Putting Australia's external population pressures into perspective

This is what you are anxious about?
Hat tip to Venessa Paech for first finding and then tweeting this graph displayed on Robert Corr's weblog:

















The graph in another form at Overland:

Click on images to enlarge

One local battle in the 2010 Australian federal election is underway on the Internet

The battle for Page on the NSW North Coast is well and truly joined and Saffin gets a shot out of the locker at Hogan:

Saffin says Federal Nationals disenfranchising young voters

Friday, 09 July 2010 16:25

Page MP Janelle Saffin MP says the Nationals and Liberals have blocked moves to help more young people exercise their right to vote in the next Federal election.

Ms Saffin said there are an estimated 1.4 million people missing from the electoral rolls, and 70 per cent of these are young people.

"The Liberals and Nationals voted against the Australian Government's legislation that would have given people one week after an election is called, to enrol to vote.

"The seven day close of rolls period is an important safeguard to make sure eligible voters have time to enrol.

"Under the Howard Government, this safeguard was abolished, leaving tens of thousands of young people without a vote at the 2007 Federal election.

"And now the Nationals and Liberals have blocked the Government's legislation to reintroduce the seven day period.

"Australians can enrol to vote as soon as they turn 18, but in reality many don't think about voting until there is an election campaign.

"Because of the actions of the Nationals and Liberals, when the Federal election is called this year new voters will only have until the end of that day to enrol (or the next business day if the election is called on a weekend).

"I challenge Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan to tell young people why he stopping more young people from voting.

"And I urge all eligible voters to make sure they are on the electoral roll so they can exercise their democratic right to vote on Election Day.

"If young Australians wait, they could lose their opportunity to vote, thanks to the Kevin Hogan's Federal colleagues in the National Party and the Liberals," Ms Saffin said.

Pics from The Nationals website and The Daily Examiner - Hogan on the left & Saffin on the right

Yamba's drunk golf buggy driver has his day in court

A Yamba man’s adventure in his golf buggy whilst intoxicated on a Friday night last month had its sequel in the Maclean Local Court on Tuesday, July 13.

The man, who recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.135, was convicted on charges of driving the golf buggy whilst intoxicated and using an unregistered vehicle on a public road. In addition to fines of $500 and $250, respectively, the man was disqualified from driving for 6 months.

The man’s legal representative proposed to the court that the level of criminality was lessened by the man driving his buggy rather than the car parked in his garage.

However, the magistrate would not have any of that argument and said that it would have made no difference had the defendant been riding a push bike. By his actions the defendant had put others, along with himself, in danger.

Garrett needs to intervene on the NSW North Coast

Forests NSW is once more in the news - this time over allegations that it is improperly harvesting trees within endangered ecological communities in Doubleduke State Forest. Including areas containing koala, sugar glider and giant barred frog habitat.

Doubleduke, Grange, Yabbra; the list of forest habitat under threat from mismanagement by the very agency designed to protect old growth and threatened species in these working forests is growing.

Federal Minister for Environment Protection Peter Garrett, along with his department, needs to intervene on the NSW North Coast.

It is patently clear that the Keneally Government in New South Wales cannot effectively manage the conduct of its own agencies and NSW Minister for Mineral and Forestry Resources, Paul McLeay, is failing in his portfolio.

While it is obvious that timber cutters working within state forests have little respect for the one year-old NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment and Water which appears to be directly responsible for policing aspects of forestry management.

Along with poorly implemented state environmental policy (where it even exists), sustained population growth along the NSW coastal corridor is placing so much pressure on what remains of the natural landscape that increased local species extinction is inevitable and future fresh water quality compromised in some areas if the present approach to environmental issues is allowed to continue unchecked.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 30 June 2010:

Forests NSW is already under investigation for breaches of licence conditions at a separate logging site about 30 kilometres from Doubleduke state forest, the scene of the latest logging.
It was fined $1200 by the department in May for a separate series of licence breaches in the same district, but the relatively small sum angered environment groups campaigning for more oversight.

ABC North Coast on 1 July 2010:

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) says State Forests has committed 20 breaches of environmental safeguards in the Doubleduke State Forest south of Ballina. This follows similar breaches in the Yabbra State Forest for which State Forests was prosecuted.
Sue Higginson from the Environmental Defender's Office says NEFA is looking at what legal action it can take over the Doubleduke issues.
"The proper course of action is for the State regulatory agency to be the regulator in relation to the compliance and enforcement of the environmental laws," she said.

Brisbane Times on 9 July 2010:

Evidence of systematic damage to rainforests in northern NSW as a result of government-supervised logging has forced the environment department to again investigate its state-run counterpart, Forests NSW.
The alleged logging of old-growth rainforest, inaccurate surveys and damage to endangered species habitat in Grange State Forest, near Grafton, amounts to the third time in three months that the forestry agency has been accused of breaching its own guidelines in northern NSW.
''It's really a disaster, and very, very depressing to see country that has never been logged before destroyed in this way,'' said a spokesman for the Clarence Environment Centre, John Edwards, who helped document the damage. ''It does appear that the guidelines are being breached in a routine way. And if Forests NSW is just fined it is the public that ends up paying anyway. People inside the organisation should be held personally accountable.''

Update:

Felled tree might have been 1000yo The Daily Examiner 14 July 2010