Waterlines Report June 2010: how much water does Australia use?

Australian Government Waterlines report 30 - June 2010:

This report documents:

• the location of significant intercepting activities that fall outside the current entitlement framework
• the potential rate of expansion of each activity over various time periods
• estimates of water usage of each activity in water management areas used in the Australian Water Resources 2005 report.

The report includes a definition and description of activities that intercept surface water and groundwater and identified the following activities for further analysis:

• overland flows
• farm dams
• stock and domestic bores
• plantations
• peri-urban development

The report shows that the total volume of water unaccounted for as a result of land use activities outside our current water entitlement regimes and planning frameworks equates to almost one quarter of all the entitled water on issue in Australia.

Or to put it another way - a combined volume of at least 5,600 gigalitres of fresh water is intercepted annually across the country. Which is around 10 Sydney Harbours worth of water according to my calculations and, much is apparently being siphoned off outside of current government-endorsed management plans.

Surface and/or groundwater interception activities: initial estimates (7.26MB)

Executive summary (141KB)

Petticoats rule!

Back in the 1950s I'd never have thought it possible.
We New South Walers now have a female head of state (Her Maj), a female representative of the Crown (teh G-G), a female Prime Minister (all hail Gillard!), a female State Governor (hat tip to Marie B) and a female Premier (K-K-Keneally acting on behalf of her hair).
This has to be the ultimate hat trick.

Federal Labor and Peter Garret keep promise to protect whales

Yes! Yes! Yes! A win for the whales.
The International Whaling Commission at its Morocco meeting has not endorsed the breakway whaling nations push to end the moratorium on commercial whaling.
Now the case Australia has brought against the Government of Japan in the International Court of Justice on 31st May 2010 alleging that; "Japan's continued pursuit of a large scale programme of whaling under the Second Phase of its Japanese Whale Research Programme under Special Permit in the Antarctic ("JARPA II") [is] in breach of obligations assumed by Japan under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling ("ICRW"), as well as its other international obligations for the preservation of marine mammals and marine environment" can proceed and hopefully all whaling will end in the Southern Ocean in the foreseeable future.
Go, Migaloo!

As the road toll mounts we're still waiting, Kristina..........

As the annual road toll on the NSW North Coast leg of the Pacific Highway steadily mounts, local mayors and the media are still waiting for Premier Kristina Keneally or her designated ministerial representative to undertake an inspection by car along the worst of this route.

The invitation has been on the table since early February this year and the Premier appears to have committed her minister to a full inspection according to a March 2010 media report.

The inspection is overdue to say the least.

A short visit to Coffs Harbour in late March by Regional Development Minister Ian McDonald trying a snow job on the mayors and burbling on about "cost-benefit analysis" being needed before highway upgrades can occur just doesn't cut the political mustard - especially as scandal has since seen him go from office and parliament.

The NSW Government has been responding to these road deaths with sad shaking of heads for years now.

In 2005 Keneally's mentor, then Roads Minister Joe Tripodi, was telling ABC TV Stateline:

I am very conscious of the many tragic deaths on the Pacific Highway. One death on our roads is one death too many, and my heart goes to the families and friends who have suffered this terrible loss.

The NSW road toll for 2010 as of 16 June was 213 deaths. As in past years, too many of these were on the Pacific Highway.

In certain quarters local tempers are becoming rather frayed and we are still waiting, Kristina.........

Photograph of 2007 Coffs Harbour area fatality at The Sydney Morning Herald (top left ) and 2010 Tabbimobile area fatalities at The Daily Examiner (bottom right)