TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE TONY
Sixteen months after I moved a Bill in the Senate, the government is finally taking action to protect our water from dangerous coal seam gas and large coal mines.
This is big news for all of you who have been campaigning tirelessly to protect our rivers and aquifers from the risks posed by coal seam gas.
Your efforts have pushed the Government to take this first step towards protecting our land, water, climate and communities from coal seam gas.
But unfortunately, it’s too little too late from Minister Burke, who has never said no to a coal seam gas project.
After one of the biggest community campaigns in Australia’s history, the government is finally paying attention and moved in the Parliament today to amend environmental laws to protect water resources from coal seam gas.
But this announcement comes hot on the heels of an enormous coal seam gas development at Gloucester in New South Wales, and the earlier approval of three big CSG projects in Queensland. If Tony Burke and Labor were serious about protecting water from coal seam gas, they could have passed my Bill back in November 2011, which would have added a similar “water trigger” to our national environment laws.
If he was serious about protecting our water, Tony Burke should apply this new water test to all of the coal mines and coal seam gas projects he’s already approved as ‘Environment’ Minister.
I’ll move in the Senate to make sure these new rules apply to those projects, and that they extend to shale and tight gas as well, to protect Western Australian and Victorian communities.
Only the Greens are prepared to stand up to mining companies and conservative royalty-addicted state governments to protect our land, water, communities and the climate. But if we are going to see more than just a first step, we need you to take the next step with us.
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Yours in protecting what is too precious to lose,
Senator Larissa Waters
Comments
Success: progress on coal seam gas!
Thanks and congratulations to everyone who has taken action to stop the expansion of dangerous coal seam gas mining.
Coal seam gas proposals will face strict federal conditions on their impact on our water tables because of legislation being introduced to Parliament today by Environment Minister Tony Burke.
From chipping in to TV, radio and print ads; lobbying our MPs; making submissions to Government inquiries; and generating a huge national petition, our pressure is working. Today we congratulate our friends at Lock the Gate Alliance, Minister Burke, independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, the Greens, and all the community activists who have made this happen. Read more detail here.
Keep up the good work,
the GetUp team.
PS - Stay tuned tomorrow: we've managed to secure the first interviews with asylum seekers inside the immigration detention centre on Manus Island and we'll bring you exclusive videos and more.
Greens fail the test
The Greens have failed their supporters. I have voted Greens in the senate for the past two decades. That support is no longer there.
The Greens failed the test of working with a Labor Government to achieve real outcomes for allAustralians, firstly by refusing to negotiate on a carbon emissions scheme when Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister of Australia, and secondly for failing to negotiate a satisfactory compromise with Labor on Asylum Seeker Policy when Parliament was gridlocked for two days and was unable to resolve the issue.
Finally the Greens failed the test on international policy when it supported, and actually called for, a No Fly Zone over Lybia. This was in effect an act of war against a foreign nation, totally contrary to the Greens own policy on international relations.
Now they say "to little too late" to Tony Burke, when others are applauding Labor for coming to the party on coal seam gas. But nothing will ever satisfy the Greens, which is why the above article began with "I moved..." The Greens have become to egocentric, concerned with their own story, rather than becoming a serious participant I government policy.
If you judge parties on every statement, you won't vote for any
Noel,
I don't want to get into an argument on this, but just on your first point re a carbon emissions scheme. Kevin Rudd chose to negotiate with the Coalition parties under Malcolm Turnbull to get the CPRS through. And then the coalition knifed Turnbull for Abbott and the grand agreement on the CPRS fell through. If Rudd had chosen to negotiate a scheme with the Greens in the first place, it would have been passed and implemented. The CPRS after all that negotiation work with the Liberals was severely compromised. It was a bad scheme. It didn't have the clean energy fund, or an independent regulatory body that will advise on appropriate targets, and much more.
On asylum seeker policy the Labor party has been as bad as the Libs. The Malaysian solution was poor policy: we send 4 asylum seekers to Malaysia for every one refugee from Malaysia. ummm. Personally, I think we need to set up a processing centre in Indonesia where we process and accept bona fide refugees to fly them to Australia. There is a queue, and people waiting can see there is a queue. Personally I have a lot of respect for Malcolm Fraser on immigration after the boatpeople in the late 70s from Vietnam - I never thought I'd say that after living through the Dismissal.
I didn't pay too much attention to Libya statements, and if you judge all parties on every statement they make, well, you'll probably end up voting for none of them and instead cast a ballot for that anarchist Joe Toscano (who actually makes a great deal of sense).
You have to ask, why didn't the Labor Party do more to counter the huge amount of coal and csg exploration and development. They have been in bed with the miners for too long. Eddie Obeid got caught out. Martin Ferguson, the Energy and Minerals Minister has been singing the praises of mining development at the expense of environment and climate policies. His Energy white paper focussed on development of CSG and LNG, hardly mentioned climate.
Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan entered into a private agreement with the big 3 miners over the Minerals Resource Rental Tax. Department bureaucrats and the public still don't know what went on in those private negotiations. Wayne and Julia refuse to revisit the issue to amend the MRRT so we raise 10 times as much money in line with projections.
And Tony Burke? Well, he's part of that NSW clique. Nearly all of his decisions where there is a conflict between development and the environment, the environment has lost out. Sorry, I thought the Environment Minister should advocate for his portfolio area. He may get rolled in cabinet, but he should still work as an advocate. And that he has failed to do.
Now the Greens have made mistakes, any individual or organisation does that. But I think they are still more principled and honest on basic policy issues, than the major parties. As a matter of disclosure, I am not a member of the Greens Party or any other political party, but I have voted for Joe Toscano in the past in the Senate (below the line! the only way to ensure your senate preference voting isn't hijacked by a party preference deal, like the one the ALP did with Family First)
Stick with the facts
On the emissions trading scheme, Labor and the Greens were deadlocked, Labor wanted an initial 15% reduction, the Greens wanted 25%. This created an impasse that could not be bridged. Instead of getting an emissions trading scheme we got nothing.
On the Malaysia deal, the deal wasn't to trade four for one, it was to trade 800 of ours for 4,000 of theirs. It was a much more reasonable and humane solution than the one finally adopted between Labor and the coalition. The Greens participated in a gridlocked Parliament that spelt doom for the Government, the final outcome of which were far more draconian measures against asylum seekers than Labor originally sought.
On Lybia, I advise you to acquaint yourself with the facts. The Greens went against their own policy on international affairs in calling for an act of war against Lybia. By sanctioning the indiscriminate murder of women and children the Greens became as bad as mainstream politics. I am not saying they are worse than Labor or the coalition on this, but I thought they were meant to be different to them. After all that is the reason I have supported them over the past two decades or more.
Gillard delivered a carbon price and a mining tax. They may not be perfect outcomes, but they are a step in the right direction. Just as including the impact on water quality for CSG is a step in the right direction.
For the record I am not a member of any political party. I consider myself a socialist, but a democratic socialist, I believe that if we as socialists fail to convince the general public of the need for change then we can hardly complain when they vote to keep things the way they are. Of course I also realise that parliament does not run things, vested interests, that is, capital does.