Victoria

Brumby's call for 'pause' in rate of population growth insufficient

Fri, 2008-08-01 17:28 by nimby
Mr Brumby's concession that our population growth from migrants will be "paused" for a short time is not enough! The argument that Victoria "still needed skilled migrants to help its economy" is indicative of the greed of business leaders at the top-end of town who are driving this growth to the detriment of the environment and the lifestyles of most of its inhabitants. Victoria is the most cleared state in Australia. Thirty percent of Victoria's animals are either extinct or threatened with extinction. Our state has been losing its endangered grasslands at a rate equivalent to more than three football fields a day. So-called "sustainable" industries such as intensive farming, irrigation, native forest woodchipping, and overgrazing are pushing the endurance of Nature to new and dangerous limits. Victoria's climate change figures are predicting the worst-case-scenario! Mr Brumby is arrogantly intent on making more freeways, growth corridors, and other mega-developments, while squashing any protests. He will leave the mammoth task of repairing the damage for the next generation! We can't have continual growth on finite and depleting natural resources.

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Australian Wildlife Protection Council submission to the SEITA concerning the Frankston Bypass

Wed, 2008-05-14 14:53 by admin

To: Ken Mathers, Chief Executive Officer, SEITA, admin [AT] seita.com.au
Cc: Tim Pallas, Minister for Roads and Ports tim.pallas [AT] parliament.vic.gov.au.
Cc: Martin Pakula, martin.pakula [AT] parliamentvic.gov.au
Cc. Joel Benjamin, Biodiversity Vic Roads, joel.benjamin [AT] roads.vic.gov.au
Cc: Bruno Aleksic, Manager Planning, bruno.aleksic [AT] doi.vic.gov.au

May 14, 2008

Dear Mr Mathers,

RE: - FRANKSTON BYPASS: Seita Ref: DO1072588

Your response (Seita ref: DO1072588) fails to adequately address the concerns I raised on behalf of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council or the Coalition of Wildlife Corridors. These concerns were specifically about the threat posed to wildlife and their habitat by the infrastructure and traffic which will be created if the SEITA proposed bypass route goes ahead.

Our own observation as well as discussion with persons well-informed in road-engineering, population and land-use planning, Peninsula Biosphere maintenance, wildlife-ecology and social amenity leaves us in no doubt that

a) the proposed route will severely impact on scarce habitat for local, regional and State biodiversity

b) SEITA and the government have not seriously examined viable alternatives

c) Pines draft master plan - part two and part three fail to remedy these problems

d) Pines draft master plan suggestion of a connection between the parts of the Reserve it will split would only present a very insignificant mitigation of the overall drastic damage

e) the proposed restructuring and popularisation of the reserves inaccurately markets new and additional habitat-stress as habitat and wildlife friendly

The proposed route will divide the Peninsula in two, making any hope of interconnecting wildlife corridors extremely difficult, if not impossible.

It is not acceptable for the government or its chosen contractors to go ahead with a structure which, despite some rhetorically supportive policies in Pines draft master plans, parts two and three, is in practice oppositional to international, Australian, and local practice and science for protecting the needs of wildlife. At the moment Frankston and the Peninsula, although part of an international UNESCO agreement for a biosphere that protects fauna and flora, are facing unacceptable decimation of indigenous animals in all or most areas where they struggle to survive. Roads, through habitat fragmentation and isolation, through very high rates of road-kill, and through their spear-heading of suburban expansion, are the drivers of animal deaths and species loss.

SEITA will only encounter and should only encounter opposition if it fails to use alternative routes to protect any indigenous fauna habitat from being cut off from the rest of the Pines, or indeed where similar fragmentation is threatened for any other habitats. Australian fauna is at greater risk than at any other time in history due to climate change, drought, habitat-fragmentation and annihilation. The need for more, not fewer, bio-links to save species and individual animals is critical.

With regards to the other areas of Frankston and the Peninsula, if SEITA continues with the same lack of awareness as previous road-builders in this country, of the many modern methods for mitigating road-kill, such as bridges, tunnels and overpasses, then it cannot expect and will not deserve support. This is quite apart from the fact that the population growth and urban expansion which it is relying on in Australia for customers and investors is not supported by the incumbent population and will probably become very problematical very soon due to oil depletion.

Sincerely,

Maryland Wilson, President

Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc
247 Flinders Lane Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Coalition for Wildlife Corridors
03 59 788 570 ph 03 59 788 302 fax
Mobile 0417 148 501
kangaroo [AT] peninsula.hotkey.net.au
web site:
Registered Charity A0012224D
"As long as people will shed the blood of innocent
creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no
harmony between people. Slaughter and justice
cannot dwell together."
Nobel Prize Winner ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER

Victorian treasurer mentions population growth

Mon, 2008-04-28 21:21 by ilan

from The Age, 28th April 2008

The last 3 sentences are of interest:

Mr Lenders, who grew up on a Gippsland dairy farm and was briefly a Young Liberal, said there should be a debate on how Victoria handles population growth.

But it was the Government's role to help make Melbourne liveable, not to determine how big it grew.

"I'm not quite sure what governments do about that," he said. "If we are trying to have a vibrant economy, people will want to come and live here."

First sentence above is not controversial, but at least a debate could give an airing to the issues that are impacted by population growth.
The second sentence shows how governments in this country "govern", by excluding themselves from issues that governments should deal with. Lenders is using the TINA (there is no alternative) argument, he probably means that because the ALP is funded by the growth lobby we should allow the lobbyists to set policy and the governments role is purely one of management.
In the last sentence he purposely confuses the reasoning behind the current rate of immigration, there is no question that Australia is an attractive destination, it is the role of governments (state and federal) to govern for all Australians and set about creating and implementing policies to that aim, instead of allowing those who are able to give big donations to political parties and have a large lobbying infrastructure to do it for them.

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Treasurer John Lenders: "I think a state of excitement in treasury can imply that you are not doing your job."

Full article:
Mr Excitement? Not me, says state money manager
Treasurer John Lenders: "I think a state of excitement in treasury can imply that you are not doing your job."
Photo: Roger Cummins
Melissa Fyfe
April 27, 2008
JOHN Lenders wants you to know he is not an exciting kind of guy. In fact, the state Treasurer admits people may think he is dull and, yes, he loves spreadsheets.
Mr Lenders, who will step out of the shadow of Premier John Brumby, Australia's longest-serving state treasurer, to deliver his first budget on May 6, also wants you to know that his non-excitable pair of hands is a safe place for the state's finances.
"If the accusation against a treasurer is that they he is a dull person but has an addiction to spreadsheets, it is probably a very good addiction for a treasurer to have," said Mr Lenders, in response to a comment once quoted from an unnamed critic.
"I think a state of excitement in treasury can imply that you are not doing your job, which is to prudently manage resources."
In an interview with The Sunday Age, the career politician and former state Labor Party secretary saidgovernment revenue would be about $37 billion, up from $34.3 billion last year.
He said Victoria's economy was still growing strongly despite global financial problems. The drought recovery forecast in last year's budget, however, had turned out to be "patchy".
Mr Lenders, who had held the portfolios of finance, education, industrial relations, WorkCover and major projects, said there would be no money in this budget for the Eddington transport plan, as it was still up for public discussion, and the Government had not formed a response.
He said there would be no extra money — beyond an already committed $150 million — for the construction phase of the channel deepening project.
He would not be drawn on relief for home buyers in the forms of cuts to stamp duty, or the business wish list of tax cuts, such as land, payroll and WorkCover.
Mr Brumby decided to give the Treasury job to Mr Lenders over a younger colleague, Tim Holding, partly on the grounds that Mr Lenders is a family man. As such, Mr Lenders said, he was guided by thinking about opportunities for his three adult children.
Mr Lenders, who grew up on a Gippsland dairy farm and was briefly a Young Liberal, said there should be a debate on how Victoria handles population growth.
But it was the Government's role to help make Melbourne liveable, not to determine how big it grew.
"I'm not quite sure what governments do about that," he said. "If we are trying to have a vibrant economy, people will want to come and live here."

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