Showing posts with label government policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government policy. Show all posts
Saturday 1 September 2018
Quote of the Week
“This
country would throw itself in the sea if it wasn't already girt by it.” [Freelance journalist Andrew Stafford’s 17
August 2018 tweeted
response to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s removal of a climate
change target from the National Energy Guarantee,
"sitting on the lap of the
member for Warringah [Abbott] like a really scary wooden puppet come to life.
With the hand of the member for Warringah up his... back. Like Chucky." [Labor MP for Sydney & Deputy Leader of
the Opposition Tanya Plibersek on the subject of Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton, Twitter,
21 August 2018]
Sunday 26 August 2018
Waiting for home care in Australia in 2018
There are now 108,000 older Australians on the
waiting list for Home Care Packages.
On this list
are individuals who have:
*
not yet been approved for home care;
*
been previously assessed and approved, but who have not yet been assigned a
home care package; or
* are receiving care at an interim level
awaiting assignment of a home care package at their approved level.
Waiting time
is calculated from the date of a home care package approval and this is not a
an ideal situation, given package approval times range from est. 27 to 98 days
and the time taken to approve high level home care packages is now than twelve
months - with actual delivery dates occurring at least 12 months later on average.
Labor’s Shadow
Minister for Ageing and Mental Health issued a statement which pointed out that
“With
the waiting list growing by almost 4,000 older Australians in just three
months, the 3,500 new home care packages a year committed in the Budget won’t
come close to keeping pace with demand”.
With more
than half the applications for permanent entry into residential aged care taking
more than 3 and up to 8 months to be met, this is not going to be a go-to first
option in any solution for this lengthy home care waiting list - even if enough older people could be persuaded to give up the last of their independnce and autonomy.
By June 2017
New South Wales had the largest number of persons on the home care waiting
lis at 30,685.
Given the
high number of residents over 60 years of age in regional areas like the the
Northern Rivers, this waiting list gives pause for thought.
Then there is
this side effect of the waiting list and home care start dates identified by Leading
Age Care Services Australia (LAGSA):
Consumers with unmet
needs and unspent funds
LASA has undertaken an extensive review of the
disparity that exists in the current release of HCP assignments, noting that
there are substantial numbers of consumers on HCPs with either unmet needs or unspent
funds . This bimodal distribution of home care package assignments reflects a
mismatch between consumer package assignment and a consumer’s current care
needs. The mismatch appears to be a function of the extended lapse of time that
exists between approval assessments and package assignments. Until this dynamic
is sufficiently addressed by Government, LASA expects that providers will be
faced with a unique set challenges in 2018 when providing care to HCP
consumers. This is likely to increase the need for regular care plan reviews in
the context of unmet needs and unspent funds. This dynamic could be considered
more closely within the context of developing a single assessment workforce.
Thus far Australian Minister for Aged Care and Liberal MP for Hasluck Ken
Wyatt is offering no insight into federal government thinking on this
issue.
Sources:
Monday 20 August 2018
Clarence River Estuary communities need to remain both alert and alarmed as NSW Berejiklian Government seeks to expand exposure to international cruise ship industry
In July 2018
the NSW Berejiklian Coalition Government released the document “NSW
Cruise Development Plan” to the delight
of the international cruise ship industry.
This plan confirms that Berejiklian ministry - sitting in offices over 670kms south of the small towns of Yamba and Iluka on the
banks of the Clarence River estuary - is still pursuing the idea that the Port of Yamba is a potential official cruise
ship destination.
The state
government also obviously expects that Clarence Valley local government will both accommodate the needs of the plan and contribute to
the cost of meeting this aim if it is progressed.
To further
the Berejiklian Government’s aim to make as many small ports or undeveloped harbours/inlets
capable of use by cruise ships the NSW Cruise Development Plan states that:
A regulatory framework
that fosters the competitiveness of ports, encourages the expansion of the
tourism sector, minimises environmental impacts, protects the community, and
supports jobs growth is required for the NSW cruise industry.
National regulatory
barriers currently inhibit the cruise industry, including the small expedition
and luxury cruise market’s, access to NSW coastal ports.
Differences in
regulatory requirements between states also restricts the freedom of cruise
liners to set national itineraries that take advantage of regional ports.
The NSW Government will
continue to lead discussions with the other States, Territories and the
Commonwealth on removing regulatory barriers that limit cruise ship growth
potential.
Action: The NSW Government will investigate opportunities
to remove regulatory barriers to entry for emerging cruise markets, including
the expedition cruise market, and will seek an inter-jurisdictional policy
position with other governments. [my yellow highlighting]
What the
Liberal-Nationals government in faraway Sydney considers as “regulatory barriers”
may not be what the people of the Lower Clarence River consider as impediments
which should be removed.
These
regulations cover all aspects of port
safety, marine pilotage and marine pollution as well as port
boundaries, riverbed disturbance, moorings, traffic control, service charges,
licencing and penalties for breaching regulations.
They are in place for good reason and any weakening of these regulations has the potential to affect the environmental sustainability of an ancient, healthy and highly productive estuary system which is the largest in south-east Australia and, whose waters are covered by Yaegl Native Title.
Facts estuary communities may need to continually press upon a state government wrapped up as it is in a cosy relationship with the international cruise ship industry.
Sunday 19 August 2018
Once more a Coalition federal government is promising savings on household electricity bills
“Throughout the 1980s, '90s, and most of the 2000s, electricity prices tracked fairly closely to general consumer price trends. In the past decade, however, electricity has shot off the charts. Since 2008 power prices have risen 117 per cent, more than four times the average price increase across sectors.” [ABC News, 18 July 2018]
All three major NSW political parties - Liberal, Nationals and Labor - along with their federal counterparts drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the alleged desirability of privatising state assets in the electricity and gas sectors of energy supply.
Here is a brief outline of the how and why......
DECEMBER 2010
"The completion of this first tranche
of the energy reform process meets the government's objectives – we have exited
electricity retailing, we have created a competitive market structure approved
by the ACCC and we have received a strong financial return for the taxpayers of
NSW,” he [NSW
Treasurer] said…..
Earlier, the shadow
treasurer, Mike Baird, said: "Whatever they finally announce, it is clear
from the ongoing speculation that the receipts will be at the lower end of the
$5 billion to $7 billion range, which is about half what these assets are worth
– and that is before you take off the $2.3 billion in inducements for the new
coalmine needed to get the deal away.
'The end result is
billions of dollars lost forever."
A UBS analyst, David
Leitch, said: "NSW households are in for higher electricity tariffs and
more people at their front door, trying to get them to change electricity
supplier."
NOVEMBER 2013
"When this bill is
passed, this Government estimates that power prices will go down by 9 per cent,
gas prices will go down by 7 per cent, and that means that the average power
bill will be $200 a year lower and the average gas bill will be $70 a year
lower," Mr Abbott said on October 15.
JUNE 2014
As of 12 May 2017, two
government assets have been privatised in 2017. The most recent privatisation
is the 99-year lease of a 50.4% share of Endeavour Energy. On 11 May 2017, the
NSW [Berejiklian
Coalition] Government announced that a consortium led by Macquarie Group's
infrastructure arm had been successful in securing the tender for a price of
$7.6 billion. Along with Ausgrid and Transgrid, the lease of Endeavour Energy
represents the final of the three “poles and wires” sales – a key policy of the
Liberal/National government in the 2015 State election. Announcing the sale,
NSW Treasury stated:
The
NSW Government will retain a 49.6 per cent interest in Endeavour Energy and
will have ongoing influence over operations as lessor, licensor and as safety
and reliability regulator.
June 2017
Electricity is now
management heavy with a blow out in the number of managers relative to other
workers. In addition electricity now employs an army of sales and marketing and
other workers who do not actually make electricity. In addition the reforms
seemed to encourage profit gauging on the part of companies in the industry who
are able to inflate the asset base used in calculating the permitted return on
assets. More than half the asset base appears to be ‘goodwill’ and retained
earnings. There is a weird circular process in which high rates of return are
capitalised in ‘goodwill’ and other fictitious or notional items while high
profits guarantee high retained earnings which also feed into the asset base.
In that way the unproductive capital base is allowed to increase and we are
charged for capital that has no real function in producing electricity….
A host of factors have
been blamed for the increase in electricity prices relative to other prices but
we would point out that the main departure from the rest of the price index
happened post privatisation and corporatisation.
JULY 2017
Origin, EnergyAustralia
and AGL have all announced price increases for electricity and gas starting
from July 1….
In NSW, residential
EnergyAustralia customers will see electricity prices increase by up to 19.6
per cent. Origin Energy customers will get a 16.1 per cent rise.
DECEMBER 2017
The key supply chain
cost components examined in the report include wholesale electricity purchase
costs, regulated network costs and environmental policy costs.
Annual electricity
prices for the representative consumer on a market offer in New South Wales:
*
increased by 10.2 per cent from 2016-17 to 2017-18 due to higher wholesale
electricity costs, driven by the retirement of Northern and Hazelwood
generators and increasing gas prices
*
are expected to decrease by an annual average of 6.6 per cent in 2018-19 and
2019-20. The expected decreases are largely attributable to decreases in
wholesale electricity costs driven by expected new generation (approximately
4,100 MW across the NEM) and the return to service of the Swanbank E generator
(385 MW in Queensland). In addition, in NSW, regulated network costs are
uncertain in the two years to June 2020 due to the AER being required to remake
revenue determinations for the NSW distribution network providers for the
2014-19 regulatory control period.
JANUARY 2018
The most significant
price rises were electricity, up 12.4 per cent, fuel up 10.4 per cent, domestic
holiday travel up 6.3 per cent and fruit up 9.3 per cent.
Across New South Wales, we found theaverage annual electricity bill to be just over $1,667. However, we found that
bill-payers aged in their 40s reported the highest average bills in NSW at
$1,911.76. Those aged 70 or over reported the lowest average bills at
$1,466.40.
JULY 2018
This was comprised of
$120 due to the [national
energy] guarantee and $280 due to new investment in renewable energy that was
already planned, mainly because of the Renewable Energy Target, which will run
to 2030….
The ESB [Energy Security Board**]
proposal increases the annual average saving to $550 on 2018 prices, of which
$150 is due to the guarantee and $400 due to renewable energy.
AUGUST 2018
After reading the National Energy Guarantee Consultation Paper as well as the 1 August 2018 Final Detailed Design and listening to statements made by the Turnbull Government, I personally find it hard to believe this change in federal government policy will significantly limit the rate of increases to household energy costs over time when this is based on an assumption that the market will respond by lowering prices across the Australian wholesale and retail sectors of energy supply.
Talk of money 'saved' by households is illusory as It will certainly see no reduction in the actual amounts listed on 2019-20 household electricity and gas bills once this guarantee comes into effect.
Network
charges represent on average about half of the electricity supply chain costs,
with generation and retail costs (combined into the ‘competitive market’
category) accounting for 42%, and environment policies adding the remaining 8%,
based on the latest AEMC Electricity Price Trend report.
The
make up of the total average retail cost is shown in Chart 6 which reveals the
single largest component of the price of electricity is distribution costs,
which represented about 40% of the average cost of electricity. Over the AEMC
forecast period to 2018/19, these costs are still expected to represent by far
the largest component of the electricity cost stack, albeit fractionally lower
in a couple of years’ time.
The
next largest component is the wholesale price of electricity, which in 2015/16
represented about 28%. Under the AEMC Base Case scenario – which includes the
retirement of the brown coal fired Hazelwood Power station in Victoria – this
cost component had been anticipated to rise steadily over the forecast period
to represent about 30% of the cost of electricity by 2018/19.
As
shown in Chart 7 below, these three jurisdictions experienced higher than
anticipated wholesale electricity costs in the order of between 30% and 80%
when compared to original forecasts for FY2016/17. When considered on a
weighted average basis, using the same methodology applied by the AEMC to estimate
the values for the National Summary, wholesale electricity costs have therefore
been about 17% to 20% higher than anticipated.
This
increase in wholesale electricity costs pushed the bundled cost of electricity
to rise by about 5% higher than anticipated by the AEMC, and shifted the
relative importance of wholesale prices in the cost stack from about 28% to
31%.
**
Energy.gov.au, A
Better Energy Future for Australia
Formed
out of the Independent Review into the Future Security of the National
Electricity Market (the Finkel Review), the Energy Security Board comprises an
independent chair and deputy chair along with the expert heads of the Australian
Energy Market Commission (AEMC), the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and the
Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
The current Board membership is Chair Dr Kerry Schott AO,
Deputy Chair Clare Savage, Australian
Energy Market Commission Chair John Pierce, Australian Energy Market Operator
Chief Executive Audrey Zibelman, and the Chair of the Australian Energy
Regulator Paula Conboy.
Friday 3 August 2018
NSW Roads & Maritime Services bungling and corrupt in 2018?
NSW Minister for Roads Maritime and Freight has a policy of sending IT jobs offshore?
With the
national unemployment rate running at 5.4 per cent nationally in June 2018 and
the New South Wales rate sitting at 4.8 per cent or 192,000 people, is the Minister for Roads Maritime and Freight & Nationals MP for Oxley Melinda Pavey secretly closing off employment opportunities for Australian information technology workers as a departmental cost-cutting measure?
These are not exactly the highest paying jobs in this country, averaging $46,000-$100,000 pa and, with the IT worker pool standing at est. 600,000+ nationally it is not as though there is an obvious scarcity of skilled workers available for hire.
So at first it was not easy to explain this......
The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2018. P.2:
Leaked details of a
meeting between Roads and Maritime Services and seven companies bidding for a
$100 million IT contract contradict state government denials that it mandated
a 30 per cent quota of cut-price overseas workers.
The February 13 meeting,
convened by chief information officer Rob Putter, came six days after the RMS
called for tenders to provide IT services, on the condition that a “minimum” of
20 per cent of jobs would be sent overseas in the first year
and 30 per cent in the second year.
Three Indian firms, Tata
Consultancy Services, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra, attended the meeting along with
Fujitsu, Datacom, Accenture and Wollongong company itree, with 25 people in the
room and 18 dialling in.
A source who attended the
meeting said Mr Putter showed a PowerPoint slide titled RMS Pricing Principles
which stated the RMS was “seeking to achieve the lowest possible cost” to
provide the IT service.
The slide stated RMS’s
“target offshore resource utilisation” required 20 per cent of jobs offshore
in year one, 30 per cent in year two and a “measured ongoing approach
to increase offshore efforts” over the rest of the seven-year contract.
Photocopies of the slide
were provided to attendees, who “discussed at length ... the need to offshore
resources (jobs)”, the source said.
“The RMS personnel
stated that it was mandated by the (Roads) Minister that to achieve the lowest
price they need to seek offshore resources,” the source said.
“This clearly
makes a joke of the Minister’s denial that this tender mandated offshoring.” As
The Daily Telegraph revealed last week, the RMS had called for companies to
provide “development, testing, maintenance and service management for
transport-related software applications and in-the-field hardware”.…..
The RMS announced Mr
Putter’s resignation last week.
Despite NSW Government denials, the fact remains that it is highly likely that jobs were to be sourced overseas as the RMS IT operational budget blowout had reached $80 million in the 12 months to June 2018, following a $40 million blowout in the operational budget in the previous financial year.
It appears that Roads and Maritime Services has bungled its $1 billion IT systems upgrade with more bad news expected.
Dollars for mates?
Dollars for mates?
Crikey.com.au, 2 August 2018:
is under fire after six government
contracts, none of which went to public tender, were awarded to the company after
it hired former state roads minister
Duncan Gay.
The Daily Telegraph ($)
reports that the firm has been awarded contracts from the Roads
and Maritime Services agency worth over $4.46 million after hiring the former
department head as an “executive adviser” just weeks after Gay left parliament
in late 2017. The firm has reportedly hired at least 11 former Roads and
Maritime Services staff members, including two as directors, however Gay says
he has “not been involved in any RMS contracts that MU have won”.
Thursday 26 July 2018
Australia 2018: the Coal War continues
It should come as no surprise that in the Coal War being conducted by right-wing ideologues and climate change deniers consumers are predicted to be the losers under the Turnbull Government's National Energy Agreement (NEG) and, that Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is offering the same illusory $550 per annum saving on electricity costs per household promised but not delived by his predecessor Tony Abbott.
A COAG Energy Council Ministers meeting on August 2018 will reveal the final NEG design - a design which won't be published until after this meeting.
What is already broadly known about the NEG design appears to support allegations that the aim of this agreement is to cement the dominant position of fossil fuels in the national energy mix at the expense of renewable energy technologies.
REneweconomy, 20 July 2018:
As pressure mounts for
Australia’s states and territories to finalise their position on the National Energy
Guarantee, a new report has warned the federal government’s policy would fail
to achieve its most basic and important function: to lower energy costs for
consumers.
The report, commissioned
by Greenpeace Australia Pacific, says the Coalition’s NEG would in fact do the
opposite – raise electricity prices; as well as bringing investment in
large-scale renewables to a halt, and do nothing to combat climate change.
Based on analysis
conducted by energy and environment analysts RepuTex, the report models the
impact of the NEG under the government’s 26 per cent emissions reduction
target, compared to a more ambitious 45 percent target.
In both scenarios, as
shown in Figure 17 above, electricity prices are forecast to fall through to
2020 as more than 6GW of renewable energy enters the NEM under large-scale
renewable energy target (LRET).
“The increase in low
cost solar and wind generation will see the electricity supply steadily become
more competitive, with average prices less influenced by high priced gas, and
subsequently falling toward $60 MWh in 2020,” the report says.
But under the NEG, new
investment in renewables falls off a cliff after 2020, while the impact of the
reliability guarantee drives an increase in gas generation, prolongs the
phase-out of coal, and makes it harder for key new technologies, like battery
storage and demand management to compete.
“The result is the
continuation of a coal-dominated market with a fairly static picture for
large-scale renewables investment, with gas providing flexibility to meet
evening ramp ups,” the report says.
“As a result wholesale
prices rise above $70 per MWh after the closure of Liddell, and $80 per MWh
after the expected retirement of Yallourn in 2028.”
A more ambitious
emissions reduction target, however, of 45 per cent, would provide a signal for
investment in more solar and wind, driving prices down by around $20/MWh.
“The competitive
pressure from higher solar and wind energy is modelled to push wholesale prices
lower, eventually resulting in the closure of excess coal capacity” – around
9GW, in total, by 2030 RepuTex says.
Published
on Jul 23, 2018
The
crucial make or break meeting of State Energy Ministers is on 10 August. So if
we want block Turnbull's dirty energy plan, we need to move right now.
Friday 6 July 2018
A CERTAIN RMS ASPHALT BATCHING PLANT: Open Letter to NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Willoughby, Gladys Berejiklian, as well as Minister for Roads Maritime and Freight & Nationals MP for Oxley, Melinda Pavey
Dear Premier Berejiklian and Minister Pavey,
Communities in the Clarence River estuary are concerned about an aspect of the NSW Government's current Pacific Highway construction planning.
Below are some of those concerns expressed to local newspaper The Daily Examiner with regard to a Roads and Maritime Services
(RMS) plan
to install a temporary asphalt batching plant at Woombah on the Clarence River
flood plain.
The build is
scheduled to start this month and the plant will operate for the next two and a
half years.
Please note
the attitude – local residents are not amused at the high-handed way in which
the NSW Government and RMS went about a cursory declaration of intent.
“What they’re not happy
about is an asphalt batching plant being built right near their houses, using
their only connecting road to the villages”
“We want the highway,
and we want the asphalt plant to be somewhere, but we want it to be away from
our communities where it won’t impact on our health and safety”
“The plant will add a
reported 500 truck moments and 100 car movements per day at peak, or one every
minute, and residents are concerned the additional traffic will create safety
problems, and a bottleneck at their intersection, which they already describe
as “tight” after it was temporarily re-routed. They also cite concerns over
possible health affects the dust may cause for nearby residents.”
We have a resident as
close as 450 metres from the plant who is suffering from lung cancer….Although
Pacific Complete have been made aware of this, since they were first told they
have failed to take action to acknowledge her.”
“We live within one
kilometre of the plant and we found out two weeks ago by letterbox drop”
“We found out last Wednesday
they didn’t tell anyone else. We’ve been around to other residents who are just
outside the area and they had no idea the plant was coming at all.”
I also draw your attention to the content of emails coming out of Iluka:
“Woombah
is surrounded by World Heritage National Park. Within the waterways affected by
run off from the proposed asphalt plant is the organic Solum Farm. Woombah
Coffee will also be affected. Not to mention the multiple organic gardners who sell
at the Yamba Markets and those who grow their own food.
The small community of
Woombah and its neighbour Iluka are places that welcome tourists for the
natural and clean beauty of the environment. An asphalt plant WILL threaten
that.
In addition, the Esk
River at Woombah is fed by many of the creeks and waterways in the bushland
where the asphalt plant is proposed. They will be adversely affected, which
will flow into the Esk which will flow into the Clarence which will affect the
fishing, oyster and prawn industries, on which many make their living. Not to
mention the tourist industry that survives because our area offers a clean
environment with unpolluted air and water.
This proposal is an
outrage. Teven said NO. Woombah says NO as well.”
“What about our kids on
school buses with no seatbelts and the increase in traffic particularly trucks”
“Iluka Naturally, turn
off at the asphalt plant, how ironic.”
For my own part I would add to these expressions of concern the fact that the 80ha, NPWS-managed Mororo Creek Nature Reserve is only est. 98 metres from the western end of the southern boundary of the proposed asphalt batching site.
This protected land parcel is one of the reserves which form part of a forested corridor linking Bundjalung National Park to the east and the protected areas of the Richmond Range to the west. It lies within the boundaries of the Yaegl Local Aboriginal Land Council area, the Clarence Valley Local Government Area and the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority.
The Mororo Creek Reserve conserves areas of endangered swamp sclerophyll forest, coastal saltmarsh, subtropical coastal floodplain forest and swamp oak floodplain forest.
For my own part I would add to these expressions of concern the fact that the 80ha, NPWS-managed Mororo Creek Nature Reserve is only est. 98 metres from the western end of the southern boundary of the proposed asphalt batching site.
This protected land parcel is one of the reserves which form part of a forested corridor linking Bundjalung National Park to the east and the protected areas of the Richmond Range to the west. It lies within the boundaries of the Yaegl Local Aboriginal Land Council area, the Clarence Valley Local Government Area and the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority.
The Mororo Creek Reserve conserves areas of endangered swamp sclerophyll forest, coastal saltmarsh, subtropical coastal floodplain forest and swamp oak floodplain forest.
Most importantly, Mororo Creek and several of its tributaries which run through this reserve empty into the Clarence River Estuary less than est. 2km from the proposed asphalt batching site.
Now I have no
idea why the NSW Government decided that a brief three-page information sheet
and invitation to comment published online at http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/projects/northern-nsw/woolgoolga-to-ballina/w2b-woombah-batch-plant-notification-2018-06.pdf
was to be the limit
of its community consultation effort or why a similar document was sent at
short notice to such a small number of Woombah residents.
I don’t
pretend to understand why the information sheet contained just one small image
of a section of a Pillar Valley temporary asphalt batching plant with no description
of typical batching plant infrastructure and no Woombah site layout plan at
all, much less one to scale.
There was not
a hint in the information sheet of the range of known issues which can arise during site
construction, plant operation and site rehabilitation.
Those
residents who were originally invited to comment were supplied with less than
rudimentary information on which to assess the desirability of a batching plant
on the designated site.
Given that
the proposed Woombah asphalt batching plant site is est. 2 to 2.5kms as the crow
flies from Clarence River estuary waters
which:
(1) are
covered by Yaegl Native Title;
(2) at certain points are covered by international treaties, including JAMBA, CAMBA,
ROKAMBA;
(3) contain
the second largest area of seagrass (83 ha), the largest area of mangroves (765
ha) and the third largest area of saltmarsh (290ha) in the northern rivers
region [Williams et al 2006 in Northern Rivers
Regional Biodiversity Management Plan 2010];
(4) are part
of the largest combined river-ocean fishery in NSW containing high fisheries value
marine species; and
(5) are a
vital component of regional tourism,
perhaps Premier
Berejiklian and Minister Pavey can answer two vital questions.
1. Is the Woombah asphalt batching plant
site above the 100 year flood level for the lower Clarence Valley flood plain?
Because if it
is not, then the NSW Government’s cavalier attitude to flood risk management
would potentially see toxic waste from asphalt batching flow into the Clarence
River estuary during a flood event – including solid waste and any organic
solvents/hydrocarbons captured in holding ponds for the life of the plant –
along with any nearby excavated plant/road construction materials. After all, extreme flood event
height predictions for that general area are 3.5 to 4.5 mAHD.
2. Why on earth was a decision made to
site the asphalt batching plant and access road at a point along the Pacific
Highway where it would cause the maximum damage to Iluka’s clean, green destination
image and vital tourism trade?
When the NSW Government
first mooted the Pacific Highway upgrade on the North Coast one of the
advantages it canvassed was an increase in tourism numbers due to better road
conditions.
In the 2015-16
financial year annual visitor
numbers to the Clarence Valley were approximately 986,000 persons and their
estimated spending was in the vicinity of $383.3 million. By
the end of the 2016 calendar year the tourism
visitor count for that year had reached over 1 million.
Most of these
visitors holidayed along the Clarence Coast and Iluka is a strong component of that
coastal tourism.
If the NSW Government seriously believes that leaving Woombah-Iluka with only one safe, unimpeded access point
for day, weekend and long-stay visitors, the Yamba to Iluka foot passenger
only ferry, will
not significantly affect tourism numbers over the course of two and a half
years, one has to wonder if it bothered to investigate the issue at all before signing off on the proposed plant site.
The effect of
siting the asphalt batching plant and access road on the designated site will
in all likelihood have the effect of diminishing not growing tourism traffic to
Iluka for a period beyond the years it actually takes to complete the Maclean
to Devil’s Pulpit section of the highway upgrade, as visitor perception of a holiday area can change when industrial level activity becomes visually prominent.
When it comes to commitment to the community consultation process, the NSW Government obviously hasn’t insisted that Roads and Maritime Services live up to its undertaking to engage
with communities to understand their needs and consider these when making
decisions.
In fact,
looking at satellite images of the site one cannot escape the suspicion that pre-construction
ground preparation had already commenced before any information was sent out to
selected Woombah residents.
Since news of the asphalt batching plan site reached the Lower Clarence and residents began to approach their local state member, there appears to have been a promise made to hold a "drop-in information session" at an unspecified date.
Having experienced NSW departmental drop-in information sessions, I am well aware that they are of limited value as purveyors of anything other that the meagre degree of information found in the aforementioned three page RMS document and, ineffectual as vehicles for genuine community consultation.
The people of Woombah and Iluka deserve better. They deserve a formal information night which canvasses all the issues, with representatives from RMS and the Pacific Highway project team prepared to address concerns and answer questions, as well as representatives of both the Premier and Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight in attendance as observers.
Since news of the asphalt batching plan site reached the Lower Clarence and residents began to approach their local state member, there appears to have been a promise made to hold a "drop-in information session" at an unspecified date.
Having experienced NSW departmental drop-in information sessions, I am well aware that they are of limited value as purveyors of anything other that the meagre degree of information found in the aforementioned three page RMS document and, ineffectual as vehicles for genuine community consultation.
The people of Woombah and Iluka deserve better. They deserve a formal information night which canvasses all the issues, with representatives from RMS and the Pacific Highway project team prepared to address concerns and answer questions, as well as representatives of both the Premier and Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight in attendance as observers.
I’m sure that
all residents and business owners in both Woombah and Iluka would appreciate
both Premier and Minster taking the time to consider these questions and ensure government genuinely consults with both village communities before considering proceeding with any Roads and Maritime Servces site proposal.
Sincerely,
Clarence Girl
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)