Saturday 5 December 2020

Quote of the Week

 

“Just to give a shout-out for our friends the trees, I'd like to put on the record that trees are renewable and they are recyclable. We believe that we will manage them in a sustainable way. They are carbon-positive and they are a resource that belongs to all Australians. If you were going to go out and invent the absolutely perfect product—as the big man who invented trees in the first place did—you would invent a tree. I'm sure that trees were put on this earth in the very first instance because they were able to be cut down, because they would grow again and because they would provide a resource for myriad different things—not just for possums and for people to go and look at for a tourism adventure…”  [ South Australian Liberal Senator Anne Rushton, Senate Hansard 8 February 2018] {my yellow highlighting}


Friday 4 December 2020

On keeping faith with the environment, biodiversity and our natural landscapes

 

Wildlife Crusaders For Our Environment shared this letter on Facebook. It was written by Catherine Cusack, Member of the NSW Legislative Council since March 2013, to Friends of Kalang Headwaters:


Dear Friends of Kalang Headwaters,


Can I say I am incredibly flattered by the invitation and if I could be there without cancelling other commitments I would 100% be there.


Apart from the many good reasons to join you, the best part of my job is first hand seeing our incredible ancient landscape with people who understand it and can explain what I am looking at, what has happened and the actions we need to take.


The real heroes in our state are those who care, whose deep knowledge is the result of years of observation, concern, research and trying to share with their communities and people like me in politics who they believe have a duty to respect and act upon the facts.


I cannot find words to adequately describe my respect for all that work and advocacy for our environment. And I would add the word worry. People are really worried about past mistakes, how we can address them and where things are headed. Anxiety for our precious and fragile landscape and the species in trouble because it’s their home and we failed to respect that. All of it is local. All of it is respectful and all of it is informed by science - and I am just the blow in whose contribution is simply to listen and absorb the information. Information that has taken years of work to discern. The briefings I receive are beautifully prepared often people take time off work and fit in with my program. I cannot tell you how lucky I am in this job and how duty bound I feel to act on the information I am given. There is patience even when it’s forced because frankly past mistakes for whatever reason make me angry and so I can only imagine how local communities who live through the errors must feel.


I voted against my Government's Bill because it was just wrong and a big mistake - the suffering was all about being disloyal to my team who gave me no choice.


The messages of support I received were completely unexpected and overwhelming. I was stunned and of course very grateful because it was a big fall for me - and people who I don’t know reached out to put me back on my feet again.


I have thought so much about how surprised and pleased people were by my vote. I can only guess they have become used to disappointment in decisions and how “the system” just isn’t hearing what they are saying. These people I am referring to have poured their lives into helping our environment and while I am grateful, I am also sorry it was an unexpected surprise. I get it because I worked hard before the Bill was debated in Parliament and well know that sinking feeling - this is super important and nobody is listening to me.


After the vote they played Tom Perry’s song “I won’t back down”. I certainly experienced a rush of affection for them but needed to message that wasn’t the song I was listening to as I dragged my sorry self up to Parliament that morning. The song I was playing on a loop that I will always associate with that issue was The Eagles “Take it to the Limit”. Because for me that song was all about OMG I am failing but I have got to keep trying and when I fail again I need to try harder.


I tell this story because these feelings I recognise in every passionate person trying to assist our environment. I sure know that weariness and so when in spite of being so tired you keep going - well that’s what inspires me.


There is a Bobby Kennedy quote I first heard as a child. This is off topic but google Bobby Kennedy’s son Robert Kennedy Jnr environment podcasts and get ready to be inspired.


Anyway this is his father’s quote and I love it because gives me so much optimism about the power of community activism.


Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”


There are ripples of hope crisscrossing our state and all of you know this to be true because you are the ripples of hope. And it is becoming a mighty torrent.


Last week the torrent was unleashed on a government Bill I voted against. It happened to be me - but I was just the end product of a massive shift in opinion driven by local activism. I wouldn’t be there or be able to do that if not for you. What you are doing is reversing political currents in politics it is making a difference and the power only grows because of perseverance in the face of disappointments and adversity.


Please never stop or feel disheartened. It is making such a difference.


In my speech I mentioned the sad fate of a local koala colony in Ballina Shire impacted by the construction of the Pacific Motorway. I tried so hard at a really early stage of the project and to cut a very long story short, I failed. It is an experience I say honestly, I am embittered by what happened; there were other options but no, it was the koalas who copped it. In some ways my decision to block the LLS Bill is rooted in that defeat. I am not interested anymore in “mitigation” or “offsets” we are so far beyond those ideas as viable strategies. Nothing will restore what happened there in the Blackhall Range and nothing can console the adoring community who knew each koala and cared for their habitat. I share that story of a lost battle because it contributed to the defeat of the Bill last week. Losing battles can sometimes win wars - I am bewildered as to why this is so hard but it is and we just push through it regardless.


I applaud the conservation proposal for the Kalang headwaters. I love that river and I am jealous of everyone who is present at the ceremony. Thank all of you for caring for the river it’s ecosystem and wildlife.


Please never stop believing politics can be better than it is. My personal motto is the longer it takes, the bigger the party when we get there! Let’s try together to get there.


Thanks for keeping the faith.


Thursday 3 December 2020

Individuals and communities in New South Wales are feeling the emotional and social stress of two horror years in a row

 

One can hear the stress, fatigue, sadness, helplessness and sometimes despair behind a great many of the tweets and posts on Australian social media - especially from those living in regional areas around the country.


One NSW Labor MP recently observed to me that so many people are now in a dark place.


So sadly, this article comes as no surprise…..


The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2020:


It was thrust into the national spotlight when 33 people tragically lost their lives in last year’s deadly bushfires. But the NSW south coast holds another unenviable title — the suicide capital of NSW.


In a grim reminder of the mental health battle facing our state, the area from Bateman’s Bay to the Victorian border lost 68 people to suicide between 2015 and 2019.


This is compared to the 33 lives lost to the bushfires which ravaged the region from September 2019 through to January 2020.


Analysis of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data reveals the south coast has a suicide rate of 21.5 per 100,000 people — the highest rate in NSW and an increase on the previous year.


Taree, Inverell, Yass and the Clarence Valley are the next worst affected. “We are seeing in the coastal regions the cumulative effects of the bushfires, social dislocation and the consequent effects of further trauma through COVID-19,” Professor Ian Hickie of the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre said. “These are the areas where there are already economic impacts, disruption and now there are additional effects. We talk about this idea of stacked distress.” The figures also reveal a yawning gap between suicide rates in the bush and Sydney, where the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals live.


Gosford and Wyong on the Central Coast are the second and third-worst areas in Greater Sydney, behind the Sydney CBD which has a suicide rate of 14.6 deaths per 100,000 people.


Yet there are 27 other rural and regional locations with a higher suicide rate. Youth mental health expert Professor Patrick McGorry said the statistics “are so shocking — it’s like a war zone”.


There’s more than 15,500 people who have died in that five-year period (nationwide). If the cause of death were something different — like drownings or car accidents — it would be in people’s faces and on the front page,” he said.


Lifeline: 13 11 14

[my yellow highlighting]


By January 2019 drought affected 99.8 per cent of New South Wales and most of the state was still experiencing drought in January 2020.


The devastating 2019-20 bushfire season commenced early in regional New South Wales. The Clarence Valley fires started at the beginning of June 2019.


The COVID-19 pandemic reached New South Wales on 15 January 2020 and first appeared in the NSW Northern Rivers region on or about 16 March 2020. 


In New South Wales in October 2020 unemployment stood at 6.5% and the number of people in the state who were unemployed for periods ranging from up to 4 weeks to 52 weeks and under 104 weeks rose by 148,300 individuals between October 2019 and October 2020.


By July 2020 the employment growth rate stood at 0.0% to -2.4% across the NSW Northern Rivers region.


Fire, drought, fear of infection, public health orders and economic recession significantly affected how coastal communities have lived their lives in the last two years.


According to the federal Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing:


The newly established New South Wales Suicide Monitoring System, launched by the NSW Government on 9 November 2020, reported 673 suspected suicides in NSW from 1 January to 30 September 2020. This is similar to the 672 suspected suicides reported for the same period in 2019 (NSW Ministry of Health 2020). Three-quarters of suspected suicides in 2020 were among males and more than half of all suspected suicides occurred among those aged between 25 and 55 (NSW Ministry of Health 2020).


Again, according to the same source, in New South Wales in 2018 there were a total 899 deaths registered as suicide and in 2019 at total of 937 deaths registered as suicide.

 

The number of registered deaths in 2019 exceeded the 22 year high of 1997 which saw 935 deaths registered as suicide.


The rate of NSW ambulance attendances for mental heath issues in 2019 was 114.3 persons per 100,000 population.


In 2018-2019 a total of 297 males and 388 females were hospitalised for self-harm on the NSW North Coast.


The rate of NSW Northern Rivers hospitalisations for self-harm by females in 2018-2019 ranged from Tweed Valley 181.5 persons per 100,000 population, Clarence Valley 128.3 persons, Richmond Valley-Hinterland 169.6 persons, and Richmond Valley-Coastal 104.2 persons. There are as yet no published figures for 2020.


Wednesday 2 December 2020

In Australia this summer "heatwaves may not reach the extreme temperatures of recent years, but may be longer duration and more humid, which can still have a significant impact on human health"



Heatwave Situation for Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday (3 days starting 30/11/2020)

Areas of low-intensity heatwave experienced through northern WA, central NT, most of QLD, northeastern SA and northern NSW. Areas of severe heatwave experienced in southern and western QLD and inland northern NSW. An area of extreme heatwave experienced in south central QLD and over the NSW border.






Clarence Valley Independent, 1 December 2020: 


Australia can expect a wetter than normal summer, but bush and grass fires cannot be ruled out completely, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Summer Climate Outlook released today. 


The outlook for summer has been issued as Australia continues to experience an active La Niña event which is expected to remain until at least the start of autumn. 


The Bureau’s Head of Operational Climate Services Dr Andrew Watkins said this means large parts of eastern Australia have an increased risk of flooding. “While the last three weeks have been dry in many parts of the country – due in part to unfavourable tropical weather patterns – it does not signal a weakening of La Niña. 


“Our climate outlook is the opposite of what we experienced last year in Australia. This summer, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are expected to see above average rainfall, meaning we face an increased risk of widespread floods. 


Dr Watkins said that while the risk of bushfires isn’t as high as last summer, fires will occur. 


“There’s a great chance of grass fires in some areas as recent rain and warm weather have led to vigorous vegetation growth. South eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions in the world. 


Even short periods of hot and dry weather increase the risk of fire in summer.” Dr Watkins said the outlook was also a reminder for communities to be prepared for heatwaves over the coming months. 


“Every summer we see heatwaves across southern Australia. This summer heatwaves may not reach the extreme temperatures of recent years, but may be longer duration and more humid, which can still have a significant impact on human health. 


“Daytime temperatures in summer are likely to be near average, but there will be periods of high heat combined with milder periods. 


“It’s important to keep up to date with the Bureau’s heatwave service.”.....


Northern Rivers communities will be able to see their youngest members live online when the Green Innovation Awards are presented on Thursday 10 December 2020 at 6.30pm

 

Echo NetDaily, 30 November 2020:


Goolmangar PS kids are very excited about their nomination. photo supplied.
















Students across the Northern Rivers have been coming up with innovative ideas in waste management, water management, building and packaging materials, biofuels/renewable energy and agriculture, for a chance to win a gong at the Green Innovation Awards.


The Green Innovation Awards is a not-for-profit, community based environmental competition for primary and high schools run across the Northern Rivers......


Southern Cross Universities Vice President (Engagement) Ben Roche is pleased to be involved in a program which sees school students connecting with innovative industry leaders in such an empowering and meaningful way.


Our partnership with the Green Innovation Awards is all about inspiring and equipping young thinkers, problem solvers and change-makers to bring forward their ideas for our future from protecting and managing our precious ecosystems to devising new ways to live sustainably within a circular economy.’


To give you a taste of the fresh ideas that have been flowing from students, Goolmangar Public School have been creating terrariums and mesocosms which have their own mini-climate and water cycle. Other finalist primary schools include; Dunoon Public School, Empire-Vale Public School, Lismore Heights Public School, St Ambrose Pottsville and last years winners Wyrallah Rd Public School.


And it’s not just the primary schools who are dreaming big and coming up with solutions to real world issues. High Schools McAuley Catholic College Grafton and the Rivers Secondary College-Richmond River High Campus are also in the running for the most innovative high school.


High profile, innovative leaders from across the Northern Rivers and beyond have put their hand up to be a part of the screening and to congratulate the talented students from across the region.


The Green Innovation Awards will be screened live on-line on Thursday December 10 at 6.30pm.


To view the awards, go to the Green innovation Awards website, register to watch and you’ll be emailed a link.


Tuesday 1 December 2020

Berejiklian Government still refusing to meet with Murwillumbah community to discuss forced school closures

 

Office of NSW Labor Member for Lismore, 27 November 2020:


PRUE CAR MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION

JANELLE SAFFIN MP
STATE MEMBER FOR LISMORE
 
JUSTINE ELLIOT MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR RICHMOND


 
GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN, JOHN BARILARO, AND SARAH MITCHELL MUST COME OUT OF HIDING ON FORCED SCHOOL CLOSURES

 
The Liberals and Nationals have refused to front up to the Murwillumbah community and halt their forced school closures.


Gladys Berejiklian, John Barilaro and Education Minister Sarah Mitchell have been in witness protection since their bombshell announcement to force four Murwillumbah schools to close in favour of an American-style mega-school.    


Shadow Education Minister Prue Car, Lismore MP Janelle Saffin and Richmond MP Justine Elliot are holding a community forum today to hear the concerns of local families and teachers.


The Liberals’ and Nationals’ forced closures of Murwillumbah Public School, Murwillumbah East Public School and Wollumbin High School will see the end of beloved community schools, with the replacement being an American-style mega-school at Murwillumbah High School.
 
The forced closure of Murwillumbah East Public School breaks a key election promise the Liberals and Nationals made to upgrade the school.
 
Ms Car said, “These forced school closures were approved in secret, with no community consultation, and now the Premier and Minister refuse to speak to the community.”


The Liberals and Nationals are refusing to ask North Coast families the most important question: do they want school closures in exchange for an American-style mega-school? They’re not asking the question because they know the answer would be no.


Unfortunately, the Liberals and Nationals are forcing these closures anyway because the views of local communities couldn’t matter less to them,” Ms Car said.


Ms Saffin said, “So far, the Government has not provided the community with a good reason for the closure, especially the educational advantage for the children, which lead people to think that it is about selling off this prime real estate land.”


Given the NSW Minister for Education, Sarah Mitchell was less than truthful with the Murwillumbah East Public School community about restoration following the 2017 flood damage, it is hard to have faith in what the Government wants to do.”


The Minister signed off on this schools closure in February this year. There must be more documents that talk about the plan for the prime real estate land where these three schools slated for closure are located.”


I demand all papers to be released, as our community deserve to know the truth about all of this,” Ms Saffin said.


Ms Elliot said, “This is a bad decision by a bad government. These secret school closures are a shameful act by the Liberals and Nationals – they’re selling out our children and selling out our community”

 

The North Coast Nationals MPs have been plotting for months to forcibly close four local schools, cram students into one location and sell the other school sites. Our community wants the NSW Government to scrap this bad decision.”


Calls to halt new logging in bushfire impacted areas in New South Wales are not going away

 

Matters are not going exactly to plan for NSW Deputy-Premier, Minister for Regional New South Wales and Nationals MP for Monaro, John 'Barracuda' Barilaro.


With only another four weeks to the end of 2020 his timetable for legislative and regulatory changes, allowing farmers and developers to commence virtually unregulated clearing of native trees and vegetation before state parliament and local government return from the two-month holiday break, is now seriously behind schedule.


Neither mainstream nor social media has let go of the idea that it is environmentally destructive to be logging already bushfire-impacted forests and clearing what remains of koala food and shelter trees in the face of a looming extinction crisis and increasing climate change.


And when it comes to the Premier, despite his best efforts Barilaro hasn't managed to weaken her enough to cause a parliamentary leadership challenge in the NSW Liberal Party.


He is not yet the kingmaker he so obviously wants to be, even though he is casting less than subtle hints across the paths of journalists that Gladys Berejiklian is off her game, tired, making mistakes and that "A break would do her good" .


These are two examples of regional and national media articles published last Friday.....


Echo NetDaily, 27 November 2020:


More than 60 per cent of North Coast forests and 80 per cent of South Coast forests were burnt in the 2019–20 black summer fires. Since that point issues around the management and logging of these and other forests have been highlighted and ‘the Guardian has revealed that the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) will likely be engaged to conduct a review to “consider the standards that should be in place for forestry operations after bushfires.”,’ said Independent NSW MLC Justin Field.


Mr Field has called on the NSW government to give an undertaking to NSW coastal communities that new approvals for logging in the state’s badly burnt public state forests will not be approved until a review by the state’s Independent NRC is completed.


It’s one year to the week since the devastating Currowan fire took hold on the South Coast. The community always understood business as usual wasn’t possible after the fires but the politics has been slow to move and a lot of damage has been done,’ said Mr Field.


This review is a political fix to try to find a circuit breaker in what has been an escalating public conflict between John Barilaro’s department and the NSW EPA. The NRC are effectively being asked to be the arbiter in this disagreement.


Logging breaches


In part this review is in response to numerous EPA stop-work orders and investigations into breaches by Forestry Corporation under the burnt forest logging rules.


I am seeking an undertaking from the Government that new approvals for logging in bushfire affected forests will not be granted until we’ve seen the outcome of the review,’ Mr Field said.


The review comes after a public dispute between Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s Department of Regional NSW and the NSW Environment Protection Authority over the ‘site specific operating conditions’ the EPA had put in place to minimise environmental damage of burnt forest logging,’ says Mr Field.


The dispute had led to the EPA warning Forestry Corporation that plans to move back to logging under pre-fire conditions would likely breach the NSW Forestry Act which requires ecologically sustainable forest management practices. ‘


Local Greens Member for Ballina Tamara Smith told Echonetdaily that, ‘The Greens oppose logging in native forests on a good day, let alone after catastrophic bushfires and the subsequent destruction of wildlife and biodiversity on an unprecedented scale in NSW last summer.


I and thousands of environmentalists begged the government to send in ecologists after the fires last summer not loggers, but they did any way.


The idea that with 1.7 degrees of global warming already locked in that logging of native forests is even on the table is the kind of environmental vandalism that future generations will study as pivotal to sealing a fate of extinction for koalas and platypus and countless other species,’ said Ms Smith…...


The Guardian, 27 November 2020: 


NSW’s EPA has issued stop-work orders to the state-owned Forestry Corporation for breaches 
of its licence in bushfire-hit forests on the north and south coasts. 
Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images








The New South Wales government is planning a review of forestry operations in bushfire-hit coastal regions as tensions mount between the environment regulator and Forestry Corporation. 


The review, which is still to be formally commissioned, will probably be carried out by the state’s Natural Resources Commission (NRC), government sources have told Guardian Australia. 


The state’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued the state-owned Forestry Corporation with a series of stop-work orders this year for breaches of its licence in bushfire-hit forests on the south and north coasts. 


Last month, the EPA started five prosecutions against Forestry Corporation in the land and environment court for alleged breaches of its licence in a forest near Coffs Harbour. 


Because of the destruction caused by the bushfires, the EPA had set stricter standards for logging operations covered by the coastal integrated forestry operations approval (IFOA). 


The EPA’s application of the post-bushfire rules has frustrated the industry and the Department of Regional NSW wrote to the agency in September to say forestry believed environmental protections set out in its approval remained adequate after the fires. 


But MPs and residents of coastal NSW have been dismayed at the logging of fire-affected habitat given the scale of disaster and its effect on threatened plants and animals, including koalas. 


The planned review will consider the standards that should be in place for forestry operations after bushfires and try to chart a path back to the use of the coastal IFOA. 


The NRC provides independent advice to government and was the agency that delivered the report on the Barwon-Darling water-sharing plan, which found the riverine system was in crisis. 


The independent MP, Justin Field, who is based on the south coast, asked the forestry minister, John Barilaro, about the “now-public dispute” between the EPA and regional NSW and what the government was doing to ensure forestry operations were ecologically sustainable. 


Field told Guardian Australia the NRC “will effectively be the arbiter in the disagreement between Forestry Corporation and the EPA over what logging could sustainably happen in burnt forest”. 


“This is in response to numerous EPA stop-work orders and investigations into breaches under the burnt forest logging rules,” he said. 


“I welcome this review. The public has recommended that business as usual after the fires is not possible.” 


He said an independent assessment of the impact of logging on burnt forest and wood supply was appropriate. 


“I hope this leads to a conversation about a transition away from public native forestry to plantations and private land forestry.” A spokesman for Barilaro would not confirm a formal review......