunbury, Craigieburn and Donnybrook and 5560 hectares east of Cranbourne.
Under the plan Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary would be allowed to grow another 41,000 hectares to accommodate an extra 415,000 people. Development of these areas would lead to a loss of some of the most valuable grasslands on the city’s fringe (Dowling & Lahey 2009).
Around the urban fringe, we have a concentration of some of the most endangered ecosystems in Australia, including Western Basalt Plains Grassland and Grassy Woodland, and a diverse range of other vegetation types and threatened species (Environment Victoria 2009). It is vital we do everything we can to protect these ecologically sensitive and important areas from being overrun by high density development.
The Victorian Government is now seeking public feedback on the proposals regarding the proposed changes to the Urban Growth Boundary before a final decision is made (DoPCD 2009:3). In making a final decision, I encourage the Victorian Government to consider the issues of population, local amenity and liveability, climate change, economic growth and transport. I have put forward recommendations that are designed to tackle urban sprawl and that will continue to protect the
things that make Melbourne great.
Everything that makes our city the great place to live, work and raise a family, is potentially under threat if population growth and urban sprawl continue at the current rate.
Everything that makes our city the great place to live, work and raise a family, is potentially under threat if population growth and urban sprawl continue at the current rate. We must implement a strategy to control population growth, urban expansion and development. Our way of life, open spaces and infrastructure cannot be sacrificed on the altar of ever expanding population. We have a responsibility to secure our city’s future through thorough, thoughtful and detailed planning. This
planning should not include an expanding Melbourne waistline.
[...]
Encouraging urban sprawl and ever increasing high density developments will lead to a more
polluted, congested and unsustainable Melbourne. Bringing millions of people in to Melbourne will increase the stress on water supplies that are already strained, increase reliance on fossil fuels by communities that are on our urban fringe, and it will increase Melbourne’s carbon footprint when we must be reducing it.Regrettably the planning process in Melbourne is not being used to achieve environmental sustainability. Melbourne is generating more greenhouse emissions, using more water, losing open space and turning into a high rise steel and concrete jungle. Planners and policy makers talk the talk of protecting Melbourne’s environment, but their actions have the opposite effect. They behave as Gough Whitlam once described rowers facing in one direction but heading in the opposite one.
The promise of Green Wedges to give Melbourne lungs of open space in which to breathe has been broken
A fundamental component of planning for Melbourne’s growth during the 1970s was the concept of
urban growth corridors radiating outwards, separated by wedges of non-urban land (Friends of Merri Creek 2009:3). But the promise of Green Wedges to give Melbourne lungs of open space in which to breathe has been broken, and is proposed to be broken yet again. We need to retain Green Wedges as permanent wedges between growth corridors, not as potential urban land supply that is bulldozed as soon as there is a demand for it.
Oz MP Kelvin Thomson for all creatures great and small - more MPs like this are needed
"(...)I consider it a grotesque piece of arrogance on our part as a human race that we think we have the right to destroy other species—plants, birds and animals—on our way to affluence. While some species have prospered as a result of human activity, the vast majority have not, and many species are now threatened with extinction.
In December 2005, the USA based National Academy of Sciences reported that human activities are leading to a wave of extinctions that is over a hundred times greater than natural rates. According to the World Conservation Union, almost 800 species have become extinct since the year 1500, when more accurate records began. The Alliance for Zero Extinction has identified a further 800 species on the brink of oblivion. These species are confined to around 600 sites around the world. Only one-third of them enjoy legal protection, and most are surrounded by human population densities approximately three times the global average.
Human activity has increased extinction by between 1,000 and 10,000 times the normal level in rainforests as a result of reduction in area alone. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the earth is down to its last five per cent of tropical forest cover and is losing that at a rate of over 200,000 square kilometres a year, with the rate of loss increasing. The world has entered the 21st century with little more than 10 per cent of its original forest cover intact and, according to the anthropologists Richard Leakey and Roger Lewis, all the forest cover will be largely gone by the year 2050.
The country which has the world’s worst record for species extinction turns out to be Australia: 27 mammal species, 23 bird species and four frog species have become extinct over the past 200 years. Our wildlife is some of the most beautiful and unusual in the world.
We are known around the world for our unique wildlife but, unfortunately, we have a very poor track record of protecting it. Everyone knows about the loss of the Tasmanian tiger, a stunning animal which is now sadly extinct, but people are less well aware of just how bad our overall track record is. We have the worst rate of mammal extinction in the world. Since European colonisation, about 10 per cent of Australia’s mammals have become extinct. In fact, almost half the mammals that have become extinct globally in the past 200 yearshave been Australian.
The World Wildlife Fund says—and they are right— that we urgently need to build a safety net of terrestrial and marine protected areas to help our unique and threatened wildlife weather the upheavals of climate change. We need to reduce the impact of invasive species like foxes and cats on our native species, we need to assist Indigenous Australians to manage fire on their country and prevent late hot dry-season fires wiping out species and their habitats and, above all, everyone needs to commit to reducing carbon emissions to prevent a wave of mass species extinctions in Australia. I believe there is an opportunity to strengthen the protection for threatened species and their habitats in the review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which the Labor government has promised.
The last government failed to keep the EPBC Act list of threatened ecological communities up to date because it was pandering to National Party pressure. This has meant that large tracts of threatened habitat across the country are not receiving the protection that is warranted from the federal government under the legislation. We need to recognise the importance of biodiversity protection; it is a crucial part of this country’s climate change mitigation efforts. We need a major national biodiversity action plan and a national biodiversity initiative. I commend for the consideration of the government, the parliament and the people of Australia such an initiative, which has been put forward by the Humane Society International. I commend the Humane Society International and WWF for their essential work. I urge all Australians to support their efforts at work. I urge us to ensure that we will not allow other species to become extinct on our watch during our lifetimes."
From a speech on "Threatened and Extinct Species" to the House of Representatives
by Kelvin Thomson MP (ALP), Federal Member for Wills, Thursday 14th February 2008
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr140208.pdf [Accessed House of Representatives Hansards]
Kelvin Thomson is a member of the Federal Labor Party and has been the member for Wills since 1996.
His home page is: http://www.alp.org.au/people/thomson_kelvin.php
Wills was previously held by:
Cleary, P.R. (An Independent) 1993-1996
Hawke, R.J.L. (Ex Prime Minister, ALP)1980-1992
Bryant, G.M. (ALP) 1955-1980
Electorate Profile of Wills:
State: Victoria
Area and Location Description: Wills covers an area of approximately 57 sq km from Fawkner and Glenroy in the north to Brunswick in the south and also includes Essendon Airport. The main suburbs include Glenroy, Gowanbrae, Hadfield, Oak Park, Pascoe Vale, Strathmore and parts of Brunswick, Coburg and Fawkner.
Demographic Rating: Inner Metropolitan
Members:
* THOMSON, K (ALP) 1996-
* CLEARY, P R (IND) 1993-1996
* HAWKE, R J L (ALP) 1980-1992
* BRYANT, G M (ALP) 1955-1980
* BRYSON, W G (ALP) 1949-1955
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