Beyond The Fringe

During the past year or so, the Fringe has taken a well-deserved break, to be seen only rarely bouncing around others’ blogs and in the undemanding realm of Facebook. Post-viral annoyances from hell, a dreary bear market with more than obvious causes, political depression related to Anna Big Thigh’s trampling of grassroots democracy with forced amalgamations (likely to be the major cause of her undoing in the State elections early next year) and a surfeit of work all contributed to our ennui. Cartoon content is mostly in a hiatus, not for want of ideas – Kevvie Rudd’s pronounced piety provides lots of ammo as do the rest of the Old Guard Labor mannikins. Still, the effort required to pump out something, anything, when stricken with malaise and a clamouring backlog proved too much, even for the mighty Fringe. Enough whinging!

Now, we’re baaaack. Spurred initially by fury at Conroy’s internet censorship bungles, the flow has commenced in between massive work bouts and reading, not to mention domestic responsibilities – the peacock, scrub turkeys and cat demand their share of attention along with the establishment of a productive edible garden in case the big crunch really is looming. The pigeon pea plants, which grow into hardy shrubs, are doing so well we could just about survive on them alone – they’re delicious steamed and rolled in butter. The local king parrots like them too.

As one would expect, in our absence readership dropped off, yet now the rising amount of spam caught by Akismet and a comment here and there shows the Fringe is weaving itself into the blogosphere again. This time we’ll endeavour to maintain the flow, which, as Paul Rasmussen illustrates, is essential to development and maintenance of the craft of writing. He suggests to carry a journal around, something the Fringe has done all her life. To transpose from journal to blog however, to collate and collect all those notebooks or even the current one, a scribbled mishmash of sketches in prose and picture, is a frightening prospect.

There’s a fictional short story to write by next week – another deadline amongst a computer load of deadlines – but a welcome one, as it’s an opportunity to create a tale yet to be told. Sometimes stories emerge fully fleshed as one writes, or inspiration rushes in while relaxing in the shower or driving somewhere thinking nothing in particular, or most magical of all, in dreams. Often there’s multiple possible plot lines spewing from each of these activities – the question then becomes, which line to follow. The internal argument begins.

Today will be a happy one in the Fringe’s neck of the woods. Captain Bligh has announced a delay of several years for the Traveston Dam travesty ‘to ensure environmental mitigation works [are] completed before construction rather than after, as had been proposed’. Her decision has been greeted with jubilation by a stolid local opposition, some of whom have, like us, fought similar dam proposals on the Mary River twice before the most recent proposed environmental vandalism. $500m down the drain at a time when government coffers may not support the project’s continuation and budgeted election promises must be proffered is a small price to pay to protect the remaining integrity of the Mary River system and the three iconic species which depend upon it – the Mary River turtle, Mary River cod and Queensland lungfish. The Mary River turtle and cod are both endangered, while the lungfish is considered vulnerable.

Peter Garrett was to deliberate on the flawed State Government’s environmental impact statement around Christmas. Last week he ordered an investigation into geotechnical work underway at the Traveston Crossing dam site. Will he now conveniently wriggle away from outright condemnation in order to save Bligh’s skin for the next State election early next year? Bligh is still in the poo in Queensland over her heavy-handed forced amalgamations yet remains committed to the dam whilst backflipping on water recycling.

There’s doubt around the Fringe whether Bligh will be re-elected, so the prospect looms of a pro land-clearing Liberal National Party obliterating the Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2004 to pander to an oblivious section of the Queensland farming lobby whose unrepentant, destructive land mismanagement serves to perpetuate the familiar rural whinge and hand extension. For the lack of provision of adequate education, resources for water conservation and a enforcement of acceptable agricultural practices for farmers, governments past and present are also at fault.

Is risking a revisitation of the bad old days when Queensland had one of the highest rates of land-clearing in the world, with consequent disastrous effects on rainfall, soil viability, water tables and salination, native species and long term sustainability more dreadful to contemplate than the electoral return of the imperious Bligh regime?

In The Australian, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts puts one foot in the water:

Mr Garrett, whose approval for the project would be required under federal environmental legislation, applauded the deferral of the controversial project.

“I welcome the giving of consideration to potential environmental impacts of the Traveston Dam,” Mr Garrett said.

Sources close to Mr Garrett said the minister had been stung by criticism of his performance from former fellow travellers in the environmental movement over Japanese whaling and other issues and was looking for ways to boost his credentials.

Not enough, Mr. Garrett – prove you haven’t become Mr. Clean – block the project at the Federal level NOW and ensure the Mary and her precious species can never again be threatened by human predations.

The backbone of this country’s broken
The land is cracked and the land is sore
Farmers are hanging on by their fingertips
We cursed and stumbled across that shore

- from “Truganini”, Midnight Oil.

Australian Constitution – Section 100 – Nor abridge right to use water

The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation.

The agriculture industry had the highest water consumption in 2000-01, accounting for 16,660 GL (or 67%; Figure 2). Households were the next highest water consumer, using 2,181 GL (or 9%). The water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry was also a significant consumer of water, with 1,794 GL (or 7.2%), followed by the electricity and gas supply industry with 1,688 GL (or 6.8%) (ABS, 2005). According to the ABS, most water is consumed in NSW/ACT (39%) and Victoria (30%), followed by Queensland (17%), Western Australia (6.4%), South Australia (5.7%), Tasmania (1.4%) and Northern Territory (0.5%) (ABS, 2005).

…..

“If recent trends continue, water requirements of the irrigation sector could increase by about 66% by 2002/21. On current growth rates, total national water use could be as much as 33,000 GL by 2020/21, which is clearly unsustainable.” (ATSE, 1999).

- “Water scarcity and demand”, Connected Water, Australian Government

UPDATE Nov 27

Peter Garrett has released the content of Independent Reports on the Traveston Crossing Dam and given them to Anna Bligh for consideration.

One of the reports by the Australian Rivers Institute found setting a water consumption target of less than 200 litres per day per person in the state’s south-east would mean the dam is not needed at all.

It also found stormwater harvesting could cost effectively supply 20 per cent of the region’s water needs, while stage one of the Traveston dam would only provide 7 per cent to 12 per cent by 2051.

Garrett ‘is expected to make a final decision on the project early next year’, no doubt after the State election.

Would have to be the Labor Party in Queensland. The low number of voters – just 70% – presenting at the compulsory Regional Council polls attested to the lack of enthusiasm Queenslanders had for the forced amalgamations. It would be interesting to know how many voters only voted out of fear of losing representation. Along with the distinctive results from last year’s plebiscite, the abysmal turnout supports the view that amalgamation was not endorsed by the people, and neither did the people give the government a mandate to betray their will with forced amalgamations.

In Brisbane, the Libs picked up 6 Council seats, whilst in Townsville, long term ALP mayor Tony Mooney lost his position to Thuringowra mayor, Les Tyrell.

Captain Bligh boasted about the hard decisions made to produce “larger, better equipped councils in place across all our major regions”. Better equipped to charge us higher rates and to carry out unilateral armslength State decrees in defiance of resounding public dissent is our cynical reaction.

Despite the present State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan and Infrastructure Plan and claims that the State government wishes to slow development on the coast of South East Queensland and move population to Beaudesert and Mt. Lindsay, our Sunshine Coast region’s concept of sustainability, determined as Bob Abbot envisages through community consultative processes well known to Noosa residents, may clash with the State’s vision to which our new super Council must defer, given that there is still no Federal legal recognition of local government. The Sunshine Coast and other regions which desire and plan for more realistic and truly sustainable development and population caps with majority support from their electors and which had opposed amalgamation can still be overridden by the State. The States can also argue for Federal support on the basis outlined by Andrew McNamara, Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation, when he supported population distribution omitting to mention the addition of a more sensible, palatable and sustainable federal policy of negative population growth with a truly innovative economic strategy to match. Rudd has thrown his national condom out the window as well.

Regardless of the warm, fuzzy wording of the SEQRPIP, the travesty of Traveston Dam has already provided a clear example of the State Government sacrificing the environment and existing landholders for the “greater good of Queensland” … in other words, the good of those requiring development at the expense of irreplaceable natural habitat and communities.

As Captain Bligh called her new lieutenants to a Brisbane summit, Bob Abbot expressed similar suspicions about Bligh’s real agenda:

“I’ve got a great fear that the next attack on local government will be in the planning sphere and I think they (state government) need to look very closely at what the communities are saying about how they want to be managed in the future as regards to development,” he told a Brisbane newspaper.

“Any further attack on local government in the development sphere would create another Gold Coast highway koala corridor type fiasco for the government – and would bring them down.”

Centralised decision-making may facilitate government planning aligned with big money, yet a government markedly out of step with its constituents could pay a high price at the next State election. Big Bob, with 70% of the Sunshine Coast vote has a clear mandate for sustainability. Perhaps Captain Bligh is counting on voters forgetting her and Beattie’s attack on democracy by then, yet Howard’s end was largely due to his deafness to the voice of the people, from his outrageous disregard of public feeling against his draconian no choice work laws, his ignorance of the realities of climate change to his pandering to Bush with the disgraceful war on Iraq.

When politicians step above their role as servants of the people, the people whom they are elected to represent will teach them humility.

What choice do we have? civil disobedience – in this case opting out of the electoral process – is seen by some as the last resort for people whose vehement, legitimate wishes been ignored, where democracy has been abandoned in the push for political outcomes which may prove disastrous and which have been imposed through nefarious deception. Others have joined the Noosa Liberation Army who today took responsibility for defacing roadside election posters:

“Noosa will secede or de-amalgamate,” an email read. “It’s just a matter of time! Those who think that this fight can be won without conflict are seriously deluded. This is a war, and we will win, however long it takes.”

Voting in the grandiosely named Sunshine Coast Regional Council Quadrennial Elections is compulsory under the state Local Government Act 1993. We, the governed, might argue we are voting for representatives in an illegitimate body which does not as yet exist, and that this flawed representation was proclaimed without the consent and against the wishes of the electorate.

There is no question that the people of Noosa Shire do not want amalgamation – we have been polled numerous times about this, the last plebiscite being 96% against it.

Yet if the people of Noosa do not vote, we run the terrible risk of having pro-development Joe Natoli for mayor and reduced representation for Noosa. Regardless of the new super council, State ‘iconic’ legislation provides that development decisions will be made in Brisbane, far from those who are affected and live here. Noosa’s say in its own future at present is nobbled … reduced back to vocal community groups, some of which are banding together under the Noosa Biosphere Association.

Local governments are not defined in the Australian Constitution – they are creations of their respective States. Regionalisation and amalgamation are State controlled and designated. Under the Australian Constitution, States and Territories are the only legal representative entities recognised by the Commonwealth. The present Queensland Government was elected by us, and it can thereafter do what it likes till we vote it out.

Naturally we have thought long and hard about the bigger picture when appealing to the Federal government. Although Kevvie has been approached about the undemocratic actions of the Queensland government by disgruntled Noosa residents amongst members of many such alarmed Queensland communities, and though neither he nor Julia personally supported forced amalgamations, we believe Rudd has a definite goal in mind, to form an Australian republic. With some historical vanity, he would like to be the engineer and steward of its formation. At present, for him it may be prudent to avoid a bun fight about the delineation of Federal and State powers under the existing Constitution, and so he is staying out of the fray, to the detriment of both Noosa residents and the upholding of representative democracy on a community level generally in our State.

Once regionalisation is complete throughout Australia, what need will there be for States? The footballers may not like it, but Brisbane can still play Sydney.

Except for alienated, infuriated folks, people will start identifying with their respective regions. The Sunshine Coast will play Brisbane as usual in soccer. Then the stage will be set for further reorganisation of decision-making and responsibilities.

In the interim, what happens if there is a change of government in Queensland or nationally? What power will we in our communities have had usurped from us, and passed into the mitts of an even more despicable, aggrandising mob?

Perhaps Noosa will be protected by iconic legislation for long enough for a republic to emerge, where the rights of individuals might be defined in such a way to protect the environments in which they live as well. Pigs might fly too. Despite Australians being typical disinterested in politics (is politics an acceptable dinner conversation topic yet?), it is essential that we are engaged in the republic debate, otherwise whilst we attend our barbies and down a few beers, we may get the sort of republic we really don’t want.

Grassroots democracy can be an annoyance and sometimes a threat to the feds who like things nice and tidy in Canberra. They’d rather be at lunch or off on a nice junket. Centralised governments who do not respond to vocal communities can be willing to sacrifice happy constituents and healthy environments at the beck and call of the rich and powerful who desire progress at any cost.

Recognised internationally with UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve, Noosa, with its achievements in sustainability and community democracy could serve as a model for communities in the new Republic of Australia. It is up to all Australians to reflect upon the choices before them, and speak out to protect our children’s future and the environment which sustains us all.