Climate policies of the major parties in 2016

Climate policy is one of the areas where there are very substantial differences between the major parties.

Many people concerned about Australia’s inadequate climate policy hoped that the change of Prime Minister would lead to a more effective climate policy.  However,  the Liberal and National sceptics are still controlling the Government’s climate policy with the aim of doing as little as possible to reduce the nation’s carbon emissions while claiming that the Government is taking the matter seriously.

A couple of events illustrate what a problem this is for Turnbull, the man who apparently still believes that climate change is a major concern which needs to be addressed.  Statements in April from two senior Coalition Ministers – Attorney-General George Brandis (Liberal Party) and Nationals Deputy Senator Fiona Nash highlight the division in the Government over this area.  Both claimed that the science on climate change was not yet settled.   And a NSW State Liberal Council meeting in early March  passed a resolution calling  on the federal government to “arrange and hold public debates/discussions” between scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and “independent scientists” (presumably climate sceptics).  More than 70% of the delegates apparently supported this motion.  This indicates a high level of climate scepticism amongst NSW Liberals.

A further illustration of lack of interest in or commitment to the climate issue may be seen in a recent National Party booklet -   Protecting and improving our environment - available in the Page electorate.  This discusses the party’s policy in a variety of environmental areas but makes no mention of climate change or its impacts.  Surely one of the greatest environmental and economic threats to our nation should have been worthy of a mention!  Obviously Fiona Nash is not the only National who does not believe climate science is “settled”.

It is no wonder that the Coalition’s policy on climate change is so weak given the division in their parties over the issue.  The Coalition has committed to a target of a 26-28% reduction relative to 2005 levels by 2030.  They claim these reductions are to be achieved through their “Direct Action” policy which involves auctioning emissions reduction projects to the cheapest corporate bidder.  It’s a scheme involving paying polluters - from taxpayer funds - to limit pollution.  And these polluters are industries which have already had many years to clean up their acts.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt claims that the Government’s targets for 2020 will be achieved but does not acknowledge that this will only happen because of surplus credits Australia still has for land clearance. “Direct Action” alone will not do it.

The Labor Party presents a united front on the need for strong climate action and has a much stronger policy for addressing climate threats.  It has pledged reductions of 45% over the same time frame.  It intends to achieve the reductions through an emissions trading scheme and also has plans for a significant boost to the development of renewable energy, a sector which contracted during the Abbott prime ministership.

The Climate Change Authority believes that large reductions are necessary, recommending cuts of 40%-60% by 2030 relative to 2000 levels.  So Labor’s target is more in line with their recommendations than is the Coalition’s target.

The climate issue has not been a major one during the election campaign.  Understandably the Coalition wants to focus on what it believes are its strengths – and climate change policy certainly is not a strength because of party division and the weak policy Turnbull inherited from Abbott. 

Labor has endeavoured to raise the climate change profile in the campaign with its policy.  Predictably the launch of its proposal for an emissions trading scheme saw a Liberal scare campaign about Labor’s climate policy which has been debunked by The Guardian’s Lenore Taylor[1].  She concludes her article with: “And the barren, stupid climate wars and dumb fact-free scare campaigns are a guaranteed recipe for a terrible economic and environmental failure.”

While there might not be much stomach for effective climate action in the Coalition parties, a recent survey has found that the concern about climate is more widespread in the community than it was five years ago.  Deborah Cotton[2]  from the Sydney University of Technology found that 75% of people believe it is an important global issue and that 57% of respondents want Australia to act on climate change irrespective of whether other countries do or not.

“Inter-generational theft” was a term used by the Coalition during the first year or two of its current term.  They used it in connection with budget deficits.  We do not hear this term now that the Coalition itself has increased the budget deficit substantially.  However, “intergenerational theft” could be applied to what will be happening to future generations as a result of weak responses to the climate emergency. The impact of our lack of action now will place an intolerable burden on future generations.

If the Coalition is returned to Government, there will be a need for a vigorous campaign to force it to adopt much stronger measures to cut our emissions and do our share in the global effort to restrict the extent of global warming. The big question is whether Malcolm Turnbull will have the courage to stand up to the dinosaurs in his party and to act in the national interest and the interests of future generations of Australians.

Hildegard

Northern Rivers

28th June 2016

______________________

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/27/why-coalition-climate-scare-campaign-is-not-credible-and-makes-no-sense

[2] https://theconversation.com/survey-more-australians-want-climate-action-now-than-before-the-carbon-tax-61077

______________________

GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration. Longer posts will be considered on topical subjects.

Where does the Liberal Party find these people?

Another two Liberal candidates at the 2 July 2016 federal election joins the growing list of political blunderers who are presenting themselves to electors across the nation.

ABC News, 22 June 2016:

A Liberal candidate has been caught out threatening violence against people who describe the European settlement of Australia as Invasion Day.

The candidate for the safe Victorian Labor seat of Gellibrand, Ben Matthew Willis, wrote on his Facebook page on January 22 that people who describe Australia Day as Invasion Day needed, "a high five in the face. With a chair".

Herald Sun, 21 June 2016:

A LIBERAL Party candidate pushing for better road safety is in hot water after he was linked to a hoon video.

David Mulholland, 29, who is running in Jagajaga, in Melbourne’s northeastern suburbs, was involved in the production of a video featuring a man surfing on the bonnet of a car.

Mr Mulholland, who is facing off against incumbent Labor MP Jenny Macklin, edited the video for a university student competition and shared it on his YouTube page.

A Liberal Party spokesman said he did not appear in the film, which was made almost 10 years ago. It has since been removed.

Related posts

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/politicians-candidates-and-advisers.html

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/federal-mp-stuart-robert-channelled.html

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/one-would-think-even-34-year-old.html

Laughing at the Nationals and Kevin Hogan in Page

If there’s one thing Australians can do better than most it is burst the pretentions of the political class and this effort in The Northern Star on 15 June 2016 is a classic example:

Casino theatre

WIKIPEDIA says an amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek meaning "on both sides" or "around" and meaning "place for viewing".

The conundrum facing Kevin Hogan was: What does a politician seeking re-election promise to a town that has everything?

He took into account that all streets are already fully kerbed and guttered with more than adequate drainage. The main roads are all constructed to a standard suitable for B Double transport and the area has a superior internal public transport network with splendid connecting links to surrounding areas. The sometimes four-hour wait for ambulance transfer between hospitals can be considered adequate under NSW existing standards.

Stand by Casino: Mr Hogan has announced (NS 9/6) if he is re-elected he can commit 500,000 denarii, to match a similar amount from RVC, to supply the town with a 1000 tiered-seat amphitheatre so that picnicking families can enjoy "... carols by candlelight, opera under the stars and outdoor movies ...".

The Dept of Employment spokesman, Jobson Grothe, said that when construction is approved expressions of interest will be called for stonemasons to submit plans and quotes.

KEVIN RUFF,

Casino

Kevin’s promise of bread and Circus Maximus for the populace found on his website:

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan today said a re-elected Coalition Government would commit to the construction of a $1 million amphitheatre in Casino.

“This is great news for the Casino community and will provide a place for locals to come together in celebration,” he said.

Richmond Valley Council mayor Ernie Bennett welcomed the project and said the council will be matching the Federal Government’s $500,000 grant

“This new amphitheatre will be a great community asset for Casino,” he said.

The new amphitheatre will have tiered levels ensuring all visitors have a good vantage point to participate in community events, such as Carols by Candlelight, Opera Under the Stars or outdoor movies.

“Casino is a wonderful town but there really isn’t anywhere were a thousand or so people can comfortably come together,” Mr Hogan said.

“We know community spaces like this where families can have a picnic while watching a movie or singing Christmas carols, helps to strengthen the ties that bind us as a community.”

A re-elected Turnbull/Joyce Government will contribute $500,000 to the project, with Richmond Valley Council matching the amount.

Boy the Wonder Cat wants to know “Will there be lions?”

The truth about Malcolm Turnbull's wealth

Malcolm Bligh Turnbull’s ‘truth’……

https://youtu.be/49VhCuanMpE

The rest of the world’s truth……

The Australian, 11 June 2016:

Last Sunday, Malcolm Turnbull sent out an email — Re: “My Dad” — inviting us all to reflect upon and share the story of his upbringing by his late father, Bruce. It was a deliberate decision by the Prime Minister to personalise the election campaign. The ­exercise was well calculated, but a couple of lines, about Bruce Turnbull in particular, were noticeably selective.

“We didn’t have much money. He was a hotel broker and for most of that time he was battling like a lot of people are — a lot of single parents are, certainly. He did well after a while. In the latter part of his life he kicked a few goals after a lot of effort …”

Malcolm Turnbull the politician has consistently downplayed his father’s success as a small businessman, and the substantial inheritance he received when Bruce died in a plane crash near Gloucester in 1982, age 56.

While researching my biography of the Prime Minister, Born to Rule, I spoke with old friends and business associates of Bruce. They remembered a fit man’s man, sharp witted and deal savvy. Many profiles over the years make the easy assumption that Malcolm Turnbull inherited his celebrated intelligence from his mother, the actor, writer and academic Coral Lansbury.

Having spoken to some of Bruce’s mates, I am not so sure.

Prestige property agent Bill Bridges, who has sold and resold many of Sydney’s best homes over a career spanning 50 years, was in a running club with Bruce that included Bruce Gyngell and NSW Supreme Court judge John Sackar. Bridges told me that “there was no one more streetwise than Bruce Turnbull, and that’s the best education you can get”.

Bruce Turnbull was a country boy and former electrician from Maitland, near Newcastle, who came to Sydney in his twenties. Bruce truly was self-made. He married Coral a year after Malcolm was born in 1954 and for the most part the couple lived in a flat on New South Head Road, Vaucluse, in Sydney’s salubrious eastern suburbs, which land title records show Bruce co-owned through a private company.

Young Malcolm lived here happily, walking to and from Vaucluse Public School. In 1963, he was sent to board at Sydney Grammar’s preparatory school at well-to-do but distant St Ives. What he would not have known is that his parents’ marriage was failing. Coral had fallen in love with another academic and she left Bruce suddenly, taking the furniture — and the cat — and moving to New Zealand, where she remarried.

This was undoubtedly a tough time for Bruce and his son. They moved out of the Vaucluse flat and into a series of rented flats — including one in Gladswood Gardens, a red-brick block in a dead-end street in Double Bay.

During the next five years, Bruce’s hotel business really hit its straps and by 1970, when Malcolm was in Year 10, he had bought a luxurious three-bedroom apartment in Point Piper — a stone’s throw from the waterfront mansion Malcolm Turnbull lives in now. The apartment had smashing water views and cost Bruce $36,000. Today it is worth millions. When not boarding at Randwick — where he moved once he reached high school — this was Malcolm’s base for most of the next decade.

Bruce added to his portfolio in the 1970s, buying a unit in Bellevue Hill and two houses in Randwick. He almost doubled his money on a slice of the historic Hermitage ­Estate in Vaucluse, which he sold within 18 months to a company owned by Kerry Packer, a powerful early ­patron to his son.

Malcolm, who worked as a journalist through his years of law study, inherited his ­father’s penchant for property investing, and started early: at age 23 he bought a semi-detached house in inner-Sydney Newtown for almost $50,000 and at age 25 he bought a Redfern terrace for $40,000. He sold both for tidy profits. Turnbull bought his own first home, for an undisclosed sum in Potts Point, after returning from his Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University and marrying Lucy Hughes.

Bruce Turnbull was semi-retired by 1982, when he laid down almost $600,000 to buy a stunning farm at Rossgole, near Scone, which Malcolm has since expanded and which ABC viewers have seen on Australian Story and Kitchen Cabinet.

It is difficult to get the full picture of Bruce’s estate because it was accumulated before property records were computerised, and pre-ASIC. But friends say he, like many a real estate agent, would keep the best hotel deals for himself and his partners, picking up watering holes in thirsty locations like St Marys in Sydney’s west, Warners Bay at Lake Macquarie, and Newcastle……

Malcolm was also a hotel ­licensee, and on top of all this was getting a steady income stream from a 10 per cent share of the earnings from his broking licence, which he had contracted out…..

A glowing 1988 magazine profile estimated Turnbull inherited about $2 million when his father died, which would be worth almost $7m in today’s dollars. To inherit such a sum at the age of 28 is a life-changing event in anyone’s language. Turnbull went on to make a motza, but people who knew both father and son well point out, “he inherited a motza, too”……

Certainly Turnbull carried some resentment at his father. A flash of insight comes from an unpublished screenplay about the 1986 Spycatcher trial, by Turnbull’s old friend the late Bob Ellis and Stephen Ramsay. The script was written with the creative collaboration of Malcolm. It is fascinating to read a section where Malcolm, talking to his wife during a low point in the trial, throws down his whisky glass in despair, smashing it, and tells Lucy:

Malcolm: I wish dad was alive.

Lucy: (alarmed by this) You hated him.

Malcolm: I know. (Getting up, punching the door) But I didn’t want him dead. Not so soon.

After his success in the Spycatcher case, Turnbull turned his back on his promising career in the law and used his inheritance to set up a cleaning company, Allcorp, with then recently resigned NSW premier Neville Wran. He also founded a merchant bank with Nicholas Whitlam, son of the former prime minister (both Packer and Larry Adler gave their financial backing for a short time).

Striking out on his own, Turnbull was hungry and savage. Packer famously said he would not like to come between the young Malcolm and a sack of gold. It was not the trappings of wealth he was chasing but the substance: the independence of not having to work for someone else and the security that comes with prime real estate.

Malcolm had his father’s nose for a deal. During the next 15 years, he made a fortune as a merchant banker, as an adviser to Fairfax, an investor in unbelievably risky ventures such as logging in the Solomon Islands and gold mining in Siberia, and as an early backer of OzEmail and shareholder and partner in Goldman Sachs, where he helped Rodney Adler sell doomed insurer FAI to HIH.

By 1999, Turnbull had debuted on the BRW Rich List with a fortune of $65m. After Goldman Sachs listed on the New York Stock Exchange the following year, Turnbull’s fortune was bumped up to $90m, and that was conservative. It has more than doubled since, mainly by appreciation. The building blocks were in place by 2001, when Turnbull turned his attention to politics.

Nowadays, people who know Turnbull say he wears his wealth rather like a hair shirt. The PM does not apologise for his success, but he goes close sometimes, acknowledging there are “taxi drivers that work harder than I did”.

The PM consistently downplays his father’s wealth and his inheritance because he wants to underline that he is a self-made man. This is a hot-button issue for voters: they respect someone who gets rich off their own effort, but not someone who inherits.

By any reckoning, Turnbull had unbelievable advantages. Reading through Twitter feed #MalcolmWasSoPoor gives a flavour of the cynicism surrounding Turnbull’s “battler” story. Could Turnbull have done it all without his inheritance? Given his abilities, connections and prodigious work ethic, almost certainly yes. But did he? No.

In 1957 when this article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald's Women's Section the average female annual income was £1,200 pounds a year. Malcolm's mother was earning over four times that income.

Prior to meeting Bruce Bligh Turnbull she had been the recipient of £9,000 a year (for life or until remarriage) from her late first husband's estate and, in November 1954 reached a lump-sum settlement of $3,100 in lieu of her interest in the the estate.

Malcolm's father would have had an annual income in 1957 that would probably never had fallen below average male earnings, so the combined household income would have been at least £8,700 to £9,700 a year.

I'm so over the Nationals fudging unemployment statistics during this federal election campaign

This was what voters were presented with when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull came into the Northern Rivers to try and shore up Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan.

Echo NetDaily, 17 June 2016:

The prime minister will be campaigning in the marginal Nationals-held seat of Page on Friday, announcing a jobs and investment package.

Kevin Hogan holds Page with a 3.1 per cent margin over former Labor MP Janelle Saffin.

The coalition is desperate to hold Page, which is developing a reputation for being bellwether seat.

The region has one of the worst unemployment records in the state, with youth unemployment nearing 20 per cent in some areas.

The coalition hopes the $25 million investment will give businesses incentives to invest and help boost employment in the region, not to mention boosting their chances of re-election.

It includes providing business innovation grants to help adopt new technology, upgrading local infrastructure and delivering targeted skills and training programs for regional shortages.

Kevin Hogan quoted in the Echo NetDaily on the same day:

Page MP Kevin Hogan welcomed the announcement.

‘The jobless rate in the Clarence Coffs area has fallen to 4.2% – well below the NSW and national average (4.95% and 5.5% respectively),’ Mr Hogan said.

‘Since July almost 2500 people in Page have found on-going work through the Coalition’s Jobactive programme. But more still needs to be done.

‘I set up a local Job Strategy Group over six months ago to bring companies looking to expand to the North Coast. This package will certainly be an incentive for those businesses that have been thinking about making the move but aren’t ready to commit,” he said.

So is Hogan right about unemployment levels on the NSW Far North Coast and the Page electorate in particular?

Here are the facts which he appears to want to fudge by quoting the much broader statistical region – Clarence-Coffs – which extends as far south as the Bellingen area.

The March Quarter unemployment rate for all persons (released 10 June 2016) in relevant local government areas:

Tweed LGA – 7.6%

Richmond Valley LGA – 10.7%

Ballina LGA – 6.1%

Byron LGA – 9.3%

Kyogle LGA – 10.6%

Lismore LGA – 9.4%

Clarence Valley LGA - 6.5%

Coffs Harbour LGA – 5.3%

In the March quarter 2016 this is the number of people these percentages are estimated to represent in the Page electorate :

Ballina – 7,430 people

Ballina Region - 7,999 people

Casino - 5,044 people

Casino Region - 3,225 people

Evans Head – 2,180 people

Kyogle – 3,419 people

Lismore – 7,769 people

Lismore region – 8,166 people

Grafton – 8,756 people

Grafton Region – 7,406 people

Maclean-Yamba-Iluka – 6,880

Coffs Harbour North –  8,711 people

In April 2016 the Youth Unemployment Rate (15-24 years of age) for both the Clarence-Coffs and Tweed regions was 11.9%.

In May 2016 the Youth Unemployment Rate (15-24 years of age) for New South Wales was  11.4%.

The National unemployment rate for all persons in May 2016 was 5.6% and the NSW rate was 5.1%.

And if readers want to know all Coalition's Job Active "ongoing-work" - I refer them to an excerpt from this previous post:

For that amount of money the Abbott-Turnbull Government expects the Jobactive scheme to have placed 380,000 jobseekers in often wage-subsidised employment in 2015-16, at a cost of est.$2,500 per placement covering Employment Fund expenditure, service fees and outcome payments.

Unfortunately 68% of these placements are likely to last only 4 weeks before the person is unemployed once more. I suspect the percentage of temporary jobs is so high because this allows service providers to bill the government again and again for ‘helping’ those same job seekers find other temporary jobs once the initial placement dissolves into thin air and, via the $1.2 billion national wage subsidy pool potentially allows employers to 'churn' new employees on short term contacts so that employers receive financial benefits from the pool but employees are unemployed at contract's end.

None of the departmental employment sustainability measures encompass positions lasting longer than six months, so it is unclear as to whether there is a genuine expectation that job service providers will assist in finding permanent employment for anyone.

In July 2015 when Jobactive Australia commenced, the real national unemployment rate was probably running at est. 8.7% and by March 2016 it had climbed to est.11% according Roy Morgan Research vs ABS Employment Estimates (1992-2016).

In November 2013 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) seasonally adjusted combined unemployment and underemployment rate (underutilisation) was 13.5% and by February 2016 this combined rate was 14.2%.

In September 2013 the average number of weeks an unemployed person spent looking for a job was 39, with an est.134,400 people looking for 52 weeks and over.

Under the Abbott-Turnbull Government by March 2016 the average number of weeks had risen to 46.2, with an est. 181,700 people looking for 52 weeks and over. [Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery, Mar 2016] 

In June 2014 an est. 123,800 15 to 24 year-olds were looking for full time or part-time work. By March 2016 the number of young people in this category had risen to 133,000. [ibid]

The Brotherhood of St. Laurence reported on 14 March 2016 that some rural and regional areas were grappling with youth unemployment rates above 20 per cent.

Richmond-Tweed (including Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Lismore, Mullumbimby) in the NSW Northern Rivers region had a youth unemployment rate of 14.5% in January 2015 and by January 2016 this rate had risen to 17.4% [Brotherhood of St Laurence, Australia’s Youth Unemployment Hotspots: Snapshot March 2016, p. 3]

Australian Federal Election 2016: Nationals Nathan Quigley losing votes one Inbox at a time

I received this copy of a recent email exchange from an incensed Northern Rivers voter, upset with the political data mining involved in delivering the National Party message into his Inbox.

Especially one that informed him that Kevin Hogan favoured a far-right, homophobic, religio-political group (founded by Rev. Fred Nile) as the second preference on his How To Vote cards.

This reader's email to North Coast Voices was accompanied with the final comment "What a pack of b*stards!!!"

The email exchange..........

From: [redacted]  <redacted>
Date: 25 June 2016 at 7:16:09 PM AEST
To: Nathan Quigley <nathan@nswnationals.org.au>
Subject: Re: In one week…

Excuse me Mr Quigley,

I don't recall communicating with you.

How did you obtain my email address?

[Redacted contact details]

On 25 Jun 2016, at 3:41 PM, Nathan Quigley <nathan@nswnationals.org.au> wrote:

In one week Australians will vote in one of the most important elections in a generation. We'll have a choice between staying on course with an experienced government under Malcolm Turnbull - a government with a plan to keep our economy strong - or a gamble with deeper deficits in an uncertain world under Bill Shorten and Labor. That's why it's important for every single voter to go to their polling location informed.

So please download the "How to Vote" flyer below and take it with you when you vote.

Correctly filling in your ballot is ESSENTIAL to ensure we have sound management in Canberra and a strong local voice for the Northern Rivers and Coffs Coast.

Please share this email with your friends so they know how to vote as well.

Nathan Quigley State Director – NSW Nationals P.S. Remember, we need your support. Please CLICK HERE to download your "How to Vote" flyer for Page.

This message was sent from the NSW Nationals and authorised by N Quigley, Level 2, 107 Pitt St, Sydney. Click here to unsubscribe. [if!vml]>&lt[endif]&

UPDATE

From: Matt Kay [mailto:Matt.Kay@nswnationals.org.au]
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 12:15 PM
To: [redacted] <redacted>
Subject: RE: In one week…

Hi [name redacted],

It was supplied by Kevin Hogan’s office. I’ve unsubscribed you from our list.

Cheers,

Mat

A little bit of local history for Australian Infrastructure Developments, its Queensland backers and potential overseas investors

Since time immemorial there have been people living in the Clarence Valley. 

Some families have been in this valley for thousands of years, some for over one hundred years and some less than ten years, but they are all part of the same vibrant local communities.

Connection with the Clarence River and its flood plain runs deep in these communities.

Their allegiance has always been Clarence first when the valley needs protection, but do understand they are also part of the bigger Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

In the 1850’s Clarence Valley residents successfully resisted moves to place the region within the boundaries of the Colony of Queensland by sending petitions to the British Parliament.

Indigenous communities along the Clarence River protected the reef “Dirragun” in the 1950s, from NSW Government plans to remove this important cultural and spiritual site at the river mouth, by speaking up about its importance.

People from the Clarence Valley were involved in the battle of Terania Creek in 1979 and subsequent protests which defeated NSW Wran Government and timber industry plans for extensive logging of native forest in the Terania and Mt. Nardi areas, eventually leading to the creation of the 8,080ha Nightcap National Park which was World Heritage listed in 1986.

In the 1980s Clarence Valley residents helped save the Washpool rainforest.

In 1988-1989 the Clarence Valley successfully opposed the Wran & Greiner governments’ support of the Daishowa proposal to establish a pulp paper mill on the Clarence River.

The Yaegl people of the Clarence Valley launched a native title claim for the Clarence River from Harwood Bridge to the sea in 1996, in part to protect the Clarence River estuary from overdevelopment which would destroy environment and connection to land. Native Title was granted in 2015.

1999 saw the Ross gold mine at Timbarra (in the upper reaches of the Clarence River catchment) permanently closed due to sustained opposition from the northern NSW region, including people in the Clarence Valley.

Along came 2007 and the Clarence Valley saw off the federal Howard Government’s proposal to dam and divert water from the Clarence River catchment for the benefit of mines and irrigators in inland New South Wales.

In July 2014 the value we placed on protecting the river systems and ensuring water security for the region helped convinced Labor's Janelle Saffin to co-sponsor an urgency motion at a NSW State Conference calling for a CSG Free Northern Rivers.

By 2015 the valley had also been part of the broad community movement which sent the NSW Baird Government and the coal seam gas industry packing from the Northern Rivers region:

 Photographs contributed

Now the 2016 federal election campaign has rolled around and the Clarence Greens are saying this:

While market goers in Yamba on 26 June were receiving handouts like this flyer:

And taking home this bumper sticker:

The question that Australian Infrastructure Developments Pty Ltd, its backers and potential investors in the Yamba industrial port plan, have to ask themselves is this; “Will the Clarence Valley show us the door as well?”

I rather suspect that it will.