Australia’s over-exploited water supply – an issue being ignored
|
Although Australia is a land often devastated by drought, if you live in the city, it’s very unlikely that you’ll turn on the tap and find no water comes out.Even during the Millennium Drought nearly a decade ago, we avoided coming close to a Cape Town-style ‘Day Zero’. And given about 70 per cent of Australians live in major cities, it’s easy to forget just how good most of us have it. Whether it’s for cooking, drinking or bathing, we don’t have to collect water from a well, or pump it ourselves, or worry about it being dirty or unsafe. The sources of our water supplies are out of sight, out of mind. But it hasn’t always been that way — and we need to stop and think about where it comes from. If we don’t, we risk being unprepared for when the next prolonged drought comes around. ‘Liquid sausage meat’ It’s important to note that not all Australians have access to safe drinking water: spare a thought, for example, for remote Indigenous communities, or for the people trucking drinking water to small drought-stricken towns…….. [The author gives a history of Australia’s water sources, water use, and restrictions] We have to start thinking about our waterMore than a decade has passed since those tough restrictions on household water use. As our cities grow and the climate changes, it’s no longer reasonable to wash our hands of the water question. For our hotter and drier cities of the future, building more dams won’t be the answer. Seawater desalination plants aren’t without their problems: desal is energy-intensive and its salty brine is damaging to the local marine environment. Although some cities like Perth are making headway with wastewater recycling, the cheapest and easiest option for all of us is to change our water behaviour, and to better live within our means. Relying on technology alone is not the answer. The development of urban water supplies and sanitation over the past century or so has brought incredible benefits to our lives, while technology and infrastructure allows us to consume that water in the blink of an eye. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, households in the Northern Territory (349kL) and Western Australia (241kL) use the most water each year, while Victoria (166kL) and Tasmania (147kL) use the least. Climate, soils and pricing all play a role here, but these statistics suggest that some cities have much thirstier habits than others. Thinking more carefully about where our water comes from — and at what cost — is vital to making sense of living in Australian cities now and in the future. Dr Ruth Morgan is an environmental historian at Monash University, and an ABC Top 5 humanities scholar for 2019.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-11/changing-australian-water-attitudes-for-conservation/11647258 |
|
Australia’s Environment Is The Enemy – Sussan Ley faithful to Scott Morrison’s priority
Sussan Ley’s environmental law circus, Independent Australia By Sue Arnold | 5 November 2019 Vulnerable species like the koala – and the environment in general – are the losers, while developers reign supreme in Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s environmental law “review”. Sue Arnold reports.
In July, Sussan Ley sent out a statement indicating that as Minister for the Environment, she would
… commence a ten-year statutory review of the [Environment Protection and Conservation] Act by October this year. And it is the right time to have a conversation about the best ways we can ensure strong environmental and biodiversity protection measures that encourage people to work together in supporting the environment.
All Australians will have a chance to share their ideas as part of the next statutory review of the EPBC Act, due to commence by October 2019.
Exactly why Ley waited another three months before commencing the review is unclear. In a follow-up press release, she announced that former competition regulator Professor Graeme Samuel would head the year-long review, ‘to tackle green tape and deliver greater certainty to business, farmers and conservation groups‘.
Missing from Ley’s pronouncements are key issues relevant to one of the most critical problems — self-referral by developers. Under the current scenario, a developer whose project is likely to destroy or severely impact koala habitat makes the decision whether or not to “refer“ the development to the Federal government as a matter of national environmental significance (MNES), under the provisions of the EPBC Act 1999.
As the koala is listed as “vulnerable” under the EPBC, the referral should never have been reduced to the responsibility of a developer — referral to the Federal government should have been made a mandatory requirement.
A referral is designated as a “controlled action” if the result of a scorecard available from the Government’s ‘EPBC Act referral guidelines for the vulnerable koala’ reaches a certain level. Then the project is assessed by the Federal Department of the Environment and Energy and the minister makes the decision whether to approve the project. Documents relevant to the project are published on the EPBC referral list website and open to public comment — including environmental impact assessments paid for by the developer.
Once the project is approved, a “koala management plan” (KMP) must be provided by the developer before the project commences. However, this is where the proverbial hits the fan as there is no requirement for any public comment, nor any access to the plan.
One of the most important koala management plans has been on Sussan Ley’s desk since July. This is the Lendlease plan for southwest Sydney koalas at their Mt Gilead, now renamed “FigTree Hill” urban project for 1700 residences. This is a project mired in controversy and public outrage because of the risks to the largest expanding healthy koala colony in the Sydney Basin.
IA has been following up this issue with the only section of the Department of the Environment and Energy (DEE) that responds in a timely manner — the Communications and Engagement Branch Media (CEBM) team. ……….
The bottom line to this Monty Python circus is not only the Lendlease koala plan of management which is being withheld, but any developer who has self-referred has no requirement by the environment minister to publish the plan other than “on the developer’s website”.
Given that this would require a large staff to check the multiple developer projects impacting koala habitat throughout Queensland and New South Wales on a daily basis, a new definition of “mission impossible” arises.
Essentially, any koala management plan may be approved. There are no published standards or requirements — much less compliance or monitoring.
A review by some of Australia’s leading ecologists sums up the catastrophic situation facing koala survival.
Some 85 per cent of land-based threatened species experienced habitat loss. The iconic koala was among the worst affected. More than 90 per cent of habitat loss was not referred or submitted for assessment, despite a requirement to do so under Commonwealth environment laws.
Our research indicates the legislation has comprehensively failed to safeguard Australia’s globally significant natural values, and must urgently be reformed and enforced.
Sussan Ley’s priorities in a review of the EPBC Act reflect those of the Prime Minister: the environment is the enemy. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/sussan-leys-environmental-law-circus,13279
A NATIONAL APPROACH TO A NATIONAL RIVER SYSTEM
Senator Rex Patrick 3 Nov 19, I’m sick and tired of the NSW Government threatening to pull out of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan every time they get upset about something happening on the river.
It’s been threatened at least 4 times since February 2018, when the Senate was debating whether or not to allow an extra 70GL of extraction from the Norther Basin (Centre Alliance voted against extra extraction).
NSW pulling out of the Basin Plan would not be in its own interests. There are a number of significant NSW river projects that are or will be funded by the Basin Plan, but won’t be if NSW were to pull out.
The Murray-Darling is a national river that needs to be managed accordingly. If NSW took its bat and ball home, there would be little choice but for the Federal Government to take control, either using existing Commonwealth powers or by supporting a constitutional amendment handing powers to the Federal Parliament. Centre Alliance already has a Constitutional Alteration Bill before the Parliament that seeks to do this.
NSW Nationals MPs have cried wolf on pulling out of the plan so often now that it’s becoming meaningless. They would be better off focussing their efforts on reigning in over-extraction, but that would involve acting in the national interest, not in the Nationals’ interests.
240 conservation scientists call on Australian government to strengthen environmental protection laws
Letter by 240 leading scientists calls on Scott Morrison to stem extinction crisis, More than 240 conservation scientists sign open letter warning PM that 17 Australian native species face extinction in next 20 years. Guardian, Adam Morton Environment editor @adamlmorton, Mon 28 Oct 2019 More than 240 conservation scientists have called on Scott Morrison to drop his opposition to stronger environment laws and seize a “once-in-a-decade opportunity” to fix a system that is failing to stem a worsening extinction crisis.
With the federal government due to this week announce a 10-yearly legislated review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, the scientists have signed an open letter to the prime minister urging him to increase spending and back laws to help protect the natural world from further destruction.
The letter says three native species have become extinct in the past decade and another 17 could follow in the next 20 years. More than 1,800 Australian plants and animals are formally listed as threatened with extinction, but the scientists say this is an underestimate.
“Our current laws are failing because they are too weak, have inadequate review and approval processes, and are not overseen by an effective compliance regime,” the scientists say.
“Since they were established (in 1999), 7.7m hectares of threatened species habitat has been destroyed. That’s an area larger than Tasmania. Meanwhile, the number of extinctions continue to climb, while new threats emerge and spread unchecked.”
Environmental law was a point of difference at this year’s election, with Morrison pledging to limit “green tape” that he said cost jobs while Labor promised a new environment act and a federal environment protection authority.
Lesley Hughes, a distinguished professor of biology at Macquarie University, member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a signatory to the letter, said environmental protections had been consistently wound back over the past decade, most often by conservative governments.
She said it was having a significant impact, pointing to the 2016 state-of-the-environment report that found Australia was facing multiple environment changes and lacked a national policy that established a clear vision for the protection and sustainable management of the country’s natural heritage.
She also cited a WWF assessment that ranked eastern Australia as one of the world’s top 11 deforestation hotspots. Australia was the only developed country on the list.
“It’s a very grim picture,” Hughes said. “This letter is a pre-emptive strike to say this is an opportunity to do it better, this is not an opportunity to weaken and dilute the existing weak laws.”
Morrison’s pledge not to increase environmental laws came as a United Nations global assessment found biodiversity was declining at an unprecedented rate, with one million species across the globe at risk of extinction and human populations in jeopardy if the trajectory was not reversed.
The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the review of the EPBC Act was an independent process that would encourage submissions from a wide variety of perspectives……. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/28/toughen-environmental-laws-to-stem-extinction-crisis-scientists-tell-morrison
Radioactive liquids in Olympic Dam waste pools are killing native birds
Olympic Dam Alert: BHP propose a major new Evaporation Pond 6 for radioactive acid liquor wastes that will continue deaths of hundreds of birds each year
The federal government are inviting comments on BHP’s “Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6 EPBC Act Referral 2019/8526” (scroll down to Date of Notice 21/10/2019).
Public submissions are only open until cob Monday 4th Nov 2019, see info on how to do so at end of this e-mail.
Please consider making a brief submission, key Recommendations are provided below, along with a Background Briefing Paper and a feature press article “BHP vs Birds”.
For info see “Migratory Birds at Risk of Mortality if BHP Continues Use of Evaporation Ponds” a 3 page Briefing written by David Noonan for the ACF, Friends of the Earth and Conservation SA (30 June 2019), at https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/ODM-Migratory-Birds-BHP-Evaporation-Ponds.pdf
see “BIRDS VS BHP: Evaporation ponds at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine are killing hundreds of birds” article in The Advertiser 10 July 2019
Barkindji people have title to Darling River area – but their river is dying, killed by drought, and whiteys’mismanagement
Indigenous community say they’ve lost their culture to water mismanagement, SBS, This is the final part in a series of reports from communities along NSW’s Darling River that have been impacted by water mismanagement and drought. BY ANEETA BHOLE 18 Oct 19, An Aboriginal community in rural NSW fears their culture may be lost, as dry conditions and low river flows threaten the future of the Darling River.
The Barkindji people have lived, hunted and passed down their oral history on the banks of the Darling for more than 40,000 years.
Now the river is drying up due to over-extraction by irrigation upstream and drought.
The community’s fears surfaced at a recent corroboree in the small town of Wilcannia, which was once a thriving Murray-Darling River port.
The Yaama Ngunna Barka corroboree had been travelling to towns along the river from Walgett to Menindee. The corroboree have been travelling to towns in outback New South Wales in a bid to raise awareness about the plight of the Darling river.
‘Dead water’
Lilliana Bennett can still recall her grandmother talking about taking the family down the riverbank to fish and hunt for goanna. The river was a place of safety and community for her family.
“It’s a place they go to relax, to tell stories,” she told SBS News.
“For me, it’s been really devastating, I mean we went down and camped by the river where there’s still a bit of water around and it just doesn’t have the same feeling, it’s dead water.”…….
With water levels at an all-time low and the drought continuing to ravage the region, native animals have also started to disappear from the river banks. Many with spiritual significance. …….
The Barkindji community fought for Native Title of the land – covering 128,000 square kilometres — from Wentworth at the Victorian border to near Wanaaring in the state’s north-west, including Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Menindee, Pooncarie and Dareton.
They started the claim in 1997 and won two decades later, but many have said without water flowing in the river they feel robbed. …….
Case for change
Last month, the National Resources Commission (NRC) released an independent report looking into the water-sharing plan of the Barwon-Darling River system.
The system takes in the the Barwon River, from upstream of Mungindi at the confluence of the Macintyre and Weir rivers, to where the Barwon meets the Culgoa River.
At this point the river channel becomes the Darling River and the Barwon–Darling system extends downstream to the Menindee Lakes.
It found that provisions that allow increased access to low flows resulted in poor ecological and social outcomes downstream of Bourke, including the town of Wilcannia where part of the Barkindji community live.
The NRC has made 17 recommendations, including one which has called for stricter regulation of when irrigators, including cotton farmers, can pump water from the river………. HTTPS://WWW.SBS.COM.AU/NEWS/INDIGENOUS-COMMUNITY-SAY-THEY-VE-LOST-THEIR-CULTURE-TO-WATER-MISMANAGEMENT
Morrison government’s drought policy mess
Has drought policy become a casualty of the federal-state blame game? ABC The Conversation By Michelle Grattan 18 Oct 19, Government sources insist shock jock Alan Jones didn’t drive Thursday’s announcement of a cash payment to drought-stricken farmers about to be turfed off their household support because they’d reached the four-year time limit.They say the measure — giving up to $13,000 to a couple and $7,500 to individuals at a cost of $12.8 million this financial year — had been in Cabinet’s expenditure review committee process for some time.
But the National Farmers Federation says it wasn’t given any notice, which seems odd since Drought Minister David Littleproud is constantly referencing the NFF.
Regardless of the sequencing, Mr Jones’ extraordinarily angry and emotional performance on Tuesday, haranguing Mr Morrison on radio, breaking down on TV, and warning of dire political consequences if the Government didn’t do something, certainly concentrated the Prime Minister’s mind.
As one official puts it, Mr Morrison is “attuned to the zeitgeist”.
Described more prosaically, the PM is highly sensitive to public opinion, and he judges that in metropolitan areas as well as the regions, people want more action — and then more still — to help those brought to their knees.
Can drought policy deliver better outcomes?
When he became PM, Mr Morrison was immediately anxious to own the issue of the drought. He referred to it in his news conference the day he was elected leader, saying it was “the first thing I need to turn attention to”, and was quickly off to a drought-affected area.
Now he is feeling the full cost — political as well as financial — of that ownership, as he’s confronted with pressure on all sides.
NFF president Fiona Simson continues to say she doesn’t think the Government has a drought policy…….
A sign of weakness?
Also, the Government has no credible reason for keeping under wraps the report it commissioned from Stephen Day, who was its drought coordinator, which would provide some useful overview.
Thursday’s announcement of the cash payment was messy: Mr Morrison trumpeted it on radio at the same time as the Nationals unveiled it at a press conference.
The Coalition’s handling looks ad hoc and reactive……..
Also, the Government has no credible reason for keeping under wraps the report it commissioned from Stephen Day, who was its drought coordinator, which would provide some useful overview.
Thursday’s announcement of the cash payment was messy: Mr Morrison trumpeted it on radio at the same time as the Nationals unveiled it at a press conference……. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-18/drought-gives-scott-morrison-a-harsh-political-lesson/11614698
Australia’s climate crisis: destruction of forests
An epidemic of land clearing is sabotaging efforts to address climate change. Farming communities are bitterly divided over the issue – but it also has global consequences
Roger Fitzgerald’s family has been farming near Moree since 1925. But these days he feels under siege on his own farm. His 1,700-hectare property, 50km north of the town, is now surrounded by the operations of the sprawling agribusiness Beefwood Farms, which has been steadily buying up land in New South Wales to expand its operations.
The old easement to Fitzgerald’s cottage across the sprawling Beefwood property has been planted over with crops. His letterbox has mysteriously disappeared on several occasions, making it hard for visitors to spot the entrance to his farm. But it is the extent of land clearing by his neighbour, Beefwood’s owner, Gerardus Kurstjens, that has upset him the most.
Fitzgerald says the microclimate of the nearby Welbon plains has moved a kilometre further on to his property since losing a tree line on Kurstjens’ property that once sheltered his land.
Pockets of remaining vegetation have been ripped from the grey soil to expand cultivation and square up paddocks – and the first Fitzgerald knows of it is when the bulldozers arrive.
“There is something seriously not right about the extent of land clearing in my little part of the world,” he says.
Think of land clearing like a rezoning in the city. Land cleared for cropping west of Moree sells for $2,500 a hectare whereas grazing land will sell for between $700 and $1000 a hectare. East of Moree most of the prime land has already been converted to crops and sells for $6,800 a hectare, three times the value of grazing land.
Clearing vegetation has the potential to add millions to a property’s value, as well as yielding high returns in a good year.
That alone is enough for farmers to risk up to $1m in fines for illegally clearing, according to one former NSW Office of Environment and Heritage compliance officer, who asked not to be named.
But while land clearing might benefit individual farmers in the short term, the loss of native vegetation comes with enormous costs for the rest of us.
“Land clearance and degradation is one of the greatest crises facing Australia and the world,” says Bill Hare, the chief executive and senior scientist with Berlin-based Climate Analytics. “It undermines the basis for food production, is causing species loss and ecological decline, destroys climate resilience, degrades water resources and reverses carbon storage on the land.”
Pollution from land clearing is projected by the federal government to remain at about 46m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year to 2030, roughly equivalent to emissions from three large coal-fired power plants. The rate at which we are clearing land in Australia is almost immediately wiping out gains being made under tax-payer funded schemes to address climate change.
Australia is among the 11 worst countries when it comes to deforestation, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Queensland, with its vast swathes of untouched land on Cape York, has the highest clearing rate, but NSW is rapidly becoming a hotspot – and there is less to lose, with only 9% of the state’s vegetation in its original state.
What is becoming clear is that successive NSW governments have failed to explain the science behind preserving native vegetation – both in relation to climate change and protecting the landscape and endangered species – to farmers and the public.
Instead, land clearing laws in the state have been successively weakened, first by Labor and then more comprehensively by the Coalition, with the introduction of amendments to the Local Land Services Act in August 2017.
“NSW’s native vegetation laws were [once] based on the principle that broad-scale land clearing would not be permitted and clearing could only proceed if it could be shown to maintain or improve environmental outcomes,” says Rachel Walmsley, a solicitor at the NSW Environmental Defenders Office.
“The new act brought in a new approach with the twin stated objectives of arresting the current decline in the state’s biodiversity while also facilitating sustainable agricultural development.”
But while farmers are mostly happy with the new rules, environmentalists say they have ushered in an environmental disaster because they allow farmers to self-assess whether clearing is permissible.
The old act also protected paddock trees; the amended act has made it much easier to get rid of them.
Critics say farmers have been given the green light to clear.
“I have sat in meetings where arguments have been put that driving a tractor around a tree is a significant cost in diesel for farmers,” Walmsley says.
“There’s no valuation of the ecosystem services these trees provide: clean water, clean air, healthy soils and hosting pollinators. There’s no dollar value put on vegetation.”………
The facts are unequivocal. NSW is losing vegetation at an alarming rate………………… https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/oct/17/stripped-bare-australias-hidden-climate-crisis
Minister Canavan and Department of Industry Innovation and science ready to spoil beautiful, sacred, and arable land – for nuclear trash
Goodes abuse mirrors SA nuclear fight, Eureka Street, Michele Madigan, 03 September 2019 On 21 August I came out of an Adelaide preview of The Australian Dream, Stan Grant’s documentary about the racialised mistreatment of the former AFL footballer Adam Goodes, for a brief interview on our local ABC’s Evening Show. The topic: the resumption of federal government visibility and determination to both deposit and dump nuclear waste in either the Flinders Ranges or Kimba regions.
There is at best exasperation, and at worst, genuine anger shown to many Australians seeking to defend country: to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defenders certainly. In regard to non-Aboriginal people, the word ‘greenie’ has become largely a term of derision………
On 13 August, DIIS, in meeting with the Barndioota Consultative Committee in the Flinders, confirmed that the size of the proposed site would now be 60 per cent larger. On 21 and 22 August Minister Canavan visited both areas for brief ‘consultative’ meetings, declaring the site decision is likely before the end of this year, and acknowledging that this may take place before the Flinders ballot. While again refusing to give a named acceptable percentage on such a ballot, Senator Canavan stressed the ballot was just one component in the decision making. Other evidence will include the 1000 submissions in this still open process.
On his 26 August Evening Show, Peter Goers interviewed an enthusiastic proponent — the Member for the vast federal seat of Grey. Rowan Ramsey was indignant that ‘outsiders’ were daring to protest the project. As well as ignoring his companion interviewee, local Greg Bannon, Ramsay revealed his misconception that other South Australians and indeed other Australians have no right to object. In claiming no knowledge of nuclear transport accidents, clearly he had not heard of the 1994 spill near Port Augusta, to name just one example; nor that transporting and simply ‘storing’ the spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor is exponentially more dangerous than Olympic Dam yellowcake transport…… https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/goodes-abuse-mirrors-sa-nuclear-fight?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Wednesday%204%20September%202019&utm_content=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Wednesday%204%20September%202019+CID_df4eff5733a50d6914ba873c7e09aea7&utm_source=Jescom%20Newsletters&utm_term=Goodes%20abuse%20mirrors%20SA%20nuclear%20fightAs forests disappear in the Amazon, Australia’s rainforests are being destroyed, too
|
Calls to preserve Australia’s rainforests as fires rage in the Amazon, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/calls-to-preserve-australia-s-rainforests-as-fires-rage-in-the-amazon People must fight to save the Amazon rainforest from deforestation – but it is important efforts to preserve Australia’s rainforests are also made, local environmental groups say. BY EVAN YOUNG 25 Aug 19, Environmental groups are urging people to channel raised awareness about deforestation in the Amazon into renewed efforts to preserve Australia’s own forests.
|
|
Mirrarr people to lead the Kakadu region’s transition from uranium mining
Kirsten Blair, Community and International Liaison, 15 Aug 19, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal CorporationToday GAC chairwoman, Toby’s Gangale’s daughter: Valerie Balmoore signed an MOU with the Federal and NT Governments as well as mining company ERA committing all parties to a Mirarr-led post-mining future for Jabiru.
There is still much work to be done on Mirarr country including cleaning up the immense Ranger uranium mine. GAC and others will continue our diligent work in this area – and there are no guarantees the cleanup will be wholly successful – but restoration of country remains the absolute objective.
Mirarr continue to assert their rights as Traditional Owners and lead the way for people and country, this Jabiru story is evidence of a massive shift. The power in these images speaks for itself. Today is deeply hopeful for the Kakadu region and offers an incredible message for all communities resisting unwanted mining projects.
|
JABIRU FUTURE SECURE AS PARTIES SIGN MoU. A historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed today in Jabiru will secure the town’s future as the tourism heartland of the World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park. Federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley will join Northern Territory Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Selena Uibo, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and Traditional Owners from the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation (GAC) for the signing of the MoU, which will support the town’s transition from a mining town to a tourist town. ERA is scheduled to cease operations at the Ranger
“This is about working together to ensure that the community will prosper and the mining land is cared for,” Federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said. “The Australian Government has committed $216m to Kakadu with $35m directly supporting Jabiru’s transition from mining to tourism. Importantly, the certainty that comes from this MoU will encourage further private investment.” Selena Uibo, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, said the NT Government has committed a further $135.5m to the town. “Jabiru is, and always has been, Aboriginal land. The Territory Labor Government will work closely with GAC to support the employment opportunities tourism will present for the Mirarr people, so they can achieve their social and economic aspirations,” Minister Uibo said. “Kakadu is home to the oldest continuous culture on earth. The Mirrar traditional owners, by drawing upon more than 65,000 years of knowledge and wisdom, can improve the visitor experience for those who come to visit this very special part of the Territory.”
Valerie Balmoore, Chair of GAC and a senior Mirarr Traditional Owner, said the Corporation has formed a new partnership with the NT Government, Jabiru Kabolkmakmen Ltd, to guide the postmining move, and developed a Jabiru Master Plan to drive the town’s evolution. “The Masterplan is our vision for the new Jabiru town. We welcome the investment commitments from the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory and ERA in supporting our goals. Jabiru and Kakadu are places where we can share our cultural heritage with future generations,” Ms Balmoore said.
Paul Arnold, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA), said ERA will continue to have a presence in Jabiru as the Company undertakes the rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area to protect Kakadu’s World Heritage values. “I want to acknowledge the leadership of the Mirarr Traditional Owners and the contributions of the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments toward creating a future for Jabiru,” Mr Arnold said. “ERA is proud of its role in establishing the town and the contribution of our people to the community over the last 40 years. We look forward to continuing to be a valued member of the community and working closely with the Mirarr and the Commonwealth and NT Governments to support the transition of Jabiru.
Jabiru was established in 1982 to support uranium mining in the region. Today it is a services and tourism hub for Kakadu National Park and the West Arnhem region. ERA will cease processing activities at the Ranger Uranium Mine no later than January 2021, with remediation work to be completed by 2026. As Jabiru transitions from a mining town to a locally-led community, until 2023, the Northern Territory Government will continue to take responsibility for essential services and infrastructure, including education, health, police, fire and emergency
|
|
Australia’s one great river system – Murray-Darling Basin Plan ‘untenable’ – corrupt?
|
Murray-Darling Basin Plan ‘untenable’ says NSW, as Inspector-General says more corruption wouldn’t surprise https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-05/murray-darling-basin-plan-untenable-says-nsw/11382396
Key points:
|
South Australian Labor – too pro environment ?
|
Our own base rejected us”: Labor warned on ‘pro-environment’ agenda, InDaily, Tom Richardson @tomrichardson, 2 Aug 19
The ALP’s recent caucus strategy meeting in the Barossa – colloquially known as the ‘Labor Love-In’ – was given detailed analysis of the federal election results in SA, with a breakdown of booths relevant to state seats. Results in the key Liberal-held marginal of Boothby, obtained by InDaily, show strong swings to Labor in more affluent areas, including Hills districts such as Belair and Blackwood, with swings away from the party in more traditional working class booths such as Edwardstown, Ascot Park and South Plympton. Boothby was retained by Nicolle Flint on a 1.4 margin, despite a 1.3 per cent swing against her after a federal boundary redistribution. A Labor insider says the Boothby booth result is indicative of a broader trend seen “in every seat in the country” – which they insist dispels the popular election post-mortem that Labor’s financial reform policies cost them the poll. “The principal conclusion you come to from that data is that there are mild swings in the wealthiest parts of the seat to Labor, and big swings in the working class areas against Labor – that would rather suggest it wasn’t the franking credits that lost us the election,” the source said. “It was something more fundamental – it was our own base that rejected us. “Did they reject us on the franking credits [or a] scare campaign on negative gearing policy? Maybe. “Or did they get the sense that we were more pro-environment than pro-jobs?” That conclusion is one being impressed on Peter Malinauskas’s state caucus, with insiders insisting Boothby “doesn’t augur well for a state result”…….. But ALP insiders aren’t universally convinced that the lesson from the federal result is to eschew a strong climate change agenda, which was a hallmark of Labor’s 16 years in government. …… https://indaily.com.au/news/politics/2019/08/02/our-own-base-rejected-us-labor-warned-on-pro-environment-agenda/ |
|
Rio Tinto moves to own Ranger remediation
Rio Tinto moves to own Ranger remediation, Matthew Stevens, Jul 26, 2019
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/rio-tinto-moves-to-own-ranger-remediation-20190725-p52ape
In pushing Energy Resources Australia towards a potentially controversial capital raising Rio Tinto has moved to take greater ownership of what is arguably the most important mine retirement and clean-up in Australian resources history.
The task ahead is the required $830 million remediation of the Ranger uranium mine, which sits in a necessarily excised pocket of the United Nations World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
Ranger has been operated by Energy Resources Australia through its often controversial 40-year life. Through that time ERA has been majority owned by Rio Tinto or its Australian forebear, CRA. Currently Rio owns 68.4 per cent of ERA.
But a plan to fill the $400 million or so gap between what Ranger’s remediation is expected to cost and the cash that ERA has at hand to pay for the big clean-up could quite easily see Rio creep to a position that would see the mine operator fully absorbed by the mother ship.
ERA revealed extended discussion with Rio Tinto over how the funding gap would be filled has ended with its Anglo-Australia overseer insisting the only path was for Ranger’s operator to make a renounceable rights issue.
Rio Tinto has committed to take up its full entitlement and to underwrite the balance of any issuance if alternatives are not available.
The erstwhile uranium miner told its minority owners that it is “considering the size, structure and terms” of any potential rights issue “having regard to the interests of ERA as a whole”.
While that is an appropriate expression of independence, the most unlikely outcome here would be an ERA board populated by Rio Tinto appointees will end up doing anything that does not concur with the parent’s view of the company’s future.
The minority question
The most likely question ahead, then, for minority shareholders is going to be whether or not they double-down on a failed punt and back the rights issue needed to sustain the long, costly wind-up of their business?
Whatever the size, structure and terms of the raising Rio Tinto wants ERA to make, it will be material to the minority owners. ERA’s current market capitalisation is $130 million. So tapping the market for even half the shortfall could prove definitively dilutive for those unprepared to throw funds at a business destined to disappear.
In most circumstances this course might be cause to wonder at whether or not this pathway might represent a level of minority shareholder oppression. Rio Tinto’s pitch though is the exception to the rule.
ERA stopped being a miner five years ago and hopes its future might be extended were dashed a few years later when Rio Tinto found itself unable to support the Ranger 3 underground expansion, a conclusion we revealed first in April 2015.
Presently ERA’s only recourse to income is through processing uranium from stockpiled ore. That production will end in 2021 and ERA has a legal obligation to safely close the operation by 2026. The cost of remediation will endure at least half a decade beyond that and so too will the risk to reputation and social licence of any and all shortcomings of that effort.
Quite sensibly, Rio Tinto assesses it fully owns the risk of any failure or future non-compliance. It is regularly reminded of that inescapable reality by the anti-uranium activists, by the increasingly power ESG lobby and by governments state and federal.
RELATED: Rio Tinto worried about ERA’s Ranger uranium mine
The funding proposal sketched out on Thursday announces those warnings were unnecessary. Rio Tinto really does want to own Ranger’s remediation.
Acute water shortage in rural Australia, as drought persists
Country towns close to reaching ‘day zero’, as water supplies dry up in the drought, ABC News, By National Regional Affairs reporter Lucy Barbour 14 July 19, Across New South Wales and Queensland’s southern downs, country towns are approaching their own ‘day zero’, as water supplies dry up in the drought.
1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net/
For a nuclear-free, climate friendly nation – New Zealand shows the way – theme for November 19
Citizen Advocacy: The Achievements of New Zealand`s Peace Activism, Asia Pacific Journal Pinar Temocin and Noriyuki Kawano, October 1, 2019 Volume 17 | Issue 19 | Number 2Abstract
Aotearoa New Zealand provides an important example of successful citizen activism in the form of anti-nuclear peace advocacy. The collective efforts by peace actors over several decades resulted in the successful demand for a nuclear-free nation. This paper highlights the widespread participation and political support that facilitated the process and assesses its achievements.
Introduction New Zealand, a small and isolated country, is a rare example of a nation achieving nuclear-free status. The peace-seeking nation unified around an anti-war narrative, and moved from activism based on public awareness and engagement to the passage of laws that eliminated nuclear weapons through a number of stages: from the first generation of movements against the atomic bomb after 1945 to the response to French nuclear testing in the late 60`s to US and UK nuclear warship visits in the 70`s and the early 80`s. As part of this shift, the US-led military alliance with Australia and New Zealand (ANZUS) was redefined by New Zealanders from a guarantee of security to a threat that posed a security dilemma. As this essay shows, social consciousness and activism was ultimately successful in bringing fundamental change. The Labor Party, in particular, played a critical role in translating strong public participation on the part of a broad section of the population into a significant policy outcome: `the creation of a peaceful and nuclear-free nation`.
This mobilization involved persistent and substantial public pressure over decades. Public pressure to change the nation’s foreign policy also included opposition to involvement in the United States-led coalition in the Korean and Vietnam wars. As these wars came to an end, the matter of nuclear testing became a hot-button election issue forcing each political party to adopt a policy on nuclear weapons. The anti-nuclear argument was placed within a broader moral vision. New Zealand peace advocates problematized the threatening conditions and demanded a solution under the narratives of a `democratic, egalitarian, decolonized, independent, non-violent, non-militarist nation which is intrinsically based on `a peaceful nation`. A peaceful nation for them required a nuclear-free approach in its domestic and foreign policies. To achieve this, they organized actively, coordinated professionally, sustained effective campaigns, and engaged in the policy-formation and shaping process.
Since the end of the 60s, successful protest movements have established new modes of political participation in advanced democracies.1 In some democratic societies including New Zealand, social movements have benefitted from tolerant political structures. Their success depends further on specific configurations of resources, trustworthy institutional arrangements, and historical precedents for social mobilization that facilitate the development of protest movements.2
Strong democracies are conducive to positive engagements and interactions between citizen and the state. The strengthening of practices of participation, responsiveness to a majority, and the development of inclusive and cohesive societies are powerful components of the democratic decision-making process. Therefore, citizen participation in governance with a responsive, open, and tolerant state can produce positive effects based on popular consensus……https://apjjf.org/2019/19/Temocin.html
New Zealand passes historic zero carbon bill with near unanimous bipartisan support – The New Zealand parliament has passed landmark legislation that enshrines the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement into law, and will see the country achieve zero net carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 ….. https://reneweconomy.com.au/new-zealand-passes-historic-zero-carbon-bill-with-near-unanimous-bipartisan-support-33500/
Free Julian Assange, before it’s too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition
EVENTS
More information at Action Australia
November 17 – Port Lincoln, South Australia – Say NO to Nuclear Waste on the Eyre Peninsula
December 3rd 2019 “The fate of journalism and Julian Assange”. Kristinn Hrafnsson: National Press Club Australia Event
Make a submission about the radioactive waste dump!
The Federal Government wants to put a National Radioactive Waste Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. The Department is calling for submissions and says these will be “one of the factors the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia may take into account when determining broad community support for the Facility.” If you live outside the ballot area, a submission is the only way to have your say! It only takes a minute to voice your opposition – use our online proforma submission and add whatever comments you like.
Submissions can be made by: Email: radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au Post: The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. National Radioactive Waste Section. GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601| More information
Honest Government Ad | Visit Australia!
FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia Read the published submissions on the Parliamentary website. Read the SUMMARIES of submissions here.
