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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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  • Catherine Hill Bay, NSW- Development stopped.

     

    While Justice David Lloyd’s judgment only applies directly to those two sites, it will almost certainly unravel all development approvals involving memoranda of understanding and deeds of agreement with land swaps – where developers win approval in exchange for handing privately owned conservation land to the Government.

    This article was replicated from SMH. For the full article, please see catherinehillbay.org.au

    Surfrider Foundation Australia’s Hunter Chapter congratulates the communities involved with saving Catherine Hill Bay from over development.  Surfrider, through the efforts of the local Chapter representatives, have been working to support the campaigns to conserve the region for future generations, and applaud the Land and Environment Court for its perspicacity and diligence.

    The Chapter has been active in letter writing, media presentations and helping stage activities such as International Surfing Day at Catho, and while we have played a small role in this fantastic achievement, we are fully stoked to work with the Community to achieve such a win!

    We remind all, that while this is a positive move toward acknowledging the importance of our coastal environments, and identifying the need for vigilance relating to planning and development decision making processes, the battle continues along our cherished coastal zone, and we encourage the Community to be aware of the issues and campaigns around them.

    Tags:

  • NSW backflips on Catherine Bay Heritage

    NSW backflips on Catherine Bay heritage

    By Adam Bennett, AAP July 28, 2010, 4:40PM

     

    Residents of a Hunter Valley coastal hamlet have welcomed news that two villages may soon have heritage protection but say it will do nothing to stop their fight against overdevelopment of the area.

    Catherine Hill Bay and Middle Camp will be listed in a new cultural precinct on the State Heritage Register, in only the second listing of entire communities for protection under the scheme.

    Residents of the mining villages have for years battled the state government over development in the area, south of Newcastle.

    Last year they had a victory in the Land and Environment Court, which blocked a decision to allow a series of developments around the villages.

    The developments, approved by former NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor in 2008, would have led to the addition of about 800 new homes in the area.

    President of the Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association Sue Whyte applauded moves to heritage-list the villages but said she expected the fight against overdevelopment to continue.

    NSW Planning Minister Tony Kelly on Wednesday released a proposed State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) for lands south and west of Catherine Hill Bay, and north of Gwandalan, which opens the door for the blocked developments to be refloated.

    Mr Kelly also announced that new development proposals for the Coal & Allied estate north of Newcastle, and the estate west of Catherine Hill Bay, had been again declared major projects and potential sites of state significance.

    Ms Whyte said residents were not against development in the area, just development on the scale previously approved.

    “We always knew that they were going to go again,” she said.

    “What we’re hoping is that we hope that we can bring those numbers down.”

    Heritage listing for the towns was the culmination of 10 years of campaigning by local residents, she said.

    “This government by doing this has acknowledged the importance of Catherine Hill Bay, and we can only applaud them for that,” Ms Whyte said.

    The Heritage Council is now seeking public comment on the government’s proposal, which would protect 126 homes in Catherine Hill Bay and Middle Camp.

    “If supported, the listing will mark just the second time – following the listing of Braidwood in southern NSW four years ago – that an entire town has been placed on the State Heritage Register,” Mr Kelly said in a statement.

    “Some of the small cottages in the two villages date back to the 1890s, when coal first began to be shipped from the area.

    “They form pleasing streetscapes which evoke the settlements’ origins as a 19th-century mining community.”

     

  • Keneally reneges on Firth’s unflued gas heater promise

    NB We will have to wait till early next year to get rid of ths lot of shirkers

    Keneally reneges on Firth’s unflued gas heater promise
     
    Media release: 28 July 2010
     
    The Keneally government looks set to renege on a promise by the NSW Education Minister Verity Firth to replace unflued gas heaters in NSW public schools, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
     
    Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: “Parents care little for breaches of cabinet processes and fights between ministers and premiers. What they want is clean air in their children’s classrooms.
     
    “Yesterday every parent in public education was promised an end to unflued gas heaters and the damage they cause to their children’s health. Today all they have is a cabinet process and the public humiliation of the minister who made the promise. Teachers, students and parents have every right to feel betrayed and angry.
     
    “The Premier is playing politics with the health of the state’s young people. Even if Education Minister Verity Firth jumped the gun before a cabinet determination, the key issue is getting rid of the 55,000 unflued gas heaters and the fumes they are dumping into classrooms around the state.
     
    “Minister Firth’s process might not have conformed to Premier Keneally’s ministerial standards but she was 100 per cent right in saying these heaters have to go. The politics cannot be allowed to get in the way of the science.
     
    “Verity Firth’s promise to eradicate unflued gas heaters must not be allowed to be consumed in a spat between her and her premier,” Dr Kaye said.
     
    For more information: John Kaye  0407 195 455
     
     

  • Abbott announces no further Marine Sanctuaries

     

    The state of marine life:

    • Two-thirds of the world’s coral reefs are dead or dying;
    • 90% of the world’s large fish have been fished-out;
    • Less than 5% of Australian marine life is protected; and
    • 20% of WA’s seas have been signed over to oil and gas drilling.

    If Tony Abbott gets his way, Australia will risk joining the global collapse of our oceans, and the collapse of jobs and industries that rely on sustainable fish stocks and healthy oceans.

    Call Tony Abbott on (03) 8616 5100 and declare your support for marine sanctuaries – let him know Australian’s want:

    • Protection for our unique marine life;
    • Protection for regional communities and jobs that rely on healthy marine life;
    • Protection for migratory whales who need marine sanctuaries to thrive; and
    • Protection from oil spills.

    Your environment, your future, your vote!
    Thanks for your support,

    Renae Williams
    Kimberley Community Campaigner, the Wilderness Society

    PS – After you’ve given Tony a call, share with us how you went on our Facebook page

    The Wilderness Society Inc
    57E Brisbane St, Hobart, TAS, 7000
    Phone: (03) 6270 1701
    Fax:     (03) 6231 6533
    info@wilderness.org.au

  • Income management expansion unacceptable: Greens

    Media Release

    28 July 2010

    Income management expansion unacceptable: Greens

    The Australian Greens have criticised Tony Abbott’s announcement that a
    Liberal Government would consider a nationwide expansion of income
    management.

    Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for Community Affairs today
    said the Greens are the only party who have consistently opposed income
    management, doing so since it was introduced as part of the 2007
    Northern Territory Intervention.

    “When these income management laws passed through the Senate, the Greens
    made it perfectly clear that the current or any future Government could
    force these measures on communities across the country,” Senator Rachel
    Siewert said today.

    “As the laws stand today, income quarantining can be applied to any
    place in Australia that the Government decides is disadvantaged, and
    anyone on related Centrelink payments will be affected,” Senator Siewert
    said.

    “It is totally misleading to claim that indiscriminate and mandatory
    income management has anything to do with dignity or anything to do with
    reducing dependence on income support.

    “Income management doesn’t work and Mr Abbott should go and review the
    evidence and develop a more compassionate policy that helps the
    disadvantaged in our community.

    “This passed through the Parliament with little public awareness and the
    only voice of opposition was the Greens.

    “Income management is degrading and punitive and should be abandoned,”
    Senator Siewert concluded.

    _______________________________________________
    GreensMPs Media mailing list
    Media@greensmps.org.au
    To unsubscribe, change your details or change delivery options for this email, visit: http://lists.greensmps.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/media

  • Gillard promises $100m for stormwater projects

     

    Ms Gillard says money for the stormwater harvesting and reuse program would be boosted with a project in eastern Adelaide set to be given $10 million first.

    “This project brings together the Burnside, Norwood, Payneham, St Peters, Campbelltown, Tea Tree Gully and town of Walkerville councils to create a network of stormwater capture, storage and distribution sites across eastern Adelaide,” she said.

    Tags: government-and-politics, elections, federal-government, water, gillard-julia, federal-elections, adelaide-5000

    First posted 3 hours 22 minutes ago