Dear Prime Minister, Let me begin with warm congratulations on your new job. What an honour it is for you to be our new leader. Honestly, you are a breath of fresh air, and that is high praise coming from a Greens voter. After two years of an inarticulate troglodyte at the helm, I have high hopes for you.
These congratulations aside (though they are sincere), I have a few things I would like to ask of you now you are the proud leader of our island nation. You have been given a unique opportunity to bring back the great name Australia deserves, particularly when it comes to basic Human Rights. Prime Minister Turnbull, I never believed I would see the day when Australia would be responsible for heinous abuse towards innocent people. I also never thought (though this was clearly naivety at its best on my part) that a government would deliberately ignore accusations and demonise the people who brought it all to the public’s attention. The Abbott Government’s confected outrage towards Gillian Triggs and her report, The Forgotten Children, was disgusting. The strict rules of silence placed upon doctors who witnessed the atrocities were yet another blight on our National reputation. To seek asylum is a fundamental Human Right, and I, like many Australians, am continually horrified by the treatment of people seeking a better life here in Australia. The ‘stop the boats’ mantra we have been fed for the last two years leaves me speechless. The truth is the boats will never really stop, and I ask you not to have the same ‘see no evil’ attitude as your predecessor and those before him. The new goal to help Syrian refugees is a step in the right direction, but not quite enough. Please do not ignore those desperate people being held on our doorstep. They left their homes for a reason and they do not deserve this torture. Prime Minister Turnbull, another Human Right that is currently being ignored in our sun abundant land, is the right for all men and women to marry whomever they choose. I understand that you have been in a loving and committed relationship for a very long time. You know the joy of promising to share your life with someone. It is time to allow everyone to do this. Your support has been admirable, but there is much more to do. To wait for the next election is simply not good enough for those who have already waited years. Love is love, and everyone deserves to celebrate it. Denying a part of the Australian community the right to marry, continues to place a stigma on gay relationships. This is not fair and ultimately unacceptable. You can be remembered as the Prime Minister who made Australia equal. Prime Minister Turnbull, you may have already guessed, the theme of this letter is Human Rights and another pressing issue, is the rights of those Australians we should be most proud of, Indigenous Australians. It is time for you to undo Abbott’s work of alienating Indigenous people, and create a successful dialogue that moves to support and celebrate the culture that existed in lifeand times before Captain Cook ever declared 'Terra nullius.' Regardless of where people live, be it rural, outback or in the cities, we should be supportive and not deem it a fault of their 'lifestyle choice.' Please be a role model, and shame xenophobic racist behaviour. Speak with Indigenous leaders and hear their ideas unlike previous governments who chose the ideas. This is supposed to be a land of opportunity and compassion for everyone with no second-rate treatment for anybody. Please advocate for this… immediately. Prime Minister Turnbull, there are so many things I want to ask you, but I realise you are a busy man. So, I will end with one more point in need of addressing. Women’s rights should be at the top of your agenda. Please do not be like the arrogant, chauvinist who came before you, and please give the role of Minister for Women to a woman. Look at the wage gap and make a change. It is not OK to say it will be closer in a number of years. It must be on par today. Please also address violence against women. More must be done to educate people on this issue and create a safe environment for victims to speak about their experiences. It is not the responsibility of women to avoid violence, and you can help eliminate victim blaming. Prime Minister Turnbull, I have never seen myself as a Liberal voter, but I do respect you… for now. You have replaced a leader who gave Australia a terrible reputation. Please do not waste your time in your new role. Act fast and create a legacy Australia can be proud of. Be on the right side of History. Do this for Australia. Kind regards, Georgie (no relation to Tony) Abbott
(For now this mum & bub are safe near Mount Royal but for how long in our valley of coal mines)
Guest post from local farmer, Peter Hodges of Bowhay Pastoral Company, outlining his submission to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment last week ------------------------------- Dear Ms McNally Re; Objection to Drayton South Project Application No: SSD6875. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the above proposal. I have commented previously on this proposal and not all that much has changed. The proposed mine expansion is still too close to the Darley and Coolmore operations. I am not an anti mining person. I have actually worked in 3 underground mines and a mine operated small power station. I appreciate the benefits of mining all sorts of products which help us in many ways. But I am against stupidity. Putting aside the negative impacts on a lot of other activities such as agriculture, wine industry, tourism and yes, the thoroughbred Industry, let’s have a look at the environmental cost. A recent report I studied, said the mining output from the mines in the Hunter Valley and associated areas was 143 million tonnes for the 2013 year.
What it also indicated was the accepted ratio of per tonne of coal produced was 6.5 cubic metres of overburden removed. Roughly 6.5 tonnes of overburden per tonne of coal produced. That equates to close to 1 billion tonnes of existing geology, smashed. Just in one year.
When starting up a new open cut mining operation, a new mountain of overburden is started, from then on the overburden is thrown into the previous hole created, and as the mine finishes up at the end of the mining run, a hole is left that will more than likely eventually fill up with water.
The question then has to be asked, what will happen with the water that is contaminated from the now released by-product of the mining process. This by-product would have been previously locked away in different impermeable layers of rock and clays etc but now, because that has all been blown up and smashed, it is released. These can be different types of minerals, waters and acids previously contained in geology that evolved over millions of years.
My real fear is this contamination will eventually find its way into the Hunter River and head down to the coastal estuarine habitat areas which are absolutely vital for the continuation of many aquatic species such as young fish prawns worms oysters crabs etc. Can’t happen? Well I’ve been on the land, one way or another for most of my life. I grew up in Cessnock and remember vividly the 65/66 drought. The creeks around Cessnock dried up and the fish and yabbies were not happy. We were shown the impact of the drought on the farmers via black and white television. Dead sheep, cattle and crop losses. We landed in the Scone region early in the 1970’s. There were dairy farms and crop production all the way from Muswellbrook to Wingen in a continuous line. Most of the creeks seem to run all year round and occasionally flooded.
Then in 1979 it seemed to all change with the start of the 1979/1983 drought, followed by 1987, 1991, 1995 droughts and then the drought that ran from 2001 to June 2007. That one was broken by the Pasha Bulka, headbutting Newcastle beach. The thing that struck me about the 1970’s was one could bog a tractor on a gravel ridge because there was so much moisture about. When a period like this hits us sometime in the future it is not too hard to work out what the impacts of so much mining in a relatively concentrated area is eventually going to have on our stream and river system. Even with climate change this will still happen because again, as the planet heats up, the extremes will be bigger and have a greater impact. More droughts, more floods and more fires.
The big difference between open cut mining and agriculture based industries is this. With open cut mining, the landscape is smashed. Yes they do rehabilitation work, but it is yet to be proven to stand the test of time. A scientist friend of mine, Mr Ken Reynolds, who passed away several years ago and who worked for the Soil Conservation Service told me he had been instructed to find a way to rehabilitate overburden. Experiments found the trees planted would last between 15 to 20 odd years but once their roots hit the deeper overburden material they would start to get sick and eventually die. So in other words, rehabilitation would look good from a distance but not stand the test of time. Eventually the land would become useless for agriculture and no good for mining because that’s already been done.
The future is in agriculture, whether it be in food production, such as cattle, sheep, goats, olives, vegetables, wine, hops, crops, citrus, stone fruits etc. And let’s not forget our equine industry. Especially the thoroughbred industry. Combined with all the other equine breeds and uses, the horse industry the last time I looked, was the 3rd biggest employer in the country. Overall In the agricultural sector employment is going up. Opportunities are there and rewarding. I love the stuff! Employment in the mining industry is heading south and the sackings are continuing, even though overproduction is going up. The idiots in government need to stop throwing snags at the renewable industry because if this industry was allowed to develop it would help make up opportunities for those who lose their jobs in future automated open cut mining. The other thing the government needs to get rid of, are the crooks. But that seems to be a very slow process indeed. The fact that some of them have been politicians might be the problem. Yours Sincerely Peter
(Flying foxes, some of the many casaulties of 'mine-induced' habitat-destruction in the Hunter Valley)
Guest Post from local architect, Bev Atkinson, outlining her presentation to the Planning Assessment Commission in Singleton earlier this week ------------------------------- I come from Scone, north of here in the coal belt. I am an architect. I speak about making a healthy economic and social transition, straight away not later. Many of us reject any simplistic use of the word ‘jobs’ as persuasion to favour mines. As if it were mine earnings or no earnings. We all know that is not true. In Scone all the time, we see trades drained of practical workers, to feed the mines. They use only a tiny percentage of all workers, but from the available skilled tradies needed in towns, they drain a significant number; and often the best. Many don’t return. So trade apprentices don’t get trained; there’s no time. Our living standard has actually dropped: it’s terribly difficult to get trade work done soon and well. Tourism fades as mining grows; and all those jobs go with it; permanently. Miners earn a lot, but where I come from, it erodes equality, rather than spreading wealth around. And sadly, they can lose their health, which is priceless. I bought my home from a mine manager. He was well paid, but then he died young, of lung cancer. Health effects from mining are spreading north. But we don’t see our doctors asking for more mines. Doctor shortages in the country are not boasted of as positive job opportunities from mining. Jobs involved in mental health problems, accidents to shiftwork drivers, and chasing up of infringements ... those jobs are not used to advertise mining. Many mine related jobs are just to patch up its problems. How good for us all, if these jobs were lightened up and redirected, in an environment of healthy work and healthy land. People would spend more in town then, not less. Patients would not be advised to leave town to survive longer. The fact is, new emerging and clean industries too, create flow-on and indirect employment. I want to see the ancient traditional owners, and the people of Bulga today, with their history and society unbroken, their land intact. I hope to see them living free from the tensions of fighting for existence, free to work producing food and fibre ad infinitum on a clean landscape. Their young workers will enter jobs which hurt nobody and sustain us all. Jobs in agriculture, in renewable energies, in manufacturing. Benign, creative jobs using practical skills. To get there we need to spend on jobs in re-training, research and development; now, not later. Training and research provides inspiring work, and it too, generates many support jobs. Mines have served as a sinkhole for top talent, and for training opportunities, for long enough. The balance is now tipped right over. Hence we have excess readiness for mine jobs, and underfunded TAFE colleges. The advertised energy and optimism of mine work belongs more truly to jobs which endure, with the intact land, for longer than a handful of decades. Jobs which feed but also inspire our grandchildren’s grandchildren. Jobs which make things in Australia to serve our people, rather than jobs which import huge diggers made elsewhere. We need workers in sustainable design and manufacturing, in technology for reducing energy demand; in our CSIRO, in water management, soil sciences, in habitat preservation and nature conservation, in the arts, and in careful timber production. Is this expensive to do? So what ... we get what we pay for! Paying is what we want to do surely: paying workers! Isn’t that what we want? Jobs? Two researchers for the price of one miner, and both of them happy to clock off and have normal family hours. It may cost, to start up these investments, so let’s subsidise that instead of mining. Sadly, all mining must to some extent affect the land, the water, the soil, the trees and the habitat, while spoiling the air and climate. It cannot avoid extinguishing land which took eons to evolve. Land which left alone, could produce and sustain life for as long as Earth endures. So to be credible, Government economic analysis needs to take in a realistically extended future timescale looking centuries ahead at least. Only then could it validly choose life or death for the planet. With luck, it might see the light and choose pathways which nurture the planet and its amazing species, against the fatal depredations of its escalating human population. I salute the world famous people of Bulga, and the Wonnaruah our gracious, gentle and kindly landlords, for showing us where to start. Bev Atkinson B.Arch Hons UNSW
Guest Post from Wendy Wales outlining her presentation to the Planning Assessment Commission in Singleton earlier this week ------------------------------- Thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of DAMS HEG. Denman, Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group is a group that recognizes the connection between environmental and human health. We advocate for the conservation of remnant valley floor vegetation as a way of keeping the Hunter Valley habitable. We do not believe the Hunter Valley should be written off as a continuous sequence of coal mines. We are opposed to this expansion both on environmental and health grounds. On one occasion at Muswellbrook Hospital in the emergency ward with my students, we were told of the previous days cardio-pulmonary helicopter emergencies. The air quality that day was regarded as fair, good enough for most of us but, it seems likely a problem for the more vulnerable. In the study Investigating the Health Impacts of Particulates associated with coal mining 2014 Dalton et al uses dose rates to provide understanding of the health impacts of dust., rather than incidence of particular diseases.
For every 10μg/m3 increase in PM10 we can expect an increase of 0.6% deaths from any cause.
In Muswellbrook postcode there was 29,000,000 kg of PM 10 from coal mining and 1,300,000kg from electricity generation 2013/2014. The mortality from lung cancer increased to 8% for a 10 μg/m3 PM2.5 increase.
The National Pollutant Inventory reveals coal mining produces 700,000kg PM2.5 and power stations release 280,000kg. The not-for-profit health professionals organization, Climate and Health Alliance in their study published this year, Coal and Health in the Hunter, Lessons from one valley for the world, summarise that “the impacts (of the rapid expansion of coal) on local communities in the Hunter Valley include exposure to harmful air, noise and water pollution, stress associated with social disruption, and a sense of abandonment as government’s prioritise the interests of the coal industry above that of the community.” As the commissioners are aware Bulga Millbrodale Progress Assoc has been fighting the expansion ever since the company broke with its agreement to leave intact and not mine Sadle Ridge. Their arguments were of social and biodiversity impacts and the Land and Environment Court ruled in their favour, as did the Supreme Court when the company appealed. The cynical disregard of prior agreements by company not to advance toward Bulga should bring shame to its proponents. The Warkworth Sands Woodland now critically endangered, will be out and out destroyed by this mine. The Federal EPBC has recently classified Central Hunter Woodland Eucalypts, found on the site, as critically endangered. This is another environmental bottom line being ignored by the proposal. By removing social and environmental considerations from the approval process the corrupt minister Chris Hartcher was attempting to retreat to an era before 1987. In that year the UN Brudtland Report identified environment and society as needing to be part of a triple bottom line for sustainable development. That report was written, I repeat, in 1987 as a global response to climate change. The world bank has warned that ‘we are on track for a 4°C warmer world (by the end of the century). This means “extreme heat waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity and life-threatening sea level rise”, “There is no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C warmer world is possible. “ Kevin Anderson of the Tyndale Centre for Climate Change Research says that 4°C warming is “incompatible with any reasonable characterization of an organized, equitable and civilized global community.” We have wasted the time to easily and methodically move away from fossil fuels, climate change is now being felt. We need to stop pretending it isn’t happening and wake up to its mercilessness. We need to work together, retrain if necessary, reorganize and re-educate so that our lives will be enjoyable and meaningful and wonderful into the future, rather than desperate and impoverished. I have been impressed at the various PACS at the civility and respect shown by everyone assembled. Imagine if we were putting this effort into work together for our children and the planet. It is so much easier not to wreck the Earth than it is to fix it. We request the PAC reject the Warkworth Mount Thorley Continuation Project Expansion Application. Thank you. Wendy Wales Denman, Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group
TO: Mr Michael Johnsen, MP (NSW State Parliament) 20 Bridge Street MUSWELLBROOK NSW 2333 P (02) 6543 1065 F (02) 6543 1416 E upperhunter@parliament.nsw.gov.au TO: Mr Joel Fitzgibbon, MP (Federal Parliament) 3 Edward Street CESSNOCK NSW 2325 P (02) 4991 1022 F (02) 4991 2322 E joel.fitzgibbon.MP@aph.gov.au
... for those of us in 'Upper Hunter' and 'Hunter.'
(Powerful Image: Nature Vs Man By #MarioSanchezNevado, published on www.UpFade.com)
In Australia we lamely take instructions from a guy who believes that: ... Prison camps are for safety ... ... Coal is good for humanity ... But Naomi has a different take, and every word she utters is just plain essential:
"Fossilised thinking is a threat to life earth ... when you're in a hole just stop digging ... no more new coalmines" And in a nutshell if we don't start soon to act upon what she has to say we're fucked. Her clarion call to arms is obligatory for those of us who believe in intergenerational equity, and it's just not an option anymore to turn our heads and pretend we don't see what's happening all around us.
"We simply cannot afford to allow trade to trump the planet" ...
Tony, Naomi is a true global leader, and she's not in the least bit dangerous ... now, you, on the other hand, are not good for humanity and are ...
Dear Michael, If you and your colleagues pass the Biosecurity Bill 2015 into law you will be giving biosecurity officers greater powers to target 'animal-cruelty' investigators than the RSPCA has to protect animals. Worse still, the maximum penalty under the Bill would be $1.1 million and a 3 year jail term dwarfing any penalties dealt out to those found guilty of serious animal cruelty. The bill is utterly unconscionable, and how the parents and grandparents amongst you politicians can then face your children and grandchildren after committing such a deed (the passing of the Bill) remains an utter mystery to me. Or don't you plan to tell them about the factory pigs, and the factory hens, and the factory puppys, et al, suffering interminably? This bill is a betrayal of democracy itself. Kind regards, Sue (no-relation-to-tony) Abbott Scone NSW Australia
