The Australian government is more virtuous and extreme on the issue of whaling than your average conservation group. Read more here.
Peter Costello on the Kyoto Protocol and the Australian Greens
For nearly twelve years Australia was ruled by a Coalition government with John Howard as Prime Minister and Peter Costello the Treasurer. After their defeat in the election just last November, Mr Costello decided to write his memoirs.
He said at the Quadrant Dinner that I attended tonight in Sydney, and it is written in the beginning of his now published memoirs,
“In Australia the writers of contemporary politics come overwhelmingly from a left or ‘progressive’ perspective. In their accounts Labor usually emerges as the hero and the Liberal Party as the villain. Because some will try to make this the story of the nearly twelve years of the Howard-led Coalition Government I want to record what actually happened – to describe the achievements as well as to acknowledge the failures.”
Indeed I gather ABC journalist and Labor friend, Fran Kelly, has been involved in the construction of a soon to be released ABC Television series on ‘The Howard’ years.
But back to the new book: I purchased a copy this evening and, after getting it autographed, turned to the index to see what I could find under ‘climate change’ and to my surprise the two words are not there, nor global warming. The index, under ‘g’, does though include ‘globalisation’, ‘GST’, ‘gun lobby’ and ‘General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade’. So, I looked for Kyoto, found it, and duly turned to page 302. Mr Costello writes that,
“Cabinet had discussed the idea of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol many times, ever since it was negotiated in 1997. Robert Hill had done a sterling job at the Conference in negotiating a target for Australia that frankly looked impossible at the outset. At the time I was surprised that, after investing so much effort in getting such a good outcome, we did not ratify it. The reason was that the protocol, by leaving out huge emitters in the developing world, was going to have little impact on global climate change. The protocol was flawed by the fact that it covered only the developed world.”
I wrote in a piece published in the IPA Review earlier this year that John Howard would be remembered as the Prime Minister who did not ratify Kyoto, but perhaps Mr Costello has things more in perspective in his Memoirs and that in the scheme of things, history will not remember ‘climate change’ and ‘Kyoto’ as counting for much.
Interestingly tonight Mr Costello said that he was “most proud” of Chapter 11, which is about indigenous Australia includes issues of reconciliation, the integration of indigenous Australians into the “economic mainstream”, and the Northern Territory intervention.
Indeed the index includes a long list of aboriginal related topics, but under ‘a’ another issue of much interest to me is missing, ‘agriculture’.
Mr Costello was the Treasurer for most of the last 13 years, and much of his memoir is about economic issues and perhaps not surprisingly it is in this context, in particular the introduction of the GST, that he makes mention of the Australian Greens. He is scathing. He writes,
“The name of the Greens Party leads people to think that it is principally an environmental party. In fact, it has economic, tax and international relations policies on the far left of politics that it holds just as dear.”
It was clear from the talk this evening that Mr Costello believes the primary job of government is to manage the economy and that with economic prosperity comes an opportunity to do more for the environment. In contrast, many environmentalists would argue that economic prosperity inevitably brings unnecessary environmental destruction.
If you want to find out what an insider thought about the Howard-years, I suggest you grab a copy of ‘The Costello Memoirs’ (Melbourne University Press, 2008). And if you want to know what Mr Costello thought about key environmental issues – reading between the lines it would seem not very much.
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For my short perspective on the twelve years of coalition government you can read ‘John Howard Environmentalist’, IPA Review, January 2008, http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/931/john-howard-environmentalist
How to Save the Red Gum Forests: A Note to Mr Kelvin Thomson MP
Kelvin Thomson is the federal member for Wills, representing inner-city northern Melbourne. He was the Shadow Attorney-General in early 2007 when it was discovered that he had provided a notorious Melbourne gangster, Tony Mokbel, with a personal reference describing him as a “responsible, caring husband and father”. Mr Thomson subsequently resigned from the front bench, but he still has trouble telling good from bad.
Last Tuesday in federal parliament as part of debate on the Water Amendment Bill 2008, Mr Thomson described me as an anti-environmentalist and made much of my opposition to the creation of another 100,000 hectares of National Park along the Murray River. He suggested that converting state forest to national park would be a very significant nature conservation outcome for the Murray River which I opposed.
In reality converting state forest to national park is not going to address the current key issue for the forests which is provision of adequate environment flows in an efficient manner. Furthermore, by ‘locking-up’ the forests and banning current management practices the forests may become less, rather than more, resilient.
I do oppose the continual ‘locking-up’ of ever more forest principally on the basis that those in metropolitan Australia, in places like inner-city Melbourne, like the idea of national parks.
Many city people have a romantic notion of wilderness – an idea that wilderness is a place where people do not go. In reality the beauty of many wild places is a consequence of careful management by people. Indeed the red gum forests of the central Murray Valley, the forests that Mr Thomson would like to see ‘locked-up’, are only about 6,000 years old following a geological uplifting that changed the course of the Murray River. They have always been managed, first by indigenous Australians and more recently by the wood cutters and cattlemen who now live there.
In July this year I launched the 152-page ‘Conservation and Community Plan’ for the Red Gum forests at the Victorian Parliament House. This plan is about protecting the Red Gum forests not leaving their survival to fate. The plan developed by 25 community groups under the guidance of foresters Mark Poynter and Barry Dexter proposes the creation of a public land tenure known as RAMSAR Reserve with management to integrate the principles of multiple-use with environmental care. Current government policies and plans relating to timber production, cattle grazing, and recreational activities would be retained in RAMSAR Reserves in accordance with zoning that takes account of prevailing values and conditions.
The community plan proposes that funding for more on-ground resources be obtained from revenue generated by these commercial uses of the forest such as timber production, grazing, firewood collection and bee keeping.
The Alliance of community groups supports more environmental flows for the forests and the plan explains how to achieve the more efficient delivery of this water through the use of water regulators that already exist in many of the forests.
In short, Mr Thomson misrepresents me when he suggested in federal parliament last week that I do not care about the Red Gum forests. I care deeply about these forests and I recognise that their preservation is dependent on appropriate management regimes, not the romantic notion of wilderness implicit in the speech by Mr Thomson that falsely assumes less people equals more trees.
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Additional Reading:
While the Murray River is flowing despite the drought, many of its tributaries are drying up: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2007/11/murray-river-tributary-reduced-to-billabongs/
After a fire in the Barmah forest: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2007/11/after-the-%e2%80%98top-island%e2%80%99-fire-in-the-barmah-red-gum-forest/
Some forests can be ‘drought proofed’ through thinning: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2007/11/thinning-red-gum-forests-at-koondrook/
You can read my speech at the launch of the community plan here: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2008/08/a-new-plan-for-the-red-gums-of-northern-victoria/
Enjoying the Murray River, surrounded by River Red gums, just upstream of Barham, October 2007. Photograph taken by Jennifer Marohasy.
Kingmakers: Greens Win Balance of Power in ACT
Following an election last weekend in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the major parties will have to negotiate with the Greens as they now hold the balance of power. The result is a huge win for the Greens; a party that continues to grow in power in Australia. Read more here.
An Old Queen Parrot
Since moving to the Blue Mountains late last year I’ve made some new friends including a King Parrot and a Magpie. The young male King Parrot sits on my back landing and looks through the glass door into my study when the bird-feeder is empty. Maggie, the Magpie, perches on a window sill and looks into the kitchen when she is hungry and notices I am feeding myself.
They are both rather bold birds.
There are usually three or four King Parrots in the trees in the vicinity of the bird-feeder that hangs in my backyard. Over the last few days an old King Parrot, in fact a female so lets call her a Queen Parrot, has been mostly just resting on the back lawn.
Introducing a Progressive Environmentalist and Blogger: Kerry Miller
Conferences are an opportunity to make new friends. I met Kerry Miller at the Australian Environment Foundation last weekend in Canberra and have added her blog StrangeTimes to my blog roll.
Like me Kerry is an optimist and she sees technology as a solution to many environmental problems. StrangeTimes is a group blog with a particular perspective and explains:
“We reject green ideology because it opposes rapid development, fears change and romanticises pre-industrial life. In practice, “sustainable development” sustains only poverty, malnutrion and death.”
Strong words!
Kerry and fellow blogger, David McMullen, have written a little report on the Australian Environment Foundation conference which can be read here http://strangetimes.lastsuperpower.net/?p=139
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.