Hysteria in Victorian Parliament disrupts Hearing on Finance and Administration. Witness fails to appear, perhaps advised not to by Attorney General. Scandal surrounds the Victorian Department of Planning and the ability of Victorian Law to pursue the truth in Parliament. Report from several sources present at the events. Please submit your views to Parliament - see inside

And the new message from the growth lobby is ..... "Yes, we hear your pain and we understand absolutely. No we don't intend to take any notice of your protests." Analysis of ex-ANZ bank economist, Saul Eslake's article, "Populate and Stagnate." in the Fairfax Press (The Age)

Environmentalists might expect Green MLC Greg Barber, to back another environmentalist, Kelvin Thomson, rather than supply quotes that could make him out unfairly to be racist. Wedge Politics we don't need from Mr Barber MLC who represents the Northern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne in the Legislative Council at State level, which Kelvin Thomson represents in the Lower House at the Federal level. What's going on? Are the Greens for real?

Has the nature of politics changed over the last few decades into a struggle of the people against the government? How much of our leisure time is now related to environmental struggles, signified by volunteer-manned stalls displaying educational material? Why do local and state government logos now figure in our community events? How much of our leisure-time and our attention has been taken over by ubiquitous commercialised, organised activities for children and adults? No answers in this article , just observations and questions... on a community event, somewhere, which could almost have been anywhere in Australia.

The TRUTH comes out of Maddens office. Consultation is faked. This is what we have all know for a long time as we spend hours of our time working away putting in submissions.
Well it is official; they just tick the boxes, as in: "Consulted with the community - tick."
And this is Madden who wants to be Premier?

Originally published on 25 Feb 10. Updated on 28 Feb 10 with embedded videos (thanks to Marvellous Melbourne) showing Madden being grilled by the newsmedia.
See also: "Government email reveals plans to deceive" of 25 Feb 10 by Ryan Sheales on ABC Online, "Consultation with community a sham" of 27 Feb 10 on Marvellous Melbourne.

At the Sustainable Living Festival, Greg Hunt says he will work 'in a bipartisan way' with Kelvin Thomson on population numbers. Kelvin Thomson advises, "Say 'no' to new suburbs and 'no' to new high rise and infill."

The sector in Australia that has the most costly dependency ratio must be the property sector, since it costs all Australians an enormous and unreasonable amount just to cover the cost of land for housing, business and agriculture. Most of the very high costs involved are completely unnecessary, except in the eyes of greedy developers and their hangers-on. The only reason that the costs are so high is that the industry wants it that way and our state and federal governments are in cahoots with it.

Both the NSW and Australian Government have upgraded Cumberland Plain Woodland from Endangered to Critically Endangered. You would assume any development that proposed to clear over 200 ha of critically endangered bushland would be struggling to get approval. We can assume nothing these days in Australia. Here is another focus where Australians need to unite to help each other get back democracy and protect fauna and flora from the growth lobby. The community has fought to save this area for nearly 20 years.See also related articles.

Labor Holdings, Labor Resources, Labor Inc, Rudd, Swann and the States: Is the Australian government and are the Australian state governments acting in our best interests or someone else's? Indeed, can they still be called 'governments' or are they becoming something else, to which citizens owe no allegiance?

See also: other articles about Labor Holdings

Queensland Infrastructure and planning minister, and former Property Council advisor, Stirling Hinchliffe has been given unprecedented power under Queensland’s new and deceptively named Sustainable Planning Act to ride roughshod over local government planning. (Hoffman, Opinion, Courier Mail, 6-1-2010) Hoffman also says, "There is little, the electorate can do about this having voted Labor back in..." Not true. People can do something. They can sign this petition calling for the government to resign

Film[Click on picture]: Writer and environmentalist, Mark O'Connor says that this is the first time since the mid 1990s that the ABC has interviewed someone from Sustainable Population Australia for the environmental view on population problems in Australia. I can't wait for them to interview someone from Candobetter.org. In the mean time: See also poll in The Age: "Suburban sprawl: Is a pause in extending Melbourne's boundary a good thing?" (Obviously the answer is "Yes"). See also "Madden Backflip on outer urban expansion" link inside.

There is no need to send out a search party for the Growth Lobby. It lives in your neighbourhood and in your home town.

See also by Tim Murray: "What is a racist?" of 3 Jan 10, "The Green Badge of Courage" of 3 Jan 10 and "It is socially responsible to be socially irresponsible" of 4 Jan 10.

"I was reminded of what John Kenneth Galbraith said, that the ruling caste of any country will just blithely identify its interests with those of the nation." Bob Carr to the Property Council of Australia's Nation Building Congress 2008

For a minister who says he wants certainty for developers (but gives not two hoots for making everyone else miserably insecure) Mr Madden must be driving them mad as well. The GAIC tax is subject to endless jerky permutations and increasing secrecy surrounds it. The horror of it all is that this farce is what passes for serious business in Melbourne these days. It is like some faintly similar town, but colonised by alien planners and parliamentarians with agendas that have nothing to do with representative government. Perhaps if we knew what was really going on - something to do with finances perhaps - it would not all be so hard to read.

A Galaxy poll suggests "60 per cent of Queenslanders want the Government to take steps to limit the state's southeast population growth explosion." (December 07, 2009). Although Anna Bligh's government actively advertises for overseas and interstate immigrants, the Premier is quoted saying , '"she was yet to see "any sensible or legal way" to cap the population.' Population sociologist, Sheila Newman, responds: "Premier Bligh could start by ceasing to advertise for more interstate and international immigrants. Her statements implying that population caps are not possible are ridiculous, misleading and irresponsible. All societies have numerous democratic ways of controlling population, unless they are politically prevented from doing so by undemocratic governments like Anna Bligh's."

What you can do: If you are a Queensland resident and Australian citizen, please sign the petition here.

If Australia's current growth rate continues, the population will double in 35 years. That means our population would be 44 million by 2045. Only one Australian politician - Kelvin Thomson - is trying to do something to stop this democratically. If you would like to help, come along NOVEMBER 29 and give support and discuss. If you support this, so will other people and the other politicians and parties will have to listen. See also: http://candobetter.org/taxonomy/term/1325 Update - film of the speech!

This comment, by Canadian Tim Murray, was originally posted to the ABC Background Briefing program, 'Housing for Millions'. In response to statements by a planner which implied that the doubling of Vancouver's population in 15 years had been accomplished without pain, he writes, "Vancouver is a success story only if compared to other major urban failures."

Carr: "I need only summarise the indictments of such high-end population growth." ..."It also spikes the cost of land and cruels housing affordability."

First it was Kelvin Thomson MP and now Bob Carr former Premier of NSW speaking out strongly about the increase of population being forced on us by Federal and State. Will this strike a chord and open Pandora's box for the government? Will the silent majority finally speak out?

The overwhelming focus of the mainstream press has been on a detail of Thomson's overall population numbers reform proposal, which was to cut the automatic entry for New Zealanders to Australia. So far the Canberra Times and The World Today on the ABC stand out for showing public responsibility by looking beyond the New Zealand issue and at what Thomson actually had to say. It will be eerily fascinating to see to what new lengths the Murdoch and Fairfax Press will go to try to destroy this politician and confuse the electorate about his outstanding environmental and democratic courage on behalf of Australians everywhere. Where to from here? Kelvin Thomson will be the guest speaker at a Public meeting run by Sustainable Population Australia (Victorian branch)on Sunday November 29th at 3.00pm. Topic: Population reform- Political challenges, at Meeting Room 1 North Melbourne Library 66 Errol St. North Melbourne - Convenor will be Jill Quirk, President of SPA Victoria.

Although it is a government department, The Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development is a member of the Australian Property Council. On 3 December 2009 it will be providing the Manager of Demographic Research in the Dept of Planning and Community Development as a breakfast speaker to APop Institute, which is a developer lobby-group for big population numbers in Australia.

Australia is not a fortress. Huge numbers of people cross and re-cross our borders each year. After all two of Australia's biggest industries are overseas students and tourism. So what does The Age mean by writing, "Closing the door isn't an option"? ("Growing population calls for picture focus," Editorial, The Age 11/11/2009.)

Is The Age telling Australians that they should not and do not have choice in moderating immigration cohorts and future population growth to more manageable levels? Is a population of 35 million or more by 2049 in Australia's National Interest? If not, in whose interest is it?

MP Kelvin Thomson "Melbourne's skyrocketing population and its implications for our environment and our way of life".
Australia's only parliamentary Environment and Population champion, Kelvin Thomson will be speaking at the Royal Park Protection Group AGM on Wednesday 11 November 2009, 7.15pm. If you can't make it on the 11th, there is another speaker meeting with Kelvin Thomson about overpopulation on the 29th of November.

"Mr Rudd should set aside his ego and self interest in spruiking a ‘big Australia’, simply to make himself a ‘bigger diplomatic deal’ and focus on the national interest of tackling the challenges presented by a population explosion on settling and supporting an extra 13 million people in the coming decades in a sustainable way." (Bruce Bilson, Federal Member for Dunkley) But why is Mr Bilson still supporting an extra 13 million if he knows it is against the will of Australian citizens? A case of the opposition having its cake from the developer lobby whilst making the ALP pay the price? The ALP deserves all the stick it gets on this, but the people deserve far better than the ALP or a Marie-Antoinette Liberal party policy. We need new political parties and independent representatives.

Australia Talks promotion for the program starts by saying that "by 2049 Australia's population will [sic] rise by 60 per cent to 35 million people." But, as Quark writes, Melbourne's population alone, on these trends, will be 34 million people by 2109. So what will Australia's total population be then? It is pure propaganda for the ABC to promote politically induced trends as if they were democratically irresistable. Why isn't it looking beyond the government's rhetoric to the fact that if we allow these trends to continue, the population of this country will massively exceed 34 million just as Melbourne will exceed 5 million and 7 million etc.? Listen on line live: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/flash/listen/default.htm. More information: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/
Podcast: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/ See also public forum tomorrow (11 Nov) on Melbourne's skyrocketing population: Kelvin Thomson speaks out in Melbourne November 11

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says Prime Minister Rudd should explain what the end effect of population growth to affect economic prosperity will be. "No world leader can ignore the planet's population burden. There were 3 billion people when Kevin Rudd was born. There are 6.8 billion now. There will be 9 billion by mid-century. This population boom is not economic wisdom, it is a recipe for planetary exhaustion and great human tragedy."
"We need the wisdom to have economic growth with a steady-state population at most - this is the new common sense," Senator Brown said. See also inside full text of Matters of Public importance speech by Senator Brown on population numbers.

Poaching skilled workers and removing political activists; dividing and conquering; restructuring communities to remove democratic organisation, multiculturalism as a cover for big business links with politicians

These potentially crucial forums have been very poorly publicised by the Victorian Government.
For enquiries -
Nicola McCracken, Communications and Administration Officer
spatialanalysis.research[AT]dpcd.vic.gov.au
Department of Planning and Community Development
Telephone 9208 3699 Fax 9208 3335 (during business hours)

video Kelvin Thomson again speaks out against more population growth in Victoria and to protect the bush from incursions, which will only cause more bushfire problems. After this, Gavin Jennings, Victoria's very disappointing the Minster for the Environment, urges more trees to be cut down as usual. (See inside for another link to the same video.)

Mr Rudd has set his reckless course and will not be diverted. See also "Normalising endless immigration and coupling it to nuclear power in Oz"

Are Australia’s natural resource endowments, including water, capable of sustaining a population of 35 million? What are the implications for environmental amenity of this sort of population growth? Must it mean an even greater loss of biodiversity difficult as that might be to imagine, given our history of species extermination?" "In the last decade, permits have been issued to allow the commercial slaughter of 49.6 million kangaroos primarily to give household pets a bit of variety in their diet."
(Australian Secretary of Treasury, Ken Henry, Yesterday, 22 October 2009) Listen to audio on ABC radio.