Monash University's Dr. Bob Birrell of Monash University Centre for Population and Urban Research spoke at the Sustainable Population Australia AGM on July 20, 2013 to a conference center packed to standing room only. The speaker was retained for questions until long after the end of the talk. "It was chilling the way Dr Birrell calmly and factually revealed the deep globalised shit we are in. It just doesn’t make sense at all. If only the public understood what is being done to them and their children...not to mention our environment." Videos by Steven Armstrong.
The meeting yesterday was well summed-up by one of those present as a “rip snorter”. The room was filled to capacity with standing room only. The mean age of the audience was substantially reduced on previous AGMs, an indication of how the effects of overpopulation are hitting more and more people in the form of unavailable, unaffordable housing, massive power bills, congestion and stress at every level ... and unemployment.
One gentleman slapped a wad of 10x $10 notes on the table at the beginning of the branch meeting and people seemed keen to give money to help SPA.
"It was chilling the way Dr Birrell calmly and factually revealed the deep globalised shit we are in. It just doesn’t make sense at all. If only the public understood what is being done to them and their children. ..not to mention our environment." (A new SPA member).
The notes below were taken by a member of the audience and are an impressionistic paraphrase of some highlights of Birrell's speech. You will need to watch the videos of the speech for detailed quotes.
Bob Birrel in calm measured tones revealed the treachery of our governments to Australians especially workers.
The latest population increase was 370,000 people, representing a growth rate of 1.7%. This increase was made up of 210,000-215,000 permanent entry including humanitarian. It included temporary entry e.g. 457 visas and working holiday visas. About 30,000 people moved here from New Zealand (but not all were born there; many migrated there from elsewhere.) Natural increase (births over deaths) made up 150,000. That makes a huge excess of immigrants over native born, to the tune of 150,000: 270,000.
Snapshot - In December 2012 the ABS calculated that there were 1.1 million temporaries here. Most temporary visa holders have work rights. Visitors don't have work rights but many work anyway. This is all on top of the permanent entry people, numbering about 210,000- 215,000.
May 2012-13: 108,000 new arrivals added to labour market. Total employed persons only increased by 127,000.
Rate of workforce growth has declined sharply. During the mining boom it grew by 200,000 but this has halved- leading to an increase in unemployment.
Our Youth disadvantaged by immigration levels:
50-60,00 young people seek entry level jobs each year. Immigrants competing with them for these. There has also been a drop in workforce participation.
This is the CFMEU billboard Dr Birrell refers to: "In the 12 months to February 2013, Australian construction industry employment grew by only 1.1%, but the number of 457 visa holders employers had working in the industry actually increased by 25% to 14,080. Between December 2012 and March 2013, trades apprenticeship numbers dropped from 67.500 to 53.400."
Why is ALP not decreasing the migrant program when jobs are falling and unemployment is rising?
Labor elites now tend to see themselves as globalisers, harking back to the Hawke-Keating era of deregulation. By subjecting workers to enterprise bargaining and international migrant competition they are trying to overcome a bogey they perceive in "Protectionism".
Government has pushed the selection of migrants onto employers, failing to regulate to safeguard local job opportunities. The rules don't require the employer to test the local market. All this came to a head recently over the 457 visas. The CFMEU (mining and construction union) has led the ACTU in a comeback on behalf of workers (see picture of CFMEU Billboard: "More apprenticeships, fewer 457 visas.")
Globalisers In the 1980s the ALP opened the Australian economy to globalists- to “wake up” the sleeping economy. These policies overcame our protection heritage. 457s were good news for globalising forces. CFMEU (mining and construction) were very concerned. They saw 457s as breaking their control. Chris Bowen, the current Federal treasurer is not in favour of protecting local jobs and his book Hearts and minds is apparently very revealing of his preference for the globalist ideology.
457 Visas: Howard, Rudd and Doha 2000
The Howard government had given away our right to this Doha conference in 2000 in exchange for tariff concessions from other countries. Rudd confirmed this when he became prime minister.
There has been a split in ALP ranks over this- Craig Cameron and Kelvin Thomson are among those who support labour market testing.
Julia Gillard, last day of parliament passed protection for local workers against 457 visas
Julia Gillard said, just before she was removed, that Australians should be at the head of the (Job) queue- stated this publicly. One of the last things her government did was to subject the 457 visas to labor market testing. The new law has not yet been proclaimed, but went through on the very last day of parliament. The protections for workers are weak, but they are an improvement on the naked 457. They protect workers in trades but leave professions pretty unprotected.
Comments
Sheila Newman
Mon, 2013-07-22 22:11
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Comments needed on NSW Govts 10800 hectare business area in west
On behalf of Geoff Brown:
I alert you to concerns about the NSW Governments plan to create the 10,800 hectare Broader Western Sydney Employment Area (BWSEA). The BWSEA straddles the LGA’s of Penrith, Blacktown and Fairfield. Of concern is that 16% of the BWSEA is endangered or critically endangered native vegetation. Ecological Australia have done a desktop study of the area and their <5 meg report can be found here http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/wsea
There are some big concerns here surrounding whether this core habitat is going to be cleared or protected. How is it going to be protected? Will there be an offset program similar to the Growth Centres Biodiversity Offset Program? (remember that the Biodiversity Certification of the Sydney Growth Centres, a total area of 27,000 hectares, meant about 2000 ha of core habitat could be developed – NSW committed to delivering a $530 million offset fund as a result – but to date very little offsetting has been provided). Ecological Australia flags Biodiversity Certification and Biobanking as a means to offset any clearing. Will Barry O’Farrell just put jobs first and legislate not to protect this areas environment? At one of his recent community cabinet meetings in Penrith he was challenged about his government failing to conserve Western Sydney Priority Conservation Lands and his response was that his number one priority was the creation of jobs so people could work closer to home. So its clear he doesn’t give two hoots about protecting Western Sydney’s environment.
In any case its likely that more of Sydney’s precious natural heritage will be destroyed in order to facilitate an income for developers and the NSW Govt. The driver of course is Australia’s record level of unsustainable population growth.
Comments can be made here http://planspolicies.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=6032
Geoff Brown
www.wsca.org.au
1.1 DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT
Eco Logical Australia Pty Ltd (ELA) was engaged by (DoPI) to undertake a desktop biodiversity and riparian corridors assessment of approximately 10,800 ha that forms the Broader Western Sydney Employment Area (BWSEA). The aim of this assessment is to identify key ecological and riparian constraints to assist in the preparation of a Structure Plan for the area.
Conclusion
The BWSEA is a highly fragmented landscape that has been heavily impacted by past landuses. Based on a desktop assessment, 16% of the study area is native vegetation that is either endangered or critically endangered. Critically Endangered Ecological Communities typically pose a significant constraint to development, especially when listed under both State and Commonwealth legislation. However, given the fragmented nature of the patches of vegetation (many of which will have lower long term viability) there may be an opportunity to develop a positive conservation outcome that focuses on protection and management of riparian corridors and the larger patches of good condition vegetation. Such an outcome would not only deliver security to the EECs and CEECs hat have a higher management viability, but has the added benefits of protecting riparian habitats and ecological connectivity through the study area.
In terms of priorities for additional information on ecological values, this report recommends ground-truthing of vegetation communities to determine whether patches of Shale Hills Woodland, Shale Plains Woodland and Shale / Gravel Transition Forest meet the definition of Cumberland Plain Woodland / Shale Gravel Transition Forest as listed under the Commonwealth EPBC Act. A second priority is the collection of biometric vegetation data so that landuse planning can utilise the assessment methodologies (Biobanking or Biocertification) under the TSC Act to determine how development can occur whilst delivering a positive biodiversity outcome. Other data such as threatened fauna survey and top of bank mapping can be collected at later stages of planning to inform detailed design.
Following collection of this data it is recommended that the conservation significance assessment be re-run to identify vegetation and habitat of high, moderate and low conservation value as a key input to BWSEA or precinct level planning.
nimby
Tue, 2013-07-23 09:03
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Welcome to the Asian Century!
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