22nd September signs that Tony Burke is listening. WSCA had been lobbying Tony Burke for nearly two years to ensure guarantees in place that all of the promised $530 million conservation fund be spent within Western Sydney to protect bushland remnants promised as offsets.
Sydney Growth Centers on-course for environmental disaster, but Burke promises future off-sets
Brad Hazzard tells protesters at Liberal launch he's committed to saving another 100 hectares of critically endangered bushland at ADI Site. Lend Lease would be slugged $100 million in lost revenue. "Whilst Mr Hazzard says to our face he is committed to the 100 hectares at ADI our fear is the Lib/Nats will try to squirm out of this major conservation promise. It appears they may be already looking for a legal loophole to argue their hands are tied. Brad Hazzard has the law on his side to save this bushland so there is no point delaying a formal announcement." (Geoff Brown, West Sydney Conservation Alliance)
Australians need help from the world's ecologists! Royal National Park, known to many tourists as the closes to Sydney, is the world's second-oldest National Park and Australia's first. It is under threat through adjacent overdevelopment by the growth-mad New South Wales government. Even Australia's primeminister doesn't want growth now and Sydney's expansion must be stopped. Royal National Park is of world class historic and ecological significance and it is incomprehensible and alarming that the NSW Government is allowing development to encroach.
Vandals prevail in New South Wales, reducing to rubble the equivalent of nature's great monasteries and old churches, for short term gain by a tiny tyrannical minority. This scourge is led for the profit of Delfin Developments, against democracy and the local people who love their living landscape.
As the English-speaking countries watch their governments transfer public assets and power to the private sector, eroding democracy, the people of France, have, once again, stood up to their government and mounted a massive resistance to privatisation. The Left in France, unlike the Left in Australia has simply not caved in on this and the Unions have retained their integrity in this matter.
National Parks & Wildlife have given two licences to Bathurst Regional Council to shoot 140 kangaroos on Mount Panorama, home of Bathurst’s car race to be held in 2 weeks.
"These are the last of the actual town’s kangaroos – the last of thousands of generations that have been pushed into the small pocket of Mnt Panorama and managing to survive." See also, these articles, for similar concerns about cruelty to wildlife during another recent car rally.
We publish and answer here pro-rally comments from "Jack," accusing "Greenies" of violence. Perhaps this is a classical case of "People in glass houses should not throw stones" - only who is in the glass house here? It is hard to deal with behaviour which has rightly been accused of causing threat to human life when you know that the situation which probably caused it left any protesters few if any legal or safe alternatives. Did Repco's and the NSW Government's actions place citizens in an untenable position by suspending environmental protection and democratic rights?
I took a leisurely long drive along most of the rally route and was amazed at how many native animals appeared either on the road or beside the road. It was very hard to imagine that in just one week, these animals would be either struck by insanely fast airborne cars, flying sideways around corners, or terrorised and die of stress myopathy. If only people had the foresight to realise the disaster that is about to be visited upon us....
"We knew we were gone when the Judge said,
'Time's up, you’ve got one more issue you can raise.' We hadn’t even started. We had only just got past the argument where she dismissed both our ecologists’ reports." Before it has even been run, the REPCO car race has damaged local democracy with impacts far exceeding local boundaries. Environment and democracy, go hand in hand. Environmental destruction and corruption follow closely behind destruction of democracy through unbridled commerce. We think that all judges in the land should be concerned about this.
The NSW Government 'State Plan' to which all of NSW Government policy hinges, reflects a fettish for short term economic stimulation. To the incumbent Premier Rees, 'jobs, jobs, jobs' can only be good, irrespective of which unsustainable industry they are in, or how short term they may be. The State Plan is all about jobs at all costs. The triple bottom line has gone out the door. Rees' Plan ranks the environment a priority level 4 and deems native forests only valuable for exploitation and utility benefit to humans.
The psychological condition of "solistalgia" is now widespread in the North Coast area [where REPCO rally push is]. Solistalgia is defined as "the deep distress induced by environmental change, which is exacerbated by the sense of powerlessness and loss of control over the changes that are occurring". "I do not approve of anything that can be construed as a misuse of power and, therefore, I will not support any bill that allows large-scale events unwanted by the people who would have to host them."
Note that Dr Moyes was actually initially physically locked out of the room where this bill was being debated. You can read about that Which MPs voted for and against the REPCO Rally law in NSW Parliament?
Hansard, the Parliamentary report publication, beats The Australian, The Courier Mail, The Age and any number of newspapers any day. Tuesday 26 June in NSW Parliament was a bumper issue, with a parliamentarian beating on locked doors and chaotic debating worthy of Lewis Carol's Alice In Wonderland's "Caucus Race". But the issues were serious and, although the majority voted the Repco rally facilitating bill in, that doesn't mean that justice was done or that democracy was served.
NSW Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, the Police Minister, Tony Kelly, and the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, want Shooters Party members to replace Government agencies but other members of Cabinet resist the bloody push to turn our national parks into safari machines or worse
NSW Premier Rees is set to pass into law a 'Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill 2009' to permit recreational hunters shooting everything and anything in protected National Parks across NSW including native wildlife.
Controlling feral animals is a science, not a sport. Rees passion for sport is being compromised by influential cronies. Problem is, Rees has no knowledge, experience in or aptitude for science. His inaugural 'red hot go' says it all and threatens to be his legacy. See also
Dr Gordon Moyes, a member of the NSW Legislative Council describes the environmental, social and economic harm that will result if the NSW Government proceeds with its plan to convert the Sydney Olympic Park into a V8 Racing area against the wishes of local residents. Nathan Rees, the Premier of NSW, who has a personal fetish for the ecologically destructive sport of motor racing, is also threatening to impose the World Rally motor race on the Kyogle and Tweed Shires, also against the wishes of local residents.
The NSW state government has taken the decision about planning approval for the proposed Repco Rally Australia leg of the World Rally Championships away from local councils by announcing that it would prepare special events legislation to ensure the rally goes ahead despite growing local opposition. The minister responsible is Ian MacDonald, Minister for State Development, Energy, Primary Industries, and mineral resources (pictured left).
FEARS that the NSW Government is about to override council planning powers to approve the world championship car rally heightened yesterday as hundreds of protesters marched against the event.
At the same time concerns were raised that if the rally was approved, future
protest actions could disrupt it as objectors took matters into their own
hands.
Police escorted about 300 protesters, some in cardboard mock-ups of rally cars and some dressed as koalas, wallabies or other animals which they said would be put at risk by rally cars on rural roads, through Murwillumbah.
...
Outside the Tweed Shire Council chambers anti-rally speakers addressed the
crowd on environmental and other concerns.
Byron-based NSW Greens Party Upper House member Ian Cohen said he was worried the government could override council planning powers to approve the event which it has promised the help fund.
Are you awake yet, Australia? We are losing all our rights to developer lobbying. Concerned residents sat in amazement last night as Penrith Council voted to condemn hundreds of hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland which NSW Scientists claim is verging on extinction. Council voted 14/15 to enter into a Planning Agreement with developer Delfin Lend Lease to build 3500 houses and clear approx 300 ha of Cumberland Plain Woodland from the ADI Site. Spokesman for ADI Residents Action Group alleges undeclared vested interest among council members.
Those who have accepted the necessity of the current fire sale of NSW government assets and the recent "slash and burn" budget, which is taking that state into recession, may be amazed to learn of the staggering blow-out in the costs of the World Youth Day celebrations held in Sydney in July 2008. In addition the Minister for State Development is prepared to bill NSW taxpayers up to $AU86million over three years to pay for planned V8 supercar races to be held at Olympic Park.
Why is NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal threatening a slash-and-burn budget entailing the risk of a recession in order satisfy Credit Ratings agencies implicated in the subprime mortgage crisis in the US?
According to a report in today's Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney has grossly under-estimated the population explosion that will squeeze its resources over the next 20 years. But the cash-strapped Premier admits it is "pointless" to promise the billions of dollars in extra spending the city will need.
If NSW Treasurer Michael Costa can borrow in order to build transport, health and educational infrastructure, why can't he borrow in order to build electricity generation?
22nd September signs that Tony Burke is listening. WSCA had been lobbying Tony Burke for nearly two years to ensure guarantees in place that all of the promised $530 million conservation fund be spent within Western Sydney to protect bushland remnants promised as offsets.
Brad Hazzard tells protesters at Liberal launch he's committed to saving another 100 hectares of critically endangered bushland at ADI Site. Lend Lease would be slugged $100 million in lost revenue. "Whilst Mr Hazzard says to our face he is committed to the 100 hectares at ADI our fear is the Lib/Nats will try to squirm out of this major conservation promise. It appears they may be already looking for a legal loophole to argue their hands are tied. Brad Hazzard has the law on his side to save this bushland so there is no point delaying a formal announcement." (Geoff Brown, West Sydney Conservation Alliance)
Vandals prevail in New South Wales, reducing to rubble the equivalent of nature's great monasteries and old churches, for short term gain by a tiny tyrannical minority. This scourge is led for the profit of Delfin Developments, against democracy and the local people who love their living landscape. 
As the English-speaking countries watch their governments transfer public assets and power to the private sector, eroding democracy, the people of France, have, once again, stood up to their government and mounted a massive resistance to privatisation. The Left in France, unlike the Left in Australia has simply not caved in on this and the Unions have retained their integrity in this matter.
National Parks & Wildlife have given two licences to Bathurst Regional Council to shoot 140 kangaroos on Mount Panorama, home of Bathurst’s car race to be held in 2 weeks.
We publish and answer here pro-rally comments from "Jack," accusing "Greenies" of violence. Perhaps this is a classical case of "People in glass houses should not throw stones" - only who is in the glass house here? It is hard to deal with behaviour which has rightly been accused of causing threat to human life when you know that the situation which probably caused it left any protesters few if any legal or safe alternatives. Did Repco's and the NSW Government's actions place citizens in an untenable position by suspending environmental protection and democratic rights? 
"We knew we were gone when the Judge said,
The psychological condition of "solistalgia" is now widespread in the North Coast area [where REPCO rally push is]. Solistalgia is defined as "the deep distress induced by environmental change, which is exacerbated by the sense of powerlessness and loss of control over the changes that are occurring". "I do not approve of anything that can be construed as a misuse of power and, therefore, I will not support any bill that allows large-scale events unwanted by the people who would have to host them."
Hansard, the Parliamentary report publication, beats The Australian, The Courier Mail, The Age and any number of newspapers any day. Tuesday 26 June in NSW Parliament was a bumper issue, with a parliamentarian beating on locked doors and chaotic debating worthy of Lewis Carol's Alice In Wonderland's "Caucus Race". But the issues were serious and, although the majority voted the Repco rally facilitating bill in, that doesn't mean that justice was done or that democracy was served. 
NSW Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, the Police Minister, Tony Kelly, and the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, want Shooters Party members to replace Government agencies but other members of Cabinet resist the bloody push to turn our national parks into safari machines or worse
The NSW state government has taken the decision about planning approval for the proposed Repco Rally Australia leg of the World Rally Championships away from local councils by announcing that it would prepare special events legislation to ensure the rally goes ahead despite growing local opposition. The minister responsible is Ian MacDonald, Minister for State Development, Energy, Primary Industries, and mineral resources (pictured left). 
Are you awake yet, Australia? We are losing all our rights to developer lobbying. Concerned residents sat in amazement last night as Penrith Council voted to condemn hundreds of hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland which NSW Scientists claim is verging on extinction. Council voted 14/15 to enter into a Planning Agreement with developer Delfin Lend Lease to build 3500 houses and clear approx 300 ha of Cumberland Plain Woodland from the ADI Site. Spokesman for ADI Residents Action Group alleges undeclared vested interest among council members.
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