If honesty and accountability had been a compulsory part of election campaigning we may have ended up with a different result after Saturday’s election, says Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro Catherine Moore.

“The Greens ran a positive campaign, but without the backing of Australia’s biggest media magnate and millions of campaign dollars to use on advertising and leaflets, it was always going to be hard to get our message across,” says Catherine.

“This was compounded by the commonly expressed view of media commentators that there was no point in talking to other parties because only the ALP or Coalition would win the election, and the misinformation that was perpetuated, particularly by the Coalition, about The Greens.

“But the success of Adam Bandt has shown that where Greens are elected, they enjoy enormous support and are likely to be re-elected, no matter what preference deals are done by others in an attempt to keep them out. (more…)

As the O’Farrell government enters the second half of its term, the Greens NSW MPs have put together a report card on the government’s worst failures, and the Greens’ top achievements for a more sustainable and caring NSW.

The O’Farrell government:

• launched attacks on wages and conditions of teachers, nurses and other public sector workers, and drastic cuts to our workers compensation laws
• overturned the 26-year ban on uranium exploration in NSW, prompting widespread community concern and condemnation
• savaged schools and TAFE, stripping a staggering $1.6 billion of funding from public education
• opened up national parks to recreational hunters for the sake of a political deal with the extreme Shooters Party to enable electricity privatisation
• broke an election promise to oppose mining in drinking water catchments with approval of massive coal mine in the Sydney catchment
• gave tunnel vision priority to more tollways with $1.8 billion committed to the WestConnex without traffic modelling or cost-benefit analysis
• launched a “dob-in a rorter” program that demonised public housing tenants, while failing to clear the maintenance backlog and left tens of thousands on social housing waiting lists.
• watered down coal seam gas policy, failing to protect our farming lands and water with a weak strategic land use policy
• proposed child protection reforms that focus on punitive approaches to parents in at-risk families and prioritising adoption under short time-frames
• eroded civil liberties and failed to deal with police accountability - from the expansion of the sniffer dogs program, the removal of the right to silence and the failure to ensure that police do not investigate police
• squandered opportunity to transition to low carbon clean energy economy throwing $11 billion of wind industry investment into doubt with unrealistic and unreasonable wind farm guidelines.
• trashed marine science with the closure of The Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre of Excellence and continuing the deal with the Shooters Party for a moratorium on new marine parks
• replaced one pro-developer planning system with another, failing to put planning decisions back in the hands of local communities

(more…)

Thankyou for the opportunity to make a submission on the Green Paper. The Braidwood Greens have a strong interest in planning issues, given that Palerang Shire is one of the fastest growing LGAs in NSW and the region is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. In regard to the Green Paper, we are concerned at the focus on growth, the decrease in democracy and the abandonment of ecological sustainability.

We begin by requesting that you note our concerns about the timeline for submissions in relation to the proximity to the NSW Local Government elections. There may be many people who otherwise would have been interested in this review but who will not be focused on this process because of the elections.

We will focus on the Green Paper itself in this submission, rather than on answering the three questions in depth.

1. What are the best aspects of NSW local government in its current form?
Local government being local is the best thing about it. We are opposed to any further amalgamations. Local government has a lot of potential to be even better than it is at present, but it needs to be better funded.

2. What challenges will your community have to meet over the next 25 years?
Pressures for development due to the proximity of Palerang to Canberra; affordable housing when so many new houses are over-sized; difficulty in meeting infrastructure costs; water availability; lack of public transport and busier roads; the need to find work and meet a greater proportion of food needs closer to home.

3. What top five changes should be made to local government to help your community meet its future challenges?
Proper funding and a reversal of cost-shifting. Communities having a real say in developments that affect them, rather than always being overridden by developers. Better co-ordination between government departments to facilitate the DA assessment process. (more…)

(letter to the editor, Canberra Times, published to ** 13 March 2012, published in full in March 14 editions of Bungendore Mirror and Braidwood Times)

My heart goes out to all those whose lives will never be the same as a result of losing their loved ones on the Kings Highway last weekend.  These tragic events are yet another wake-up call to all of us who drive, a graphic reminder that the lower speed limits on some sections of the road, advisory speeds on bends, and unbroken lines on bends and crests are there for a reason. We cannot keep blaming the road, and it is hard to imagine that there will ever be enough money to build a dual carriageway down the Clyde. But we all can, and must, learn a lesson from these events and take the utmost care to drive according to conditions, and if it takes an increased, ongoing police presence on the highway in marked and unmarked cars to make sure we do, that needs to happen.

As a Palerang councillor and resident of the Braidwood area, I travel the Kings Highway frequently and invariably with trepidation, not because of the road but because of the acts of dangerous driving that I witness nearly every time I am in my car, whether they be by people travelling at high speeds, overtaking in unsuitable places or tail-gating, apparently oblivious to the consequences of the car in front having to brake suddenly, for whatever reason. We drivers have a responsibility not just for our own lives and those of our passengers, but for others on the road too, and for the police, the ambulance drivers and the emergency services personnel** who must deal with the consequences of the rush to get to the coast or Canberra and elsewhere a little bit sooner.

Catherine Moore

Greens candidate for Monaro Paul Cockram today congratulated John Barilaro on his election as the Member for Monaro and said The Greens would be taking up key issues with the new State MP. 
 
“We’d like to remind everyone that he plans to make improvements in health services his first priority.
 
“The Greens will be taking up a number of critical issues with Mr Barilaro including environmental safety at the proposed gold mine at Major’s Creek, the need for better public transport services connecting Queanbeyan and Canberra, and on-going threats to important woodland from road projects.
 
“We will also be raising the importance of having a price on carbon pollution to promote renewables and address climate change. I expect John Barilaro as a National to go in to bat for the farmers in NSW fighting against unrestricted appropriation of farming land for coal and gas extraction.” (more…)

Greens Upper House candidate, regional spokesperson and Orange City Councillor Jeremy Buckingham today joined with The Greens candidate for Orange Stephen Nugent to launch the Greens plan to revitalise regional NSW.

A key plank of the ‘Revitalising regional NSW’ plan involves directing 5% of the RTA’s annual budget to restoring and reopening rural branch lines to get freight off trucks and onto rail. (Full plan here.)

“Revitalising regional NSW means investing in strong public services, creating quality job opportunities and protecting farmland so that farmers can stay on the land and get a fair price for their produce”, said Jeremy.

“I am proud to launch the Green Jobs Plan to Get Freight Back on Track. This is a plan to invest at least 5% of RTA annual budget to restore and reopen rural branch lines and create a windfall of regional green jobs in the process.

“The Coalition’s action plan makes no mention of improving rail freight. Presumably they will continue business as usual.

“Rebuilding regional branch lines will save money in the long term. Trucks in our local communities risk accidents and deaths, increase greenhouse gas emissions and create expensive wear and tear on local roads. Getting freight off trucks and back on rail is the answer. (more…)

Greens MP and transport spokesperson Cate Faehrmann says speed limits should be determined by road safety experts, not politicians.

“The Coalition says drivers are checking their speedometers too often, but road safety experts say otherwise,” said Ms Faehrmann.

“The evidence shows speed kills. With advice from leading experts suggesting that a 5 per cent increase in average speeds ends in a 20 per cent increase in deaths, the Coalition’s announcement is clearly not about safety. (more…)

In the aftermath of the far south coast accident involving a petrol tanker that killed three people Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon has called on Premier Kristina Kenneally to reinstate the subsidy for bulk fuel transported by rail.

“I extend sympathy on behalf of the Greens to the families of those killed in this tragedy,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“The lessons from this horrific accident need to be acted upon to prevent more deaths and injuries.

“As well as targeting the black spots on the Princes Highway, the NSW government must ensure that where possible fuel is moved by rail. This is the safer form of transport.

“In November last year the Rees government ended its Fuel by Rail scheme that provided a 1.2 cents per litre subsidy to petrol companies.

“Slashing the scheme saved the government $1.6 million, but has meant more petrol tankers on NSW roads. This poor policy decision that saves a paltry amount of money was brought down in the 2008 mini-budget.

“Following this latest accident Premier Kenneally should move quickly to reinstate the rail subsidy for fuel transported from Sydney depots to western NSW and Canberra.

“The removal of the subsidy has resulted in Shell Australia transporting petrol from Parramatta to Canberra, Dubbo and Tamworth by B-double fuel tankers instead of rail.

“On the Dubbo run BP Australia had shared a train for deliveries with Shell so BP could be moving its fuel by road, which would force more trucks to use the dangerous Great Western highway.

“This could mean at least four extra B-double tankers on local roads a day.

”Three fuel trains a week use to run between Canberra and Sydney. The end of this service puts more lives at risks as petrol companies resort to using road freight.

“The government should be moving to require fuel companies to transport bulk petroleum products by rail whenever possible,” Ms Rhiannon said.

Big Island Mining Pty Ltd has lodged a major project application and environmental assessment (EA) under part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 for the extraction of up to 354 000t of ore per year from an underground gold mine, together with construction and operation of associated infrastructure, including a temporary waste rock emplacement, run-of-mine pad, processing plant, tailings storage facility, site access road and ancillary infrastructure. The EA was publicly notified from 29 September to 1 November 2010. This report presents a submission on the project. Council has been given an extension to 5 November 2010 to lodge the submission.

Palerang Council considered its submission on the mine at its November ordinary meeting held in the National Theatre, Braidwood on Thursday November 4.

Councillors Moore, Turley and Cockram declared that it may be perceived that they had a conflict of interest as they were part of a group (Braidwood Greens) that had lodged a submission, but as they had not written the submission, nor were they office-bearers, they were comfortable about being able to take part in deliberations.

No councillor with share-holdings declared a conflict of interest.  (more…)

(300 words for the Queanbeyan Age, August 20 edition)

We need to start doing politics differently, by focusing on issues, not personalities, taking the adversarial approach out of campaigning and decision-making, and talking about the vision we have for local communities and for Australia.

Many important issues have been forgotten or not adequately dealt with by the other major parties. Climate change needs our immediate attention. We don’t need a scheme that will only deliver a 5% cut to emissions and result in huge subsidies to big polluters. We do need a carbon tax on those big polluters, with the funds redirected to help low-income earners with increased power bills and installation of renewable energy systems. We could create thousands of jobs in renewable energy (wind, wave, solar and geothermal) and move to 100% renewables by 2050. (more…)