A noisy, visually intrusive marine industrial zone on flood prone Palmers Island was never going to be a good idea

This was never going to be good idea. Applying to rezone rural land in order to create a noisy, visual intrusive marine industrial precinct so near to residences, on flood prone land on an island with known riverbank instability, in order to build vessels ranging from 6 metres to 35 metres in length and refit/maintain other vessels.

Something Mayor Jim Simmons, Deputy-Mayor Jason Kingsley, along with Cllrs. Andrew Baker, Arthur Lysaught, Richie Williamson and Karen Toms, failed to fully appreciate when it came before Clarence Valley Council for a second time in November 2016.

The Daily Examiner, 25 November 2017, p.5:

The NSW Government’s planning Gateway has again knocked back Yamba Welding and Engineering’s proposed marine industrial precinct at Palmers Island.

This has been the second time in three years the plans have been denied by the government, and while Yamba Welding and Engineering managing director Bill Collingburn said he would continue to negotiate with the State Government, he would not rule out the potential that the company would “vote with their feet” and move interstate.

In the Gateway’s decision made on November 10, the Department of Planning and Environment deputy secretary of planning services Marcus Ray said the plan should not proceed due to a lack of demonstrated need for additional zoned land at the location, its inconsistencies with Clarence Valley Industrial Lands Policy and the North Coast Regional Plan 2036.

“The potential for noise and visual impacts on the amenity of the surrounding locality are considered unacceptable,” Mr Ray’s decision said.

Mr Collingburn said the latest decision was not the end of the project.

“We have got other avenues to explore, and we will be doing that, so this is not the end of it,” Mr Collingburn said.

“We spend more than $2 million a year in the Valley, and that’s a lot of money.

“We’ve been here 43 years and employ 32 people, we’ve got 10 young apprentices who would otherwise have gone to Sydney, and with this plan we have the potential to triple it.

“This plan has been well received by Clarence Valley Council and the community at large who want to see more jobs in the area.

“We want to stay here, and the government has left the door open, but if they decree we can’t expand then we will vote with our feet.”

Have our expectations in relation to medical treatment risen steadily or is NSW health service delivery getting worse?

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 November 2017:

The Health Care Complaints Commission's annual report shows it was hit with 6319 complaints, which largely related to questionable treatments, misconduct and poor communication…..

Complaints surge

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission was hit with 6,319 complaints in 2016-17 - leading to a 132 per cent growth in complaints over the past decade.

Health Care Complaints Commission Annual Report 2016-17:

Prosecuting complaints

The Commission referred 198 investigations to its Legal Division, compared with 139 in the previous year. This is an increase of 42.4%.

In the same period, the Director of Proceedings made 104 determinations whether or not to prosecute a complaint, 76 of which recommended prosecution before NCAT and 20 before a Professional Standards Committee. In eight complaints, the Director of Proceedings determined not to prosecute…..

The overall success rate of prosecutions before Professional Standards Committees and NCAT was 96.2%.

In 2016-17, the registration of 38 health practitioners was cancelled or disqualified. Three practitioners were suspended and had conditions placed on their registration. A further 31 health practitioners had conditions placed on their registration and were reprimanded or cautioned……

The proportions of complaints for each category of health service provider have remained consistent during the period. Individual health practitioners continue to make up the highest proportion of all complaints. Over the period 2012-13 to 2016-17 an average of 62.5% were about registered health practitioners, 35.1% of complaints received were about health organisations, and 2.4% were about non-registered health practitioners and practitioners whose registration status was unknown…..

And now for some good news.....

Via @simonahac, 24 November 2017

Facebook, Senator Rachael Siewert, 22 November 2017:

Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert has welcomed the Town of Port Hedland officially opposing the cashless welfare card.

“Despite the Mayor’s strong support of the card, I am glad other councillors have stood up to the card and now officially oppose it in Port Hedland.

“They have listened to Aboriginal organisations and others in the community that have explained how the card is a step backwards and will remove autonomy for those forced on to it.

“Time and time again we have seen evidence that involuntary income management does not help people struggling to get by, during the NT Intervention the long –term objectives were not met.

“Top-down income management policies that attempt to reduce disadvantage often has the opposite effect. It is time to ditch this ideological approach to addressing gambling and alcohol and drug addiction once and for all.

“We need investment in preventative measures and wrap-around services for those struggling with addiction”.

400,000 hectares stripped of vegetation in Queensland in 2015-16

The world’s largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef, is both a nursery and feeding ground for colourful tropical marine species and edible fish species – it is part of Australia’s national food bowl.

Yet there still appears to be people who fail to understand the importance of vegetated land catchments to sustaining the health of this 2,300 kilometres long reef system.

The Guardian, 24 November 2017:

Queensland farmers are suspected of having defied rare federal government intervention and cleared a large swath of land without commonwealth approval, according to conservationists.

The native vegetation was in a reef catchment, meaning the clearing could worsen pollution on the Great Barrier Reef. Government-commissioned studies show it provided habitat to several threatened species.

Queensland is experiencing a boom in tree clearing – rates jumped 33% in 2016, in a region that is already considered the only “global deforestation hotspot” in the developed world. About 400,000 hectares were cleared in 2015-16, meaning Queensland now has two-thirds the annual rate of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.

In 2015 the landowners at Wombinoo, about 70km south-west of Cairns, gained approval under lenient Queensland state laws to clear more than 3,000 hectares of mostly untouched remnant native vegetation.

Between 2015 and 2016, the farmers began undertaking that clearing, with 560 hectares of trees felled and burned before environment groups noticed and alerted the federal government.

The government took the very rare step of forcibly referring the planned clearing for assessment under the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Under that law, activities that potentially affect “matters of national environmental significance” must be assessed by the federal government.

An assessment found the clearing would need federal approval. It also found the previous clearing required investigation because it might have destroyed the habitat of a number of threatened species, including the greater glider and koalas.

No approval has been granted for further clearing, and the investigation of the previous clearing is apparently still incomplete, but footage has emerged purportedly showing a further 60 hectares was cleared between March and April this year. The clearing allegedly includes one large plot, as well as a strip about 60 metres wide, according to the Wilderness Society, which gathered the evidence. But land owners who spoke to the Guardian said all relevant approvals had been secured before any clearing took place.

The Wilderness Society alleges that half of that new clearing is in a creek bed that drains on to the Great Barrier Reef, raising concerns about the impacts on water quality there. According to the Wilderness Society, some of the new clearing appears to have occurred outside the area that received approval from the state government.

Lawyers at the Environmental Defenders Office of New South Wales have written to both the federal and state governments on behalf of the Wilderness Society, informing them of the clearing and asking what action would be taken.

The American Resistance has many faces and this is just one of them (18)

What's up with @CarrieUnderwood stealing the song I stole from her? Touché, girl. #BeforeHeTweets #CMAawards @BradPaisley pic.twitter.com/dTFupVZWRZ

— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) November 9, 2017

Quote of the Week

“Trump is 71; Murdoch is 86, and the median age of a prime-time Fox News viewer is 68. Anyone can see where this is going. The grim reaper has become a Democratic poll watcher.”  [Journalist Richard Cohen  writing in The Washington Post, 13 November 2017]

A peek at how the political donations were running in Adani country during the 2017 Queensland state election campaign

The Australia Institute, Adani impact by Queensland electorate How Galilee Basin development affects the economics and politics of the existing Queensland coal industry, November 2017:

The benefits of the Adani coal mine have been readily discussed and debated. Equally important but rarely discussed are the many electorates that stand to lose out from the development of the Galilee Basin. In some cases, the winners and losers share an electorate.

The mine that Adani plans to build in the Galilee Basin would be one of the largest export coal mines in the world. Its construction at a time of shrinking world demand for coal means that exports from Adani can cannibalise existing exports and potential growth from other coal regions – and, by extension, lead to fewer jobs or lower jobs growth in those regions. Forecasts by coal industry modellers Wood Mackenzie show that significant coal exports from the Galilee Basin would, by 2035, lead to a reduction in coal production of 30% in the Bowen Basin, 37% in the Surat Basin and 37% in the Hunter Valley.

The balance of which seats would benefit from Adani’s proposal and which would be negatively affected have not been properly considered. These effects will occur regardless of whether the Adani mine is subsidised; the additional cost to taxpayers of subsidising Adani is outside of the scope of this paper.

The decision by Adani to use Townsville and Rockhampton as its bases for fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workforces could advantage those cities – and the eight state electorates that they contain. Six of those electorates are marginal, and another has changed hands in both of the last two elections.

On the other hand, Mackay, Gladstone and Rockhampton are already major FIFO bases, and are strong FIFO candidates for future Bowen and Surat basin coal mines. If Galilee Basin development cannibalises Bowen and Surat development, these cities and their six state electorates – three of which are marginal – will suffer.

The electorates that contain the mines themselves are also likely to become a political issue. The proposed Galilee coal mines run across two or three electorates: Burdekin, Gregory and possibly Traeger. Of these, only Burdekin is marginal. In addition, Burdekin and Gregory also contain Bowen Basin coal projects threatened by Galilee development. Another electorate, Callide, contains Surat Basin mines at risk of cannibalisation by Galilee development.

Political donations during the 2017 Queensland state elections as of 24 November 2017:

Left click on images to enlarge

https://disclosures.ecq.qld.gov.au/Map/Index?View=Table&GovernmentType=State&Electorate=BURDEKIN

https://disclosures.ecq.qld.gov.au/Map/Index?View=Table&GovernmentType=State&Electorate=TRAEGER

https://disclosures.ecq.qld.gov.au/Map/Index?View=Table&GovernmentType=State&Electorate=GREGORY

https://disclosures.ecq.qld.gov.au/Map/Index?View=Table&GovernmentType=State&Electorate=TOWNSVILLE