Boroondara Councillors oppose Darebin Bridge

I attended the Boroondara Urban Planning Special Committee meeting held on Monday 22 April.

I was keen to speak to the meeting about the need to extend the planning permit for construction of the Darebin Bridge.  Here is what I said at the meeting [link].

This bridge has been needed and requested for nearly two decades.  Two years ago all necessary approvals were provided by local councils and the Victorian State Government  but unfortunately the bridge was still not constructed.

Now the planning permit granted by VCAT for works to progress on the Boroondara side of the Yarra is about to lapse so the Urban Planning Special Committee was considering whether to extend the permit.

The meeting agenda and the Council Officers Report on this ("UPC4 27 Willow Grove, Kew East")  can be downloaded from here:

• Urban Planning Special Committee meeting - 22 April 2013

From the report:

Proposal 

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) in conjunction with VicRoads and the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) have applied for an extension of time to the planning permit that allows the construction of a shared trail that connects the Darebin Creek Shared Trail with the Main Yarra Trail, via Willsmere Park. 

Issues

The following tests were identified by the Supreme Court and are the established principles in deciding whether to extend a permit: 

• Whether there has been a change in planning policy or zoning; 
• Whether the owner of the land is seeking to 'warehouse' the permit; 
• Any intervening circumstances; 
• The total elapse of time; 
• Whether the time limit originally imposed was adequate in all the circumstances; 
• The economic burden cast by a permit on the land owner; 
• The probability that a fresh application, if made, would be granted a permit. 

Officer's response

This request for an extension of time does not create an opportunity for parties to reopen the debate on issues such as consideration of alternative alignments of the shared trail. The tests established by the Supreme Court are all met. None of the changes made to the planning scheme since 2009 preclude or discourage the development. The State Government have affirmed their commitment to the project, allocating funding and announcing a new policy document, Cycling into the Future 2012-23, which lists this development as a priority project.

Here is my summary of the Councillor's statements about the extension and their vote.

Cr Phillip Healy (meeting chair)

• There is a better location for the bridge
• Willsmere Park must be protected so the bridge to it and bike path across it must not be built 
• Vote: against

Cr Jack Wegman

• No comments made
• Vote: against

Cr Jane Addis

• The election of a new council was a significant factor and there were concerns about the bridge.
• Vote: against

Cr Coral Ross

• The debate about the bridge alignment should not be reopened as per the Council Officers report.
• There are no grounds to oppose the extension of the permit
• Vote: for

Cr Phillip Mallis

• Supported the Council Officers report and recommendation
• Vote: for

Cr Judith Voce

• Declared a conflict of interest relating to her previous statements on the Darebin Bridge and was excused from the meeting.  Did not vote.

Cr Kevin Chow

• Supported the bridge and the extension, but noted that vote was going to go against the extension so he would change his vote to also oppose it.
• Vote: against

Cr Steve Hurd

• Had visited the park and appreciated hearing nature and some bird calls
• Mentioned that he cycles occasionally on the rear of a tandem.
• Stated that he thinks the Chandler Highway bridge crossing is safe and convenient for cyclists and there are no problems for cyclists using it
• Vote: against

Cr Heinz Kreutz

• The Darebin Bridge has been needed for some time and its construction is well overdue
• Commended the speakers from the community (17) who addressed the meeting and supported the extension of planning permit
• The procedural matter to be decided was the extension of the permit, other locations are not up for debate, despite some speakers opposing the extension raising other location options.
• Vote: for

Cr Jim Parke

• The Council and Planning Committee does have the power to vote on the matter
• The Council is not bound by decisions made by the previous Council
• Provided no reasons for opposing the extension
• Vote: against

So the proposal to extend the planning permit for the Darebin Bridge was defeated - 6 against, 3 for.  

This was not a good outcome, considering the very significant community need and support for the bridge, the State Government recently announced funding for it as a priority projects, VicRoads is doing detailed planning and construction of the bike path route connection has commenced on the north side of the Yarra.

Following the vote, the Cr Phillip Healey from the chair addressed those present and said:

"You environmentalists should be ashamed of yourselves. I am protecting the (Willsmere) park, you wish to destroy it"

This was an extraordinary outburst delivered in a very angry manner.  I thought it was quite inappropriate.

My concerns about the meeting are: 

• The Council Officers report was ignored by those who voted against the proposal
• None of the Councillors who voted against provided a valid reason for not extending the planning permit
• Some Councillors canvassed alternative locations for the bridge - which was not a matter for discussion or decision at the meeting
• Councillors should vote on the merits of a proposal - not change their vote to align themselves with a majority position.
• Input from 17 people from the community in support of the extensions was ignored by a majority of the Councillors at the meeting.
• The meeting chair did not stop objectors canvassing alternative locations for the bridge, despite this clearly not being relevant to the proposal.
• None of the opposing Councillors said they were representing the views of constituents from their respective wards.  They appeared to vote based on their personal opinions.
• The meeting chair had a clear and serious conflict of interest on the issue as he has made strident statements over a period of several years opposing the proposed location of the bridge.
• The meeting chair should not make comments that belittle or demean members of the community who choose to address Council meetings. This would appear to be in breach of the Council's Code of Conduct for Councillors.
• Council has a duty of care for Boroondara residents - forcing cyclists to use the Chandler Highway bridge and associated road crossings creates significant risk of collision with motor vehicles resulting in serious injuries or deaths.

It is not clear how the construction of the bridge will now proceed.  The State Government and or VAT apparently will need to make a ruling on the matter and override Boroondara Councillors refusal to extend the planning permit.  This will be a waste of taxpayers money and further delay construction of the bridge.

Here is a list of most of those who addressed the meeting to support the proposal and the Darebin Bridge:

• Graeme Martin, Co-ordinator Community Coalition for the Darebin-Yarra Link 
• Julia Blunden, Boroondara Bicycle User Group representative on the Community Coalition.
• David Farrow, Boroondara BUG member and retired traffic engineer 
• David Hall, Whitehorse Cyclist representative on the Community Coalition and retired engineer 
• Chris Ashe, Boroondara Bushwalker Representative on the Community 
• Robin Gallagher, Darebin BUG Representative on the Community Coalition 
• Jenny Henty, Member Lighter Footprints and Boroondara BUG
• Mike Taylor, former Whitehorse Cyclists president
• Glennys Jones, Boroondara BUG member and Bike Ed volunteer.
• Alan Ball, Manningham BUG 
• Dr Steve Rockman, parent with child/ren travelling across the river to Kew High School
• Maurie Abbott, Co-ordinator Banyule BUG 
• Roger Thornton, Secretary Boroondara Bushwalkers 
• John Parker, Boroondara BUG 
• Peter Campbell, Boroondara BUG 
• James Thyer, Community Coalition member
• Gary Brennan, Bicycle Network Victoria
• Michael Nolan, local resident

Crash statistics for the Chandler Highway

• Crashes involving bicycles on the Chandler Hwy include 2 serious injury and 5 other injury crashes.
• The route is a black length for cyclists which would qualify for road safety funding. 
• Most (4 or 5) of the accidents including the 2 serious accidents are on the Yarra side of the river. 
• These are very serious numbers noting that bicycle numbers are high.

See also

• Willsmere Park wetlands puts brakes on bike path plan, Boroondara Review Local, 23 Apr 2013
• Bike link plan for Yarra River bridge between Alphington and Kew hits speed hump, Northcote Leader, 25 Apr 2013
• $18m Kew bridge plan hits a pothole, Boroondara Review Local. 20 Dec 2012
• Newsmaker: Julia Blunden, Boroondara Review Local, 26 Apr 13 

We need the Darebin Bridge for cyclists and pedestrians

Presentation to Boroondara Council on the Darebin Bridge
Peter Campbell, Monday 22 April 2013

Thanks Mr Chairperson and Councillors.

I am a local resident in Boroondara, I live in Durham Road, Surrey Hills.  I am a member of the Boroondara Bicycle Users Group.

We regularly go on family bike rides to visit Melbourne's wonderful natural places such as our creeks, rivers and the bayside.

My daughter Chloe is now seven and is riding a bike but she is not confident on the roads, including bike lanes.  We go to Anniversary Trail, the Gardiners Creek Trail and other trails with other families so that all the children can learn to ride safely and appreciate our natural environment.

For example, on a recent outing of two families there were two adults and three children all on bikes. We drove to the Gardiners Creek Trail and cycled part of the way into the city. We stopped at a section of parkland for a rest and explore then returned.

As a family, we have also traveled across to the Darebin and Capital City Trails and have found the current bike route crossing at Chandler Highway to be both inconvenient and dangerous.

As our children get more confident on their bikes, we will extend our trips along available trails.  The Darebin Bridge will provide a valuable and safe link between the north and south of the Yarra, and will also greatly improve the access to Willsmere Park.

This improved access will benefit many others, including pedestrians and people with disabilities.  Combined with some environmental improvements such as removal of weed infestations, Willsmere Park will be enhanced as a location for local children to learn to ride their bikes, and for walks, picnics and enjoying nature.

I commend the Victorian State Government and the Boroondara, Yarra, Darebin and Banyule Councils for supporting this great improvement that has been planned for over 15 years.

I am sure that many residents in families in Boroondara and surrounding Council areas will greatly appreciate and enjoy the bridge when it is constructed.

I certainly hope we will see the bridge built within my daughters lifetime.

See also

• Boroondara Councillors oppose Darebin Bridge, Peter Campbell 

Please rule out retailing bioenergy derived from Australia’s native forests

Open letter.

Dear prospective retailer of bioenergy derived from Australia’s native forests,

As the world responds to climate change and seeks clean energy sources, proposals to use Australian native forest biomass to produce electricity or biofuels threaten our surviving forest heritage and actually exacerbate climate change.

Such proposals rely upon continuing industrial logging of our outstanding forests, which degrades their values by damaging biodiversity, terrestrial carbon stocks, clean air and water.

Logging to supply the export woodchip trade has attracted much controversy. Biomass for bioenergy will be the same. It will use exactly the same forest material as does native forest woodchipping, in massive volumes. The claim that this is ‘waste’ when in reality it constitutes 85% of wood coming out of the forests is nonsensical greenwash.

Using native forests for electricity or biofuels is not carbon neutral. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that it creates a large carbon debt, whereas ceasing to log reduces large emissions immediately.

Public native forests should be permanently protected for climate, water, wildlife, and the enjoyment of ordinary people.

Given the fraught and continually changing political environment surrounding both forest and climate policy in Australia, bioenergy is a risky investment and is heavily reliant on government grants, subsidies and tax breaks.

Genuinely clean, renewable energy sources may be displaced or undermined by native forest based bioenergy, but wind, solar and geothermal projects are the ones that we desire to be supported.

Please rule out retailing native forest derived bioenergy. Australians have already been indicating for years that they will not accept it. I will refuse to buy it because I want to buy real clean energy.

I look forward to your support for genuine clean and renewable energy sources.

For more information please visit www.biomassacre.com

Yours sincerely,

Peter Campbell

Online petition

• Tell electricity and fuel companies that you will refuse to buy native forest derived bioenergy! Say NO to a biomassacre

Nice cycle tour around Williamstown

Lena, Chloe and I had a really nice cycle tour down to and around Williamstown. We caught the train to Southern Cross then headed down to Fishermens Bends.  The route followed some roads with cars but the traffic was not heavy.

We stopped a the Pier 35 Marina for a look then continued along the concrete shared bike and pedestrian trail to the punt that carries bikes across the Yarra.  The punt arrived just as we got there so we headed across travelling under the Westgate Bridge.

On the other side the bike path follows the bank for the Yarra and goes past "The Warmies" where lots of people were fishing.  This is the location of the outlet from the gas fired power station.

There were lots of people promenading in Williamstown. We continued on to the foreshore on the Bay, stopping to watch a large flock of Pelicans, Terns and Seagulls feeding on schools of fish right next to the shore at Point Gellibrand.

The bike trail continues on to the quiet Williamstown Beach which is a lovely location for a rest and a swim.  The trail then follows the coast for some great views out across the Bay and to Altona.  It passes a quaint little boat mooring then meanders along past some wetlands and the new houses at the Rifle Range Estate.

It was getting late so we headed back to The Strand for some great fish and chips, then followed the bike path back through Footscray to Southern Cross.  Chloe likes the Bike Friday tandem and contributes well to the pedalling, but its tricky to fit it on a crowded train.

All in all, a great short cycle tour.

Next time, we will go on to Altona and beyond.

At Chatham Station

Pier 35 Marina

Pier 35 Marina

The bike punt under the Westgate Bridge

Waiting for the bike punt

The bike punt

On the bike punt

Fishermen at the Warmies

Williamstown swing moorings

Sea birds feeding of Battery Road

Battery Road, Point Gellibrand

Williamstown beach

Bayview Street Harbour

Minister Burke, we don't need another monster coal port on the Great Barrier Reef

An open letter to Tony Burke MP, Minister for the Environment.

Dear Tony Burke,

In February, you promised not to approve any more development for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area that would have “unacceptable impacts.”

I am writing to tell you that the new coal terminal proposed for Abbot Point by Indian company Adani is totally unacceptable, and to urge you to keep your promise.

• The Adani coal terminal would be built just metres from a beach where Green and Flatback turtles lay their eggs. The light, noise and dust from the coal terminal will disorient both the mothers and the hatchlings. 
• Abbot Point provides habitat for threatened and migratory marine and terrestrial species and is part of a World Heritage Area. There is already too much development there – you must stand up for the outstanding universal value of the Great Barrier Reef.
• The new coal terminals proposed for the Great Barrier Reef are part of the expansion of Australia’s coal export industry that is helping to drive climate change. Any growth in our coal exports is unacceptable at this time. 

I like to visit the Great Barrier Reef on my holidays. I want more protection for it, not less.

I support Greenpeace in their efforts to stop the development of new coal terminals on the Great Barrier Reef coast.

Peter Campbell


You can send your own email about this here:  Emergency Submission | Greenpeace Australia Pacific :

Using a Macbook Pro

I have just bought a second hand Macbook Pro.  I need it to create an iPhone app as Apple's application development platform (XCode) only runs on Max OS-X.

Initial impressions are good.  It is fast to boot and runs applications fast too. It has a cCore i5 with 8GB ram.  I upgraded to OSX Lion from its boot recovery partition.  Then I bought the OS-X Mountain Lion upgrade from the Mac App Store.  They are very easy to install and require no options to be entered.

What I like so far:

• Nice hardware and design - really well thought out and executed - great quality
• Chrome runs well so I have a familiar browser experience with all the productivity extensions I now rely on greatly (Delicious, Handy Google Shortcuts, X-Marks, LastPass, Bit.ly, Copy URL)
• The two fingered swipe for scrolling up/down and right left is great

What is a bit weird - for a long term Windows user

• The Launchpad is actually just a window that displays available applications.
• You can use Command + Tab to display and switch to and active task.
• You need to select an option to the get the hard disk icon on the desktop (like My Computer)
• No right click on the touch pad - you use Ctrl + click to get this (or a normal mouse connected)
• The Command key - its hard to know when to use this (e.g. Command + T opens up new browser tabs).  It seems to largely substitute for the Ctrl key in Windows, yet there is a Ctrl key too. . . 
• No key for deleting the current character - the Delete key acts like the Backspace key in Windows. Fn + Delete does this, while Command + Delete deletes text from the cursor to the start of the line
• Ctrl + Z does not undo your last action - you use Command + Z instead
• Finding apps - there are Chrome apps (straightforward), iTunes apps (for iOS, iPhones, iPads etc), and Mac apps via the Mac OS store
• The app menu across the top looks like its for the OS, but its for the current app you have open
• The maximise button doesn't cause an app to fill the screen - it defaults to a size that Apple judges appropriate.  You can manually resize it by dragging the window size, which is then remembered.
• The mouse scroll wheel works in the opposite direction Windows, but this can be reversed [link]
• No page up/down buttons - Command + cursor buttons do this.
• Installing applications - you download them as what seems to be then mounted as a "disk" which you then run/open and move the icon into the apps folder.

What I don't like so far

• iMovie, Garage Band and iPhoto are all missing from applications. When I try to "upgrade them" I get a weird message telling me that I can't. It appears I would have to now buy these apps there were "free" from the app store to get them.  They were provided to the original owner, but not to me as a subsequent owner.
• The lock in between XCode, iPhone app development and OS-X.  This is symptomatic of Apple getting people to buy most things (or everything) from them and is a cornerstone of their business model.  

So far, I haven't done much with XCode.  There is a lot of help available, but it looks like a very complicated development environment to me.  Lots of coding knowledge required, and a new language  (Objective C)

Overall, kudos to Apple for creating a nice laptop with a functional desktop OS - which Linux distros have struggled with over the years and not come close to, yet. 

A fix for sluggish Windows 7 Explorer

My trusty Windows 7 desktop computer, which has zipped along at a pleasing speed until recently, suddenly got very slow when opening Windows Explorer.

On start up all was fine, but soon the speed of Windows Explorer degraded to the point it was unusable.  It would hang when I right clicked on a file, or just take forever to display the contents of a folder, then not display the files correctly.

I was not happy facing the prospect of reinstalling and reconfiguring Windows 7!

After some searching on the Internet I tried:

1. Using a tune up / registry cleaner - which did not fix it.

2. Setting up a new user account - which did not fix it.

3. Removing a bod context menu handler - which worked!

This post described the problem and the fix: Right click on file windows explorer freezes

I downloaded and ran ShellExView and disabled all the non-Microsoft Extensions - problem solved!  

Bushfires rage on mixed land tenures, not National Parks

Via Chris Taylor.

It did not take long, but the logging lobby is now blaming national parks and environmentalists for the recent fires. In the logging industry's newsletter, Timber and Forestry eNews, the lobby are parroting Miranda Devine's article 'Green arrogance burns fiercely'.

The obsession of the logging lobby's focus on just national parks as the driving force behind these fires is misleading at best and outright dangerous at worst, because multiple land tenures have carried these fires. These include state forest, pasture land for grazing, cropping land, conservation reserves and plantations.

In a fire management strategy, ALL land tenures must be considered for the risk of fire that they pose to life and property, not just one. An example of this is the current Aberfeldy-Donnely Creek fire in Gippsland. 

First, the fire is reported to have started in state forest around the Toombon Gold Mine Historic Area reserve, just south east of Aberfeldy. 

Second, it progressed through the state forest, much of it has been extensively roaded and parts logged over the years and it recently had an extensive network of 'fuel breaks' cut through it. Of significance, the entire area carrying the current fire was impacted by the 2007 Great Divide fires only 6 years ago. 

Third, the current fire has progressed out of the state forest into land tenure used for grazing, dryland cropping and possibly irrigated cropping. 

To date, no national park has carried this fire.

We desperately need to have an informed discussion concerning fire risk in our community and cease with the unjustified 'hate mongering' pushed by an extremist minority representing specific political and ideological interests.

======
Disgusting propaganda and bile the "logging industry" and their PR hacks spout to justify their crimes against our biosphere. Logging increases fire risk, intact forests mitigage it (not cows).

The Kimberley is a wonderful and unique place

The Kimberley is a fantastic place. It must not be destroyed by industrial development.  I have visited there twice; once on a road trip then again in 1998 on an aerial safari.

John Taylor, a good friend, was our pilot.

The recent proposals to put a gas processing plant at James Price Point would destroy the natural quality of this section of the Kimberley coast.  It is unnecessary too.

Here our some photos of our trip

Slideshow

Forests and wildlife are not negotiable

Monday 3 December 2012
Emergency demonstrations in logging-affected communities around the country are taking place today, with conservationists calling on the Prime Minister not to abandon environment and wildlife protection by finalising a closed-door deal with big business at a COAG meeting this week.

Cleafelled forest destroyed in SE NSW for woochips

Community groups are holding banners in clearfells and forests devastated by logging in WA, NSW, Tasmania and Victoria, to show Prime Minister Gillard what environmental management by state governments looks like.

From her Observer Tree perch 60 metres up in the canopy of Tasmania's beleaguered old growth forests, where she has spent nearly twelve months during a time of intense negotiations and ongoing forest destruction, Tasmanian activist Miranda Gibson has a personal message to Gillard: 'Don't abandon environmental protection'

COAG and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) both meet in Canberra this week to push through their plan to weaken federal environment protection laws and hand powers to assess and approve development in environmentally significant areas to state governments.

The proposed devolution of responsibilities under national environmental laws to state governments is similar to what we already have in place under Regional Forests Agreements, where the Commonwealth has entrusted state governments with protecting biodiversity.

This would leave Australia without any federal oversight of damaging activity in these iconic areas.

Lauren Caulfield. Not Negotiable' campaign spokesperson: 

• "Anyone who thinks that the Commonwealth should be able to transfer its responsibility for environmental protection to state governments and supervise at a distance need only have a look at the wholesale failure of the Regional Forests Agreements for an example of how disastrous this approach has been.” 
• "In Victoria we are facing an extinction crisis – including that of our own wildlife emblem, the endangered Leadbeaters Possum, as Premier Baillieu continues to allow the logging of its last forest strongholds". 

Jenny Weber, Huon Valley Environment Centre:

• "Putting the states in charge of forest management has led to the devastation of forests around the country for export woodchips, the ongoing decline of threatened species, and a legacy of community conflict" 

Miranda Gibson, in the Observer Tree.

• "These moves are a rampant attack on environment to protection and will take us 40 years backwards, leaving our iconic wildlife and wild places at the mercy of state governments with an appalling track record on environmental protection"

Jess Beckerling, WA Forest Alliance

• "The Prime Minister’s responsibility is to Australians as a whole, not to the Business Council. She should take this issue off the COAG agenda for Friday and off the government’s agenda for good.”

Obama wins. Politics is the new religion

I watch the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign with interest.  Many called it to be a close race, with Obama's chances reduced to high unemployment and having a hostile Republic-dominated Congress blocking many of his initiatives and much of his legislation.

The Mitt Romney suffered from the secret video recording of him declaring that "47% of Americans are sponging off the welfare system".  He couldn't really refute it as those were his words.  I really wonder if he and most Republicans believe this to be the case.  Many people in the United States do it very hard if they don't have a job.  When the "unemployment insurance" they have banked while employed runs out, that's it, they get no more money.

Then Romney won the first presidential debate with Obama looking ill-prepared and flat footed.  Romney's campaign had good momentum.

When Hurricane Sandy hit everything changed.  Obama paid close attention to emergency and relief efforts.  He also put significant funding into the Federal Emergency Management Agency - the main government agency that provided emergency services to the tens of thousands of affected people.  Romney was on record stating that this funding should be reduced.

Climate change was the elephant in the room during the presidential campaign.  Neither Romney nor Obama spoke about during their debates or elsewhere.  Yet climate scientists have clearly attributed the increased ferocity of Hurricane Sandy to climate change.  The other topic not mentioned during the campaign was forest protection, despite ongoing logging of old growth forests in the United States.  In general, policies for environment protection were not really covered at all.

When the election results came in, a strong result for Obama was obvious fairly early on, despite the shrill protestations of Karl Rove on Fox, who had something resembling a meltdown when the trend showed clearly towards Obama.

Obama claimed victory on Twitter - a first for a Presidential campaign.

Watching the campaign, it seems that politics is now the new religion.

Many people follow a political party and its leader as a matter of faith.  For example, many Republicans believe in their policy positions as a matter of doctrine, such as no abortions (the "right to life"), small government and reduced taxes (despite George W Bush as president increasing both) and undertones of "white superiority" with mutterings about "getting tough on immigration".

On the other hand, many Democrats would believe they have progressive policies on climate change (despite the emissions trading or a carbon tax being abandoned), foreign affairs (despite the ongoing un-winnable war in Afghanistan and ongoing drone attacks that kill civilians) the environment (despite ongoing forest destruction and Americans still driving around millions of massive cars) and human rights (despite Guantanomo Bay still not being closed).

Many people polarise around these two positions - and both sides believe they are "right" and the others are "wrong".

Obama won the big majority of Electoral College votes that mattered (in the Swing States) and therefore comfortably won the presidency.

The Democrats won the Senate again, assisted by a couple of Republican Senators that made telling remarks during the campaign:

• Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said pregnancies resulting from rape are part of God's plan, tearfully explaining that he only supports abortions when a mother's life is in danger.

• Missouri the incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill defeated Republican candidate Todd Akin to win a second Senate term after Mr Akin said in a television interview on August 19 that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy.

The comments indicate how beliefs and dogma are entrenched within political ideology - akin to or even linked to religious beliefs.

The Republicans however retained control of Congress.  So the end result of the election was a situation identical to how it was before - Obama as President, a Democrat controlled Senate and a Republican controlled Congress.  So it seems more political deadlocks and bickering will ensue.

After the election, partly lost by the Tea Party dragging Republican policy to the far right, Tea Party people insisted that they lost "because Romney didn't stay true to their hard right fixed policy positions on taxation and strayed too far to the left".  The opposite appears to be the case.

Obama ran a more inclusive campaign and picked up strong support among the Latino, Black and Gay communities.

However, in the final result Obama won 50.8% of the primary vote against Romney's 47.5%

So it really is a divided country, with both sides holding positions, much of which are grounded in dogma, that are somewhat opposed to each other.

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Obama's team ran a very good on the ground campaign and mobilised lots of people.  But these same people have little or no influence on how political policies and legislation will not proceed.

Democracy is now all about the prize (winning the Presidency and the Government) rather than the process of representing people and consulting with them to shape and implement policies.

Australia's dumb Internet filter dropped

The Australian Government has dropped its ill-fated attempt to implement a "mandatory Internet filter" or  "clean feed".

It is not really clear where the intention to do this came from.  It seems to be an initiative conjured up during Kevin Rudd's time as Prime Minister, perhaps resulting from some background influence of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister, continued to try and sell the initiative even though it was clear he didn't really know what he was talking about.  He was unable to address simple questions like:

• Who would decide who would be added to the "black list" of sites
• What scrutiny would be applied to such decisions
• How the filter would actually fulfill its stated objective "to stop the distribution of child abuse pornography material" - when it could have been easily bypassed by those who wanted to

This half-baked and ineffective measure would have resulted in censorship of the Internet, somewhat like the Great Firewall of China that the Communist Party administers.

Instead, an Interpol process will be used that will have a more rigorous process for deciding what sites are to be blocked.

Its good to see that some sense has prevailed with the outcome here.

Links

• Government abandons plans for internet filter - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Julia Gillard please protect the places we love

Open letter to Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia

Dear Prime Minister, Environmental laws safeguard our way of life. They protect our land and wildlife, and ensure that our air and water are not polluted by destructive development.

I am deeply concerned that under pressure from industry, federal and state governments have recently announced an aggressive plan to wind back critical environmental protection laws that protect our land, water and wildlife.

History has shown us that the Federal government has a critical role in protecting matters of national environmental significance, which it must not abdicate.

Short-sighted development proposals, supported by the states, have threatened Australia’s natural heritage many times in the past. The federal government has had to step in to prevent irreversible harm to our iconic landscapes and wildlife.

A healthy environment is essential to the Australian way of life. Due to unrestrained development our environmental assets are in a state of decline, we need stronger environmental laws not weaker ones.

I call on you to reject the proposals laid out in the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agenda that would fast-track the transfer of federal approval powers to state governments, wind back the Environmental Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act and allow states and territories to fast-track major development projects.

Peter Campbell

Links

• Take Action | Protect Our Laws Sign petition and send letter to Julia Gillard

Halt coal seam gas expansion

Open letter to Minister Greg Combet. 

I am writing to urgently draw your attention to research which has just been release by Southern Cross University. The research shows massive leakages from the ground occurring around Tara in Queensland where coal seam gas mining is underway.

If these results are verified it could mean that coal seam gas is worse for climate change than coal.

Please take the following urgent actions in the interests of Australia's farms, environment and climate:

1. Put in place an immediate moratorium on coal seam gas exports from Australia until further study has been done to verify the results of this research.
2. Commission a thorough independent study of the scale of fugitive emissions from coal seam gas mining, including emissions directly from the ground.
3. Implement a revised greenhouse gas accounting method to ensure that these 'fugitive' emissions from coal seam gas mining are accounted and paid for.

Your Sincerely,

Peter Campbell

Its time to stop logging natural forests

Much of the world's natural forests have been lost due to clearing for agriculture - or just for their logs.  Natural forests are ecosystems that harbour plant and animal biodiversity, capture and sequester carbon dioxide and produce clean water.

Unfortunately, we are still destroying the world's remaining natural forests around the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand, Papua New Guinea to name a few countries.

Yalmy Forest, East Gippsland. Author: Peter Campbell Source.

The "logging industry" is a misnomer now, as most of the "product" created from destroying natural forests is woodchips that are used to make cardboard and paper products.

Plantations and fibre crops such as hemp can supply the world's needs for pulp and timber.

However, voracious logging companies are still allowed by governments to keep logging and destroying native forest.   They are often given free access to the forests as a "resource" or they pay a token amount in "royalties".

Sometimes the logging is even subsided by taxpayers, as is the case with VicForests in Victoria, Australia and Forestry Tasmania in Tasmania, Australia.  In these cases the state governments of Victoria and Tasmania actually own logging companies.

Independent polls indicate that the majority of people now want their remaining native forest protected.  However, industry and governments collude to allow logging of natural forests to proceed.  Some conservation groups such as the Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (all NGOs) still support ongoing logging of natural forests under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

There is no way a natural forest can be logged without degrading it, and often this degradation is catastrophic to the forest.  Trees are felled, undergrowth is trampled by machinery, and the residue is burnt to "create a seedbed" for more trees to grow.  Biodiversity and the natural forest's ecosystem is degraded.  If this is repeated as a cycle, the forests are effectively converted in plantations.

It is time for logging of the world's remaining natural forests to cease.  They must be protected, not logged.

We have the power to make this happen.  Contact your local government and state and federal members of parliament and ask them to protect our remaining natural forests now.  Tell your friends to contact them too.

This post is written as a contribution to the 2012 Blog Action Day on the "power of we".

I running for Maling Ward in Boroondara

I am running for Maling Ward in Boroondara in the upcoming Council elections.  It is a postal ballot - residents receive candidate statements and a ballot paper that they complete and post back.

Voting closes 6pm on Friday 26 October and the ballot will be counted on Saturday 27 October.

You can read about my campaign, why I am running on my campaign blog and the election [here]

I am running as an independent candidate as I with to represent Maling Residents directly.  I am not a member of a political party.

The Liberal, Labor and Green parties all field candidates in local government elections.  The Greens endorse candidates, while Labor and Liberal candidates run undeclared, often pretending that they are "independent".

Our democratic system is based on Councillors representing all the residents in their ward, not just the interests of a particular political party and its supporters.

I think we need to implement optional preferential voting. People should be able to control where their preference does or doesn't go.  If they only support one candidate in a single member ward, then just "1" on the ballot paper should be valid vote.  I think this would reduce all the undemocratic deals and manoeuvering that goes on behind the scenes when candidates decide who they are going to direct preferences to.

Of course voters actually choose where their preference goes, but candidate recommendations often influence many people, who often don't know much about who they are voting for (other than by a photo and a 150 word statement).

I am looking forward to serving the people of Maling Ward should I be elected.  It will be a tight race however so every vote will count.

Premier Baillieu please protect our environment rather than trashing it

Open letter to Premier Ted Baillieu.

Dear Premier Baillieu,

Like most Victorians, I’m proud of our environment. I’m proud of our clean air and water, our beautiful National Parks, and the ecosystems and amazing destinations that set our state apart.

Yet since coming into power your government has taken a wrecking ball to our environment, taking our environment and our state backwards by decades. I’m appalled by this behaviour from my government, and I’m calling on you to do better.

Instead of expanding brown coal mining and slashing support for clean energy, you should be investing in clean renewable energy like wind and solar.

Instead of cutting forest protections and trampling the Murray River you should be protecting our special places and returning water to our rivers.

Instead of looking out for your big business mates, you should be supporting households and small businesses to be more energy and water efficient to reduce costs and the impact on our environment.

Please stand up for our environment and for all Victorians.  After all, that’s the job of the Premier of Victoria.

Specifically - please stop logging in Victoria's native forests, including our water catchments.

Please scrap VicForests -the Victorian government should exit the native forest logging business that runs at a serious loss and destroys our native forests, including habitat of endangered species such as Leadbeaters Possum and the Long Footed Potoroo.

Please reverse your regressive legislation that is blocking wind farm development and favouring further investment in polluting fossil fuel power.

Please re-instate a feed in tariff that recognises the true value of solar power and renewable energy.

Please allocated $50m for cycling infrastructure across Victoria, and develop a plan and program to implement it.

Sincerely,

Peter Campbell


External links

• Help stop the relentless and systematic destruction of our environment, Email campaign, Environment Victoria
• Emperor's new policy, The Age, 19 Dec 2012 

Joe Ludwig please stop the Supertrawler

An open letter to Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig

Dear Joe,

I believe that the proposed operation of the super trawler in Tasmania is not appropriate.  I understand it is certain that seals and dolphins (up to 10 per day) and turtles will be killed as "bycatch". This is completely unacceptable.

I also understand that the sheer volume of fish it could and would catch will seriously deplete Tasmania's fish stocks and impact both recreational and existing smaller-scale local professional fishermen.

I ask that this Super Trawler be banned from operating in Australian waters.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Campbell


External links

• Ban Super Trawlers, Getup online campaign 

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong, and extraordinary person

I remember my entire class at primary school captivated by the black and white television coverage of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. It was a day I will never forget, and one of the great achievements of our time.

I had the pleasure of meeting Neil Armstong at a dinner several years ago.  He was very humble for one who has achieved so much. He was inspiring as an explorer, a leader, a pilot, an astronout and a remarkable person.

Rest In Peace Neil Armstrong.

Your tributes: Neil Armstrong - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Onshore treatment of asylum seekers is the only option

Open letter to Josh Frydenberg, Member for Kooyong.

Josh,

A quick note to let you know that I completely disagree with government policy - which I note that you support - for offshore treatment of asylum seekers.

This will not deter asylum seekers from getting on boats to get to Australia.

In addition, offshore processing:
- is not consistent with human rights standards and UN treaty obligations
- will not provide appropriate accommodation;
- will not provide access to education, and to mental and physical health services;
- will make asylum applications much more difficult to process
- restricts merit-based application review by senior officials and NGO representatives
- has no oversight and/or monitoring of conditions by civil society.

I ask you to reconsider your position on this reprehensible policy.  Onshore processing is the only human and effective option.

Regards,

Peter Campbell

See also

• Brian Walters in Melbourne: sinking debate

Premier Baillieu please support the NDIS

Dear Premier Baillieu,

I believe that you should support the National Disability Insurance Scheme and commit appropriate funds to it. Thousands of people with disabilities are in urgent need of assistance and protection as a basic human right.

Please don't play politics with this.

I encourage to persuade your colleagues in New South Wales and  Queensland to support the NDIS too.

Regards, Peter Campbell

Links

• Petition | Premier Ted Baillieu: Bring the National Disability Insurance Scheme to Victoria , Change.org
• State faces disability pressure, Brisbane Times 

Signs of Myki failing - don't tap, wave or swipe

Photos taken at Flinders Street station provide more evidence that the Myki system is a failure.

Don't wave, don't swipe, don't tap!

Touch and hold but then wait for 1 second or more!

When that doesn't work, step out of the queue and talk to the gate attendant. When this happened to me last week, I was informed that "there is a software bug that causes the reader to go to sleep for your card, step out of the queue, let someone else through, then try again"


See also: Huge demand for public transport in Melbourne and poor service

Another earthquake in Victoria

There was another earthquake near Moe in Gippsland, Victoria today at about 19:11.  

I didn't feel this one, but many people in Melbourne and elsewhere across the state did.

It registed M4.3, and occurred very close to the location of the earthquake that occurred on 19 June 2012.

Earthquake near Moe. Source:  http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/

Data

• M4.3
• Sydney time: 20 July 19:11
• UTC time: 20 July 09:11

Full data

Earth tremor in Victoria tonight

I was watching television tonight.  Just be 9:00pm the house shook for about 10 seconds. We have a solid suspended slab and it was moving!  No damage done though in Surrey Hills.  My wine cellar survived.

Reports came in immediately on social media (Twitter and Facebook) from friends across the state.

The handy Earthquake app (Android) showed the epicentre just south of Moe, Victoria. Here are the screenshots from the app.

The Australian Geoscience website apparently crashed when everyone attempted to visit it.  Just as well it was not a bigger one with more damage!

The size is reported as 5.2 (by the app)

No reports yet of major damage, but lots of houses shaken.

Links

• Quake shakes state, The Age>
• Earthquake shakes Victoria, The Age

Natural beekeeping to help save the world's bees

I did a fascinating course last weekend on natural beekeeping presented by a friend, Tony Hodgson.

Honey bees entering hive.  Author:   Björn Appel 

I learnt that the world's honey bee population is now at great risk due to a combination of factors - including Varroa mites, commercial "over production" and problems with pesticides and herbicides.

The Varroa mite was spread from Asian Honey bees (which are resistant to it) to European and North Amercan bees in recent times.  This has resulted in deaths of 70% or more bee hives (colonies), and the use of chemical to try and "manage" the mite.  Bee colonies now only last 3 years in countries afflicted by the mite.

Australia is the last major honey producing country to be free of the mite - but it may eventually arrive here too.

70 percent of the world's food results from bee pollination of plants, so huge reductions in bee numbers puts the world's food supplies at great risk!

The good news is that natural bee keeping can result in bee hives (colonies) that are not subjected to the same stress that commercial bees are.  Less honey is harvested, the hives are not moved around to follow flowering periods and a more bee-friendly hive design such as a Kenyan or Warre hives.  These hives can be made out of timber for a reasonable cost.

You can also get equipment required for beekeeping - such as a bee suit and hive tool - for a reasonable cost.

Some I am getting ready to have a go at starting beekeeping this spring!

Links

• Sustainable Beekeepers, Tony Hodgson
• Perm-apiculture - the Natural Beekeeping group
• The Barefoot Beekeeper
• David Heaf's beekeeping pages, David Heaf
• Malfroy's Gold - Australian Honey, Honeycomb and Beeswax
• Natural beekeeping, Greenlivingpedia
• Varroa destructor, Wikipedia
• Beekeeping, Wikipedia
• Colony collapse disorder, Wikipedia

Qantas cuts staff and compromises their service

We just flew from Melbourne to Paris via Heathrow using Qantas.  Never again.

Our Airbus A380 was delayed 1.5 hours in Singapore when the auxillary jet engine that provides electricity to the aircraft and starts the main engine failed.  This is clearly a maintenance issue.

We then missed our connection at Heathrow to Paris.  We waited 5 hours for an Air France flight.

Our 2 ski bags and one luggage bag did not arrive with us at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

2 days later, waiting in Paris, we still don't have the bags or an ETA for their arrival.  This means we cannot proceed to Chamonix and do our ski trip on the Haute Route.

The Air France lost baggage call centre is unable to provide any more information than what we can find on the Internet.  Two bags are supposed to have been sent to Paris on 29 April but their arrival is "not confirmed".  The other bag is still missing.

This is extremely frustrating.  The systems for transferring baggage at Heathrow, and the systems for tracking lost baggage, are dysfunctional.

If you want to ski in the French Alps, fly direct to Geneva via Singapore Airlines or Emirates.  Avoid Heathrow if at all possible.

Our entire 10 day ski trip to Europe could well be completely ruined.  Qantas cost cutting will destroy their service and their business.

Update 6pm Tuesday 1 May

We went to Charles de Gaulle airport to ask about our missing bags.  We were informed that Mark's 2 bags had arrived and been sent on to Geneva (!).  We were not notified of this.  Apparently they will be delivered to the hotel in Chamonix, despitte our instructions to pick them up in Paris.  Mark's "missing missing" bag has now magically appeared and is enroute.

My bag is apparently still at Heathrow, despite the note that British Airways would fly it to Paris yesterday - they did not apparently.  We checked with British Airways - they said they had not received it here so it was most likely still at Heathrow.  They may not have been able to fit it on fully loaded planes - which I find hard to believe.

Tomorrow we go to Chamonix. Hopefully our bags arrive there too, and we can finally do some skiing.

Nobody seems accountable for following up and resolving issues with missing baggage, and nobody seems to really care.  Their is little or no status information provided, and some of it is incorrect.  The entire system needs an overhaul.

Update 10pm Tuesday 1 May
Simon rang to say Mark's two bags had been delivered to the hotel in Chamonix, which is great news.  Geneva also called and advised my ski bag was there and would be sent to Chamonix tomorrow morning.  However, the lost baggage system on the Internet still shows my bag at Heathrow!  The system is crap.

But its great news that our bags have finally been located and sent to Chamonix.  150km/h winds there over the last couple of days meant we would have not been skiing.