EEG trial update. The Brown Mountain landmark trial has begun.

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.

Wednesday 24 February from 12-2pm
on Parliament House steps, Melbourne

(Grey Teal - a "game" target)
The Government says conditions have improved in parts of Victoria and game ducks can be hunted sustainably. Hunters would be permitted to increase their take from last year's two per bag to five. Acting Minister for Environment and Climate Change Tim Holding said the compromise struck a balance between ensuring sustainable duck numbers and the interests of hunters.

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.

Organisations unite to oppose GAIC legislation: Angry landowners and Taxed Out supporters will rally against the Brumby Government’s Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) bill, currently before Parliament, tomorrow on the steps of Parliament House (Melbourne) at 1.00pm. The rally has been called by Taxed Out and will be supported by Protectors of Public Lands Victoria, Planning Backlash and the Green Wedges Coalition, who have candobetter.org's support. Note however that the Australian Property Institute, the Property Council of Australia, and the HIA are all profiting from and lobbying for the undemocratic population growth that is the cause of these new taxes. I hope some people carry some signs pointing this out and speak out against these profiteers. In this case, lambs might as well unite with wolves. We do not support these latter organisations. See also: GrowthLobby

"My concern is that a DAC is being treated almost like a court, judging from the answers the minister has given -- that is, somehow one can show contempt towards the DAC and this is referred to as 'detriment'. Clearly the DAC is not a court. I would like the minister to elaborate on this point: what constitutes detriment, who makes this decision and will there be guidelines?" (Mrs PEULICH (South Eastern Metropolitan) [Hansard] )
The Libs may defeat the urban growth boundary legislation in the upper house, but the passing of the Development Assessment Committee (DAC) legislation and the introduction of the "New Residential Zones" and the Review of the Planning Act, and the Transport Bill, are bad news for democracy and our quality of life: The Planning department will have almost total control and there residents or councils will have almost no say or rights.

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.

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.

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)

“The whole rationale for extending the Urban Growth Boundary is to accommodate the unprecedented flood of population to Victoria.” “The State Government is devoid of coherence in these planning matters and its approach to endless population growth.” (Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc)

A political poem by Walter Grahame in the fine old Australian tradition.
"Sure, we are girt by sea and girt by c02 and girt by bloody methane to put into the brew.
We're girt by politicians who won't de bloody bate that overpopulation will be our terminal fate
We've species loss, degraded soils and environmental squalor, and bloody blind self serving bastards in it for a dollar!"

This article is based on notes taken by a person who attended the Environment Defenders Office workshop on Victoria's new Major Transport Projects Facilitation Legislation - Tuesday 29 September 2009. It is helpful that the EDO has paid attention to this problem, since the problem is created by lawyers in parliament. The keynote speaker at this occasion was Ms Nicola Rivers Law Reform and Policy Director at Environment Defenders Office

Court upholds public interest in Brown Mountain forest proceedings
“We feel vindicated by this decision today and look forward to having the case heard for the protection of the forests and rare wildlife on Brown Mountain”, said Ms Redwood of Environment East Gippsland.
But now they have to fight the case - and that means paying lawyers. No question in my mind that this is a battle worth supporting. Please dig deeply in your pockets.
Thank you Environment East Gippsland!

EDO Seminar Series 2009
New road, rail and port development fast track: Victoria's new major transport projects laws - What do they mean?
Tuesday 29 September 2009
5.45pm for 6pm start
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
RSVP: EDO (03) 8341 3100
or edovic@edo.org.au

Robert Nelson's "Deceptive green of suburban gardens," is another of those insidious articles that keep on coming out of The Age newspaper. Here we are presented with the false dichotomy of the continued existence of the evil - but green - suburbs OR the necessity of greatly increasing population density by destroying them to 'save the environment'. Neither is true; in the article people's private gardens are quite unfairly blamed for our environmental problems and the cause of those intensifying problems is actually presented as if it were a solution.

Labor Government member, Ms Joanne Duncan, described Melbourne as having to choose between sprawl or unpopular high density housing. Then she said, "Another option is to somehow put a moratorium on any population increase and have all manner of totalitarian measures to reach that end. All of those are completely unacceptable, so we will continue to have population growth." In fact population growth would slow down of its own accord, with no coertion, if the government simply stopped forcing up the immigration rate and giving out baby bonuses. Democracy is decreasing with population increase, yet Ms Duncan pretends that to allow the population to grow or stabilise or shrink at its natural pace would somehow require totalitarianism. What's the story here?

More detail has come to light in the matter of costs that might be imposed on parties. It seems that the judge, whose name is actually Jack Forrest, recognises biodiversity preservation - which this injunction application is about - to be a matter of public interest, which would mean that the complainants are unlikely to be made to wear harsh costs. This is a development on this story, "Brown Mountain: What price justice?" where it seemed to me that the costs would be high for the complainants. That was probably an error. Let's hope for a very good result here.

Today, Monday 14th September, the Victorian Supreme Court found grounds for an injunction to stop the Victorian Government from logging old-growth Brown Mountain forest. In an appalling trend, however, the court asked for the complainant to deposit a huge sum of money as an indemnity for VicForests before it applies the law. The complainant is the small but incredibly brave group of volunteers - Environment East Gippsland (EEG). EEG is all that stands between the reduction of Victoria's remaining old growth forest - our Eden - to below 8 %, heading towards zero. See also: Related articles The Government should be defending our forests, yet we have to defend them against our rogue Victorian government. Please dig deeply into your pockets for EEG and for justice and for Mother Nature.

Earth Matters, 31 Aug 2009
On the pristine coast of southern Victoria construction of one of the world’s biggest desalination plants is set to go ahead. Earth Matters talks to local campaigner Stephen Cannon, oceanographer Jochen Kaempf and water expert Peter Coombes about the risks of and alternatives to this ‘silver bullet’ approach to water supply problems. File Download (28:58 min / 13 MB)

Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc have called for the withdrawal of the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Bill 2009. President Brian Walters SC has called it “an affront to democracy as well as to good planning." He says that it will lead to damage to the environment and public assets. It suggests that its proponents are in league with developers instead of upholding the community’s interests.”

Proposed law will exempt the State Government from its own laws and concentrate decision making power into one or two Ministers. A draconian piece of legislation, the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Bill 2009, has been brought into the Parliament . Your help is necessary to have this bill stopped in the upper house. Only the Liberal-National Coalition, by voting with the Greens, can stop this bill in the upper house. Victoria is under almost constant assault from a despotic government, which is seeking more and more power beyond the control of the people. But all is not lost. It is possible to beat them by supporting opposition review in the upper house of the Victorian Parliament. We have done it before.

The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has recently put out an 'alert' about peak oil and the existence of a group they call the MAV Transition Community Working Group. It talks about the need for local governments to lead the adaptation to peak oil. This will be difficult in a pollity where all the power is being taken from local communities and they are being plugged into state and national systems which have been commercialised and which have no obligation to their 'customers' except to submit to some vague 'competition' in prices rulings. Nonetheless, it is the local councils which have the resources and potential networks to help people reorganise locally, despite the state and federal governments.

Tired, angry, frightened by your government and big business? Surrounded by hysterical idiots? ABC and the shockjocks make you grind your teeth? Don't know where to turn? Need to get a grip? - Look for the Joe Toscano anarchist pod-casts on 3CR Victoria. You can download his soothing but relevant political counsel every week. It's all about relocalise, energy, population, democracy and land-tenure. It's called anarchism, and Joe is the only person I've ever heard talk about it coherently and simply.

Victoria's Water Minister, Tim Holding, is angry that his government's regulations to allow country water to be funnelled to Melbourne via a north-south pipeline were rejected in the Victorian parliament on Wednesday. The opposition moved a disallowance motion to block the order, which regulates the delivery of pipeline water. The Greens and DLP supported the motion, giving the coalition the numbers it needed for it to pass.

"It will be interesting to see if the exact matters we have argued through the legislative process end up being argued in a court somewhere, where perhaps some of the facts we have been so desperately trying to expose can for once be tested. Perhaps the people in the community can be offered not just an environmental and social future but some answers to the questions they have been so regularly and constantly asking." Greg Barber, Greens MLC 12-8-09

“Today’s successful disallowance motion in Parliament highlights the overwhelming opposition to the Government’s attempts to loot water from food producers and the environment because it has failed to plan for Melbourne’s future water needs,” Mr Ryan, Liberal Nationals Coalition.

“The Order clearly breached commitments the government made to the environment, food producers and Victorian communities and shows the Brumby Government is prepared to place the future of farming communities and our rivers in jeopardy for the sake of sending 75 gigalitres of northern Victoria’s water to Melbourne."

Victoria is outsourcing its essential services for competitive profit and marketing taxpayer-funded 'gifts' to taxpayers as if they were 'free'. The activities of the sector are to be monitored - but only economically - by a new body calledThe Essential Services Commission - which apparently approves of these 'free' gifts. Would you trust people with so little concern for democracy? A concerned citizen expresses her disgust at the whole scammy system, marketed by naive young people cold-calling customers at home. Comment inside from Essential Services Commission

Shadow Minister for Planning Matthew Guy will today ask the Parliament’s all-powerful Finance and Public Administration Committee to call the Planning Minister and the Growth Areas Authority (GAA) to appear before it to urgently explain the proposed Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) that will have damaging effects on Victorian families. See related articles.