More than 100 Northern Rivers residents yesterday attended a public forum in Ballina, hosted by Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change Greg Combet and Page MP Janelle Saffin.
Environmental Defender's Office Northern Rivers education officer, Mark Byrne, said an effective carbon reduction scheme was urgently needed.
"The fact is we don't have a lot of time. This really is a crisis," he said.
"This Government was elected largely because they said they would do something.
"It's time for real leadership and this scheme does not provide that."
Let us hope that Mr. Combet and Ms. Saffin heed the community concerns raised at this forum.
Coming as it did on the heels of the Environmental Defenders Office's own public meeting on 3 February 2009, I have to wonder if the two Labor MPs were there more to counter considerable grass roots resistance to the proposed national emissions trading scheme than to exchange views with local residents.
After speaking with one individual who attended this forum, I am now almost certain of this.
Given that the Rudd Government is holding to the line that the states are responsible for land use and NSW Nationals MP Steve Cansdell appears to be hoping that climate change will just disappear as an issue, it seems that The Greens are the only party at both state and federal level which is able to make the connection between global warming science and potential effects on the ground.
NSW Hansard record Thursday 26 March 2009:
2937 PLANNING—SEA LEVEL RISE—Ms Hale to ask the Minister for Police, Minister for Lands, and Minister for Rural Affairs representing the Minister for Planning, and Minister for Redfern Waterloo— Planning, Climate Science and Sea Level Rise
(1) Is the Minister aware that scientists including John Church of the CSIRO and Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of Potsdam Institute for Climate Change met in Copenhagen in March 2009?
(2) Is the Minister aware that at this conference these scientists have warned that sea levels may rise by a metre or more before 2100, and then continue to rise for centuries?
(3) Is the Minister aware that these scientists have indicated that the 2007 International Panel on Climate Change predictions of less than 59cm sea level rise by 2090 is wrong?
(4) Is the Minister aware that scientists meeting in Copenhagen this month have warned that sea level rises will rise by a metre or more before 2100, almost double the previous estimate of 20cm to 59cm made in 2007 by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?
(5) Is the Minister aware that scientist John Church's study centered on Australia showed that coastal flooding events that today we expect only once every hundred years will happen several times a year by 2100?
(6) Will Planning NSW be revising its estimates of sea level rise in relation to coastal development in New South Wales?
(a) If so, when?
(7) Will Planning NSW advise councils via a SEPP or other instrument on the most scientifically recent and accurate sea level rise predictions?
(a) If so, when?
2938 PLANNING—WEST YAMBA LEP—Ms Hale to ask the Minister for Police, Minister for Lands, and Minister for Rural Affairs representing the Minister for Planning, and Minister for Redfern Waterloo— West Yamba LEP
(1) Given the Mid North Coast Regional Strategy has identified West Yamba as a low lying area, are there major development constraints in the face of climate change impacts, specifically flooding and inundation, in West Yamba?
(2) Will consideration be given to the latest climate science and sea level rise predictions when assessing the draft West Yamba LEP Amendment based on new data contained in the Government's Draft Sea Level Rise Policy Statement and coming out of the Copenhagen conference?
(3) Clarence Valley Council has determined that residential development can be safely achieved by filling the West Yamba floodplain to half a metre above their projections of the 2090 maximum flood level, basing its calculations for safe floor levels on the 2007 International Panel on Climate Change predictions of less than 59cm. However, new predictions by scientists meeting in Copenhagen in 2009 estimate sea level will rise to double the level of the 2007 predictions. Should the Department and councils such as Clarence Valley Council therefore be revising their estimates of sea level rise and therefore the West Yamba LEP?
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