Category: Archive

An emotional issue: In the end there was a compromise because of the electricity saving and daylight saving was increased by three weeks at the beginning and by one week at the end of the original daylight saving period. If that is the case, and if that could be shown to be the case in Western Australia, it is the sort of thing that we need to know. Over the next two years we can gauge these things and assess them. Instead of being emotional about daylight saving, perhaps we can look at the facts. How does it help business? Does it save money? Are more people employed? I do not know the answers. Does it save energy? If it does, in the current climate, in which we are concerned about climate change and the environment, we need to know these things.

Hard data needed: I hope that government agencies will monitor the effects of daylight saving and will let us know the results. If the situation that applies in the US applies to Western Australia, it is a very good reason for us to have daylight saving. If we use more energy and electricity, that is a good reason not to have it. We do not know that. The daylight saving trial will come up with a lot of facts and statistics that will help the community make a sensible decision on daylight saving. We should not be listening to all this emotional nonsense that we hear over and over again. Let us throw that challenge up to the government and see whether the relevant agencies can come up with some good, hard data, which is what the agencies in the US did when Congress debated daylight saving. People will then be able to decide whether they support or do not support daylight saving.

Reference: Legislative Assembly of Western Australia Hansard for 16/05/2007.

Barron Rivers plan needs revision, badly flawed: This was because the Beattie government’s own Barron River resource operations plan, which was the bible of water management for the Barron River below Tinaroo Falls Dam, said so. It was the regulatory arm of the Barron River water resource plan, which was approved in 2002 and would not usually be looked at again for 10 years. But it was already showing that it was badly flawed and needed to be reviewed far sooner than 2012.

No guarantee of rainfall: As was been demonstrated by the current drought in the south-east and also in the drought in far-north Queensland in 2002-03, there was never a guarantee of any future rainfall. Water captured by dams should be preserved and released for very specific and productive purposes only.

Billions on desalination : Yet these massive releases from Tinaroo Falls Dam happened at the same time as the Beattie government was spending billions of dollars on desalination plants, diversionary pipelines, recycling facilities and so on. This was because for nearly 20 years, ALP governments in Queensland have failed to keep up with the times and to keep up population increases in this state. They have repeatedly failed to understand that drought and flooding rain have always been part of nature and need to be planned for.

Water must be captured: "In this dry state, water must be captured when it falls so that it is available during the dry times. That is only common sense," Long said. Under the water management decisions of the government, Tinaroo Falls Dam was being drained at a phenomenal rate while the south-east was being told to preserve every drop.

Reference: First Session of the Fifty-Second Parliament, Tuesday 22 May, 2007, E-mail: hansard@parliament.qld.gov.au, Phone: (07) 3406 7314 Fax: (07) 3210 0182, http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/hansard/

Erisk Net, 29/5/2007

According to D Roddan from Dalby in a letter to the editor in Queensland Country Life, (24/05/2007, p.20), a source of water in southern Queensland were the gas and coal fields having evaporation ponds, of about 200ha which could be used as giant stills, using the power of the sun and collecting the condensation from under the covers without any electricity being used to pump the water to where you want it.

Getting water from ‘roofs’: Another method of assisting in the supply of water would be the creation of ‘roofs’, or scaled areas in the catchment area of our dams.

100pc runoff even in drought: Ordinary timbered country only had about one percent runoff, and that would only start after a heavy downpour of 100mm-150mm of rain. A roof, on the other hand, would have an almost total runoff and even in light falls of 10mm-20mm or more under drought.

90,000L annually under 700mm rainfall: About 20ha of carefully-graded contoured and sealed, would equal the runoff from about 2000ha and could use some of the poorest least productive land. This, of course, would lead to households having their own water tanks. In a 700mm rainfall area, an average-sized roof would yield 90,000 litres a year.

Queensland Country Life, 24/5/2007, p. 20

“The science and the economics are clear – there is no excuse for Australian political parties not to set 2020 targets to substantially cut Australia’s greenhouse pollution. These early reduction targets are the absolute minimum we need to achieve to protect Australia from dangerous climate change," Mr Henry said.

"The Howard government says it won’t take action on climate change if it hurts the economy. The reality is global warming is already damaging the economy, and Sir Nicholas Stern has told us that the price of doing nothing will be much higher than the cost of taking action," said Greenpeace Australia-Pacific CEO, Steve Shallhorn.

“Australia can reduce greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2020 by implementing solutions that are already available including support for an ambitious energy efficiency program, setting a decent renewable energy generation target and curtailing logging and landclearing”, said Climate Action Network Australia Coordinator, Julieanne Richards. “As well as reducing our domestic greenhouse pollution, Australia needs to show international leadership by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and working to stabilise global greenhouse emissions.”

“We are also calling on major parties to reject dangerous and costly nuclear power in Australia. Nuclear reactors are too slow, too dirty, too dangerous and too costly to play a role in Australia’s energy future and to constitute any kind of credible response to climate change," said The Wilderness Society Acting National Director, Virginia Young.

“Climate change is an unprecedented threat and the need to secure commitments from politicians to act immediately makes this election crucial. A healthy environment is vital for the ongoing economic and social well-being of our communities," said ACT Conservation Council Director, Trish Harrup.

Collectively the groups represent more than a million people across Australia.