Comments

Several things need to be remembered when considering the now certain destruction of Westernport Bay.

1/ This proposal has bi-partisan support following the ALP's production of the Port of Hastings Land Use and Transport Strategy (PHLUTS) in 2004/5. The only difference being the ALP's plan to stage the development over 20+ years when they thought the Port of Melbourne would be at capacity.

2/ Mr Rob Gell regarded by many as an "environmentalist", was chair of the Mornington Peninsula and Westernport Biosphere (MPWB) during the release of PHLUTS and indeed advised on the proposal's "sustainability". Westernport Bay is the centre of a Biospher Reserve centred on Westernport. His complete silence on this proposal runs contrary to UNESCO's Biosphere primary goal of educating society on the environmental assets of it's reserves, rather than allowing the perception of Westernport as "mud, mangroves and mosquitoes" to continue. The general public have no idea of the value of this Biosphere Reserve. Gell's stewardship over the reserve was a complete failure and highlights the danger of the "cosy" relationship between NGO's and government/private sector.

3/ Gell's silence hid the fact that Westernport will lose 4 kilometers of mangrove ecosystem along it's shore. Westernport is the most southerly appearance of this type of mangroves in the world. Mangrove have a higher biodiversity value than tropical rain forest, would anyone consider bulldozing a similar size area of rainforest nowadays ?

4/ Q/ - What happens when mangroves, (which absorb sea level rise), are replaced with a 4 kilometer concrete wharf in an area already earmarked for climate change tidal inundation? A/ - The flooding gets worse in the rest of the Bay.

5/ There must now be questions raised about the ability of the Westernport of the future to remain a site listed under the RAMSAR convention for wetlands. Sulphur dioxide particles from shipping emissions (already responsible for 60,000 human deaths annually along global shipping lanes) mixed in with the rich biodiversity of Westernport provide fatal succour to birds that fly from Korea, Russia and other places around the world, It may well become their last journey.

6/ This follows the Federal ALP's decision to ignore the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef and continue development of gas and coal facilities the entire length of the Queensland coast.

7/ The Port of Hastings development was enabled by the ALP's decision to construct the Frankston Bypass. The Westernport Highway is no longer necessary as it is in need of massive upgrades (flyovers, - Lyndsey Fox's trucks have to slow down at roundabouts) at every intersection before it can provide free access to Dandenong. Even though the Westernport Highway was earmarked for a rail connection to Dandenong from Hastings there is already a perfectly good rail line in Hastings that runs through Frankston which will be used in the short term at least. Ironically, the Westernport highway's use was also severely restricted by Dandenong Council allowing development along the corridor.

Ted Bailleau is merely completing Henry Bolte's "grand vision" of Westernport being "The Ruhr Valley" of the south east, and takes Victoria back to that time environmentally, but the sale of the Port of Melbourne has massive support in the inner west. If we accept the basic premise that "imports will rise 30% by 2035", and accept the "unacceptable" rise in ecological and carbon footprint that result then we are fully complicit in this destruction. The fate of Westernport can be directly aligned with the fate of the planet. The Arctic is being plundered, the vast wilderness of Canada is being polluted, the oceans off Nigeria and Brasil contaminated with oil spill. Since the Copenhagen Climate Summit the corporate world has responded ruthlessly. The financial crisis in Spain is to be fixed with an $20 billion "Euro Vegas" casino development based on it's Mafia creation in America.

"There is no clean land now, no safe place", Laurie Anderson,
Bien suerte, (Good luck)

Here is an example of where the ABC has reported as fact a matter which it previously reported as contested, with no explanation to the listeners for the change.

28 March 2012: 9AM ABC News (heard on 774) reported Syrian troops crossed border into Lebanon. It also reported that Lebanese authorities denied these reports and said that the fighting was on Syrian side of the border.

28 March 2012: 10AM ABC News (heard on 774) only reported allegations that Syrians had crossed into Lebanon and omitted denial from Lebanese authorities. It preceded these apparently biased reports with statements from Hilary Clinton condemning the Syrian regime.

In the above article "Syria -70% vote to end one-party state - why aren't we celebrating?" at , Candobetter has suggested that the European-US military alliance is trying to isolate Iran. I think they are right. ABC reporting bias like this is reproducing a climate of reporting around the western world that could be responsible for creating an impression where invasion of Syria and Iran (like Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan) becomes apparently acceptable and we are drawn into a third world war to make the Middle Eastern oil-states accessible to the European-US aligned corporations. These corporations have old alliances with western nations.

See also: WESTERN PSY-OPS AGAINST SYRIA: When Mrs Assad’s 'Shopping' Becomes a 'Crime Against Humanity' of 27 March - Ed

Consider the source of this propaganda. From what I've gathered this man (I use the term loosely) is a vile pocket minion of the tarsands. In no way is Ethical Oil independent. The Keystone XL corruption proved this. A book coming from someone who "interviewed" occupiers by asking about 20 people at the Occupy Movement if they had enough condoms is not worth the ink. Anyone who throws racial slurs (What racial slurs? - Ed) as a form of debate when met with First Nations death rate concerns during a public forum does not deserve the space you allotted to post his ideals. Yuck.

Reprinted from the ABC news
(words in brackets are mine)

Protected dugongs and sea turtles are being cruelly slaughtered in Queensland's Torres Strait to supply an illegal meat trade, an investigation by ABC's 7.30 has found.

The program has aired confronting footage that shows the brutal methods used to hunt the animals, with turtles being butchered alive and dugongs drowned as they are dragged behind boats.

The investigation throws into sharp relief the conflict between Indigenous Australians and animal rights activists over traditional hunting methods and exposes a black market in animal meat.

Activist Rupert Imhoff spent a fortnight in the Torres Strait, filming the hunting of the turtles and dugongs, both listed as vulnerable to extinction.

He used a secret camera to film scenes of animal cruelty, including the slow death of a sea turtle.

"It didn't actually die until they took off the bottom shell, actually peeled off the shell," he said.

"And then it just let out one last gasp of air and passed away."

Both dugongs and turtles are protected by federal law, but the Native Title Act gives an exemption to traditional owners, who can hunt to satisfy their personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs.

The traditional hunting methods are seen by animal activists as deeply cruel but Queensland exempts native title hunting from its animal cruelty laws.
(human laws can't over-ride animal rights, or their indigenous rights)
'Too sensitive'
("Too sensitive" is simply political-correctness at the costs of the welfare of sentient animals. It's a cop-out)

Lawyer and advocate Rebecca Smith says conservation groups avoid criticising Indigenous hunting.

"It's just too hard, too prickly, too sensitive," she said.

"It's often deemed people who are opposed to traditional hunting are often called racist, but there is nothing racist about saying this is cruel."

National Indigenous radio broadcaster Seith Fourmile is a passionate advocate of the Indigenous right to hunt. He has nothing to do with the scenes of animal cruelty exposed by 7.30.
(Any "rights" must also be seasoned with responsiblities and consideration for other living creatures)

"We're working with the RSPCA to actually look at that cruelty to animals," he said.

It's just too hard, too prickly, too sensitive ... people who are opposed to traditional hunting are often called racist, but there is nothing racist about saying this is cruel.

(more like reverse racism - these traditional owners have the "right" to atrocities against defenceless and so-callled protected native animals, but they are protected from normal, average Australians?)

Rebecca Smith

"But it has got to be a cooperative approach."

The slaughter in Australia's north goes well beyond the bounds of traditional hunting.
(There are indigenous peoples who are protective of our wildlife and concerned by their slaughter and declining numbers. Indigenous peoples should be the custodians of our environment and wildlife, not their enemies)

Former abattoir worker Colin Riddell has spent years collecting evidence of dugong and turtle killing. His investigations reveal the killing goes much further south in Queensland's coastal waters.

James Epong is a Mandubarra man who lives on his traditional lands an hour south of Cairns.

The Mandubarra have declared a moratorium on the taking of turtle and dugong, but around them an illegal meat trade flourishes.

"Nine times out of 10, the illegal trade is to sell the meat for the benefit, for grog money or drugs," he said.
(There's nothing "traditional" about grog and drugs or the black market)

"One person that we know of in Yarrabah made $80,000 in one year."

Mr Fourmile says there are also non-Indigenous people involved in the illegal trade.

"They are involved with the trading, with selling it, passing it down - some of the turtle meat has gone as far south as Sydney and Melbourne," he said.

In the Torres Strait, Horn Island appears to be a transport hub for the illegal trade. On four separate occasions, 7.30 has confirmed multiple eskies arriving on the afternoon flight from Horn Island to Cairns.
'There's no jobs'

All the Indigenous people interviewed by 7.30 recognised the illegal trade and are committed to ending it.

"There's no jobs on Aboriginal community, let's not lie about it," Mr Fourmile said.
("Green" jobs should be created as park rangers and protectors of native animals and their habitats)

"There's no doubt this is happening. I'm not going to lie about the fact that there is some people out there doing it."

Cape York saltwater people like Frankie Deemal are working to end the esky trade.

There's no jobs on Aboriginal community, let's not lie about it. There's no doubt this is happening. I'm not going to lie about the fact that there is some people out there doing it.
Seith Fourmile

"We don't have no legislative framework in place in which we can police the kind of rogue killing, the kind of outsiders coming into our place," he said.

"We don't have the kind of legislative assistance to do that."

And the Mandubarra people are helping to protect the turtle that has helped sustain them.

"I went out to get one where I normally go and there was just nothing there," said James Epong.

"I came home empty-handed and I thought, 'I can't have this'. I want my kids to experience what I'd experienced. So from that day we just said no more hunting."

For the Mandubarra people, the turtle hunting ended in 1993.

Queensland's Department of Environment and Resource Management was contacted by 7.30.

In a statement, the department said it "takes the claims very seriously and will investigate all reports of illegal hunting and poaching".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This has been going on for some time. The department's assurances are rather hollow!