John Brumby

Royal Park Protection Group Inc.

Media release, 24 October 2008

Opposition to proposals in Sir Rod Eddington's Transport Review to construct road tunnels through inner Melbourne and elevated roadways through the western suburbs has been steadily mounting over the past three months. On Sunday next community groups from across Melbourne, who have joined forces as the Coalition of Transport Action Groups (CTAG), will rally at 12 noon under the clocks at Flinders Street Railway Station to demand "sustainable public transport – no new road tunnels or freeways". The anger growing in Collingwood and Clifton Hill plus West Parkville over the possible compulsory acquisition of whole streets of house for tunnel construction has spread to Sunshine and Footscray where it is feared that up to 1,000 houses will be lost if elevated roadways are built. The Royal Park Protection Group has been at the forefront of opposition to the extension of the Eastern Freeway for many years fearing, not just the loss of residential amenity and increased traffic congestion, but the destruction of Royal Park itself with open cut and cover methods of construction. Not only precious open parkland would be lost but these gigantic engineering works would destroy the wetlands, an important source of water for Melbourne, obliterate State sports grounds for 5 to 10 years, impact on the operation of the State Netball and Hockey Centre and badly affect the Melbourne Zoo.

Julianne Bell Convenor of the Royal Park Protection Group commented: "We have obediently attended the so called public consultations - the State Government's Transport Forums, had representatives attend the Premier's Transport Summit and Freight Forum and met with the Minister for Roads. We - together with many inner Melbourne groups - have been vocal in expressing our opposition to the proposed construction of new tunnels and freeways and in expressing our concerns over the failure of the State Government to invest in public transport and rail freight projects. Everyday there is evidence in the news that the public transport system is in a state of collapse. But has the Brumby Government been listening? We think not. Now the PM's Infrastructure Australia Committee will be considering funding these super-size projects. It is hoped that committee members will heed expert opinion which counsels against backing further mega road projects. These include Professor Ross Garneau, Climate Change expert, and Professor Peter Newman of Murdoch University and Infrastructure Australia Committee member, who says that Sir Rod Eddington's proposed $9 billion east-west tunnel should not be built and that it does not provide enough economic benefit to be justified."

The Coalition of Transport Action Groups, including the Royal Park Protection Group, will rally at 12 noon for a 12:15 pm start on Sunday 26 October 2008 under the Clocks at Flinders Street Railway Station, corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets Melbourne. (Note that we are not encouraging people to disrobe as happened at the Pensioners' and Taxi Drivers' Rallies at this location.)

Media contacts: Julianne Bell (Royal Park Protection Group) on 98184114 and 0408022408 & Freda Watkin (Yarra Campaign against the Tunnel) on 0403526342

See also: www.royalparkprotect.org.au, VCAT "Community Forum highlights problems fixes none" of 17 Oct 08.

(Illustration: Statue of King Midas who turned water to gold and nearly died of thirst, but later became a worshipper of Pan and nature.)

By Chris Harrison, BAppSc, GDC, October 2008

(This article was also published in Weekly Times Now. See also: Transcript of interview with Maude Barlow, Canadian water rights activist on Background Briefing) of 12 Oct 08.

Two months ago when Premier Brumby told a COAG meeting that there is very little water in the Murray Darling Basin he was stating the obvious. At the time he was justifying Victoria’s apparent reluctance to aid South Australia and provide more water for the Coorong.

This year for the first time in the state’s history the urban population of Melbourne will consume more water than is allocated to the farmlands of Goulburn irrigators. Water availability in the Goulburn Valley is at an all time record low.

The Government knows full well the acute shortage of water in the Murray Darling Basin but is still proceeding with the construction of the North South pipeline. This project has deservedly been widely condemned by grass roots populations, scientists, environmentalists, think tanks and the leaders of every non-labor political party.

The Victorian Government maintains the North South Pipeline is a vital component of Victoria’s emerging water grid. The use of the term “water grid” to describe the pipeline is a misnomer. The pipeline is a one way street. Water can flow in only one direction - from the Murray Darling Basin to Melbourne.

However, the term water grid is valid in the sense that the pipeline allows for the development of privatized water markets in the non-agricultural sector. The pipeline allows investors to purchase water in the Eildon Dam and sell it to Melbourne via the North South Pipeline, to Geelong via the Geelong interconnector and to Bendigo and Ballarat via the Goldfields Superpipe. This network of pipelines gives over 4 million people access to water from Eildon. This population base is expected to double over the next forty years.

The North South Pipeline is strategically important to the Government’s plans to allow urban populations to source their own water, in turn divesting them of a core governmental responsibility. If in the future your town needs water you will be told to go into the market and buy it. The Government will claim they have built the infrastructure to enable you to do this.

The failure to understand some basic principles of water has led the Victorian Government to drive the development of the water grid. This policy will place the state’s urban, environmental and agricultural sectors in competition and at risk.

The neo rationalist economic mantra of water must move to its highest value use has been a monumental failure. The idealism of this mantra has been replaced by the reality, water moves to the place where it can achieve the most financial and political leverage. The Goldfields Super Pipe has already shown us some of these failings, but first some definitions are in order.

When permanent water is traded, the buyer is only purchasing the right to use a specific volume of water on an annual basis. If the dams are empty the buyer has purchased air space in a dam or virtual water. When the dams are full the buyer will receive 100% of the quantity of water purchased, this is real water. The allocation percentage therefore relates directly to how full the dam is and at best it is 100% of what was purchased and at worst no water at all. High security water nearly always delivers 100% of the water purchased and conversely low security water hardly ever delivers the volume purchased. Victorian agriculture uses mainly high security water although there is real evidence that this is no longer the case with the onset of climate change. Over the last 100 years the Eildon dam has not delivered 100% allocation to irrigators on just five occasions, four of these occasions have been in the last six years. The Victorian water grid is based on water sourced from the Eildon dam. The latest connection is the Goldfields Superpipe supplying the rural cities of Bendigo and Ballarat.

The Goldfields Superpipe and associated infrastructure was built at a cost of more than $280 million but it remains essentially dry because the water purchased by water authorities has the same security as in the agricultural sector. The 9% allocation means that of the 20 billion litres of water purchased by Ballarat and Bendigo, less than 2 billion litres of water will be for use this year.

The Goldfields Superpipe experience represents a historic and fundamental change for urban authorities. For the first time urban water security is linked with rural water supply. Urban populations are suffering the same fate as irrigators and the environment.

The Victorian Government is creating water markets forcing rural and urban populations to compete for water. The outcome of this competition will be determined by the relative political and financial strength of each sector. Last year the temporary price of water hit a record high of $1,200 per ML when Adelaide entered the market. The market dramatically fell to just $400 per ML weeks after Adelaide and horticulturalists stopped buying. There was no doubt about the effect of competition.

The problem that we are all facing is that high security water has been very much less secure over the last twelve years. The editor of the Bendigo Weekly has suggested Bendigo purchase more water than is needed to improve the City’s water security. The futility of this approach parallels Penny Wong’s experience. The Federal Government has just spent $50 million for a cited 28 billion litres; just enough to fill several swimming pools of water was available to contribute to the Murray Darling Basin.

Ballarat and Bendigo are looking for 38 billion litres of water from the Superpipe. With water allocations from the Goulburn standing at 9% they will need to purchase 420 billion litres of water entitlement to receive their objective of 38 billion litres of water.

Of course in wetter times when less water is needed, hoarded “virtual” water materializes into “real” water. Perhaps this could be sold through the water market offsetting costs to urban water authorities and possibly government coffers. The temptation urban water authorities have to over secure supply will effectively lock away vast amounts of water from both irrigators and the environment.

The Goldfields Superpipe experience is a blue print for the North South Pipeline and Melbourne. Both the NS pipeline and the Goldfields Superpipe will be tied to irrigation water availability. With Bendigo its allocation percentage is the same as irrigators. With Melbourne, its allocation is tied to water savings generated from the irrigation areas. As Planning Minister Madden said two months ago if it is dry, the North South Pipeline may not have any water. Conditions have worsened since the Minister made that statement however, small amounts of water will only be available to North South pipeline in dry years regardless.

The coalition’s flip flop on using the North South Pipeline is somewhat academic as the Eildon Dam is predicted to take at least 7 years to recover should normal rainfall return. Sufficient water from savings generated by irrigation infrastructure modernization will not be achieved under the scenarios experienced for the past five years. Again the government is misleading the public by quoting amounts of virtual water or the amount of possible savings that can be generated when it is wet. The CSIRO predicts water availability to become scarcer in future and so Melbourne will be forced into the market and that will be to the detriment of urban communities, irrigators and the Murray Darling Basin.

The Victorian Government has failed to understand that cities along with irrigators and the environment need real water, not virtual water. The recent spat between Premier Brumby and Premier Rann, where South Australia was accused of doing little for the Murray River serves to illustrate this point well. Premier Brumby meritoriously claimed Victoria has contributed 120 billion litres to the Murray annually while South Australia has contributed nothing. When MDB CEO Wendy Craik was asked how much of this 120 billion litres was available for the Murray this year at last weeks Senate Committee hearing into the Coorong and lower lakes, she said “none”. The conditions have been so dry that the water only existed as virtual water. The reality is not a cup full of water of the annual 120 billion litres amount has ever been contributed to the Murray.

There you have it, the context is breathtaking.

Bendigo and Ballarat has 20 billion litres of virtual water for the Goldfields Superpipe, but less than 2 billion litres that they can actually drink. Bendigo is expected to harden its stage 4 water restrictions within weeks.

The Murray River has 120 billion litres of virtual water already surrendered from foodbowl irrigation districts (in the 80/20 deal) annually but not a glass full of real water has ever entered the system.

Victorian foodbowl irrigators have over 1,700 billion litres of virtual water but less than 180 billion litres that can actually be used to produce food.

Melbourne’s storages are at 34.5%, 611 billion litres of real water equivalent to nearly 1 ½ years usage, and yet Melbourne wishes to extract 75 billion litres of real water from irrigators and the environment through the North South Pipeline.

Premier Brumby’s promise of ‘NEW WATER’ for all is like the emperors new clothes, just not there.

Those who can’t see the Premiers new clothes are angry and their numbers are growing.

A lose, lose, win project (or Spinning water away from irrigators and the environment)

Plug the Pipe Media release of 18 September, 2008

The Foodbowl Unlimited Group (FUG), the Victorian Premier and Water Minister have all consistently said that the North South pipeline was a win, win, win project. Irrigators, the Environment and Melbourne would all have extra water.

When the FUG offered Melbourne Water and the Victorian Government the rights to 75 billion litres of water for $300 million they guaranteed them that 75 billion litres in the first year even though they were aware that the savings would not be achieved at that stage.

65 billion litre shortfall to come from irrigators, environment

Peter Garrett, Federal Environment minister on regional ABC radio (18/9) has now said that Melbourne Water is not able to take any water from the environmental reserves (10 billion litres), water that has previously been saved for the Murray River (46 billion litres) and no water can be taken to Melbourne before an independent audit has been conducted (savings generated in 2008/2009 not available until 2009/2010). These figures as indicated in the committees own report show that there will only be 10 billion litres available for Melbourne.

Given these restrictions and the guarantee of 75 billion litres of water to Melbourne's storages prior to the next state election it is clear that the government is going to be using water that otherwise would have been allocated to irrigators and or the environment. It will in fact be a lose, lose, win project even if you take Minister Garretts' statement on face value.

Brumby Government free to use indefinitely water pre-destined to save Murray-Darling

But the plot thickens.

Discussions with Garrett's office have revealed that the Federal Minister intends to allow the Brumby Government to use water from existing water savings projects pre-destined for the Murray River based on an underhand technicality. That is, environmental water generated from irrigation saving will be free for the Brumby government to use for the North South Pipeline until it is formally handed over to our river systems. The hand over will be at the discretion of the Brumby Government.

It is clear that the Premier, Water Minister, Federal Environment Minister and the FUG have actually been doing the very thing they have accused so many of their opponents of. How honest has the Victorian Government been? The people will make their judgement at the polls.

Plug the Pipe will attend the Senate Inquiry into water management in the Coorong and Lower Lakes in Melbourne next Wednesday.

Media Contact : Ken Pattison 0427 534158 (Irrigation Spokesman)

See also: Coalition pledges to shun pipeline in the Age of 19 Sep 08, www.plugthepipe.com.

Dear Premier John Brumby,

Candobetter.org welcomes your statements acknowledging the problems that Victoria now faces as a result of past population growth as reported in the Herald Sun article Premier John Brumby warns of dangers in growing too fast of 28 July.

Indeed, Candobetter contributor, Sheila Newman, who is a population sociologist and past President of the Victorian branch of Sustainable Population Australia, has been warning for years of precisely the problems which you have now acknowledged.

We think, however, that you should have been well aware of the trends:

The government has received submissions and press releases from various groups about petroleum depletion projections and oil prices and there has been a Senate enquiry into oil depletion.

The Australian CSIRO study by Barney Foran and Franci Poldan, Future Dilemmas: Options to 2050 for Australia's population, technology, resources and environment, published in 2002, was already flagging problematic trends. See Chapter 4, "Natural Resources and the Environment".

The 2007 VAMPIRE study (pdf, 1.2MB) from Griffith University, Queensland, drew attention to Melbourne for its oil-reliant transport vulnerability.

Apart from that, explosive oil prices and depletion fears are constantly in the news. One would therefore be entitled to expect the Victorian government by now to be aware that business as usual has gone completely off the radar.

One has only to go to amazon.com to find a hundred or so books written in the last ten years about the coming energy and fuel crisis, most restating and reaffirming projections made for peak oil production and then decline to start around about now.

If that were not enough, in the past few days, on July 11, 2008, the CSIRO came out again and warned that the cost of petrol could rise to $8 a litre in the next 10 years. “A new report by the CSIRO has warned the cost of petrol could rise to as high as $8 a litre in the next 10 years.”

Those are the energy trends.

The trends against democracy have also been more than evident, with a proliferation of groups horrified by Victorians' loss of control over their local and wider environments in the face of corporate backed population growth and its accompanying infrastructure. The changes to State and local government powers have been traumatic to our faith in government and our sense of safety in the long-term.

The trends in housing unaffordability, as land-prices responded to the inflationary pressure of forced population growth, have had profound repercussions socially, creating an asset-rich/poor divide and making life unnecessarily tough for many people, old and young, but especially young people on the threshold of independence, who now find themselves inextricably in debt to HECS, Housing and car purchase for unavoidable commuting in the absence of adequate public transport.

The trends in wildlife and natural ammenity loss have been especially grievious. You personally received in 2006 news of how poorly kangaroos near your electorate were fairing among the industrial estates of Thomastown. Nothing effective has been done by the Government to assist these animals. Did you consider that activists have put their lives and happiness on hold just in order to confront unflinchingly a searing reality which government inflicts through its negligent administration and cognizance of the real biodiversity situation?

Some of us activists have put our lives on hold just to try to combat the policies for population and high consumption which preceded your government in Kennett's, but for which you have had responsibility in the long term in your capacity as Treasurer and now as Premier. We felt a personal responsibility to try to halt by any civil means what we could see was infinitely harmful in the long term to our social and biophysical capital. Without any government support we have laboured to point out the existence of the lobbies which your government has been responding to, to the disadvantage of democracy.

We would also like to point out that if population were stabilised it would not be necessary for the Victorian Government to take water away from the Goulburn Valley against the heated objections of local farmers (see www.plugthepipe.com) or to build an energy-intensive, stupidly located, massive privately operated desal plant on the Bass Coast (www.yourwateryoursay.org), or dredge Port Phillip for a growth project for an artificially bloated population, or to deprive city and suburban dwellers of the right to a local solution to the predicament posed by oil depletion, in the right to water for growing food.

Although you are reported to have stated in the Herald Sun article, "I think we are probably at the limits of growth," we feel we must also ask you whether you intend to continue to make the problems worse or whether, from now on your government will abandon its official encouragement of population growth. The first thing your government should do is to remove your www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au web-sites and related programs, which encourage high immigration.

It seems likely that the corporate drivers of your government's program - such as the banks and the engineers in the Academy of Technological and Scientific Engineering (ATSE), and the developers and their allies in the Property Council of Australia, who have dug themselves very deeply into the housing and infrastructure economy, which is costing the rest of us so much - will continue to try to push the government into more unsustainable growth. We know that the mainstream press will not be your friend if you start to represent the public democratically in this matter. If, however, the government can gain our confidence in its committment to refrain from talking up or importing additions to our population, then candobetter and many other organisations and alternative sites will support you solidly in this.

I look forward to your response and hope to be able to publish on our web site at http://candobetter.org/node/699 so that we can share it with the wider public.

Sincerely,

James Sinnamon for candobetter.org, a website for reform in democracy, environment, population, land use planning and energy policy.

See also: Brumby's call for 'pause' in rate of population growth insufficient of 1 Aug 08, Premier John Brumby warns of dangers in growing too fast in the Herald Sun of 28 July 08, Brumby 'blaming' migrants in the Age of 2 Aug 08

JOIN BLUE WEDGES AND PLANNING BACKLASH AT TWO BIG EVENTS THIS WEEKEND!

1. Saturday 5th July

Over 60 community and environmental groups including Your Water Your Say, Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, Public Transport Users Association, Friends of the Earth, Tradewatch, Blue Wedges and may others have signed up to be part of this huge Red Alert event. We are all saying: Brumby and Rudd let’s get serious!

The Rally kicks off at 1 PM tomorrow, Saturday 5th July at the City Square (Not Fed Square) cnr. Swanson and Collins St. City.

Keynote Speaker Senator Bob Brown.

Please come to the rally. Bring your family & friends and bring along your own banner and signs to highlight the Climate Emergency message.

Wear Red, Carry Red, See Red! Help join the dots on Climate Change!

The rally will then march to Alexandra Gardens to form a human sign reading: CLIMATE EMERGENCY

A plane and blimp will take photos, so be part of history and join the huge number of people who want to tell Mr. Brumby to wake up to climate change and all its causes.

Blue Wedges says Mr. Brumby should be told that planning for even bigger ships with even more stuff for us to purchase is NOT the right way to go. Are bigger ships likely to come all the way down here when oil is $200 per barrel, or when it runs out completely? Trucking firms, airlines and motorists are already being affected by oil prices, so it is only a matter of time before shipowners start cutting back on their miles travelled. The economic analysis for the channel deepening project relies on us increasing our consumption by an alarming rate. We need to be moving 4 times the amount of trade through the Port of Melbourne by 2035…..can you do it????

That means bringing more and more container loads of stuff from the factories of China, which burn our coal, transported from us to them in oil guzzling ships. Meanwhile, our local manufacturers and exporters are feeling the squeeze. Our largest Victorian exporters, primary producers are struggling because of Climate Change…… We are stoking the fire!

And what does Mr. Brumby do? Build another coal fired power station!

If you have joined the dots and want to show your support, see you at the City Square at 1 PM tomorrow Saturday 5th July

More details at www.climaterally.blogspot.com

And -If you would like to carry a Blue Wedges placard at the rally contact Dee on 59812909 or [email protected] Then put it up on your fence!

2. PLANNING BACKLASH PUBLIC MEETING SUNDAY 6TH JULY

Image: Marvellousmelbourne website

Mr. Brumby, and his mate Planning Minister Madden, the state “developers”, are making people as mad as hell!

Join over 120 resident groups from city and country who have had enough of Mr. Brumby’s vision for Melbourne……which translates to more of everything. More high-rise, more shops, more high density housing, more trucks, more traffic congestion, more ships…… you name it he wants it!

But – the residents of town and country don’t want what Mr. Brumby wants. They say “We are as mad as hell and we are not going to take this any more. No more stripping away of our appeal rights. No to stripping away Councils’ planning powers.”

Speakers include: Geoffrey Rush, Rod Quantock (MC), David Davis (Liberal MP and Chair of Public Land Inquiry) and Greg Barber (Greens, MP)

Please join us at 2.30PM CLOCKTOWER TOWN HALL 750 MT ALEXANDER ROAD MOONEE VALLEY (Mel 28 J6). Show the Brumby government you care, but not for what they are doing!

For more details see: www.marvellousmelbourne.org

And, again of you would like a Blue Wedges banner to take along contact Dee on above contact details.