I am not a resident of the Kin Kin district. I live in Noosa. Indeed, I am the Greens candidate for Noosa in the next State election, which might be sooner rather than next year. Even though Kin Kin is outside my electorate, I would like you to know that we will continue to assist the community in its campaign against the expansion of the quarry at Shepperson’s Lane.
The proposition that there should be any large quarry in this district is contrary to the interests of all those who live in Kin Kin and those of us for whom it is a valuable part of our geography and environment. The Premier when she had responsibility for planning refused a permit for a very large resort on the grounds that it would destroy the village and rural amenity of the district. That a large industrial quarry should be contemplated, close to the centre of Kin Kin with 40 tonne trucks terrifying every other motorist on the small country roads that link Kin Kin to the rest of the Sunshine Coast, the Cooloola and the Bruce Highway, has even less merit.
I have encountered a quarry truck while driving in the opposite direction on the Range Road so I know first hand the reality of the danger they pose to every other motorist: there is absolutely no margin for error. And that represents a serious danger to every other road user and especially to a bus full of Kin Kin’s children. To my mind this indicates that the quarry can never satisfy the haulage requirements for quarries let alone the moral issues of protecting children and preserving the peaceful environment of Kin Kin.
The roads already have maintenance requirements. If you want to see what these heavy vehicles do to the rural roads in our region, travel along the Eumundi-Kenilworth Road or Moy Pocket Road. I use Eumundi-Kenilworth Road often and each time I do, the road is chopped up further. So, the danger represented by encountering large quarry trucks will be exacerbated by the poor condition of roads damaged by equipment they were never designed for, creating further dangerous conditions, even if you are fortunate enough not to encounter one of those haulage trucks bearing down on you.
I used the word, “moral”. I did not introduce it lightly. What strikes me about how government and operators approach coalmining, coal seam gas extraction and quarrying is the degree to which they will ride roughshod over communities and individuals. It is unacceptable, anti-social and damaging behaviour: it is unethical.
Jim McDonald, Comment on In Kin Kin, 23 March 2011
Since becoming actively involved in the Greens, I have been astonished at the persistent untruths concocted in the offices of Conservative parliamentarians and their supporters about Greens’ policies and published, often uncritically and with no attempt at balance, in the nation’s media. The Nationals finished 2010 true to form in attempting to perpetuate a mythical divide between farmers and The Greens, reported in the rural publication, Stock and Land.
In this post, I expose the National Party’s disregard for the truth by looking at our actual policy and the party’s position on farming in statements made by Green Party leaders over the last 12 months.
National Party Misinformation from Stock and Land:
Federal Nationals Leader Warren Truss said he was concerned the Greens were demonising farmers unfairly and failing to adequately recognise the work primary producers already do to care for and maintain the environment. “I don’t think the Greens are honest players in the whole exercise [the Murray-Darling Basin report],” he said. “No matter what amount of water was returned to the environment that would not be enough for the Greens. Stock and Land, 31 December 2010.
Greens Party Facts:Sustainable Agriculture Policy:
Principles The Australian Greens believe that:
1.the long-term sustainability of agriculture is essential for Australia’s society, economy and environment.
2.sustainable agriculture is fundamental to supporting rural communities, which are a vital part of Australian society.
3.rural Australia faces complex agricultural, environmental and social challenges; many farmers and pastoralists are actively seeking sustainable practices, but struggle to contend with increasing financial pressures.
4.the combined problems of salinity, water quality, soil degradation and habitat fragmentation require an integrated approach at the farm enterprise, catchment and landscape scales.
5.ongoing research, development and extension are essential to both improve the sustainability of Australian agriculture and to maintain its competitiveness.
6.we must plan and manage for the likely impacts of climate change, increasing climatic variability and oil scarcity on Australia’s agricultural industries Australian Greens Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy: Sustainable Agriculture.
Jim McDonald was recently interviewed on Noosa Community Radio about the coalmining exploration in the Wide Bay and north Sunshine Coast and the possibility of further exploration in Sunshine Coast.
Overall, the Queensland Government has committed over the next three financial years $5.7 billion in coal infrastructure development in terminals and rail – this does not include costs presumably covered by the new owners of sold off State assets [Sourcewatch: ABARE April 2010 major projects list]. In addition the State is committed in 2010-2011 to spend $400 million on power station upgrades.
The cost of coal to the State over three years based on an assumption of an average of $3 billion in coal royalties and taxpayer-funded expenditure on coal: a LOSS of around half a billion dollars. These estimates do not include the State’s contribution to Coal Seam Gas or coal exploration!
The nett loss to the state Treasury does not include social costs, road maintenance costs, road closure costs, the cost of fractured communities, loss of agricultural productivity, the cost to the health system, the cost of high water usage, the irreversable damage to aquifers and water quality, irreversable landscape damage, the damage to heritage, the effect of coal transportation on the amenity of passenger rail, the lost opportunities to invest in renewable energy resources, the catch-up costs that will be incurred in a post-carbon economy, etc, etc, etc. And now, ongoing revenue earners – the rail system and the ports – have been sold off for a one-off profit. Would YOU run a business like that? Especially when you have accountability to the taxpayers?
Coal is has a toxic effect on the state economy.
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay Federal Electorate, 20/12/10
The Greens spokesperson for the Wide Bay Federal Electorate, Dr Jim McDonald, has called on the Gympie Regional Council to stand up to mining interests in the Mary River Valley.
He said there is a serious threat of coal seam gas [CSG] extraction in the Mary River Valley and drilling exploration had commenced in Wolvi.
“People should not be complacent about their region,” he said. “The Fraser Coast Council this week announced its support for CSG exploration in Hervey Bay. It is not impossible that some Gympie councillors won’t likewise be seduced by the coal industry’s spin.
“Tiaro Coal has already commenced CSG exploration at Munna Creek and the company recently started exploration drilling in the Wolvi district. Coalmining and CSG extraction irreversibly destroys the aquifers, uses huge amounts of water, and creates problems with storage of contaminated water.
“One of the issues that people don’t think about is what happens to the water allocations when mining companies buy out farming land. If the coal companies get their way they will control the Mary River and its tributaries. Coalmining and CSG extraction in the Mary Valley will utilise millions of megalitres of water a year if mining is allowed to go ahead.
“Mining along the Mary River and its tributaries within the Gympie Regional Council boundaries and further downstream will turn the region into the Hunter Valley. That is a far greater threat to the Mary River Valley and its communities than the Traveston Dam ever was.”
Dr McDonald, who has just returned from touring the Hunter Valley and the Darling Downs speaking to residents, shopkeepers and farmers, said the region’s Councils and people were too complacent about the mounting threats to the Mary Valley from coal and CSG interests. “Already farmers and communities in the Wandoan district face huge open-cut mines and some farms already have CSG wells dug on their properties.
“It will happen here and when it does, that will be the end of the Mary Valley forever and all the excellent work done to protect the viability of the Mary River and its communities will have been for nothing.
“You have to ask what the State member for Gympie, David Gibson, and the Federal Member, Warren Truss, are doing. They turned up at Traveston Dam protests, but their silence on coal and gas mining speaks volumes about their true environmental credentials.
“There’s a lot of rot spoken about coalmining bringing jobs and prosperity. In fact, it reduces agricultural productivity, alienates good cropping and grazing land forever, destroys property values and communities, and does little to stimulate retail businesses. Coalmining is a toxic threat environmentally, socially and economically.
“Gympie businesses might be seduced by the prospects of mining coming to the region but coalmining and CSG will wreck the Mary Valley for the sake of a relatively few jobs, the bulk of which will go to skilled and experienced workers and contractors from outside the the region. This happens at Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley. Retail outlets are struggling. Over the weekend the miners not on shift have left town. Muswellbrook is only 220 km from Sydney, about the same distance Gympie is from Brisbane. Coalmining offers little true benefit to Gympie’s economy.”
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay Federal Electorate, media release
Australian Bureau of Statistics employment figures for Queensland which were released yesterday and show that more jobs were lost in Queensland than created are no surprise, according to the Queensland Greens.
‘Each time the Premier or Treasurer announce some new mining or gas drilling development in regional Queensland, it increases uncertainty for existing agricultural and tourism sectors,’ Queensland Greens spokesperson, Libby Connors pointed out.
‘Why would anyone invest in agriculture or related agrifood businesses when the Premier publicly states that she intends to protect only ‘the best of the best’ of Queensland’s cropping lands?
‘We’re in the midst of a good rainfall season but these major sectors of the Queensland economy are being hemmed in by new coal mines and gas wells in the state’s richest agricultural lands.
‘The outlook is not much better for tourism. The Australian dollar is one factor but so is the expansion of coal ports north and south of Queensland’s finest coastal resorts in the Whitsundays and proposals for coal mines and coal seam gas near Wide Bay.
‘No tourists want to view the beautiful Queensland coast through coal heaps, coal dust and gas infrastructure.’
‘Reckless expansion by one sector of the economy is endangering and narrowing the state’s economic base but both major parties have no vision about how to develop a diverse economy in a post-carbon world.’
At the last Federal election the Liberal National parties made a huge play on voters regarding the number of school buildings being built under the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program. They claimed there was massive rorting of the system.
On Thursday this week the Coalition failed in its bid to pass several motions against the Government to establish a judicial inquiry into this program.
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne didn’t even turn up to vote on his own bill to force a judicial inquiry into the Government’s schools building program.
Where is the integrity of this man and his party?
I attended a David Helfgott concert recently in their new school hall built through the BER program at the Christian College and I didn’t hear anyone there complain of this great asset for the community.
St Patrick’s College have a new science wing as no doubt all other schools in our area have positively benefited from this scheme.
Builders and associated businesses were able to maintain workers at a time of global uncertainty. Our community wasn’t dragged down into an unemployment vortex that Mr Pyne and his coalition partners would have had us go through.
No doubt there will be those who say where ‘will the money come from’ to pay for this. Without having access to Treasury data I can’t respond, but one project alone the Chevron Gorgon Project in WA is projected to bring in $50billion to the Australian economy over the next 40 years. One would hope that this one project alone would assist balancing the books.
Are people cynical of politicians?
We have proposed coalmines on our doorstep, coal seam gas projects and potential devastation of some of Australia’s best farmlands.
Is Mr Truss and the coalition or Labor responding to these concerns within the electorate. No!
Kent Hutton, Letter to Editor, Gympie Times, 29 October 2010
Wide Bay Greens spokesperson, Jim McDonald, was interviewed this week on Noosa Community Radio about a number of issues in the Wide Bay Sunshine Coast regions.
He referred to the Greens’ fishing policy which addresses the sustainability of the Australian commercial fishing industry and recreational fishing. He has expressed concerns previously about the media’s uncritical reporting of continual industry and political misrepresentation of the Greens’ policy. For example, the Noosa Journal recently failed to publish a rebuttal by Jim to a letter to the editor alleging that the Greens planned to ban all fishing. He pulls no punches in this interview.
Jim also talked about the implications of a lack of vision for the Mary Valley within the other political parties. It is an urgent issue as a matter of the national interest that needs to be addressed as part of a national food security strategy. None presently exists. The future of the Mary Valley is an issue that he addressed during the election campaign and he has recently raised the issue again in response to comments on the Mary Valley by Nicklin MP, Peter Wellington. This interview can be heard here.
During the election campaign, Jim was very active in supporting the Aldershot community against the open-cut coalmine Northern Energy Corporation proposes to be dug within a few kilometres of the town. He has continued his support for the community since being appointed the spokesperson for the Federal electorate of Wide Bay. This interview discusses several aspects of the development of coalmining in the region from Wolvi to Aldershot, along the Mary River at Munna Creek, Tiaro and Aldershot and in the Rainbow Beach – Tin Can Bay hinterland. Listen to the interview here.
He was also asked to comment on the Moy Pocket Quarry’s plans to become a central depot for explosives in the region. The Greens made a submission to Gympie Council opposing the project. This was reported on this website in August. The interview is recorded on the Noosa Community website here
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay Federal Electorate, 29 October 2010
We have raised the imperative for the Mary Valley to be turned into a model food production zone. We have seen this regional contribution to a national food security strategy as an essential component of population and climate change policy. Instead, the region faces large scale coalmining as the State Government has given the go-ahead for coal exploration. If the mining industry gets its way, the first coal mine will commence next year a couple of kilometres from the town of Aldershot, just outside Maryborough, to be followed by Munna Creek and Tiaro. Now, Tiaro Coal Limited has announced they are about to start exploration drilling in the Wolvi district.
This is not just a regional or a state issue. It is a matter of the national interest. That interest is the preservation of farming land, community health, and the minimisation of the region’s contribution to global carbon production. Coal mining in the region and the associated development of coal-seam gas exploitation at Munna Creek fail the national interest on each of these criteria.
While the Foreign Investment Review Board allows companies fully or partly owned by foreign governments to buy up land for foreign food security strategies and the NSW Government allows coal mines in part ownership by foreign-government companies to dig up some of the best farming country in the world, our governments are selling out our national interests.
The following video on the Liverpool Plains depicts the incredible proposition that country such as the Darling Downs and the Mary Valley should be ruined by mining interests with the blessings of government.
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay electorate, 10 October 2010
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"No world leader can ignore the planet's population burden. There were 3 billion people when Kevin Rudd was born. There are 6.8 billion now. There will be 9 billion by mid-century. This population boom is not economic wisdom, it is a recipe for planetary exhaustion and great human tragedy."
Bob Brown, September 2009
We would love to hear from YOU...
We would love to hear from you, what YOU consider our priorities should be to ensure our communities remain special and sustainable. Please feel welcome to contact our convenor Steve Haines directly at steve@widebaygreens.org or mobile 0421 00 1956.
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