The Greens are calling on NSW Education Minister Verity Firth to warn parents about the misuse of testing data on her federal colleague Julia Gillard’s school results website.
 
Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: “The year 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy and numeracy tests were not designed to be used to compare students, let alone schools or teachers. Using the averaged results to assess the achievements of a school is deeply misleading.
 
“Parents and the community are being invited to pass judgements on a school based on data that is narrowly focused, statically invalid and deceptive. (more…)

Greens MP Ian Cohen is referring Forestry Minister Ian Macdonald and Forests NSW to the Auditor General for their unsustainable management of the Riverina Red Gums.

“The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) report on the River Red Gums has provided the necessary research for the NSW Auditor General to seriously question the assertions of Minister Macdonald and Forests NSW,” says Mr Cohen.
 
“Minister Macdonald has previously claimed Forests NSW’s management of River Red Gums is consistent with world class environmental practice. I would question whether logging 70% beyond sustainable levels in an internationally significant wetland meets such a standard. 
 
“The report is a resounding indictment on Forests NSW’s management. The report clearly states, ‘forest growth rates have been in long-term decline but quotas have not been revised down’. In other words Forests NSW, with the blessing of Minister Macdonald, has continued to log at a ‘business as usual’ rate in the face of an increasingly stressed system. (more…)

Australia Day. What does it mean?

For the First Australians, it represents the take-over of their land with the arrival of the first governor and the subsequent events which led to dispossession, disease, genocide and prejudice, not to mention mismanagement and destruction of the land and water systems that had provided for them for so long.

It re-emphasises the failure to acknowledge that Indigenous people were here for tens of thousands of years before the British flag was planted on the soil of what was conveniently called “Terra Nullius” - land belonging to no-one.

This in turn is further emphasised by the flying, draping, parading and wearing of the Australian flag, featuring the colonisers’ Union Jack in the left hand corner. And if that wasn’t enough, the notion of Terra Nullius is rammed home even more by the singing of the National Anthem with its first lines - “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free.”

What’s to celebrate? (more…)

(letter to the editor, published in the CT January 28)

Let’s be honest. Every day more light is shed on why there is no hope for humanity and all those species whose survival depends on our making the right decisions, and your report “Koalas face big logging threat” (January 26) is yet another example. We ought to be doing everything we can to protect biodiversity by retaining habitat, in this case for the last known koala colony on the far south coast. Forest protection has many benefits. As well as providing habitat, forests help to soak up the massive amounts of CO2 we are pumping out, improve catchment and regulate the water table. But no, we prefer to turn our forests into woodchips to meet the demands of insatiable overseas markets, not just in Japan but also China, whose demand for woodchips currently and frighteningly outweighs the huge amounts we already are producing. As with climate change, it is easier to pretend the problem does not exist, or at least, that humans have nothing to do with it, because recognising that our voracious consumption is jeopardising our very existence would mean that we had to do something about it. Australians all let us rejoice? I don’t think so.

Catherine Moore, Charleys Forest

Greens MP and south east NSW spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has called on Premier Kristina Kenneally to step in to save a koala population underthreat from logging in the Mumbulla State Forest.“The NSW Premier should hang her head in shame if she allows the last known koala habitat on the far south coast to be destroyed on her watch,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Forests NSW has indicated that logging in Mumbulla State Forest will start early in March 2010.

“Right now the NSW government is prioritising the interests of the logging industry over the ongoing survival of this much loved native animal. (more…)

(letter to the editor, Sydney Morning Herald, not published)

Let’s be honest. Every day more light is shed on why there is no hope for humanity and all those species whose survival depends on our making the right decisions. SMH, January 25 – p. 2: “Snowy in dire state ‘on life support’ “ demonstrates that our inaction is ensuring that the Snowy River is “dying through neglect”. Page 5: “Logging plan poses threat to precious koala colony” warns that the last known koala habitat on the far south coast of NSW is at risk of annihilation because we prefer to turn our forests into woodchips to meet the demands of insatiable overseas markets than do everything we can to protect biodiversity (and maximise our contribution to soaking up the CO2 we are putting out). Page 2: “Storm brews over glacier blunder” highlights yet again the desperate attempts of climate change sceptics who will do anything to try to prove that climate change science is flawed. All this is on a backdrop of the underlying problem – our inability to come to grips with our voracious consumption, because if we did, we would have to do something about it. Australians all let us rejoice? I don’t think so.

Catherine Moore

The Greens are calling on the NSW Water Minister Phil Costa to explain when the $1.9 billion Kurnell desalination plant will be operated.

Commenting on a story in today’s Australian (’Desal plant should only be used when dams fall below 15pc, says academic’), Dr Kaye said: “A decision to run the plant before it is needed will add at least $45 million each year to Sydney household water bills.

“The government should not heap yet more misery onto the pain of paying back the $1.9 billion construction costs. Former Premier Morris Iemma’s panicked decision committed Sydney households to a plant that is not needed now and was not justified then. (more…)

Greens spokesperson for Planning, Sylvia Hale MLC, today expressed her disappointment at the ICAC’s refusal to investigate the murky dealings
surrounding the sale of the Unions NSW Pittwater retreat at Currawong.

“In September 2005 the Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly, made an unconditional offer of $12.5 million to Unions NSW to buy the Currawong site and add it to the adjoining Ku-ring-gai National Park,” said Ms Hale.

“The then Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, and Minister Kelly, were reported to favour the purchase but it was strongly opposed by Michael Costa, the Treasurer at the time. In November 2005 the government’s offer was withdrawn. (more…)

The Keneally government’s failure to guarantee cash payments under the Solar Bonus Scheme is a blow to households and a get-rich-quick racket for electricity retailers, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Commenting on a story in today’s Sydney Morning Herald (‘Retailers ‘must pay’ for solar power feed’, page 5), Dr Kaye said: “NSW households were told they would get a generous feed-in tariff to help them make the transition to clean energy generation. What was delivered was a public relations sham for a struggling state government

“Energy Minister John Robertson left open a giant loophole in the Solar Bonus Scheme allowing retailers to withhold cash payments as so-called ‘credits’.

“Without the cash in hand, many households will find it hard to pay off their investment in solar panels and will shy away from the scheme. (more…)

The Labor Government’s announcement overnight that it would in effect sell significant Sydney Harbour properties by leasing them for 99 years to private owners will frustrate any ability to strategically plan for Sydney Cove, The Rocks and Darling Harbour, says The Greens NSW.

“Auctioning off publicly owned assets on 99 year leases conditions the public to forget that the land and buildings around our harbour were ever owned by the people of NSW,” said Sylvia Hale MLC, Greens spokesperson for Planning and Lands.

“It also frustrates any attempt to use these places in the public interest in years to come. (more…)