Garrett cuts environment funds
Blog Post | Blog of Rachel Siewert
Friday 14th March 2008, 11:59am
by RachelSiewert in
The Caring for our Country program is an ill-thought-out rush-job, more designed to quieten the unrest of regional communities and environment groups than to target the conservation and resource management needs of Australia's future.
This is not strategic approach, it is a grab-bag of ad-hoc election commitments and icon issues, and there is no new money here. This is a slight of hand with environmental and natural resource management funding by Peter Garrett. It is not at all clear from this announcement which other existing programs are being cut.
I am extremely concerned that what we're seeing here is an ill-disguised cutting of funding to natural resource management and the environment. The Minister needs to come clean with a list of which existing programs are being cut. What will happen for instance to our marine programs or the Community Water Grants program?
While the program claims to bring a range of existing programs into a one-stop-shop, what is missing is the planning framework and longer term investment strategies to ensure projects are integrated and targeted to deliver. Far from reducing the number of scattered and isolated projects this approach will magnify the problems outlined by the audit office. It fails to build on the lessons learned from the decades of conservation and land management programs. The effect of this on funding will be to spread the vegemite even thinner.
It undermines regional natural resource management groups and catchment management organisations and returns to the bad old days of direct funding of individuals and groups for short-term projects. This is a backward step for the environment.
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I am sure Latham recruited
I am sure Latham recruited Garrett because of his potential damage to the Green vote, not his heroic aspirations for change.
Rob Hirst was the power and the passion behind Midnight Oil. Garrett was just the front man doing a funny dance. Nothing has changed.
Garrett is now the minister for green-wash. His smiling face and bald dome have been sidelined from the hard issues such as climate change to tokenistic feel good programs with little use beyond symbolism.
The demise of Garrett's integrity is an important lesson to those who feel, as he did, that it is better to be within the circle of power than outside it complaining. Any sentiment for change that Garrett may have held has now been used as cosmetic trimmings to an ALP that is every bit as much committed to greed, pollution and ad-hocracy as the Howard government was. Rudd (and Garrett) are just administrators of the status-quo, all be it with a few more green cosmetic trimmings.
In a nation and a globe confronting ecological tipping points, small steps in the right direction is just another funny dance, not a realisitic solution to anything.
I am sure thousands of well intentioned Australians (including Greens members) will apply for funding for various programs under Garrett's portfolio, and no doubt many of them will be photographed with Garrett and used in ALP propaganda.
It is important for the Greens to challenge this mode which is essentially pork barrelling and P.R. of the same sort the previous government engaged in with ad hoc rural development grants.
Also, watch Garrett do the same thing as minister for the arts in providing cosmetic funding programs to Aboriginal Australia. I understand Garrett is allready supporting a world class national indigenous theatre, which I fully support. But this and other "success stories" (isolated instances of reasonable funding) will become the face of the Rudd government's indigenous program, as was the high profile theatrics of the apology and opening of parliament, while entrenched and systematic poverty and violence is maintained into the next generations - swept under the carpet.
the labor party is doing
the labor party is doing what politicians do, when in power. are you surprised?
if you want a different result, you need a different system. if you had started working for democracy 30 years ago, you would have the tools today for substantive action. but you didn't understand this then, and probably still don't.
the penalty for stupidity, for ignorance, for narcissistic posturing, remains the same: failure.
I wonder if as Garret is
I wonder if as Garret is standing at the mirror (Rupert Everet fashion) in the morning, contemplating the day ahead and slowly combing his fingers through his hair, if he is thinking forestry.
Unprecedented numbers of
Unprecedented numbers of whale calves have been abandoned on the coast of Australia in recent years, mortality apparently unheard of prior to the 1960 - 70's.
Whales are mammals. Mammals encountering starvation or food shortage are known to abandon their young, humans included. Fish stocks are obviously depleted. Whale starvation is to be expected. Over fishing is being incorrectly blamed.
Southern Ocean krill and plankton eating baleen whales also eat pilchards, herring and anchovies but the bay and estuary seagrass nurseries of these small fish are being smothered and destroyed by nutrient pollution feeding algae and epiphyte growth. This is NOT over-fishing.
There are apparently no estimates or measurement of nutrient types and levels spewing into coastal current running along shore from southern Australia waters to the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea and beyond. There is downstream impact including algae causing coral bleaching and devastation of Pacific islander traditional staple food, fish resources. Impact of fish resource devastation includes collapse of the Solomon Islands barter economy and development of chronic poverty and unrest now costing Australian taxpayers billions to police.
QUESTIONS TO AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ENVIRONMENT MINISTER GARRETT.
1. Has an environment impact study been conducted on the downstream impact on the western Pacific Ocean environment consequent to nutrient pollution exposed from deep dredging excavation of Botany Bay for a desalination pipeline in the Minister's electorate?
2. Has an environment impact study been conducted on the total combined impact on the downstream marine environment consequent to deep virgin dredging in ancient seabed nutrient rich soil in Port Phillip Bay for superships, of the Yarra River estuary, of Botany Bay for a desal pipeline, of Moreton Bay for harbour extension, from road construction earthwork exposure intersecting many catchment creeks and rivers, and from uncontrolled dumping of sewage nutrient pollution, all combined nutrient load running into ocean along-shore ecosystem current at the same time?
3. Do environment impact studies include impact on human society dependent on livelihood and/or essential protein food resources from ocean environment damaged or destroyed by nutrient pollution?
4. Will Minister Garrett seek acknowledgement of factual existence or not of the "postulated" eddy mechanism (David A. Griffin et al) likely transporting southern city nutrient pollution from Fraser Island along shore current waters onto the Great Barrier Reef?
5. While governments are developing aquaculture policy, does the Australian Government propose development of ocean ecosystem management policy.
At present over $A.1.3 billion is leaving Australia annually to import primarily finned fish product due to local inability to now supply demand. These imports include finned fish to feed aquaculture.
There is dire urgent need for whole of ocean ecosystem -environment management policy. Ignorance with intent may constitute negligence in crime against humanity and the environment.
Another question Minister
Another question Minister Garrett, have you got any funding for environment research to find where algae blooms in the Southern Ocean are getting their food from?
See
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/11/2186169.htm
It would be great if you could help by asking the ABC to report the name of the algae involved. It might help toward finding solutions.
The best defence we Greens
The best defence we Greens have against nuclear power in this country is an aggressive program to build solar thermal plants.
Just read the article below referring to Prof Plimers comment's and it will be obvious enough:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/17/2191969.htm?section=justin
If we sit on our hands and rely on the market to wake up to what is obvious to us then we take an unbelievable risk. Our grandkids (and their grandkids) expect more from us.
Ausra released a study showing Solar Thermal can supply 90% of the US energy needs.
Its too late for mere policy settings to save us. We need to take a responsible stance and get these things built asap. Its an emergency.
Our present absurd complacency about the actual implementation (i.e. no specific plan to underwrite the construction) will guarantee us a nuclear future. :(
you forgot to mention,
you forgot to mention, though I know you questioned it sterlingly in Senate Estimates, that this decision has also cost hundreds of jobs. On Friday over 100 people found out immediately that they didn't have a job past June 08.
And that is not just about the socio-economic impact it will have on various communities, particularly rural ones. It's also about the phenomenal loss of knowledge and capacity that is about to walk out the door, severely hampering efforts to restore and protect our environment.
This government, like the one before it, not only chose to ignore advice from the public service, it also put stupid inane election promises such as $100 million for unnecessary and ineffective 'community' coastcare grants ahead of recogising that the key ingredient to saving our environment and managing it sustainably is humans. It is our knowledge, ability to persuade and demonstrate to others a better way of doing things, to share expertise, to find new solutions, to find ways to work across differing viewpoints that makes successful natural resource management.
This government, by cutting the legs out from under hundreds of jobs, hundreds of humans, just knee-capped its own environmental agenda. Why do governments always insist they know better in the face of mountains of contrary evidence? So once again we will lose a lot of community goodwill and capacity, and once again take several steps backwards in the name of going 'forwards'.
myriad @ 7 - quite
myriad @ 7 - quite right.
One of the recurring problems with the NHT system is the funding rollover. After one system finished, it took a while for the Government of the day to wake up and organise the next round of funding. In the meantime, researchers and workers had to go elsewhere in order to survive. When it came time for them to come back under a new arrangement, they had already found employment elsewhere.
This causes gaps in experience and knowledge, and is no way to run effective environmental programs. What is the point in funding someone to complete several years of research, only to give them no guarantee about ongoing funding or placement?
Check out Rachel's media release on the topic.
Mr Garrett must be losing so
Mr Garrett must be losing so much sleep on some of these wacky un-environmental decisions he now has to deal with. Poor guy. In the meantime our pristine environment is suffering. I think Peter Garrett better wake up and have a good hard look at himself.
How can we improve using our suburbs e.g westmead
Dear Senator Brown,
We the students of Parramatta Marist have accepted the challenge to make Westmead a greener place. We have focused on the key issues you have told us to look at and have come up with various solutions to make Westmead a greener place to live.
Water is one of Westmeads most usable sources as in any other suburb in the world. The management of water is a huge discussion all over Australia. Water needs to be in our daily lives for us to survive. Saving water comes under water management so to make Westmead a greener environment, saving water would be a great start. To save water individually we need to shorten our showers, not using hoses to wash your garden or driveway, close taps when not in use and overall do not waste water. People need to get educated on how to save water. Fines must also be enforced on those who choose not to follow these rules. People should be made aware of the water saving equipment you can buy. Rain water tanks and energy efficient house hold appliances like dish washers and washing machines can make a huge difference to the amount of water Westmead uses.
Land management is the process of managing land in a sustainable way, which benefits all living organisms.
Westmead is a suburb in Sydney. Managing the land is key to Westmeads or any other suburbs success. Individuals can manage the land by not littering by putting their rubbish in the bin. Better soil and more trees planted can help the land because trees help prevent erosion and provide shelter under their foliage for living organisms, trees can also help control the temperature in certain areas. Managing the amount of buildings in an area can provide more space for plants and other beneficial things which can help the land.
Managing the land properly is beneficial at a global scale and a local scale and improves people’s way of living. Can you imagine Westmead's land not getting managed properly? Think about the people getting affected. Businesses and shops wont be able to function properly the overall aesthetic of Westmead won’t be appealing. So as individuals we should try and convince the Westmead council to make Westmead a more environment friendly place to live. We have to convince them to plant more trees where needed and keep pushing to improve infrastructure for the benefit of the community
Air quality is the quality of air that we breathe. Many things in the world today can affect the air we breathe. The main chemicals which pollute our air are Sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. These can be found in every day things like the exhausts from cars we use, factories spitting out smoke and even everyday things like aerosol cans or cigarettes, these are known as pollutants.
Westmead one of Sydney’s suburbs is emitting air pollutants everyday. The amount of cars people use, the amount of cigarettes smoked can affect the air quality in Westmead. This isn't beneficial to Westmead because the polluted air can cause people to get sick. Air pollution can risk one’s health because of the air pollutants one can breathe.
Westmead can reduce its air pollution if only more people caught public transport and began to consider ways to keep the air cleaner. The government in Australia should make sure that public transport comes on time and there are more services for people to catch. This will convince more people that public transport is safe and reliable which could cause more people to use them.
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal of waste materials. It basically means taking care of your waste.
We can make Westmead a much greener place by taking care of the environment and under the waste management category this means no littering. Recycling all recyclable products and managing their garden without wasting too many things.
It is important to consider the repercussions if we do not take care of Westmeads waste. If not taken care of Westmeads air could be affected and Plant and human health will suffer. To help Westmead we must be aware of our waste. To help people be aware of the waste they produce there should be more media coverage on it. There is a fair amount but if they just played more adds about recycling and handed out more flyers more people would come to terms with what’s happening to their waste. Also a massive increase in Westmeads garbage and recycling bins will help the struggle against waste and pollution.
In Westmead, there has been a great increase in urbanization such as new building given a number of infrastructure and growth in population. Thats why for our project, we have to give advise on how we can prevent this growth from effecting the environment around the Westmead area.
The way we can prevent urban growth is limit the units, instead of making 25 floors, limit all of it to 15 floors. Instead of building these huge buildings which can take up a huge amount of land the government should try and build town houses. This saves land and can control the population in Westmead. By improving Westmead many people will decide to stay and not move to Parramatta or the city. Small businesses will remain in Westmead because they will be gaining money from more people. This is beneficial to Westmead because it gives a consumer more selection in what they are buying. Thus more people will be eager to move to Westmead. But Westmead should be careful not to over populate, building roads and new buildings move soil and can cause erosion. This will be a serious problem in Westmead because it will damage the land.
In Westmead there are many buildings and businesses placed in different parts of the area and this is because of their spatial inequality.
Spatial inequality is the distribution of goods to other parts of the country. It is estimated that 10% of Australians suffer from relative poverty. These people need more attention and have even distributions for them so that they are happy with their lifestyles.
In 2005 it was estimated that as many as 2.4 million people in Australia were living in relative poverty. The main factors which contribute to poverty in Australia are inequity in the education system (which means some people have less opportunity to enter the skilled labour force), the casualisation of the workforce (which has meant that people have less job security), and reduced government spending on services which are of benefit to the community.
It relates to how there are inequalities in Westmead. Such as an uneven distribution of resources in the Westmead area. For example someone may be living in a great house etc while someone may be living in relative poverty. Westmead can help solve the problem of spatial inequality by making sure people are able to live a good life in Westmead. Charitable organizations should be setup in order to help people who need help. Making sure that there are good and an equal amount of needed facilities spread out evenly around Westmead can also help the spatial inequality around Westmead.
These are ways that Westmead can be greener and improve their way of living. The improvement of these issues is key to Westmeads success and will benefit the community exponentially.
What a crock of s_ _ t i cant even get any politician to listen
Computers for young and old
REUSE before Recycle
Hello to all,
We are a self funding not for profit concern and have been recovering E-Waste as a not for profit activity for the last 4 years. Our clients include large commercial clients, schools, SMB, Sydney consumers, special interest groups and more recently overseas aid to developing countries shipping container loads of computers. What we can't refurbish, we apply adaptive recycling methodology.
Over the past 4 years we have diverted over 40,000 items away from our landfill
By refurbishing and donating Computers, laptops, PDA’s, and networking gear, along with keyboards, mice, cd-music players, overhead projectors, and infact any electrical device that we can refurbish to the community as a whole students, educators, religious groups, family’s, school’s, neighbourhood centre’s and so on,
As stated above we have off late started sending equipment overseas to 3rd world countries through people who deal in bulk container lots these are for use by countries who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to use and learn modern technology.
We have been so far self-funded and we have been operating from our home and using our family station wagon as a pickup and delivery vehicle for the entire 4 years, however the time has come for us to move into a warehouse and for us to purchase a delivery van, because of the volume and a fast growing customer base we can no longer use our home and the station wagon is almost dead We have been operating this on a inheritance I received from my late fathers estate and now the time has come for us to ask for hep.
So we would like to ask you if we would be able to apply for a grant to cover the cost of the warehouse lease for 1 year and for the purchase of a van to be used in business hours by Computers for young and old we would need a building of about 150 square metres with a office in the western suburbs of Sydney, the van would only have to be a second hand vehicle roadworthy and reliable around $10,000 we have been quoted for a second hand Toyota hiace.
The warehouse in which we require would cost $15,000 pa in lease
All up we would need a grant for $25,000 to set us up to be self suficent again.
We would cover outgoings and insurance, as well as the upkeep and maintenance of the van rego, insurance ect….
We are advertised on the planet Ark website and we have been added to the Penrith council web site as well as a drop of centre for unwanted E-Waste to be taken and dropped off free of charge.
We really need this funding to keep operating our service because without it we have no alternative but to stop collecting, and this would be a disaster in our opinion as we have a huge customer base and we know each and every one of them because we canvassed them and found out that their redundant equipment was going into land fill and yes this means the schools as well, we at present have about 10 pallets of equipment and about another 50-70 square metres of loose equipment here it would be no exaggeration to say we could fill up the warehouse in a few weeks so we would need to move the stock quick and with the contacts we use we can do so.
We are receiving about 20-30 calls a day from businesses, schools, private homes community centres, religious centres, government departments, and many more from Sydney cbd to the west as far as Katoomba to the north as far as Swansea, south as far as Wollongong, and we cover the whole eastern side as well just the fuel we cover is astronomical.
So please consider this request as we believe we provide an essential service to the community and businesses alike and without us providing this service we would be allowing thousands of tons of E-Waste back in to our earth.
Regards
Bruno
Technology Recycling
Bruno, I would suggest that you have one of 2 options.
1. Register as a company, then try to break even with your costs.
2. Register as a charity, then apply for Government Funding.
With the current economic climate, and each Government needing every cent they have to try to keep people employed, I would suggest that this is not a good time to try either of the above. However you would probably have a better chance of some type of funding using the Charity option. With the charity option, look at using people in a sheltered workshop, but if you pay yourself / family any type of wage, apart from fully documented minor expences, you may as well give up now.
Sorry mate, but I worked for a company that tried to recycle its computers (hundreds each year), and gave up as the cost of doing so was too great. As far as I am aware it was far better to crush them than recycle them.
funding
Hi Grant,
Firstly I thank you for your response and may I say it has made me think harder about what more I am prepared to do, you see I was injured in a work place accident in 1998 and I was operated on in 2001 I am unable to work anymore my family does the hard yards I do the internet, and phone calls, this started out as something for me to keep occupied as I became a manic depressant turning to self harm and so on, anyway Grant it is very hard to believe their is not someway the government at any level has not got a empty house, or garage, or shed somewhere as far as the van goes we are in the middle of purchasing one at a very good price, if we had the building so as we could carry on we could also offer these ill fated computers to Centrelink recipients and long term unemployed.
So really Grant for me it's not the money nor is it a big warehouse or flash van, for me it is "life saving" and it puts smiles on the faces of those who are really doing it tough when they receive their computer package. It gives me what was taken from me and that is job satisfaction.
Again Grant thank you for your reply
I wish you and your family all the best and then some for the New Year.
Cheers mate... :-)
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