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From : "Tom McLoughlin" <...>
To : senator.brown@aph.gov.au, boralgreen@green.net.au, chipstop@green.net.au,
figdon@ozemail.com.au, lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au, nationalforests@wild.net.au, senator.nettle@aph.gov.au
Subject
: land clearing in nsw, and greenhouse media real politik Carr style
Date : Sun, 21 Sep 2003 07:30:50 +0000
Attachment
: BBonnswsept03.doc (163k)
For those who didn't hear this devastating critique of the nsw govt and regretably the
inability of the nsw environment movement to stop the carnage of land clearing in nsw here is the transcript from radio national's
background briefing.
You will notice the transcript refers to 600,000 hectares cleared in the last 6 years but that
no one really knows the full extent of 'unauthorised' clearing. Recall my estimate in recent email correspondence of 800,000
hectares since Carr came to power in 1995. I wonder could the leadership of the peak green groups report to the national forest
list and the national forest summit in October, that is those peak bodies involved in the NSW Native Vegetation Committee,
how this disaster has actually occurred.
If they can't account then why not. If they can, then what political remedies
and changes including to personnel on the peak committe can be made.
Such a response should come from the leadership
of the relevant organisations, at director and chair level, not from the hapless appointees of the organisation(s) at the
coalface attempting to resist the agri-business/govt political complex on regional committees with no real legal or political
back up at govt ministerial level.
To clarify it is well known Premier Carr has modelled his rural and regional politics
on the success in a pre green age of Labor Premier MeKell who championed rural infrastructure and industrial projects. Yet
Mr Carr has somehow also managed to be described as 'the greenest premier in the history of Australia'.
The standards
are that low I suppose. In the last week we have had the spectacle of Mr Carr announcing greenhouse friendly planning rules
around the minor fraction of new dwelling construction to save energy and water. This ran on the front page of the SMH in
a fairly transparent media strategy to deflect bad news stories for a full week previous about Carr media threats, threats
back, and the pokie tax issue affecting rugby league.
There was a notable green figure cheering the Carr initiative
on the front of the smh as a 'win, win' and 2 other notable green figures highly grudging acknowledgement. Given the briefing
on land clearing above, via the ABC radio national, and the fact 130 trucks on average are going to the Eden chip mill PER
DAY, one wonders what commitment to greenhouse mitigation the Carr govt really can claim to have, and how a sultanna came
to be praised as a whole fruitcake on the front page of the smh.
The fact that favoured nsw minister Frank Sartor
is promoting the need for Redbank no. 2 coal fired power station for nsw simply underlines the point.
Yours mortified at the poor prospects for a green and healthy nsw future.
Tom, ecology action sydney
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