To his credit, NSW Premier, Nathan Rees in the days preceding the 4th December 2009 (his ousting as Premier) announced the creation of a massive new red gum national park along the Murray River near Deniliquin to protect much of the state's remaining river red gum forests from logging.

Peter Garrett's decision to stop the building of the Traveston dam is to be heartily applauded. However, he did no more than what should be expected of a Federal Minister for the Environment when faced with such an environmentally reckless proposal. Environmentalists still need to take stock of Garrett's generally abysmal past record and not allow themsleves to be put in a position where they have to beg the Minister to do the right thing.

Urgent action is required! International pressure valued. Please take 5 minutes to email or phone Peter Garrett's office letting him know that you want this rally stopped. It's insane to have any rally in such an extremely biodiverse area as Tweed/Kyogle Shire, NSW, going through national parks, koala colonies, endangered species habitat and World Heritage areas with nationally listed threatened species let alone in breeding season, let alone for the next 10-20 years, let alone four of them at once (Speed on Tweed, Repco Rally International, Classic Outback Trial Rally and Australian Tarmac Challenge) converging on Father's Day! SIGN INTERNATIONAL PETITION TO SAVE AUSTRALIA'S ENVIRONMENT AGAINST RALLY NOW

Please attend protest rallies on Sat 29 August, Fri 4, Sat 5 and Sun 5 September.

See also: Repco Rally route - the calm before the storm of 26 Aug 09, REPCO Rally injunction raced through court up blind alley of 31 Aug 09.

As images of koalas injured by the recent bushfires moves the world public to donate desperately needed money and material to animal carers, Peter Garrett's Environment Department has refused to list South East Queensland's koala population as endangered because "the form had not been filled in correctly." No doubt this will spare the Queensland Labor Government, whose reckless encouragement of population growth has largely caused the koala's threatened extinction, from much embarrassment in the midst of an election campaign.

See also: "Queensland Government killing koalas for developer dollars" of 12 Aug 09, "Wildlife also bleed, also feel, also lost their homes" of 13 Feb 09, "Development project threatens second largest Koala Colony in Tweed Shire" of 21 Feb 09, www.savethekoala.com.

Could Peter Garrett be waking up to the fact that he has an ENVIRONMENT portfolio and FINALLY doing something to protect it? Yea, there is hope! I can't help but wonder if someone threatened to sue him under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 which he is compelled to enforce.

Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 Feb 09

Demand that former protest singer and former President of the Australian Conservation Society Peter Garrett use his ministerial powers to prevent the tripling of Australia's coal exports by 2030 and prevent the destruction of Shoalwater Bay.

Enviro Minister Peter Garrett confirms his department refuses Senator Milne's request for release of CSIRO report relating to Gunns’ Pulp Mill project, but that's not all that people are complaining about

Whilst former President of the Australian Conservation Foundation Peter Garrett, now Federal Minister against the Environment looks the other way, primary school children petition the Victorian Government to stop the destruction by dredging of the pristine marine environment at Port Phillip Heads.

See also www.operationquarrantine.com, www.bluewedges.org, "Time to 'count cost' in Bay" (Mornington Peninsula Leader, 7 Apr 08) "Port Phillip Bay dredge protesters fight fines" (Herald Sun, 10 08)